Alton Community Playschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff place a high focus on offering children security and comfort at nursery. Children are greeted with a warm welcome from staff, who are kind and nurturing. Children are happy and safe as they play and share their experiences with their friends and staff.

Staff have high expectations for every child and explain their expectations during routines and play. As a result, children behave well and have a good attitude to learning. Staff organise the environment to help children to build their physical skills well and access a wide range of resources that develop these skills.

Children eagerly and confidently use wheeled ...toys and squeal in delight as they work together to move equipment as a team. There is a strong emphasis on developing communication and language within the curriculum. Staff talk to children during a science experiment to make fireworks in a jar, asking 'shall we see what happens' when adding the oil to the mixture.

Staff are building children's skills to be confident communicators, including children who speak English as an additional language.The leaders and staff have high expectations for every child, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those from a disadvantaged background. The curriculum is ambitious to ensure that every child reaches their full potential.

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

Leaders ensure that children have access to a wide curriculum that offers exciting learning opportunities indoors and outdoors. Children's developmental starting points are established through discussions with parents and observations. Through understanding children's interests and needs, the staff ensure that children's learning is effectively planned for and that it is well sequenced.

Leaders carry out regular supervision with staff. They discuss the staff's key children, training needs and well-being. In addition, staff have many opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge through a variety of projects and working with other professionals to undertake training opportunities.

This supports their continual professional development and helps to maintain standards in teaching. However, leaders do not consistently monitor what staff have learned and how they are putting new knowledge into practice.The special educational needs coordinator works well with staff to ensure that children with SEND are supported in their development.

Leaders have ensured that children with SEND have the support they need. For example, they use extra funding for resources for children to use at home as well as at nursery. As a result, children with SEND are making progress.

Key-person systems are highly effective. Staff watch children closely to find out what they know and can do. They use their observations to plan activities that help children to make progress across the areas of learning.

Staff promote children's communication well. They use strategies shared with them by professionals to support children's progress. They clearly narrate and emphasise words for children to copy.

Staff describe objects and actions for children as they play with them. Children learn to correctly pronounce words, such as 'swirly'. Children enjoy listening to and joining in with familiar stories.

Children are provided with ample opportunities to be physically active and have daily access to the well-resourced garden. However, at times, the daily routine can disrupt children's play and learning. For example, the transition to the garden can be disorganised as staff help the younger children to get ready for the garden.

This limits the opportunities for children to continue and extend their learning in the outdoor environment.Partnership with parents is very good. Parents are extremely positive in their feedback of the nursery.

They praise staff's 'kindness and care' in guiding their children and the progress children make. They compliment leaders and staff for their support of the whole family and in ensuring that their children feel safe and secure.The leaders are dedicated and committed.

They have a clear and ambitious vision for the nursery, which is shared with the staff. They are reflective of practice and seek to continually improve the nursery and make enhancements, where necessary, based on the needs of the current cohort of children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure that safeguarding training forms an integral part of the robust induction offered to all staff. Staff regularly refresh their knowledge and understanding of different safeguarding topics during weekly team meetings. As such, all staff have a clear understanding of their responsibility to keep children safe from harm or abuse.

Staff at all levels understand the importance of monitoring, recording and reporting any concerns that they may have. There are rigorous risk assessments in the nursery to ensure that children's safety is at the heart of all decision-making processes.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen the monitoring of staff practice to ensure that the good-quality teaching is maintained support staff to understand how to adapt routines to consistently meet children's needs and enhance their learning.