Great Bentley Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy, keen and enthusiastic learners. They enter the pre-school confidently, proficiently registering their attendance by placing their name and belongings on a chosen coat peg.

Children are greeted by smiling staff who ask how they are and enter into lively discussions with them and their parents. Once settled, children immediately become engrossed in their chosen play. They delight in seeing their friends and make excellent use of the resources to facilitate their play.

Children behave very well. They are familiar with the pre-school routines and show great respect for each other. Children are relaxed, ...content and safe.

They are very familiar with the pre-school environment and resources. Children have fun exploring a wide range of outdoor learning. They develop strong physical skills, for example, when they bounce excitedly on the sunken trampoline and climb the steps and structures in the garden.

Children pay good attention to the basketball coach who visits weekly to help children to enhance their physical development even further. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who learn English as an additional language, make good and sustained progress from their starting points. Key persons have high expectations for the children's learning, based on their knowledge of children's interests and learning styles.

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

Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents speak extremely highly of the pre-school staff and feel that their children are well cared for. Parents comment that their children participate in a wide and exciting range of activities and make good progress.

They enjoy the level of feedback they receive from staff about their children's progress and development.Staff focus heavily on ensuring that children's social and emotional development are embedded. They expertly support new children who are unsettled to gain confidence and enjoy their pre-school session.

Staff encourage children to talk about their emotions and feelings, for example, by using a story and puppet. They discuss how various colours relate to emotions, such as 'happy', 'sad' and 'cross'. Children explore what these emotions might look like and what they could do to help them feel 'yellow' for happy or to come out of the 'blue' sad feeling.

Children use numbers and counting in their everyday activities. For example, they help to count how many children are present each morning and afternoon. They predict how many toy bricks they will need to make a long wall between two pieces of furniture.

Children draw around each other and staff encourage them to think about who is tallest and who is shortest.Staff engage in discussions with the children throughout the pre-school day.They encourage them to share experiences from home with their friends in small and large groups.

Staff are, however, less proficient at enhancing and challenging the children's thinking even further, for example, through skilful questioning.Children gain a good understanding of how to care for their environment. They know that they need to clear some of the toys away when the tidy-up song is played.

They confidently do this and prepare themselves for the next part of their pre-school day.Children enjoy drawing and practising their early writing skills. They chat calmly to each other about what they have drawn and who is in their picture.

They proudly show their drawings to staff, who encourage them to tell them about what they have drawn.The staff and management team work very well together. The managers work directly with the staff and children on a daily basis.

This provides them with an overview of staff's strengths and any areas of the provision that need to be further developed. Staff receive regular supervision and coaching from the managers. They have completed some core training since the last inspection.

However, at present, staff's professional development is not focused well enough to help them to raise the quality of teaching and learning even higher.Staff work very closely with the local school and other professionals. They are experienced at seeking appropriate interventions to help to close gaps in children's learning and to support families.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff demonstrate their understanding of the types of abuse and the symptoms that might alert them to a child's safety being compromised. Staff complete regular training to help them to refresh their safeguarding knowledge, and discuss new guidance during staff and supervision meetings.

The providers have robust procedures in place for safer recruitment and undertakeappropriate suitability checks for all staff. New staff and those returning to work at the pre-school complete a thorough induction to help them to become familiar with the pre-school's policies, including safeguarding.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop further staff's teaching skills to help them to fully challenge children's thinking focus staff's professional development to include opportunities that help to raise the quality of teaching even higher.