Collingwood Under Fives Pre-school

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and eager to come to the pre-school. They are welcomed by warm and friendly staff.

Children know the routine well and quickly settle to play with their friends and interact with staff. They choose their own play from the wide variety of well-prepared activities. They are engaged and enthusiastic in their learning.

Children form good relationships with staff and demonstrate they feel emotionally secure. Their behaviour is good, and they take turns and play cooperatively with each other. As they play, children are very well supported by staff who listen and interact with them.

For example, as ...children enjoy pretend play on 'Santa's sleigh', staff interact effectively with them to support and extend their imagination and language skills. Children's achievements are celebrated as staff attractively display children's artwork and pictures. This helps to promote their confidence and self-esteem.

Children benefit from a very well-resourced garden area and have a wide range of opportunities to be physically active. Staff teach children how to develop healthy lifestyles. For example, they learn about dental hygiene and healthy food choices.

There are high expectations for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to make good progress.

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

Staff are committed to help every child to make good progress. They know their key children very well.

They set challenging, yet achievable, next steps in learning. The manager monitors children's progress to ensure that any gaps are identified and addressed. This helps children to develop the skills they need for the next stage in their learning, including school.

Staff teach children well through their interactions with them. They take opportunities to support children's learning as they play. For example, as children use chalks to draw pictures of their families on the outside paving stones, staff encourage them to count the people.

They challenge them to add more people and count to higher numbers.Children's literacy skills are well supported. During circle time, children listen to stories, learn letter sounds and join in with songs and rhymes.

However, staff expect all children to participate in these large-group activities. This results in some children not engaging effectively in their learning.Children are learning to manage risks and are developing an understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

For example, they help staff to complete the daily risk assessment of the outside area. They inform their friends if the resources are safe to use.The manager and staff work effectively with other professionals to support children's learning.

Staff skilfully support children with SEND. They provide them with individual learning opportunities that meet their needs and support them in achieving well.Robust recruitment procedures help to ensure staff are suitable to work with children.

Staff turnover is low. The manager monitors staff's practice through regular staff supervision sessions. However, she does not use the supervision system to its full extent in order to precisely identify ways to raise the quality of staff's teaching even further.

Parents and staff develop extremely strong relationships. Staff provide parents with consistent information about children's development and how to support children's next steps at home. Parents are highly complimentary about the pre-school and say that staff 'go above and beyond' and are 'so dedicated in ensuring the very best for the children'.

Children are encouraged to bring in items from home to show and talk about during circle time. They excitedly rush up to the front, eager to tell their friends about what they have brought in. This helps to develop their language skills, as well as helping to support their confidence and self-esteem.

The manager has a clear vision and is dedicated to providing a high-quality provision. She continually looks for ways to make improvements. For instance, she has initiated networking sessions with other local settings to share good practice and further improve the quality of the provision.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children. They regularly complete child protection training to stay up to date with safeguarding procedures.

Staff have a secure knowledge of the signs and behaviours that could indicate children may be at risk of harm and know the procedure to follow to report a concern. They are aware of the procedure to follow if they have a concern about another member of staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on the strategies used to plan group activities so that all children have further opportunities to be highly challenged and engaged in their learning strengthen the supervision of staff to precisely identify their professional development needs and raise the quality of teaching to an even higher level.

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