Avoncroft Pre-School Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Although staff have some understanding of the overall intent of their curriculum, day-to-day practice does not enable this to be achieved.

Leaders do not make sure that the children are provided with opportunities that allow them to build on previous learning to help them make good progress. This is because they do not take into account when planning activities what children already know and can do. In addition to this, sometimes, children spend long periods of time with little to occupy them, especially when they move between activities.

Despite this, the children are generally happy and join in with the activities on of...fer to them. Children take part in a range of enjoyable experiences, such as tennis-based activities linked to Wimbledon, a yoga session and rhythm time. Staff show genuine care for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Staff support children to develop their independence. Children take care of their own toileting needs and understand the importance of washing their hands at appropriate times during the day.

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

Staff do not plan a well-sequenced curriculum.

As a result, children's developmental needs are not consistently met. This leads to children becoming disengaged and staff having to spend time refocusing them. This impacts on children's progress, as they do not consistently receive high-quality learning opportunities that build on what they already know and can do.

Staff swiftly identify children with SEND. However, due to weaknesses in the overall curriculum, their needs are not always met. For example, during free play, staff do not always interact positively enough to support children with their speech and language skills.

Teaching is not consistently good and does not support children's individual developmental needs. Some activities lack challenge, and other activities are too difficult for children to understand. For example, a planned capacity and measuring activity uses containers with millilitres, and staff encourage children to read numbers into the thousands.

This is well above the developmental stage of the children engaging with the activity.At times during the day, especially between activities, children can be waiting for long periods with nothing to do. This leads to children becoming disengaged.

During this time, they display disruptive behaviours, such as spinning the letter abacus, bouncing into the comfortable chair and rolling around the floor, when they should be listening to staff. Children are engaged at the start of some activities. However, because the quality of teaching and the curriculum are not ambitious enough, as the activity develops, children become less interested, and they distract other children in the group.

Staff support children to be ready for their move on to school. For example, they teach the children how to get ready for physical education and find their own name to self-register. They also recognise that children may be anxious to move to their new schools.

Staff help them to manage these feelings. For example, they tell stories using their 'worry monster'. This helps the children to explore their feelings around this new stage of their lives.

Parents speak highly of the pre-school, and they comment that staff build positive relationships with the children. Staff share information with parents about their child. Regular newsletters for parents signpost them to any additional support they can access and also provide information about forthcoming pre-school events.

Parents are positive that their children feel safe and secure.Staff engage with other professionals to deliver a range of experiences for the children. For example, the children are able to recall when the dentist visited to show them how to look after their teeth.

In addition, they talk about how the activities they take part in with the visiting sports coach help them to have healthy bodies.Supervision meetings with staff help to identify areas that staff would like to develop further, such as implementing more mathematical activities into the curriculum. They also benefit from some professional development opportunities.

However, these are not regular enough to improve staff's knowledge of how to provide good-quality teaching and learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Children are safe in the pre-school.

Staff supervise children well. Risk assessments are effective to ensure all areas are safe for children to explore. Leaders make sure that all staff are clear about the procedures they need to follow if they have concerns about children or other adults.

All staff know the signs of abuse and how to record their concerns. Leaders and staff know about local safeguarding trends, and they highlight support parents can access relating to these areas. Safer recruitment processes are followed to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

References are sought, and Disclosure and Barring Service checks are carried out for all staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must: Due date implement an ambitious curriculum that meets the developmental needs of all children 31/10/2023 plan a range of challenging activities that build on what children already know, in order to help them make good progress.31/10/2023 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: provide staff with further development opportunities to enable them to provide good-quality teaching review the organisation of the day so that children are consistently engaged in purposeful learning, especially during transition times.