Precious Steps Pre-School Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

The managers and staff put children at the heart of everything they do in the pre-school. All children demonstrate that they feel welcomed and valued. For example, they clearly love spending time at the setting and cannot wait to engage in activities at the beginning of each session.

Children are busy, happy and exceptionally well behaved. They make decisions together and welcome others into their play. Children illustrated this during role play as they worked alongside one another to transport building materials to their housing construction site.

They enthusiastically shared out their tools and discussed their... different roles. Children expressed themselves and talked to each other about their own homes. Staff instinctively know when to offer children support or when to stand back.

They use positive praise and reinforcement to help children manage their emotions and learn acceptable behaviour.Children show exceptionally high levels of independence. They confidently manage their personal hygiene needs well.

They illustrated this as they proudly looked in the mirror, blew their noses, put tissues in the bin and washed their hands without prompting.Staff work remarkably well with other professionals involved in children's care. This helps them to support children and to close gaps in their learning rapidly.

The outstanding level of support given to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exceptionally well managed. Additional funding is used appropriately to meet children's needs. This is underpinned by the in-depth knowledge of every child.

This helps to ensure that the right support is in place for all children so they make excellent progress from their starting points.

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

Leadership is inspirational. The managers' uncompromising commitment to continuous improvement results in exceptionally high standards of care and teaching.

They place a high focus on providing extensive training for staff, such as completing higher early years qualifications. Staff morale is very high. Staff endeavour to ensure that children's learning and well-being are given the utmost priority.

For example, children benefit significantly from additional speech and language sessions, closely linked to their individual needs and interests.Staff get to know children and their families incredibly well from the start. They provide parents with a wealth of information to help them understand their children's development and how to support them further.

Parents comment extremely positively about the staff and the significant progress that children have made since attending the setting. They say that staff offer them advice, support and encouragement, especially when facing life's challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.The excellent curriculum is embedded into the learning children experience every day and meets the needs of all children.

Every opportunity is taken to arouse children's interest and broaden their knowledge.Staff are responsive to children during activities and are adept at promoting their communication and language skills. For example, children play imaginative games.

They discuss and work out how to connect boxes of different shapes and sizes. Children talk about building rockets to go to the moon. Staff use this opportunity to introduce new words, as they discuss different planets, for example.

Children focus intently as they play. They confidently find resources they need, such as scissors, rulers and sticky tape. Together they find their own solutions, sensitively supported by staff.

Staff pay excellent attention to supporting children's healthy development. Children taste and explore the textures of nutritious snacks. They confidently give examples of where food comes from, such as the ground or in bushes and trees.

Children know their routines exceptionally well. They tell visitors that they are going to brush their teeth after their lunch to keep them clean and healthy.Children frequently spend time outside and benefit from extensive exercise, fresh air and physical play.

For example, they hold competitions to see who can bounce the highest on the trampoline. They remind each other that they need to rest and drink water to avoid dehydration.Children of all ages show their understanding of boundaries and demonstrate excellent relationships.

For instance, during the inspection, children recognised that their friends needed support to move construction materials and offered them the use of the wheelbarrow.Staff supervise children extremely well. They seize every opportunity to help children learn how to manage their own risks and to think about the safety of those around them.

Children are quick to identify possible hazards and think of ways to avoid these. They demonstrated this as they put on safety equipment without prompting. Children carefully transported bricks and planks of wood to their construction area.

They negotiated space around them to avoid contact with others.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have an exceptional knowledge of how to keep children safe.

They have an excellent knowledge of, and implement, the comprehensive safeguarding polices and procedures. For example, they fully understand the whistle-blowing policy and know who to report any issues to. Managers note any patterns in children's absence and check to make sure there are no concerns about a family's well-being.

They continually test the staff's knowledge of safeguarding through scenarios and questions. Staff have an excellent knowledge of the signs that may indicate that a child is being abused. This includes wider safeguarding issues, such as internet safety.