Evergreen Preschool Pyrford

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children settle quickly and thoroughly enjoy the time they spend in this friendly pre-school.

They increase their confidence as they explore the environment and make choices for themselves, including if they want to play inside or outdoors. Children develop good friendships and show that they have positive relationships with staff. They feel confident to approach staff for comfort, which supports their emotional well-being.

Children interact well with visitors. They engage them in conversation and invite them to play.Children have many opportunities to be creative.

They explore daffodils in a vase and spend ti...me painting their own versions. Children choose and peel stickers and cut coloured paper with scissors to create patterns and pictures. These opportunities help to strengthen the muscles in children's hands in preparation for early writing.

Children eagerly explore sensory resources, such as play dough and rice. They show perseverance and curiosity as they try to fill containers, using scoops and funnels. Children spend time thinking and testing their ideas, before deciding that shaking the funnel makes the rice move quicker.

Staff encourage children in their experiments and offer lots of praise when children successfully fill their containers to the top. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make progress in their learning.

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

The committed team of staff work well together to improve outcomes for all children.

They work with a range of professionals, including the local authority, to ensure that their practice is up to date. The manager is reflective. She is aware of what they do well and what they need to improve on.

Staff know children well, including what they would like them to learn next.Staff provide a broad and varied range of activities for children and actively play alongside them to support their learning. Children practise mathematical skills as they measure out water between containers and count how many it takes to fill the largest one.

However, on occasions, staff do not use spontaneous opportunities to further extend, engage and challenge the children's learning as they play.Children enjoy fresh air and exercise as they play outside. They enjoy 'painting' vertical surfaces with water and watching as the board changes colour in the sunshine.

There are plenty of opportunities for children to challenge their large-muscle skills, for example as they balance on stepping stones and climb on apparatus. Children take manageable risks as they figure out how to climb over the top of the frame and back down to the ground.Staff follow children's interests when planning activities.

This ensures that children want to play and learn. For example, while listening to favourite stories, children are delighted when staff suggest that they go on a 'bear hunt'. Staff use a range of props, indoors and outside, which bring the story to life as children excitedly find the 'bear'.

This helps children to build on their early literacy skills.Children carry out self-care tasks independently. They wash their hands by themselves and communicate their need to go to the toilet.

During snack and mealtimes, staff provide children with lots of opportunities and encouragement to do things for themselves. For example, children find their own drinks and snacks and open the packets in their lunch boxes. Children demonstrate their good manners as they say 'please' and 'thank you' spontaneously to staff who help them.

The manager carries out peer observations and some supervision sessions with staff. However, professional development opportunities are not consistently targeted to support individual staff to precisely enhance their skills and knowledge to the highest level.Parents are positive about the pre-school.

They comment that their children have made good progress since joining the pre-school. Parents are grateful for the information the pre-school shares with them about their children's development and how to support their learning at home.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff confidently recognise the signs that a child may be at risk of harm or neglect. They understand how to escalate their concerns about a child's welfare should they need to, including what to do in the event of an allegation against another staff member. The manager ensures that effective vetting and recruitment procedures are in place, to ensure that adults working with children are suitable.

The staff and management teams ensure that suitable risk assessments are carried out indoors and outdoors. Daily checks are carried out, which ensures the ongoing safety of the children in their care.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to recognise how to further use spontaneous opportunities to support and challenge every child's learning further target professional development opportunities more precisely to support staff to enhance their skills and knowledge to the highest level.

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