Weston Pre-School Group

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled at this pre-school. The key-person system is well embedded, and children have close bonds with the staff. This is evident in the way children separate easily from their parents and quickly settle to the activities on offer. The staff support and encourage children's play and learning, offering a narrative to their play, helping to engage them in learning. Providers encourage self-selection of activities and resources, with equipment stored at low level to promote and encourage children's independence. Staff promote a love of reading. They sit and share stories with the children. The staff cuddle up with the children in the cosy area, and they share books together. The staff sensitively leave gaps for children to join in the familiar parts of their favourite stories. The staff make effective use of props and puppets to support storytelling and encourage the children to become more involved in the story. They use exciting voices and intonation to help engage the children in the story and keep them interested.

Clear routines and boundaries are in place to help the children know what is coming next. Expectations for children's behaviour are high, and staff promote positive reinforcement of rules. Children learn how to share and take turns. They use manners and are polite, for example, when sharing resources, which helps them to develop a respect for others.

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

• Providers sequence the curriculum to build upon what children already know and can do. Staff use their observations and assessments of children to help them to identify the next steps in their learning. They plan opportunities and experiences to encourage children to make progress.
• Providers promote the celebration of events which are special to the children that attend, including Christmas, Easter, and Diwali. Children have the opportunity to learn about countries, cultures and festivals which are different to their own. This enables them to learn more about the wider world.
• Providers teach children about the area in which they live. Children visit the local church, feed the horses in the fields, and visit the park. They often visit the local shop to buy ingredients, which they then use for baking and cooking. This helps children to learn about different places in their local community.
• The staff support children's interactions well, asking questions and extending their learning. However, not all staff remember to use more challenging vocabulary with the children. For example, using words such as 'baby', 'mummy' and 'daddy' to describe size. This limits children's ability to develop language and extend their vocabulary.
• The staff know the children well. They identify children's individual needs and, alongside parents, implement support strategies to help them. They regularly monitor children to ensure that they are on track and making progress, no matter how small the steps. Other agencies are involved as required to help provide any additional support children need. As such, children make progress regardless of their needs or abilities.
• Parents are pleased with the care and education their children receive. They feel that staff offer support to the whole family, not just the child, with their fast response to requests, referrals and support. Communication between staff and parents is transparent and open. They provide parents with details of children's progress and next steps, keeping them involved in their children's learning.
• Providers place a high emphasis on children learning to do things for themselves. Children are encouraged to pour their own drinks and select their own snacks, before washing the dishes when they have finished snack. This helps them to learn valuable skills which prepare them for the next stage in their learning, and develop independence.
• Providers carry out supervision sessions and peer observations. However, these are not used to their full potential, in that they do not specifically linked to improving outcomes for children or improving practice within the pre-school. This means that staff are not always clear on their areas for improvement, and how this can raise the quality of their practice even further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff in extending children's vocabulary to further improve their language and communication skills,
• strengthen supervision arrangements and monitoring procedures to help staff identify areas for improvement, enabling them to raise the quality of their practice even further.