Beeches Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children settle with ease and develop close attachments with staff in this welcoming and cosy pre-school.

Staff are nurturing and supportive and help children to feel safe and emotionally secure. Staff support children to build upon what they already know and can do and have high expectations for their progress. For example, children confidently recall aspects of previous learning, such as remembering how to use scissors correctly when cutting Spring papers for their collages.

Staff give an abundance of praise when children persevere at challenges. Children beam with pride as they develop positive attitudes to learning....Children relish their time outside and demonstrate good physical skills as they balance on logs and gather twigs for their mud kitchen.

Children enjoy exploring the extensive outdoor area and laugh infectiously with their friends as they take turns on the spinning seats. Staff interactions with children are carefully considered. They give clear and consistent behavioural messages and model good manners and expected behaviours very well.

They ask thought-provoking questions, extending the children's understanding and allowing sufficient time for children to respond. Children 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 forging strong bonds in the local community.

The pre-school has been at the heart of the village for many years and parents speak fondly about the long-serving team. They comment on the progress their children make and the secure relationships formed with the staff. These bonds help to support children's emotional and physical well-being.

Partnership working is a strength due to the well-established links with local schools and various external professionals. This helps to ensure that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the relevant interventions to help them make good progress. Children benefit from good links with the local primary school and are well supported through teacher visits and discussions, for their move on to school.

Overall, children access a broad and balanced curriculum. Staff follow children's interests and provide plenty of opportunities for children to develop their small-muscle skills in readiness for future writing. This helps to ensure that they embed skills across all areas of learning.

Training is not always precisely focused to sharpen the curriculum implementation. Some areas of the curriculum are less developed than others and leaders have not implemented consistent strategies to close any gaps. For example, further training in mathematics to support and extend children's learning in this area has not been cascaded to the team.

This does not effectively promote good progress in this area.Good hygiene and self-care practices are effective across the setting. Staff teach children to become increasingly independent in managing their personal needs.

Children are supported to learn about healthy lifestyles and parents are offered information on topics such as oral health, to continue supporting these processes at home. Children are eager to tell visitors about their singing toothbrushes and comment that 'brushing their teeth makes them shiny and strong'. Children learn important messages about good health.

Staff place a strong emphasis on supporting children's communication and language skills. Staff read with enthusiasm and children delight in the interactive way that story times are delivered. Children demonstrate confidence to share what they remember while reading 'A Squash and a Squeeze' and staff support them to make links in their learning.

Staff successfully build on children's recall of existing knowledge to extend their vocabulary even further.The pre-school has recently appointed a new manager. She is proactive and confident and has ambitious plans for further development.

Self-evaluation is reflective and accurately identifies areas for improvement. In order to build on the current good practice, the manager will be undertaking further training to strengthen her leadership skills and embed existing knowledge. This ensures there is good oversight in place.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nidentify further training that has a specific focus on the areas of learning that need to be strengthened in order to sharpen the quality of education even further.