Birchwood Pre-school and After School Club

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the pre-school happy and excited. They leave their parents confidently and ready to start their day.

Staff greet children with a warm and nurturing welcome, which helps them to settle quickly into their play. Children have strong bonds with staff, who provide comfort and reassurance and help them feel to safe and secure. Leaders have a good understanding of the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They have identified that children's behaviour, communication and language have been impacted. Staff support children to develop these skills and ensure that children are fully prepared for their next stage of... development, including starting school. Staff have high expectations of all children and provide a well-organised curriculum based on the children's interests.

Children have positive attitudes to learning and show motivation and interest in the broad range of activities and resources on offer.Children are curious and communicate well with staff. Staff react spontaneously to the children's interests as they create a habitat for bees.

Children explain imaginatively how each part of the wooden blocks are used inside a beehive. Staff listen and respond to children as they make a place for bees to sleep and store their honey. These opportunities help children to retain knowledge and build on their learning.

Children behave extremely well and understand the expectations of pre-school, which are role modelled effectively by staff. They inform visitors of what to expect when they play outdoors. Children explain why they need to wear coloured bands before they go outside.

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

Leaders have a clear vision for the curriculum in the pre-school, and staff implement this through enriching children's learning. Staff obtain information about children through observations and assessments. They use what they find to plan a range of purposeful activities that support their child-led curriculum.

Children make good progress.The manager is well informed about the children who attend the pre-school. They provide help for families at a disadvantage.

For example, children are provided with home learning resources, and leaders adapt pre-school sessions to help those experiencing hardship.Staff communicate effectively to help extend children's learning and enhance their vocabulary. For example, staff teach mathematics using number games to make number soup.

Children roll dice and count the dots to select the appropriate number of counters to add to the number soup.Staff know and understand children well. They place a high priority on supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively.

Staff are proactive and identify emerging developmental concerns.They swiftly put plans in place to work in partnership with other agencies. However, staff do not consistently support children who speak English as an additional language to use their home language in their play at pre-school.

Children's health and well-being are supported effectively. Staff ensure that children have access to fresh air and daily exercise to help them develop physically. Children show high levels of independence and self-care skills.

They serve themselves at the snack café and wash their plates when they have finished their snacks. Parents provide children with a packed lunch. Staff work with parents to ensure that contents of the lunchboxes are healthy and nutritious.

Children's dietary requirements are managed safely.Partnerships with parents are good. Parents comment on the friendly staff team and the 'family feel' they have created to help make children feel secure.

They report that staff help children with SEND extremely well and talk with parents about children's development regularly. However, some parents do not receive enough information about what their children are doing and learning at pre-school.The manager and staff have strong links with the local school and childminders.

They work collaboratively and exchange information to promote consistency of care across settings and to support children to transition smoothly.Staff are committed to their professional development. Leaders evaluate and reflect on staff practice and ensure this is monitored.

Staff undertake appropriate training and attend supervisions to help them improve practice and maintain overall effectiveness.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have good knowledge of safeguarding and understand the signs and symptoms of abuse.

They understand their responsibilities to keep children safe and attend training and hold regular discussions to keep up to date with local procedures. Staff understand the procedures to follow in the event of a concern or if an allegation is made against adults working with children. They carry out risk assessments, review accidents and monitor attendance regularly.

The manager has robust recruitment systems to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Staff are deployed well to maintain good supervision.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: make the most of all opportunities to better promote the different languages of children who attend strengthen systems for communicating with parents.

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