Wendover Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are incredibly eager to learn and build on their knowledge. Staff engage and interact with children positively and sensitively, following their lead in their play. Staff use very effective questions and statements to help children to think creatively. They use an extremely effective curriculum to offer personalised learning experiences to extend and challenge children's individual levels of development. As a result, children are intrigued, experiment enthusiastically in their play and show very high levels of curiosity to find out more.

Children settle extraordinarily quickly and confidently. Staff create an exceptionally caring and nurturing environment that helps children to feel safe and secure within the early days of attending the pre-school. Staff work closely with parents. They use information about how children like to play and what they can do to plan their first few sessions effectively to fully support children's emotional well-being. All children engage quickly with staff, developing secure attachments with the small, dedicated team.

Children show extremely high levels of care and compassion towards their friends. Staff constantly support children's friendships and encourage them to help each other and to think about each other's feelings. For example, when one child needs some help with toileting and becomes upset, their friend finds staff and sensitively asks for help for their friend.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Staff successfully introduce more complex experiences to further develop children's existing knowledge. For example, children identify the colour red as hot. Staff use very subtle and effective questions to help children think about what colour is associated with cold. They help children to think about experiences with the cold, associating their senses with the temperature and the colour blue.
• Children quickly learn about the importance of personal care. They identify places where coats, water bottles and pieces of artwork to take home all belong. Children refer to their 'bubble hands' for washing hands and explain that they are washing the germs down the sink. Staff ask older children to show others how to sneeze into the fold of their elbow to catch the germs.
• Staff are extremely positive role models, showing children how to work together as a team and make decisions for themselves. For example, children choose from whole fruits and help each other to cut these up at snack time. They confidently tell others what they like and what they do not like, showing a clear understanding that their friends have different tastes.
• Children use a prolific range of vocabulary. Staff constantly introduce new words to their play. For example, children explain that they have a 'large' rock. Staff immediately engage and reply that it is 'massive', increasing the alternative words that children can use to describe size. Older children use their ever-developing conversational skills when using telephones in the garden. They hold imaginative and expressive conversations with each other, waiting for each other to reply.
• Staff have an unquestionable understanding that children need strength to engage in all activities. Children learn to use their bodies effectively during play. They lie on the floor to investigate how vehicles move. They stretch and pinch dough to develop the small muscles in their hands. They enthusiastically use large movements in their 'wake-up and dance' sessions. Staff plan further experiences to develop children's whole-body strength, such as hanging and swinging from equipment, using their arms to hold on.
• Staff are very eager to support each other to develop their practice. They endeavour to identify training linked to individual children's needs and adapt this innovatively to support other children's development. Trustees take a vital role in helping staff to evaluate their practice to make a bigger impact on children's development. For example, they have developed a curriculum that highly promotes individual children's learning.
• Staff are highly aware of the need to support parents, particularly due to the impact of COVID-19. Parents access a wealth of guidance and support. For example, staff help parents to understand the positive impact that effective interaction has in children's play. Parents are highly appreciative of the substantial support when settling children. They feel less anxious about leaving their children for the first time.
• Staff work very closely with other professionals. For example, local schools highly appreciate the staff's dedication to work together to support children's seamless and confident transitions to school.