Ettington Preschool Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children are extremely keen to learn and are eager to engage from the moment they arrive at this pre-school.

Inviting activities spark their natural curiosity as learners. Older children completely absorb themselves in activities, such as preparing the vegetable patch in readiness for planting seeds. They explore nature as they do so, comparing the size of the worms they find and recalling their experiences of finding conkers during autumn.

Children's well-being and health are superbly enhanced; they exert heaps of physical energy as they work hard to dig deep to cultivate the soil. Children excitedly share they... are digging 'downer and downer' and take great pleasure in announcing how they are 'working so hard'. Children show great amounts of care and concern for one another.

Pre-school children who bring in a toy train from home, kindly bring another, intent on sharing with a friend. In the breakfast club, junior school children warmly support their infant peers to write party invitations. Younger children also engage very well in their learning and all staff have high expectations of children's behaviour.

Staff working with the youngest children in the pre-school skilfully organise short group activities that guide and support them in learning how to behave.

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

The whole environment has been thoroughly thought through to provide children with stimulating and challenging hands-on experiences. A rich curriculum tailored to children's individual interests supports them in making outstanding progress.

Outdoor learning is given extremely high priority for all children. Many children choose to spend the majority of their time outside. Older children expertly create 'honey making machines' from a variety of construction materials, such as planks of wood and pipes.

They take great pleasure in explaining the honey making process, convincingly sharing that they have to make sure 'it is not poisonous'.The manager, her deputy and the trustees share the same vision in the pursuit of excellence. The manager leads her team with enthusiasm and is passionate about providing children and their families with the highest possible outcomes.

Following the previous outstanding judgement, continuous improvements in the provision remain a high priority. These include extensive time being applied to monitoring and the recent completion of a new outdoor learning area.The highly motivated team is well qualified.

The leadership team extensively supports staff to access training and experiences in their personal areas of interest, such as forest schools and special educational needs. All staff are included in a targeted plan of professional development. The manager closely monitors the staff's individual strengths and areas for improvement and utilises their qualities and personal attributes extremely well.

Staff take on lead roles to cascade their expertise, for example in how to thoroughly engage children through storytelling.Transitions on to school are superbly managed. Children are extensively supported through this big change in their lives at a pace that is right for them.

Staff create role-play experiences to ease this transition and spend time with the children in their new school. Reception school teachers are warmly invited to spend time in the pre-school, getting to know the children in a familiar environment.Inclusion is a key feature in this outstanding provision.

The manager has an extremely positive attitude and is very receptive to how the pre-school can continually improve. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and those who are less settled, are fully supported. Staff, children and their families keenly engage in fundraising initiatives with the local community and school.

As a result of this holistic approach, a defibrillator device has been purchased, benefitting the whole community.The arrangements for partnership working with parents are exemplary. Many parents who spoke to the inspector, and others who provided information about the pre-school, overwhelmingly expressed complete satisfaction.

Parents of children with SEND describe this pre-school as 'the perfect place' to meet their child's needs. All parents strongly appreciate the highly professional approach and that their children are exceptionally happy and making excellent progress in all areas of their development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are extremely vigilant about children's safety and supervise them well at all times to keep them safe. Children learn through regular reminders from staff about how to keep themselves safe. They learn how to hold gardening tools and the potential accidents that can happen if they are waved around or misused.

Staff have an excellent understanding of child protection issues and the procedures to follow to safeguard children. They are confident in their understanding of reporting their concerns to one of the four staff who have completed designated safeguarding leader training. Staff understand the pre-school's whistle-blowing and mobile phone procedures.

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