Wye Under Fives Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed in to the pre-school by their key person. Even very new children quickly settle in the calm and relaxed atmosphere. Staff know every child individually and provide activities and toys that they know will entice and excite each child, such as dinosaurs in the sand tray and junk modelling for free-art exploration. Children build close relationships with staff who guide them very well in making friendships with their peers. They readily enjoy playing together and inviting each other into their imaginary games of trains and crocodiles. They share resources beautifully when making decorative masks and seek to help their friends when they are upset.

Staff provide a curriculum that is engaging for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children spend a lot of time outdoors, building on social and physical skills. They enjoy negotiating obstacle courses and squeal with excitement when taking turns on the slide. Children come together for small-group activities, such as song time throughout the day, increasing their sitting and listening skills. They are supported to be independent, confident and happy learners, who are well prepared for the next stage of their learning.

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

• Staff ensure that the curriculum is equally accessible to children with SEND. They are quick to adapt the environment and use funding to provide activities to support children to feel safe and happy and able to engage. This ensures all children's needs are considered and met and they can all make good progress.
• While the curriculum is interesting and varied for children, some staff do not fully understand how to plan and deliver a curriculum based on children's interests and developmental needs that further deepens learning and aids progress. The manager recognises the need to provide further support for some staff, to raise the quality of teaching to a higher level.
• Some staff model language well. For instance, when collecting rain from the trees and using pipettes to continue this exploration, they model new words such as 'empty', 'full' and 'squeeze'. However, some staff are less confident at engaging the children in discussions that provide new words and a deeper understanding. These inconsistencies mean that children are not best supported in their communication and language development.
• Children behave well throughout the day. Staff are consistent about behaviour expectations and support children to understand and regulate their emotions with apparatus, such as sand timers. As a result, children are respectful and kind to each other.
• Children focus and engage well in all activities with big smiles on their faces. They are often heard laughing and playing together. They look to their adults for reassurance and receive high praise for their achievements. This supports children to have a sense of pride and well-being and an enthusiasm for learning.
• Staff teach children to build confidence and to take risks in a safe environment. For example, they are shown how to safely use scissors and are supported to explore for themselves how to make their art and craft masks strong. They enjoy taking risks in the garden and hold each other's hands to keep each other steady on the obstacle course. This supports children's problem-solving skills and ability to deal with challenges.
• While staff do teach children to be kind and tolerant of one another, they are not so good at supporting children to recognise their similarities and differences. They don't always give children opportunities to explore their lives, cultures and home languages and share this with their friends. This doesn't support them so well in understanding their own uniqueness.
• The manager has a clear vision for providing high quality care and education to all. She is good at identifying training needs for her staff and ways in which to alter practice. Leaders work very well together to support each other and the staff. This creates an environment that is continually evaluative and seeks to improve outcomes for all.
• Parents are very happy with the care and education provided here. They feel that staff are ' focussed entirely on the happiness, wellbeing and development of the children'. These strong parent relationships help to support the continuity of care and learning across pre-school and home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's use of language, to ensure that all staff are consistently extending and developing language for all children
• support staff to develop a deeper understanding of how to deliver the curriculum, to further improve teaching skills and outcomes for children
• provide children with opportunities to celebrate and share with others, their home languages and cultural experiences, to make them feel even more valued and unique.