St Giles Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are keen to follow their interests and show a positive attitude to learning. For instance, they play with toys that reflect favourite television characters, such as dogs in transport vehicles. Children count the number of vehicles they have, with encouragement from staff.

This helps to extend children's understanding of numbers and counting. Children develop their knowledge of new objects. They learn how to identify a hot water bottle and what people use it for in discussion with staff.

Children are physically active. Outdoors, in the garden, they show good hand-to-eye coordination when they throw beanbags int...o hoops on the ground. Children smile when they receive praise and a 'high five' from staff for their achievements.

Children behave well. They learn to share when they work together to make 'potions' and take it in turns to add ingredients.Children have positive relationships with staff and their peers and show that they feel safe and secure.

They sit on staff's knees when they play with toys and talk to them about their home life. For example, they discuss their pets and family members. Children giggle with their friends when they roll their arms round and round very quickly to a favourite nursery rhyme.

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

Staff use their good knowledge of children to help provide opportunities to enhance the experiences they receive at home. An example of this is children learn about people who are less fortunate than themselves. Staff help children to understand about the differences and similarities in people and families.

Staff help children to learn skills they need in preparation for their move on to school. They encourage children to be independent. For instance, children wipe their nose with a tissue and then put the tissue in the bin.

Children wash their hands before they eat and pour their own drinks. This also helps to support children's good health.Parents spoken to on the day of the inspection say that staff are warm and friendly.

Staff encourage parents to hold conversations with their children. For instance, when parents collect their children from the pre-school, staff give children a sticker which says 'talk to me about'. Staff write further comments on the sticker about what children have achieved, which helps parents to talk to their child about their day at the pre-school.

This contributes to helping children to feel that staff and parents value their achievements and to feel positive about themselves.The manager and staff have rules and boundaries in place to promote positive behaviour. They call these the 'pre-school promises'.

These include encouraging children to listen and to be kind. This helps children to learn behavioural expectations in the pre-school. Staff praise children for their achievements.

For example, they give children a sticker when they use the toilet independently. This helps to raise children's self-esteem.Staff observe and assess children's learning.

This helps them to identify children who need further opportunities to develop their mathematical skills. Staff use daily routines to help children to develop their understanding of positional language and counting. When children line up behind each other to go outside, staff talk to them about being 'behind' another child and ask them to count the number of children present.

Children count with staff up to 11. However, occasionally, when new staff plan activities, they do not always build further on what children already know and can do.Staff support children's emotional well-being, such as when new children start attending the pre-school.

Staff spend one-to-one time with children to get to know them. They sit with them to look at a book and share a story. This helps to settle children who are upset.

When staff take children out of the pre-school building to the garden, they remind children to 'go outside slowly' and explain that if they run, they may fall over and hurt themselves. This helps children to understand how they can keep themselves safe.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff refresh their safeguarding knowledge when they attend staff meetings. They complete a quiz to check their understanding of how to identify the signs of abuse and neglect. The manager and staff know to follow local referral procedures if they have a concern about a child's safety.

Furthermore, they know the procedure to follow if they have concerns about a member of staff's behaviour with children. Staff carry out thorough risk assessments of the indoor environment before children arrive. Further checks are carried out outdoors, before children access the garden.

Staff ensure that the car park gates are locked before they take children across the car park to access the garden. This helps to promote children's safety and welfare.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support new staff to quickly identify and build on what children already know and can do during planned activities.