Stowupland Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents

This provision is good • Leaders and the manager are ambitious and have high expectations for the pre-school provision.

They continuously review and evaluate all aspects of the pre-school to drive improvement. Staff, parents, children and other professionals feed into this process and are able to influence change. • Parents speak highly of the pre-school staff and the way in which their children are cared for.

Some comment on the effective relationships they have with their child's key person, which helps them to ensure their children settle smoothly into their pre-school life. • Children are busy and engaged throughout the pre-school day. They guide much of their own pl...ay and have opportunities to decide whether they want to learn indoors or outdoors as they freely move between the pre-school room and the exciting garden.

• Children form close and caring relationships with the staff and with each other. The friendly staff welcome them as they arrive and support them to leave their parents and carers. • Key persons make very good use of the information they know about each of the children in their key-worker group, to plan effectively for their next steps in learning.

They accurately assess children's progress to help to ensure that any gaps in children's learning are identified and strategies are put in place to help to close the gaps. • Children's understanding of the wider community is very effectively promoted as staff regularly arrange visits in the local area. For example, they visit an elderly persons' home, the local butcher's shop, the church, the allotments and the local school.

• On occasions, staff ask children lots of questions in quick succession and do not provide enough time for them to consider their responses to the questions and to think critically. • At times, staff do not use their planning well enough to ensure that it is highly responsive to children's differing learning needs. They occasionally miss opportunities to fully engage quieter children and capture their interests.

Also at this postcode