Flitwick Pre-school

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children play with their friends, talk with staff and enthusiastically join in the activities on offer inside the building and in the garden. When children are tired or upset, they sit on the laps of staff and respond well to the gentle reassurances given to them.

This helps children quickly settle and feel secure in the pre-school.Children are keen to join in art and craft activities. They find different-sized marbles submerged in paint and watch what happens when they roll the marbles across a sheet of paper.

Children listen to the questions and explanations staff give them and take time to think about their answers ...before responding. This helps children's developing skills to speak and listen. In the garden, children use chalks to draw on the path.

Using large movements, they strengthen their muscles and coordination, contributing to their physical development.Children behave very well. They are motivated to learn and show consideration towards others.

Before beginning popular activities, such as riding in push-along cars, children find sand timers to help them manage sharing and turn-taking for themselves. Children's self-regulation of their own emotions and actions contributes to the harmonious and happy environment.

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

All staff have completed additional training to help them target and effectively support children's developing communication and language skills.

This helps to ensure that children are exposed to new words and phrases that they embrace and use themselves. Children become articulate, confident talkers who, by the time they leave to go to school, are ready for the next stage in their learning.The providers and acting manager are dedicated to ensure that the good quality care and education are maintained.

They seek advice from external professionals to support themselves and the staff in their roles. This helps to ensure that children are consistently taught in a safe and caring environment.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are effectively supported.

Additional funding is carefully allocated to help ensure that individual children have the resources and key staff to help them build on what they know and understand. Staff help parents to prepare children to move on to school. They provide detailed information that contributes to make the move as smooth as possible.

Staff follow themes that children show an interest in, helping to trigger conversations and activities that help children build on their personal experiences and knowledge. For example, when investigating transport, children enjoy going on an imaginary train to London. They buy tickets from a ticket office and talk about the local towns the train might stop at before reaching their destination.

This helps children find out about local geography, negotiate with their peers and practise new words in their vocabularies. Children spontaneously return to the activity, helping them recall new information to strengthen their learning.Children enjoy different parts of the outside space, helping to support their learning in various ways.

Children enjoy riding wheeled toys on the paved areas, while they enthusiastically search for bugs and touch herbs and plants in other areas. The providers have ensured aspects, such as a grass bridge and slops are maintained, helping children begin to manage age-appropriate risks in their play. For example, children experience what it feels like to walk down steep slopes and work out how to balance and adjust their stride.

Staff ensure parents receive regular updates about their children's progress and the activities they have enjoyed. They use different ways to communicate, such as regular consultation meetings and updates through a secure electronic system. When children are first enrolled in the pre-school, staff find out about the children and their families.

However, information about what children already know and understand lacks the detail needed to assist staff to plan focused learning right from the start.Key persons assess children's learning and development through observations and interactions with children. They quickly get to know the children.

However, staff's identification of what children need to learn next is not clearly communicated to help ensure that there is a well-planned sequence of precise teaching and learning for each child. As a result, children do not make the best possible progress.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff have a good knowledge and understanding of how to keep children safe. They know how to recognise, record and report any concerns they might have about children's welfare. Safeguarding and child protection are discussed at every staff meeting, helping to ensure that all staff are kept up to date with any changes in legislation or local concerns that may impact children's safety.

The providers carry out regular checks to help ensure staff remain suitable to work with children. This helps to keep children safe in the pre-school.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: gather even more information from parents to help identify children's starting points to focus teaching and learning right from the start review and adapt how staff communicate what children need to know and understand next to help ensure spontainious and planned teaching targets children's individual learning and development.