Sedlescombe Pre-School Ltd.

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The passionate manager and staff team create a highly inclusive and nurturing environment where children flourish. Their calming, patient and sensitive approach enables them to form strong bonds with all children.

Staff are very responsive to children's interests and ideas, and children are motivated, eager and inquisitive learners. They thoroughly enjoy their time at the pre-school and demonstrate how happy, safe and secure they feel as they laugh, smile and frolic with friends.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who receive additional funding are fully included and supported.

Staff w...ork very closely with parents and other professionals, such as health visitors and inclusion services. They share expertise to better meet children's individual needs. Additional funding is spent thoughtfully and all children are making good progress in preparation for school, regardless of their circumstances.

The manager and senior staff are particularly skilled practitioners and consistently have high expectations for what all children can achieve. The manager has identified that less experienced staff need continued support to develop the good quality of their teaching further. Children engage well with all areas of learning during their time at pre-school.

There is, however, room for staff to offer more-consistent support for children's mathematical development.

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

The dedicated manager and staff work as a well-oiled team to create and implement an ambitious and broad curriculum. They focus heavily on children's interests and make good use of spontaneous opportunities to extend children's learning.

For example, during the inspection children excitedly used soft-play shapes to build with. Staff skilfully challenged them to stop their 'towers' from falling and children worked out which shapes were best for balancing and supporting their structures. Occasionally, less experienced staff do not make full use of their interactions with children to support their thinking and offer further challenge to their learning.

The manager supports the professional development of her staff very well and continuously drives improvements for children's experiences. She regularly networks with leaders of other local settings to share best practice, new ideas and expertise. Through this, the team has recently improved the link between the indoor and outdoor environments.

Staff now enable children to follow and develop their ideas more easily as they move throughout the setting. This has had a positive impact on children's engagement and children are very busy, self-motivated learners.Partnerships with parents are strong.

Staff use highly successful strategies to encourage their involvement in the pre-school and their children's learning. For example, a lending library and a yearly 'ready teddy listen' week motivate parents to read with their children at home. Children's love of books and early literacy development are also successfully supported in the setting.

Children listen intently to stories and staff use props to help ignite their interest even further.Staff are loving, approachable and positive role models and sensitively remind children of their high expectations. Children behave very well.

They are learning to manage their own emotions, understand the needs of others and show respect for each other's differences. For example, during snack time, children kindly passed each other fruit and milk and older children thoughtfully helped their younger friends to butter their toast.Staff give children exciting opportunities for exercise and children are very physically active.

They enjoy opportunities to ride wheeled toys outdoors, climb ladders and run around the indoor track. Children and families are also encouraged to take part in an annual one-kilometre race for charity, which is paid for by the setting to maximise participation.The manager and staff successfully ignite children's curiosity in the world around them and children benefit from a wide range of experiences.

During the inspection, they very much enjoyed watering the plants and confidently discussed what they need to thrive and grow. Children's language development is given high priority and staff work hard to help them achieve good levels of communication before starting school. However, staff do not consistently support children's mathematical awareness to a high level through their interactions and children's everyday play, for example, by encouraging further counting, simple addition and more-complex mathematical concepts.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager fully understands the importance of keeping children safe. All staff have a thorough knowledge of the signs and symptoms that may indicate a child is at risk of harm.

They know who to contact if there are any concerns about a child's welfare. The manager ensures that she and all staff keep their training up to date, including about wider safeguarding issues, such as the 'Prevent' duty.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: continue to support and develop the practice of less experienced staff to help them make the most of their interactions and offer further challenge to children develop the support for children's mathematical development to provide more-consistent teaching and support during staff interactions and children's play.