Spooner Row Acorns

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

This is a very small pre-school where good adult-to-child ratios are maintained. The supervisor is dedicated to providing the best experiences for children.

Children show a positive attitude to learning, and they are eager to participate in activities.Staff provide a language-rich environment, where children are helped to explore the concept of time, counting and simple calculation. Staff confidently read stories and use music and singing to introduce new words and sounds.

Staff embed and consolidate learning, particularly for younger and new children, when they follow and repeat familiar routines throughout the day. E...ven the youngest children are learning to be independent when they have a go at putting their coats on and washing their hands independently. They are given opportunities to take further responsibility when they become a monitor for the day, helping to prepare snack time or caring for the pre-school guinea pigs.

Staff work well to help children to manage their own feelings. They use effective and consistent strategies to help children to share, be kind and care about others. These are applied sensitively and fairly.

Staff make good use of a rainbow chart to promote a positive and respectful culture and support children to talk about their friends' achievements.

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

Staff are well supported to continue with their own professional development, through external and online courses. Since the last inspection, the supervisor has achieved a higher-level qualification.

She has used the knowledge gained to improve partnership working with parents. Staff have used the knowledge gained from particular courses in delivering music and movement to capture children's interests and support their coordination.Parents are invited to attend settling-in sessions with their children before they start.

They get to know and understand what their children will be learning and meet other parents. They are encouraged to share information about what their children can already do, from the start. Staff use this information well to build on what children need to learn next.

The supervisor and staff regularly evaluate children's changing needs and interests and what they offer to the children. They seek the views of parents and use feedback to make improvements to the setting. For example, parents now have more opportunities to discuss their children's progress on a one-to-one basis and they are provided with more information about their children's learning and how they can continue this learning at home.

Staff provide good support and have the same ambitions for less-able children or children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are quick to recognise when children find some routines, such as circle time and lunchtime, difficult. They put in consistent yet supportive strategies to enable all children to participate.

Staff promptly identify any gaps in children's learning, keep parents informed and seek out additional support, when needed.Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents comment favourably on the small setting and high adult-to-child ratios.

They appreciate the support they receive and the breadth of learning that their children have accomplished over their time at pre-school. Other partnership working, especially with local schools, is good.The key-person system is well embedded.

Staff help new children to settle with ease. They talk about feelings and emotions. When children need to keep hold of a favourite toy from home, they allow them to do so, thus helping them to feel self-assured.

Staff ensure that all children can participate in planned adult-led activities. However, some of these activities do not offer a high enough challenge for those older or more-able children, so that they can make the best possible progress in their learning.Children are able to choose from a small selection of well-labelled activities within the room, and over the course of time they experience all areas of learning.

However, children do not have good opportunities to independently add to, or extend, their chosen activities, as further resources are not readily accessible.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The provider follows robust recruitment procedures to help ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

The supervisor and staff have completed mandatory child protection training and have a secure knowledge of safeguarding policies and procedures. Early in their induction, new staff familiarise themselves with the procedures they need to follow to help keep children safe. Posters are displayed around the building to remind staff and parents who they should contact if they have a concern about children's welfare.

Regular risk assessments ensure that children are safe and the premises are secure. This contributes to the positive ethos within the pre-school to keep children safe from harm.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop staff's teaching skills further, with a particular focus on providing the most able children with challenge, in order to extend their learning to the highest level review and enhance the learning environment so that children can build on what they know and access additional resources to extend their learning further.

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