Berrynarbor Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Since the last inspection, the provider and manager have addressed the breaches of requirements identified at the previous inspection.

The provider understands the process to ensure that the necessary suitability checks are carried out for committee members. The manager, who is the designated safeguarding lead, has improved their knowledge of what to do in the event of a concern about a child's welfare. The manager and staff are clear about how to carry out and implement risk assessments to keep children safe at the pre-school.

For example, they have prevented children from accessing parts of the premises where building w...orks are taking place.Staff get to know children and assess them accurately. This enables them to identify when some children might benefit from additional help.

The manager and staff plan enjoyable experiences for children, such as planting flowers and creating and decorating pretend frogs. However, they do not always challenge children sufficiently or provide targeted support for children's individual learning needs, to extend their learning. Some of the adult-led activities are too simple for children, who finish quickly and wander away to play elsewhere.

Nonetheless, children are keen to take part and they make some progress in their learning.Children arrive happily and confidently, and they settle quickly with toys and resources of their choosing. Staff are clear about their expectations for children's behaviour.

However, they do not routinely encourage children to think about their actions and consider what they could have done differently during minor disagreements.

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

The manager and staff do not plan the curriculum carefully enough to build consistently on what children know and can do. Staff are not always clear about what skills and knowledge they want children to learn.

Children are inquisitive but because the activities that staff plan do not challenge them sufficiently and extend their learning, they sometimes lose interest.Children develop a love of books. When staff read to children, they vary their tone and rhythm to capture children's attention, and they encourage them to recall the missing words in their favourite stories.

Children concentrate well when they choose to look at books independently.Staff invite children to share news and speak about themselves in front of the group and some children are confident to do this, talking happily about what they did at the weekend. However, while some of the quieter and less-confident children are content to watch, listen and play alone, the manager and staff do not support and encourage them to talk and share their thoughts and ideas.

Staff share detailed information with parents about the children's progress and what activities they have planned. Parents speak highly about the pre-school, particularly regarding children's developing confidence.The manager and staff do not promote some children's personal, social and emotional development fully.

They manage children's behaviour appropriately but do not help them consistently to learn to recognise and manage their feelings or to consider how to resolve minor disputes for themselves. Some children do not receive encouragement from staff to develop friendships and play together, so they spend much of the session playing happily but alone.Staff help children to learn to accept differences in opinions.

For example, they ask children to vote for the book they want staff to read and the children accept when the book that is selected is not the one they had voted for.Staff are kind, warm and friendly. They affectionately call children 'friends' and get involved in children's imaginative games, such as pretending to buy food from them at the role-play shop.

Children are very confident. They approach visitors as soon as they arrive and talk about themselves and ask to sit on visitor's laps to look at a book.Children develop confidence in their own abilities.

For example, they fetch a knife and cut their sandwiches in half, pour their drinks without any spillages and manage their toileting needs. This helps to prepare children for later learning, including school.The manager and staff have a secure understanding of how to recognise safeguarding concerns and know how to report them, including to the relevant outside agencies.

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 meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date develop the planning and delivery of the curriculum to provide more challenging and stimulating experiences that build on what each child knows and can do, to help them make good progress 07/06/2024 support and coach staff to help children learn to resolve minor conflicts independently and to form friendships and play with others, to strengthen children's personal, social and emotional development 07/06/2024 provide more support and encouragement for the younger and quieter children to develop their speech and extend their communication and language.

07/06/2024