Wigginton Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at the pre-school and staff support them to quickly become familiar with the routine of the session. Older children become confident and manage their own needs and staff respectfully support this. For instance, children independently access the toilet and staff gently check with them that they have washed their hands afterwards. This helps to promote a positive attitude to hygiene for children.

Staff use their knowledge of the children well to provide inviting opportunities for children to learn. Staff know what motivates each child who attends and they use this to refocus and build on children's levels of engagement and develop their concentration. Staff reflect daily and use this as an opportunity to ensure that children are able to play with their favourite resources and build on their learning further the next time they attend.

Staff provide comfort and support to the youngest children and this contributes towards strong bonds between them. Staff enjoy joining in with the children's learning. For instance, they all sing and dance together during music time. This provides children with positive experiences and helps them to make the most of their time at the pre-school.

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

• Staff help children who may struggle to form bonds. For example, they play small group games which helps children to understand how to take turns and work with others. This supports children to build positive social interactions. Children happily share their experiences with others. For instance, children sit with staff at snack time and discuss what they have done over the weekend. Children work together to complete tasks, such as raking up leaves in the garden. This helps to create a positive and friendly environment.
• The manager works closely with committee members and they reflect on the service the pre-school provides. They use their findings to make appropriate adjustments. For instance, the pre-school has extended the sessions for the youngest children to support the local community. Staff well-being is also now a priority as the manager and chair of the committee recognise the hard work that staff do to keep the pre-school running.
• Parents are very pleased with the communication they receive from staff at the pre-school. Parents of the youngest children particularly enjoy reading feedback about their children's morning. Staff recognise that this is important as the youngest children may not yet be able to communicate what they have done themselves.
• The pre-school has strong links with the local community. They visit the local school for events, such as the Christmas play. This helps to familiarise children with places that they may move on to after they leave the pre-school. They plant bulbs around the village and have planted a tree nearby. These links help to build children's sense of belonging within the community that they are a part of.
• On the whole, staff support children to develop their language and communication skills well. Children speak to visiting adults about the models they make and what they can use them for. However, occasionally, children who struggle to communicate verbally do not make the same swift progress as other children around them. While staff have identified some strategies to support them to communicate, these strategies are not yet implemented consistently or quickly enough to help the children make the best possible progress.
• The manager has good oversight of what goes on at the pre-school. She recognises staff members' strengths and is aware of areas to develop further. Staff work well together and communicate effectively. They discuss their practice with the manager regularly. However, opportunities for staff to develop their professional knowledge and practice are not fully prioritised. While overall, staff interactions with children are good, the lack of focused professional development contributes towards staff interactions not yet being at a consistently high standard across the pre-school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide consistent opportunities for children to develop their communication skills, in particular, children who are nonverbal
• continue to strengthen the professional knowledge and practice of staff to provide all children with consistently high-quality interactions across the pre-school.