Youth Club Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Staff have appropriately high expectations for children's attainment and organise a uniquely challenging and exciting curriculum for children. The experienced team is exceptionally skilled and uses teaching techniques that successfully entice children to explore, discover and make choices about their learning. Children benefit from an exciting and meticulously planned environment that is based on their interests.

Children strengthen the small muscles in their hands through interesting activities. They skilfully use tongs to pick up sea life creatures, and rolling pins and tools to manipulate dough. Children rapidly devel...op their skills in readiness for starting school.

Children practise writing in multiple ways. In the garden, they trace letters into the dry oats or record 'orders' for 'food' from the mud kitchen café. Older children can write their names, taking great care in the correct formation of their letters.

Children develop exemplary personal and social skills and their behaviour is excellent. Their zest for learning is evident and there is eager, excited anticipation as they wait with their parents at the start of the day. Children form close relationships with their key person as well as with each other.

They show their joy when their friends arrive and greet them warmly.

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

Through exceptionally effective management, staff workload is manageable and morale is very high. Direct teaching and guiding of children's learning remains the utmost priority in this excellent pre-school.

Staff exhibit enthusiasm and genuine commitment to their work. They strive to provide the very best possible care and education for children. Staff work tirelessly to transform the hall into an enticingly attractive environment so that children genuinely want to play and learn here.

Children learn at a rapid pace and make excellent progress, as staff are very precise in meeting their needs.Where children begin with lower attainment than expected, staff give timely support and work with families to make sure that children can make first-rate progress. Staff get to know children and their families really well through the highly effective key-person system.

Assessments of learning are timely, accurate and precise.Children have a wealth of opportunities to learn about mathematics. They count conkers and leaves, and match the items to the correct numeral.

They thoroughly enjoy counting songs, such as their favourite pirate song, and sequence the numbers in successive verses. Children carefully print with plastic shapes and identify triangles, stars and squares. They skilfully roll out play dough and proudly cut out 'five rectangles'.

Children's safety is of paramount importance. Staff understand how to keep children safe. Allergies are managed effectively and risk assessments are methodically devised and purposefully implemented.

The way in which the staff are deployed means that the children receive consistently high levels of care and attention.Teaching about diversity helps children to explore different faiths and cultures. Children learn about the things that make them unique.

Staff and parents show different cultural outfits and provide Diwali treats. Jewish New Year is acknowledged with apple and honey for snack time. Staff place a high focus on equipping children to grow and develop into tolerant, understanding British citizens, who know about others and respect their similarities and differences.

The arrangements for monitoring the quality of teaching are systematic and meticulous. The manager identifies areas for improvement quickly and carefully supports staff to be at their best at all times.Children learn about empathy and understanding for others.

They decorate a box to send harvest contributions to the local food bank. They print poppies to make Remembrance Day pictures and manage to stay silent for one minute to remember the soldiers. Children dress in spots for 'Children in Need Day', ice spotty cakes and enjoy a teddy bears picnic.

Parents are overwhelmingly impressed with the pre-school and take the time and trouble to forward complimentary testimonials about every aspect of the provision. They praise the 'amazing progress' their children make.The pre-school is very proactive in working with parents and other professionals to benefit children.

Intervention is quickly sought and secured to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Additional funding is sensitively used to provide extra help for children who need it. Through extensive information-sharing with parents, the pre-school helps to support children's learning at home extremely well.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager promotes an exceptionally vigilant culture of safeguarding in this pre-school. Her staff team has an extensive awareness of safeguarding issues.

All staff undertake regular training to keep their excellent knowledge fully up to date. Staff are alert to signs and symptoms that children might be at risk of harm. They are exceptionally confident about the procedures for reporting concerns.

The manager and deputy make daily checks on all pre-school electronic devices for any unauthorised use. The manager regularly reviews policies and procedures to ensure that they continually improve and strengthen safeguarding practice. The staff team is particularly vigilant about comments children may make and takes account of what it knows about children and their families to protect children.