Freeland Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children form close and relaxed relationships with warm and friendly staff. They feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they can express their feelings and views. They are well behaved and are consistently praised for acts of kindness and achievements.

Children are encouraged to make their own decisions. They are supported by perceptive staff. This allows children to grow in independence, and they display high levels of emotional well-being.

Staff provide a wealth of opportunities for children to meet a range of people and talk about similarities and differences in the world. On the day of the inspection, children ...walked with parents, grandparents and staff to the local church, where they took part in a short Easter celebration. Children were excited about their visit.

Children recalled prior learning on the trip. They discussed spring, pointed to letters on street signs which matched letters in their names and talked about how to walk to and from church safely. These activities enthuse and inspire them and teach them the value of their community.

Children develop the physical skills they need in preparation for future writing. For example, they strengthen their hand muscles through a range of mark-making opportunities, inside and outside. They also receive targeted support, such as 'fiddly fingers', to improve hand-eye coordination.

Children develop their coordination, core strength and confidence as they stretch their bodies and move to action songs. All children enjoy access to the large outside area throughout the day. In addition, children access the natural world and learning experiences, for example as they walk to the local woods each week to access a range of rich learning experiences.

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

Staff have a good understanding of their curriculum and how children learn. They plan a rich and varied selection of well-organised activities to encourage children to explore and build on what they already know. This helps children to make good progress.

Partnerships with parents are positive. Parents speak very highly of the team, and many of them mention the manager by name. Staff keep parents well informed about their children's achievements and next steps.

Staff share useful information with parents. This includes about online safety, oral health and information about where they can access support if needed.A strong key-person system is in place.

All staff get to know children well. This includes fully understanding their individual personalities, including their likes and dislikes. Children enjoy the company of staff and their friends.

All children behave well and are gaining in confidence.Staff organise group activities for their individual key groups, which take place simultaneously. For instance, they lead children in singing and story sessions to support their developing speech and attention.

However, these are not fully effective in supporting all children's individual learning needs. For example, children become distracted as they see other groups singing and interacting with props. This impacts on the engagement of the children who are undertaking different key-group activities, and they lose concentration.

The manager, who is also the special educational needs coordinator, is knowledgeable about ensuring that children's individual needs are prioritised. She works confidently with external agencies and has implemented effective strategies to provide early intervention where required, including for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who are in receipt of additional funding. This supports all children to make progress in their development and helps them to reach their next steps in their development.

Staff support children's developing language and communication skills well. They use a variety of communication methods, such as simple sign language and hand gestures, to support those who are at an earlier stage in their speech and language development. This provides children with the tools they need to express their needs and desires while their speech is emerging.

This means that all children, including those with SEND, learn to be effective communicators.Overall, staff support children's use of mathematical language and understanding of capacity well. However, they do not consistently make the most of spontaneous learning opportunities to boost young children's emerging counting skills.

Children enjoy eating their lunch with staff, and it is a calm yet sociable time. They join in the conversations and learn about healthy lifestyles. Children have good manners and are kind and considerate to everyone.

They learn to peel their own fruit at lunchtime and know which bin to put the peelings into.Staff feel valued and thoroughly enjoy working at the pre-school. Through regular observations, supervisions and discussion, staff receive constructive feedback from the manager on the quality of their interactions with children.

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: review and improve adult-led group activities so that children remain engaged in their learning provide more opportunities for children to practise and use numbers, counting and simple calculation.

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