Little Doves Christian Pre School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The manager and staff provide a warm and welcoming environment for children and their families. Children are happy and form secure attachments with their key person and other staff caring for them. They are motivated and enthusiastic to learn.

Children confidently make choices from the wide range of play materials available to them indoors and outside. They are inquisitive as they investigate and explore sensory and messy materials. For example, children are fascinated as they explore the sensation of cornflour mixed with water and when they carefully scoop compost into containers.

Children behave well and remain safe.... They understand key safety rules and know it is safer to walk than run while indoors. Children develop skills in sharing toys.

For example, they learn to use sand timers to help them work out when it is their turn to use the most popular play equipment. The manager and staff have high expectations for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They work as a team to provide activities that capture children's curiosity and imagination.

Staff take account of children's interests and next steps in learning and use these to inform the planning of activities.

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

Staff are calm role models and offer constant praise and encouragement. Children are kind and caring individuals and form good relationships with each other.

Staff encourage children to develop an understanding about the wider world. The resources reflect positive images of different families, communities and traditions.Staff build excellent partnerships with parents and carers.

They work extremely hard to ensure that all parents are fully involved in their children's learning. Parents are overwhelmingly positive when they talk about the pre-school. They say staff go 'above and beyond' to help their children.

Parents also praise the staff for the extra support they give families when they are experiencing difficulties in their lives.The manager and staff are committed to providing an inclusive environment for all children. They work very closely with other agencies and outside professionals to ensure that all children, including those with SEND, receive the individualised support and equipment they need to make good progress.

The manager ensures that additional funding, such as early years pupil premium, is spent wisely to enhance the experiences available to children and to address any gaps in learning. The manager purchases additional resources and arranges for music teachers and football instructors to visit and deliver extra activities. This helps to encourage children to follow their interests further and develop their confidence and self-esteem.

Staff support children's communication skills well. They join children as they play and engage in constant discussion, introducing new vocabulary and modelling language during activities. Staff use songs and stories with props and puppets effectively to help children to focus their attention and develop their ideas.

Children develop early reading and mathematical skills through the interesting ways that staff have woven opportunities into different activities. For example, non-fiction books are displayed adjacent to nature tables to help children find out more about insects. Children count and recognise numbers and shapes as they make birthday cakes with play dough.

Children learn to adopt healthy lifestyles. They have plenty of opportunities to be physically active. Children eat well-balanced and nutritious snacks.

They independently serve their own food and drinks and then wash up their cups and plates. However, staff do not always make the most of opportunities to help children to learn about the importance of effective hygiene routines.The manager takes the well-being and happiness of staff members seriously.

Staff have regular team meetings and individual supervisions where they reflect on how they can improve. The manager has started reviewing new ways to monitor staff's performance. However, this has not been fully embedded in practice to help ensure that continuous professional development is sharply focused on improving staff's teaching skills to an outstanding level.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a good understanding of how to protect children. They complete safeguarding training, including online courses on wider safeguarding issues, such as the 'Prevent' duty.

Their knowledge is refreshed regularly during staff meetings. Staff know the procedures to follow if they identify any concerns about a child's welfare. The contact numbers for the relevant child protection agencies remain easily accessible.

The trustees follow safer recruitment procedures to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Staff carry out daily checks of the premises to make sure any potential risks to children are minimised.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimplement the plans to target continuous professional development more precisely so that all staff raise their teaching skills to a higher level strengthen opportunities for children to learn about the importance of effective hygiene routines.