Brookside Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are welcomed into the setting by friendly and supportive staff.

Families visit the setting prior to starting, to share information and to help children become familiar with their new environment. A key person is allocated, and they work closely with children to support them through the transition process. Children settle quickly and become confident in their new surroundings.

Children behave well. They listen to staff's instructions and understand the daily routines and boundaries in place at the setting. They demonstrate good social skills when playing with their friends.

Staff are good role models a...nd children quickly learn to be respectful to others. For example, children share resources well. Staff remind them to ask politely, and children demonstrate good manners and listen to their peers.

Staff focus on developing children's language and communication skills through singing, reading and talking. Children enjoy taking part in small group times where they sing songs and rhymes to extend their vocabulary. Children demonstrate their excellent independence as they find their own belongings, put on their own coats and wash their hands.

Furthermore, they are confident to make choices and serve their own drinks at snack time. Parents provide packed lunches and children learn to open zips, boxes and packets in preparation for school.

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

Staff use opportunities throughout children's play to talk and communicate.

Children engage in two-way conversations. They share experiences from home and enjoy listening to others. Staff model excellent language skills and spark conversations that interest children.

Children demonstrate good language skills from a young age.Children's physical skills are well-supported. They enjoy exploring sand and water play, digging and pouring, developing their gross motor movement.

Additionally, staff provide opportunities for children to develop their fine motor strength. Children use pegs to build fences for the animal figures and a range of tools in the play dough. Staff ensure a choice of pencils for children to draw and colour to practise their early writing skills.

Staff use opportunities during play to extend children's knowledge about the world in which they live. When painting, children explain they are making a tornado. Staff use this opportunity to research tornados and deepen children's understanding.

Together, they watch videos and talk about the weather. They learn new words, such as 'rotate', and staff demonstrate this movement to support children's understanding. They experiment together to find out what a tornado looks like and why it can form.

Children thoroughly enjoy reading. Staff introduce props to support children's understanding of the story and help them maintain engagement and concentration. They use opportunities to introduce new vocabulary and mathematical language to further extend their learning.

Children demonstrate a love of reading as they listen carefully and join in with repeated words and phrases from their favourite stories.Staff know children well. They track children's learning and monitor their progress closely.

They identify any gaps or areas where children may need additional help and plan small, yet challenging targets to help children progress. Additional support is sought from professionals and where necessary staff complete referrals in a timely manner, to gain further support for children and families. This helps children to make good progress in their learning and development.

Staff have introduced a range of home learning opportunities for children to share at home. They provide books, story sacks and resource bags for children to borrow, along with ideas and tips to support parents to teach children new skills. Furthermore, parents are invited into the setting for a range of events.

For example, parents joined the setting on an outing to the library where they registered and loaned books to read at home. Parents gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of reading and this impacts on the learning opportunities children receive outside of the setting.The management team carry out regular supervision for staff and they provide ample opportunities for staff to attend training to further their knowledge and skills.

However, due to recent changes in the staff structure, the management team have not yet found a method to deploy staff across the setting that prioritises children's learning and enables staff to teach to the highest standard. For example, staff's teaching is often interrupted to carry out routine jobs. Sometimes, this has an impact on the learning that is taking place and children's levels of engagement.

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 further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: manage staff deployment effectively to provide a consistently high standard of teaching across the setting.