Mawnan Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled. They enjoy playful interactions with staff, who know them well. Staff provide good support to help children manage their feelings and behaviour successfully.

Children show affection towards staff, demonstrating that they feel safe and secure. For example, they benefit from respectful, positive touch as staff use story massage techniques to help soothe children.Staff make good use of signs, supporting speech to help children communicate and make themselves understood.

Younger children demonstrate resilience and determination as they explore boundaries during self-chosen play, while older ...children cooperate and offer kind support. All children engage well with role play. For instance, they pretend to be doctors and nurses as they re-enact prior learning experiences, benefiting from opportunities to mark make, and explore signs that help them to understand that words and symbols have meaning.

Children show kindness to others and play well together.The manager and staff work well to evaluate practice, share ideas and make continuous improvements to the provision. The manager makes good use of supervision and appraisal systems.

This helps target training for staff, which has the greatest impact on children's learning. For example, staff develop specific areas of interest, such as forest school, to ensure all children are benefiting from a varied and challenging curriculum.

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

The manager demonstrates commitment to raising the quality of the pre-school and has plans to support improvement over time.

For example, action plans identify ways in which the pre-school has begun to develop outdoor areas even further, including the use of a community garden and nearby woodland.Staff are responsive to children's interests and differentiate their curriculum to optimise learning opportunities that capture their curiosity. For instance, children create pictures of bats and use technology resources to reference pictures of animals following a child's recent visit to a wildlife park.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported through a well-designed and inclusive curriculum. Staff engage with a range of professionals and use effective strategies that help improve outcomes for children. For example, staff make good use of visual aids to improve communication for children with limited speech.

This helps children to make good progress towards their goals.Children are motivated and eager to learn. This is demonstrated when they gasp in awe as they harvest a pumpkin, excitably discussing the process of growing it from a tiny seed.

Children grow vegetables with staff and learn about where food comes from, supporting their understanding of the world around them and developing healthy attitudes to food.Staff are proactive in teaching children to develop healthy habits, such as brushing their teeth. Children look forward to doing this after mealtimes and develop independence through daily routines that support good standards of hygiene and personal care.

Staff feel well supported by the manager. They enjoy working at the pre-school and comment that they work well as a team. Good deployment helps to ensure that staff manage their time effectively.

As a result, children receive good levels of engagement and support. For instance, staff are given designated responsibilities to oversee daily routine activities and contribute to planning and the setting's evaluation.Staff hold regular parents' meetings to keep them well informed of their child's progress.

Parents speak highly of the pre-school and refer to staff affectionately as 'a group of mums'. However, opportunities for staff to find out from parents what children learn at home, could be extended even further.While the manager has good evaluation processes in place, opportunities are sometimes missed to engage with parents and seek their views.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff complete safeguarding training and keep their knowledge up to date. They know how to identify the possible signs that could be a cause for concern, including wider safeguarding issues.

For example, there are effective procedures to help staff identify why a child may be absent from the pre-school. Staff know how to report concerns about a child in their care. The manager ensures she follows robust recruitment procedures to check that staff are suitable to work with children.

Staff benefit from effective induction and training, which helps to ensure that children are safe. For instance, staff practise regular fire drills with children to help them understand what to do in an emergency.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: find out from parents what children learn at home, to ensure learning at pre-school consistently builds on what children know and can do nenhance systems for seeking the views of parents, to help extend children's interests even further.