Clarendon Park Cherubs Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are active learners who enjoy playing outside. They learn through following their interests.

Staff plan exciting opportunities to enable children to learn about and explore the natural world. For example, children dig for worms and investigate the wood pile for bugs and insects. They climb and take risks safely, having opportunities to practise their physical skills.

Children have a positive attitude to their learning. They independently select activities they want to play with and display high levels of concentration. Children learn about mathematical concepts, such as recognising numbers and counting.
...r/>They accurately count dinosaurs and match the group to the correct numeral. They talk with staff about the biggest and smallest number. This gives children the opportunity to be curious and compare and understand ideas about more and less.

Children learn to take turns and to consider others. For example, they create pictures together on large sheets of paper. They share toy cars and wait while their friends have a turn to push their car down the garage ramp.

Staff reinforce consistent expectations of behaviour in a kind and respectful manner. Children show increasing control of their emotions, benefiting from the calm and positive environment that staff provide.

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

Staff have a clear knowledge of what each child can do and what they need to learn next.

They take the time to find out what parents know about their children and observe children to find out what they are interested in and can do. The curriculum is planned so that each child enjoys rich learning opportunities and makes good progress in their learning and development.Children are inquisitive and enjoy exploring.

For example, in the garden children are excited to make imaginary ice-cream sundaes. Older children follow recipe cards, adding pine cones and twigs. Staff help younger children to develop their small-muscle skills as they spoon pretend ice cream into cones.

However, some staff do not consistently build on what older children already know and can do, or further extend their thinking as they play.Staff prepare children for the next stage in their education. They read stories about starting school, help children to become independent in their care skills, and show them the uniform they will wear.

Staff establish effective partnerships with other agencies involved with children and their families. For instance, they use information from speech and language therapists to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps to close any gaps in children's development.

Staff talk to young children as they play and help them build a wide vocabulary. Older children enjoy talking about stories they are familiar with. They describe the house they are building with bricks so that the wolf cannot blow it down.

They repeat 'I'll huff and I'll puff,' as they mix their own 'cement' and put the bricks together to build a safe house. However, sometimes staff do not adapt their practice to further support children who speak English as an additional language to understand and speak English.Parents are very complimentary about the pre-school.

They comment about what their children have learned at pre-school and that their children are keen to attend. They say that their children quickly develop skills to do things for themselves, such as putting on their wellington boots to play in the garden. Parents praise the support given by staff to ensure all children settle quickly.

They appreciate the attention given to more nervous children to make sure their start at the pre-school is successful. Children's emotional well-being is a clear focus for staff. Staff are extremely sensitive to children's feelings and take swift action to ensure children feel positive, secure and content.

Staff are supported very well by a strong and dedicated management team. Together, they have a strong vision for the pre-school and reflect continuously on how they can improve. For example, they are improving the opportunities for children to develop their own ideas in their play by enabling them to self-select even more resources.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a secure understanding of their responsibilities to protect children, including protecting them from extremist views. They know how to recognise signs of abuse.

The staff and manager know the procedures to follow if they have concerns about children's welfare. Staff complete regular training to strengthen their knowledge of safeguarding issues. The owners follow robust recruitment and induction procedures.

They complete rigorous checks to ensure that only those suitable to work with children do so. Staff check the indoor and outdoor environments to ensure all hazards are removed, to enable children to play in a safe environment.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen staff's understanding of how to consistently develop and extend children's knowledge and thinking nincrease staff's understanding of how to support children who speak English as an additional language.