The Corner Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The staff team is well qualified and dedicated to providing a good learning environment for children. There is a strong ethos of enabling children to benefit from high-quality experiences. Staff plan activities which interest and challenge children.

They provide a broad curriculum across all areas of learning, placing a good focus on building children's mathematical skills. Children are keen to learn and develop good attitudes to learning. They concentrate well in activities that interest them and are able to apply new knowledge in different situations.

For instance, children learn about circles and semi-circles and th...en use this new knowledge to talk about the shapes of fruits they eat.Children are happy, safe and behave well. Staff place a strong focus on helping children to be independent.

They encourage the children to learn to manage some self-care activities for themselves. Children confidently manage to wash their hands before they sit to eat. They enjoy threading their fruit snacks onto skewers and learn how to put on and fasten their coats before going outdoors.

Staff work closely with the children and their families to promote a good transition into the pre-school. This contributes to children gaining skills in readiness for their future learning, including school.

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

Staff weave opportunities to broaden children's understanding of shapes and numbers into activities well.

For instance, children learn about cubes and cuboids, count the sides on hexagons and recognise the circle shape of their eyes. Staff consistently help children well to learn to count, recognise numbers and apply knowledge they gain.Children gain good listening and attention skills, both in small-group and in larger-group activities.

Staff understand how to adapt teaching to gain children's attention and to maintain this for an appropriate length of time, depending on children's ages. This helps children to learn about expected behaviour boundaries to promote their good social skills throughout the pre-school.Staff get to know their key children well.

They make regular observations and assessments of what children know and can do from the outset. However, some assessments of children's development are not accurate to enable staff to meticulously plan and extend children's learning to the highest level.Children benefit from an environment rich in language.

Staff talk to children and listen to their ideas and views to build on their language skills. For instance, one child explains to a member of staff how to use the cameras to take 'rainbow pictures'. However, for some children, including those who speak English as an additional language and those who are less confident talkers, teaching and learning opportunities are not consistently tailored to help them gain targeted speaking skills.

Children have a wide range of experiences to learn about the wider world and community they live in. For instance, children enjoy sharing pictures of their visit to the farm. They visit theatres, and, annually, they help to send 'Christmas boxes' to charity organisations.

This contributes to children learning about different people, families and communities beyond their own.The committee, manager and staff work well together. They create a safe and happy environment for children.

Staff feel valued and well supported by the manager. Effective staff supervision and coaching is used to continue to develop staff teaching skills. Staff talk about training initiatives, such as how they have used new skills to understand the benefits of sensory play for children.

Children gain good physical skills through a range of interesting activities. For instance, children enjoy music and movement time as they gain good coordination skills, moving parts of their bodies. Children enjoy using the outside play area to practise climbing steps to the slide and take turns on the see-saw to see who can go higher.

Parents speak very highly of the pre-school. They value the welcoming environment that staff provide for children and their families. Parents say staff are friendly, helpful and provide care that helps children to settle into new routines well.

When children start, staff gain a good range of information about children's care needs and use this knowledge to build strong bonds with children. This has been very beneficial to help ensure children's early experiences of education are good.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The committee, manager and staff are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children to play and learn. Staff supervise children well. They risk assess and take action to minimise any risks to children swiftly.

The manager implements regular safeguarding training for all staff. This helps staff to understand their roles and responsibilities to keep children safe. Staff know how to identify concerns about children that indicate they are at risk of harm.

They understand how to report all concerns, following local safeguarding procedures. This helps to promote children's welfare effectively.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen staff's focus on ensuring accurate assessment of children's development to precisely identify how to help children achieve the next steps in their learning strengthen how teaching and learning opportunities are tailored to support children who are learning to speak English as an additional language and also for less confident communicators, to help them gain targeted speaking skills.