Wyken pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and excited to learn in this setting. They demonstrate that they feel safe and have a positive relationship with their key persons. The key-person system provides children with emotional security and meets their individual needs. Staff have a warm and loving approach to children. They offer reassurance and guidance to children who need emotional support. Children come to their key person to discuss their day and ask for cuddles when needed.

Staff provide many opportunities to promote exploration and plan experiences that children are interested in. For example, children are fascinated by a play dough activity that encourages them to move their bodies in a variety of ways and practise their fine and gross motor movements. Children enjoy many diverse cultural celebrations that reflect their home experiences. This helps children to feel valued, and their individuality is celebrated.

Children are physically active throughout the day. Staff plan many outdoor opportunities to ensure children benefit from physical challenges that improve their large-muscle strength. Children climb, slide, balance, and ride bicycles with skill and enthusiasm. Younger children learn to pour water with small jugs and fill containers with sand, while older children use their spatial awareness and coordination skills as they climb and balance along tyres.

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

• The curriculum is ambitious for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children make good progress in their learning and learn skills that support their readiness for school. For example, children learn to put on their own coats and shoes with little support from adults.
• Overall, children's behaviour is good. Children who display challenging behaviour are supported by staff members effectively. For example, children who struggle to self-regulate their emotions are supported by warm interactions from staff members, and their play is redirected. Staff act as good role models, modelling positive behaviour and good manners.
• Children benefit from healthy and nutritious meals. They help to set up the table and enjoy carrying out small tasks. However, staff have yet to develop ways to promote children's understanding of the importance of oral health and healthy eating.
• There is a strong focus on supporting children with SEND. Leaders act with integrity, ensuring all children have equal access to education and make good progress in their learning. The new special educational needs coordinator supports the manager in understanding children's additional needs.
• Staff use regular assessments to plan activities that enhance children's learning across all areas of learning. Children benefit from activities and experiences that are interesting, stimulating and reflect their current interests. Children enjoy listening to stories and discussing their favourite characters from books. However, at times, staff do not fully support younger children's involvement and motivation to learn.
• Partnership with parents is effective. Parents compliment leaders and staff on their attentiveness towards their children. They feel that their children make good progress in their learning and benefit from many activities throughout the day. Parents often exchange information about their children's recent activities with staff. This helps staff to draw on children's current experiences from home to extend their learning in the setting.
• Leaders have clear goals to drive further improvements. These are reviewed through regular staff training, meetings and staff observations. Staff feel valued and supported by the manager, and that feeling is translated directly into an atmosphere of mutual respect and teamwork.
• Children benefit from meaningful conversations with staff, which promotes their understanding of early years mathematical concepts and encourage problem-solving. For example, children discuss how much sand they need to build different-sized sandcastles. Staff set up small challenges for children to sustain their motivation to learn, such as how to change the properties of dry sand.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve planned experiences for the youngest children so that the intended outcomes are clear and consistently challenging
• strengthen staff's knowledge of how to support all children to develop their understanding of the importance of oral health and making healthy food choices to promote children's overall well-being.