Barton St David Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff welcome the children into this stimulating, caring pre-school. The children happily wave goodbye to their parents. They find their friends and make choices about what they want to play with.

This shows that children feel safe and secure. Staff develop strong relationships with the children. They celebrate children's achievements and offer them meaningful praise.

This builds children's confidence and self-esteem. The children benefit from walks in the community. For example, the children walk to the local church to drop off some food donations they have been collecting.

Staff discuss with the children the... reason for giving the donations to the food bank. They discuss being kind and generous towards others. The children notice things in the environment.

They point at the yellow flowers. Staff tell them the yellow flowers are daffodils. At the church, children talk about their own experiences, with one saying, 'My mummy and daddy got married in a church'.

They remember when they laid poppy wreaths for the soldiers during their visits. The children explore the church and ask questions about what they can see. Staff introduce new words and meanings to the children, such as 'pews', 'organ' and 'font'.

This builds children's vocabulary and understanding of the world around them.

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

Staff have worked together to create a curriculum that covers all seven areas of learning, with a focus on providing a language-rich environment. Staff engage with the children during play and adult-led activities to help build on what children already know and can do.

This means that children make progress from their starting points.The children enjoy a wide range of stories and songs, which reinforces their learning. After listening to the story of 'The Three Little Pigs', the children decide to try to build the three houses.

They decide to build a house of sticks and test out their theory that this would be strong. The children and staff work together, sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to make the house stronger against the wind outdoors. This enables the children to think critically and develop a love of literacy.

Staff support the children to understand their emotions and talk about how they might be feeling. They encourage the children to put their photo under a happy, angry or sad face. When children show they are feeling sad or angry, staff have discussions with them to determine why and get them to think of ways they can make themselves happy.

This means children begin to understand how to manage their own feelings and behaviour.Children love playing in the water tray. They use a range of different tools, such as whisks and pipettes.

The children count out the scoops of water as they add them to a bucket. They tip the water from one pot to another while using mathematical language, such as 'full', 'heavy', and 'more'. This supports children's early mathematical skills and strengthens their hand muscles in preparation for early writing.

Parents praise the staff for knowing the children well and offering support and guidance when needed. Parents state that children come home happy and excited to tell them about their day. They notice the progress their children have been making, particularly in their communication skills, letter recognition and mathematical concepts.

Parents know their child's key person and next stages of learning. They receive daily feedback on group activities and routines. Staff provide stay-and-play sessions for families, which gives parents ideas for supporting learning at home.

However, parents feel that feedback from staff is not consistently tailored to the development and learning outcomes of their children.The newly appointed manager has a clear vision for the pre-school. She encourages the staff to reflect on the provision they offer and make the changes needed.

The team has recently started to introduce new snack routines to further support children's independence skills. However, these newly introduced routines are not yet fully embedded into practice. This means that children do not yet know how to use their knives, and they wait for long periods of time.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and her staff have a clear understanding of how to keep children safe from harm. They carry out risk assessments of the building and outdoor areas to identify any risks.

In the garden, children wear bike helmets, and staff have discussions with them on how to stay safe. When out in the community, staff and children wear high-visibility jackets and talk about road safety. Staff show that they can identify the signs and symptoms of abuse, including female genital mutilation and domestic abuse.

They keep organised records of any concerns and know how to report these concerns to the relevant authority. The committee follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure all staff are suitable to work with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the already good partnerships with parents to ensure they receive more detailed feedback about their child's learning and development fully embed snack time routines to enhance the opportunities for children to further develop their independence skills.