Meppershall Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the pre-school happy and enthusiastic; they settle quickly and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure.

They are keen to explore the many varied learning opportunities available to them, inside and outdoors. Staff are attentive to the needs of new children. They stay close by when they are upset and encourage parents to return early, to prevent children becoming overly distressed.

Children are learning how to develop healthy lifestyles. They have many opportunities for outdoor physical play, for example they climb up steps to the slide and enjoy walks in the local community. Overall, children's be...haviour is good and they listen and respond well to staff.

Children are developing good independence skills. For example, staff provide them with opportunities to prepare their own snacks and to change their shoes. Children rise to these challenges and take pride in their achievements.

Staff get to know children well. They spend time talking to parents to help them find out what early experiences children have had and what they can already do. Staff talk confidently about children's interests and where they prefer to learn.

Overall, staff have a good understanding of what children need to learn next and set them appropriate challenges. This helps children to make good progress.

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

Staff skilfully support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

They provide them with opportunities for individual learning experiences and support children to engage in small-group activities. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals. They endeavour to ensure that children have access to additional services as early in their education as possible.

Children are developing good speech and language skills. Staff undertake training to help them to support children in the best possible ways. They talk about the different strategies they use, such as signing.

Staff learn words in other languages children speak. This encourages children who speak dual languages to become confident in using them.Staff turnover is low.

Despite this, the provider has rigorous recruitment procedures in place to help ensure staff are suitable to work with children. The managers monitor staff's practice through supervision meetings and are currently implementing peer observations. They identify suitable professional development opportunities to enable staff to continually enhance their knowledge and skills.

Children are developing a good understanding of the world. They demonstrate this by talking, for example, about how water freezes in cold temperatures and melts with warmth. Children think carefully about how they can make ice melt.

They engage in exploration, for example watching what happens when they hold ice blocks in their warm hands.Staff help children learn how to problem-solve. They use questioning well to help children to think for themselves.

Children demonstrate a determined attitude to finding practical solutions to problems. They also understand that others might have ideas and passionately explain their dilemmas to other children and staff.Parents speak positively about the pre-school and staff.

They say their children are happy and look forward to their pre-school days. Parents state that key persons often ask them about how children are developing at home, and that they are given regular updates on the progress their children are making.The managers and staff use research to help them develop their philosophy of education.

They have recently made changes to the way they plan for children's learning. However, some staff are not yet confident in thoroughly understanding their role in supporting children to learn to the highest levels.Staff set up high-quality learning environments each week.

Children are excited to take part in the wonderful activities available to them. However, staff do not always model effectively to children how to use the resources in the best ways. Consequently, some activities becoming disorganised and untidy.

This results in children disengaging from highly effective play and learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a robust knowledge and understanding of the signs and symptoms that may indicate that children are at risk of harm or exposed to extremist views.

They talk confidently of the procedures to follow to report any such concerns, both within the setting and to relevant safeguarding agencies. Staff complete safeguarding training at induction and at regular intervals through their employment. Managers encourage staff to complete safeguarding quizzes.

They reflect on their answers and implement training to quickly close any gaps in staff's knowledge and understanding. This helps to ensure that all staff have a secure understanding of the safeguarding policies and procedures.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: continue to embed the systems for planning for children's learning, enabling staff to fully understand their role in providing children with consistently effective support and challenge during activities nensure that the high-quality learning opportunities available for children are replenished and attractive to children throughout the session, in order to consistently entice them to learn in the best possible ways.