Border Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Teaching is of an exceptionally high quality and is inspirational. The leader has designed an excellent curriculum based on the children's individual needs, experiences and prior learning.

Staff precisely implement this curriculum and have high expectations of every child. This helps all children to achieve at the highest level and to develop outstanding knowledge and skills for school. Children who attend this pre-school are very happy and motivated learners.

Their levels of concentration are beyond what is expected. Children's behaviour is impeccable. Staff teach children about their expectations of positive b...ehaviour from the outset.

Children quickly learn what staff expect of them. They correctly use a wide range of vocabulary and non-verbal expressions to demonstrate their feelings. Children show high levels of respect for others.

Outside, children work together harmoniously to construct a train using crates. They take account of the ideas other children contribute because they have strong peer relationships. Children are confident.

Some children join the setting with low levels of confidence in new situations. Staff address this by providing a varied curriculum to help children to experience new situations and meet a range of people, such as police officers. Children quickly become confident after just a few weeks of attending the pre-school and happily involve visitors in their imaginative play.

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

The curriculum helps children to know more and remember more over time. Staff build on children's knowledge and skills to help them make links between previous learning. Children learn about the season of autumn, including what some animals do during this time.

For example, staff provide opportunities for children to develop the small muscle movements in their hands when they manipulate clay to make hedgehogs. Children learn new vocabulary, such as 'hibernation'. They demonstrate their understanding of this concept as they make their hedgehogs and then cover them with leaves for the winter.

Staff show children what a hedgehog looks like, using a computer screen. This teaches children that information can be obtained using the internet. Later in the day, children share what they have remembered about hibernating when they listen to a story about hedgehogs who hibernate together.

Staff are exceptionally skilled at interacting with children. They improve children's pronunciation of sounds by repeating words back to them modelling the correct pronunciation. Some children are bilingual and speak English and Welsh.

Staff skilfully plan for this in the curriculum. Children gain outstanding communication, language and literacy skills in English but also gain valuable skills in hearing, reading and speaking Welsh. This helps children to continue their dual language development when they start school.

Children are keen readers and writers. Staff provide many experiences for children to read and write in the pre-school. Parents comment that staff encourage them to spend time reading with their children at home, using the pre-school book library service.

Before children start school, they can read their name, sound out the letters of their name and write their name in recognisable print.The manager works very closely with staff at the local schools. She plans the curriculum through evaluation with them.

For instance, the manager has adapted the curriculum for older children to help accelerate their independence skills even further. This helps children to start school being able to dress and undress for physical activities.The leadership team are excellent mentors for less experienced staff.

They rigorously supervise all staff, providing constructive feedback on how to improve their already excellent teaching. The committee that runs the pre-school has a strong commitment to professional development; for example, it invests in improving staff qualifications. The training that staff attend is improving their personal effectiveness.

For example, staff use skills gained from a 'story telling' course to read stories using different voice tones. This helps to further engage children and assist them in listening for longer, in line with the leader's high expectations of children's concentration.The committee and leader have a clear vision for the pre-school.

Through highly effective self-evaluation, they have maintained the outstanding standards of practice since the last inspection. The committee successfully challenges the leader to provide a challenging curriculum. For example, it has identified ways to improve children's information technology skills to help ensure children start school with the knowledge of how to operate a range of different electronic devices.

Through effective management, the leader ensures staff workload is manageable and direct teaching and guiding of children's learning remains staff's utmost priority.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Safeguarding is given high priority and staff are highly vigilant in protecting children from possible harm.

They have an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding issues, including child criminal exploitation. There are highly robust procedures in place to manage concerns about a child's welfare and allegations against those working in or managing the pre-school. Staff work closely with parents.

They professionally challenge other agencies to help families receive the support they request. Through recent development of the information technology curriculum, staff have developed a very sharp focus on teaching children how to use electronic devices safely. This helps children to understand how to keep safe online.