Oakley Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children have a wonderful time at this pre-school, which has a warm family feel. They demonstrate high levels of confidence as they kindly great visitors on arrival.

Children have warm bonds with staff and snuggle up to them at story time. Furthermore, an effective key-person system ensures that all children are well supported and their individual needs are met. This helps children to feel safe and secure and gives them a strong sense of belonging.

Leaders and staff have a clear vision of what they want children to learn and can explain how they put this into place. For example, they plan a curriculum based on children...'s ages and stages of development to support their individual needs and interests. As a result, children show positive attitudes to their learning and are deeply engaged in the activities on offer.

Children benefit from fresh air and regular physical exercise. They enjoy outdoor play and have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, children play in the pre-school garden with their friends and practise their coordination and balancing skills on ride-on toys and see-saws.

Children behave very well and have developed close friendships with their peers, which supports their social skills and emotional well-being effectively. All children, including children with additional needs, make good progress from their starting points.

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

Staff thoroughly plan activities and provide resources to support children's ongoing learning and development.

For example, children enjoy an abundance of activities that help to strengthen their small-muscle development, such as art and craft activities. Children learn to glue, stick and cut with scissors. This prepares them for their next move on to school successfully.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have identified that children benefit from additional support with their speech and language development. Children have regular small-group sessions, such as story and song time, to enhance their literacy skills. Staff skilfully ask children questions about the stories they are listening to and include all children to have an input.

This helps children to become confident communicators and benefits their growing self-esteem and confidence.Overall, staff want children to learn independence skills from an early age. Children wash their hands independently before mealtimes and put their belongings away on arrival.

However, staff do not consistently embed routines across all aspects of children's independent learning. For example, they wipe children's noses for them and do not consistently ensure that children tidy away toys and resources. This means that children do not fully understand the importance of managing their personal hygiene and how to keep their environment safe.

Staff provide children with healthy snacks and refreshments throughout the day. Nevertheless, staff do not make the most of these opportunities to teach children why it is important to hydrate and feed their growing bodies with nutrients. This means that children do not fully gain an understanding of the importance of making healthy choices.

Leaders and staff are very knowledgeable and know how to engage children skilfully in their mathematical learning. For example, when children play in the construction area and build tall towers, staff ask them to compare sizes. Children excitedly find other items they see in the setting, such as bookshelves and chairs.

They measure them against their creations and learn to understand the concept of height. These important interactions help children to gain a good understanding of early mathematical learning and challenges their critical thinking successfully.Parents speak highly of the staff at the setting.

They report that their children have made good progress, in particular with their speech and language development and their social skills. Staff work collaboratively with parents to support children's development and learning, such as when children move on to school. Additionally, the manager works closely with the local schools that the children will transition to.

This supports their ongoing learning and development effectively.Staff report that they feel well supported by the manager. They have the opportunity to further develop their knowledge and expertise through ongoing professional training.

This enables them to support the children at the pre-school effectively. Staff have regular supervisions and appraisals with the manager and feel that they can raise any concerns.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff at the pre-school are committed to safeguarding children. They display a good awareness of the signs and symptoms that might indicate that children are at risk of harm. Staff are familiar with procedures for reporting concerns about children's welfare.

They are vigilant in keeping children safe. Ongoing training supports staff to continually refresh their good knowledge and skills. Managers follow robust recruitment procedures to check that staff are suitable, and remain suitable, to work with children.

Staff carry out daily risk assessments of the premises to ensure that children can play and explore in a safe environment. Staff practise termly fire drill procedures with children to ensure the safety of all individuals on the premises.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nembed independence skills further to help children to understand the importance of managing their personal hygiene and to keep their environment safe make further use of opportunities to teach children about healthy eating choices.

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