West Town Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

All children make good progress in their learning. They gain a broad range of skills to support their future learning. Children are happy, settled and demonstrate that they feel safe in this pre-school.

They have lovely relationships with each other and show great pride as they seek staff out to share their achievements. Children gain good levels of independence, for example, as they are encouraged to 'be strong' and use their muscles to take lids off pens. Children encourage their friends to try again as they experiment with rolling balls down lengths of guttering.

Children who speak English as an additional language ...and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good levels of support. Staff intervene swiftly in order to seek appropriate support from outside professionals, where necessary. Staff speak some children's home languages.

They use this ability to communicate with children, especially those less confident, and with parents, if needed. Children show that they have well-developed imaginations and a deep love of favourite stories. They enjoy staff's company and welcome them into their play.

Staff use good opportunities to promote and extend children's interests.

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

The key-person system is effective. Staff share regular information with each other to ensure that children's key persons remain as informed as possible about children's learning and development.

Staff use their good knowledge of each child to plan activities and experiences that reflect children's interests and needs. However, not enough is done to help children to embrace diversity in order to extend their understanding of cultures and languages beyond their own experience.The quality of teaching is consistently good.

Staff encourage children's strong exploratory and creative skills, and promote children's critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Children inspire one another to have a go and experiment with new ideas. For example, as an extension of children's interest in a favourite book about a bear building a rocket, children freely create intricate models of rockets.

They work out how to assemble their models with sticky tape and how to represent 'fire' coming out of the bottom of the rocket. Staff ask children searching questions, such as, 'How can we?' and, 'What do you think?' Children show great pride and satisfaction when staff praise them for their good work.Children behave very well.

They work closely together, offering each other help and support, for example, as they make models of scooter or a vacuum cleaner. They listen to each other, adapt their models and share resources.Current assessments of children's learning are accurate.

However, the way that staff establish children's starting points does not give them the most precise information. This does not help when measuring children's progress from their point of entry into the pre-school.Staff feel well supported by the management team.

The staff work closely together to deliver a good-quality service to children and families. The acting manager has only been in the role for a very short period of time. She already has lots of ideas for the development of the pre-school and ensures that staff play an active role in implementing these.

Recruitment is robust. Staff seek relevant training that helps them to meet children's needs. Regular supervision helps staff to reflect on their own practice.

Staff with good teaching skills are buddied with other staff to share their knowledge and practice.Partnerships with parents are good. Staff involve parents in their children's learning in many ways.

Regular information is shared with parents to keep them well informed about their children's time at the pre-school. Parents comment that they are very happy with the care their children receive.Children enjoy taking responsibility.

For example, they wash fruit for snack time and peel satsumas. They are beginning to understand how to keep themselves safe. For example, children tell staff, 'I know how to hold a knife.'



Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff are clear about their responsibility to ensure that children are protected from harm. Staff are clear about the signs and symptoms of possible abuse and where these concerns need to be reported to.

All staff complete safeguarding training. Any changes to safeguarding practice are shared either immediately or at the monthly staff meetings.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop the way that children's starting points in their learning are established to further improve the accuracy with which children's progress is measured help children to further embrace diversity in relation to culture and language to enable them to reflect on their differences and understand what makes them unique.

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