Paddington Preschool Stage Two

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children successfully enhance their creative skills.

Staff provide a range of materials, such as dressing up outfits, to support children to develop their imaginations. This is demonstrated when children dress up in a variety of costumes to 'go on a bus ride to see the pirates'. There are weaknesses in leadership and management that have an impact on how well some requirements are met.

However, this does not have significant impact on children's welfare, or the quality of education they receive. Children have high levels of independence and enjoy doing things for themselves. For example, children hang up their coats and b...ags when they arrive.

Staff ensure the environment supports children to make their own choices about what they want to play with. For instance, resources are on low shelves, which enables even the youngest children to easily access them. Furthermore, storage boxes are clearly labelled with pictures, which supports children, including those who speak English as an additional language, to know what toys are available to them.

Children are kind to each other and adults. For example, they ask visitors if they would like to come into the garden to play. Additionally, children have good social skills, which are demonstrated when they play happily together, readily sharing resources.

Staff are respectful to children and are good role models, which helps children to be polite and well-mannered.

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

Overall, most staff have an appropriate understanding of the policies and procedures in place to assist with the smooth day-to-day running of the pre-school. However, some procedures are not implemented as successfully in practice, to ensure all requirements are met.

For example, there are inconsistencies in how staff apply the medication policy to ensure children's individual needs are fully met.Staff provide many opportunities for all children to enhance their early writing skills. For example, older children copy the letters in their name and younger children make marks with chalk in the garden.

Children find their name card and self-register on arrival. This helps them to recognise the letters in their name.Staff understand the ways in which children learn.

For example, there is a wide range of resources and activities available for children who prefer to learn outdoors and sensory resources for younger children. Staff ensure the routine is flexible to support children's changing needs. For example, when children start to lose concentration, they take them outside to burn off excess energy.

Staff use observation and assessment well to monitor children's progress. They use the information gathered to identify emerging gaps in development and swiftly refer to other services. This supports children to get any extra help they need.

However, staff do not always begin their assessments promptly when children first start at the pre-school, to fully support their learning from the outset.The effective key person system helps children to feel safe and secure. Staff have strong bonds with children.

This is seen when children quickly settle when staff give them cuddles and reassurance when they are upset. This promotes children's emotional well-being and confidence.Staff support children to understand how to keep themselves healthy and to recognise when they might be at risk.

For example, they explain to children the importance of applying sun cream and wearing a hat in the sun.Staff give consistent messages about the high expectations for children's conduct. They manage children's occasional challenging behaviour well.

This includes an explanation to children of how their behaviour affects their friends, which helps them to understand about and manage their feelings and emotions.The manager supports staff well. For example, she meets with them individually to discuss any concerns and their workload, which helps to assure staff well-being.

However, processes for monitoring staff performance are not consistent enough to identify areas of weakness to help improve staff practice.Parents are very complimentary about the staff at the nursery. They describe them as caring and nurturing.

Staff involve parents in their child's learning. For example, they ask parents how to spend additional funding to help children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, make continued progress.

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 meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must: Due date ensure all staff and managers have a secure understanding of and consistently follow all relevant policies and procedures, including the medication policy.02/07/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: gather more detailed information from parents when children start at the pre-school to focus teaching and learning more precisely from the outset further develop systems for monitoring staff performance to identify areas for improvement to help ensure a consistently high quality of teaching.

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