Whirley Pre School Group

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle with ease and develop close attachments with staff in this bright and welcoming pre-school. Staff are nurturing and supportive, and they help children to feel safe and emotionally secure. They place a strong emphasis on getting to know children and their families when they first start. Staff instil values of kindness and respect. Children demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and form secure attachments with staff. This helps to support their emotional well-being.

Children access a broad and balanced curriculum that helps to ensure that they embed skills across all areas of learning. Staff follow children's interests and provide plenty of opportunities for children to freely explore and lead their own learning. Children relish their time outside. They demonstrate good physical dexterity as they ride on tricycles, carefully negotiating obstacles and navigating around their friends. Children laugh infectiously as they take turns on the see-saw, commenting that they will 'catch them in a bucket' if they fall. Staff's interactions with children are carefully considered. They give clear and consistent messages for children's behaviour. Children model good manners and the behaviours they expect very well. Children form close friendships, become deeply engrossed in their play and are thoughtful and caring towards their friends.

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

• Leaders are committed to providing a high standard of care and education for children in the local community. The pre-school has been at the heart of the village for many years, and parents speak fondly about the nurturing staff and the support they receive. The pre-school committee plays an active role in its continued success by securing funding and managing the business aspects of the setting. This helps to secure the future of the pre-school for the next generation.
• Partnership working is a strength due to the well-established links with local schools and external professionals. This helps to ensure that all children receive the relevant interventions to help them to make good progress.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on supporting children's communication and language skills. They read with enthusiasm, and children delight in the interactive way that story times are delivered. For instance, staff use a story and the corresponding soft toys to teach newer children to recognise their different emotions as they settle in. They also support older children to make links in their learning. For example, children recall that yellow is a happy colour and calm means you are feeling relaxed. Staff successfully build on children's recall of their existing knowledge to extend their vocabulary, and children demonstrate good progress in this area.
• Leaders have planned a curriculum with a strong emphasis on enabling children to be ready for their next stages of learning. However, some areas of the curriculum are less developed than others, and leaders have not implemented consistent strategies to close any gaps. For example, activities are not sufficiently differentiated for the youngest children, who sometimes lose interest as the learning is too advanced for their shorter attention span. This does not promote good progress for the youngest children effectively.
• Children benefit from excellent links with the local primary school, and staff support them well through regular visits and discussions for their move on to school. Children delight in their trips to watch school plays, where they sit in the front row and spot their siblings. This helps to ensure that transitions are seamless and that children's needs will continue to be met when they move on to their next stage of learning.
• Leaders are highly appreciative of staff, and they place a strong emphasis on their well-being. A regular programme of supervision and targeted training aims to enhance the quality of education that is provided. For example, the recent implementation of Makaton signing is used to support children's speech development. This helps to promote good outcomes for all children. Strong teamwork and shared high aspirations for the children are at the heart of this pre-school. As a result, staff feel valued and work diligently to ensure that the pre-school provides a safe environment where children can thrive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• place a sharper focus on developing the curriculum for the youngest children so that activities are differentiated to best suit their age and stage of development.