Whiteley Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending their pre-school and arrive eager to learn. They are motivated to explore and successfully lead their own learning. Older children are well prepared for school. They show high levels of independence and confidently do things for themselves. Children show an increasing awareness of how to keep themselves and others safe. For example, they provide their friends with thoughtful safety reminders when the floor becomes slippery during water play. Older children show kindness to younger children. They are quick to offer their help and readily include them in their games. Children behave well. They demonstrate good manners and show respect for their environment.

Children are confident communicators. They use a wide range of vocabulary and listen well. Children work collaboratively to create an obstacle course for their friends. They use challenging equipment to create balancing platforms and test their ideas through trial and error. Children demonstrate good teamwork and regard for each other's ideas, as one child offers to 'steady' the platforms with additional bricks, while another child demonstrates a balancing technique to their friends by using their outstretched arms.

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

• The highly qualified and experienced management team carefully monitor and support staff to develop their practice. It has effective oversight of induction procedures for new staff and successfully monitor staffs' understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The new manager provides capable leadership to the team. Together with the business manager and committee, she drives forward an ambitious plan based on robust self-evaluation. Staff, including those with lead roles such as the special educational needs coordinator, are supported to fulfil the requirements of their roles well.
• Staff have high expectations for all children. They have a good understanding of how children learn and the order in which they need to learn it. Staff use their accurate assessments of children's learning to plan timely and well-placed support. Children benefit from focused activities that support their developing language skills. They gain confidence in speaking in small groups and eagerly sing along to popular rhymes with their friends.
• Staff deliver a motivating curriculum that engages children's interest and that supports them to make good progress in their learning. Teaching is not precisely focused on helping children to think critically. Staff do not make the most of incidental opportunities to help children persevere when they encounter challenges in their play. At times, staff interactions with older children, particularly in some areas of mathematics, do not challenge children to make the best possible progress.
• Children gain a sense of personal responsibility and an understanding of their place in the community through activities, such as litter picking. They have good opportunities to share their thoughts and learn to respect that people may hold views that differ from their own. Staff have a sensitive regard for children's feelings and ideas and use these well to make changes that benefit the children. For example, staff have enhanced the outdoor play spaces taking into account children's love of sensory play. They effectively support children to be emotionally ready for their move on to school.
• Good attention is given to promoting children's health, and they benefit from healthy and nutritious snacks that meets their individual dietary needs well. Children develop good levels of independence as they cut fresh fruits and vegetables and learn about their benefits. They relish opportunities to play outside in a well-resourced and inviting outdoors learning environment. They create mud potions with their friends and learn to identify species of birds they find in the garden.
• Parents speak highly of the pre-school and the staff. They receive regular feedback on their children's learning and ideas on how to support their children's learning at home. Parents particularly valued the suggestions for home activities to support their children's learning at home, during times when some children were not able to attend during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure opportunities are provided by staff to challenge and extend the knowledge of the most able children across the curriculum.