Sharnford Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the pre-school happy and eagerly greet staff as they hang their coats on their pegs.

Staff create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. They interact with children in a warm and positive manner. Children readily go to the staff for comfort when they need some reassurance.

Children enjoy time outside in the play kitchen with their friends. They use their imaginations as they pretend to prepare meals, concentrating carefully as they spoon leaves into bowls. Children learn social skills as they develop friendships and help each other.

For example, children play with a racket and ball and help their ...friends to bounce the ball before they try to hit it.Children are gaining independence skills. Older children put their coats on by themselves before they go outside.

Younger children are beginning to learn to do up tricky fasteners, and staff praise them as they attempt to pull their zipper up. At snack time, children pass a bowl with pieces of fruit to one another so they can each serve themselves with a spoon.

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

Staff provide a varied and stimulating learning environment for children.

They know children well and plan activities to help them to build on what they know and can do.Staff speak clearly to children. They engage them in lots of conversation, asking questions to encourage them to express themselves and allowing plenty of time for children to answer.

This helps children to develop good communication and language skills.Children are learning about the world around them. Staff teach children the importance of recycling as they help children play a game that involves posting tiles with pictures of household rubbish into different bins.

Staff use this opportunity to extend children's vocabulary as they model new words such as 'paper' and 'plastic'. Children are excited when they correctly guess what materials the different items are made from.Staff teach children about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

They remind children to wash their hands often during the day, and children learn about germs as staff explain why they need to wash their hands. Staff talk to parents about preparing nutritious food for their children at lunchtime.Children behave well.

They listen to instructions from staff and respond quickly when staff remind them to be kind or say 'please' and 'thank you'. Staff help children to learn to wait their turn calmly. They play a game with a soft toy animal, and children show gentleness and care as they sit in a circle and pass the toy around as staff remind them 'not to wake the baby animal up'.

Staff identify children who are falling behind or who may have additional needs.They assess what children need to learn next and adapt their approach to enable children to make good progress. When needed, they refer children to specialist agencies and work with them to develop individual support plans.

Staff also identify children who are most able but do not always sufficiently plan activities to extend their learning.Parents say that their children love attending pre-school. They know what their children have been doing and learning because staff talk with them individually when they collect their children, and they appreciate the photos that staff share on the secure online app.

Children learn about numbers as staff encourage them to practise counting. Together, they count the number of children when it is time to line up to go outside, and when staff ask children which book they would like to read, children count how many choose each book. However, staff do not consistently extend other aspects of children's mathematical knowledge, such as shape, measure and size.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a good understanding of how to recognise the signs of abuse and know what to do if they are worried about a child. Managers have clear policies in place to keep children safe.

Staff ensure the environment is secure. They keep doors locked when children are not arriving or being collected. The managers follow robust recruitment processes to ensure they employ suitable people to work in the pre-school.

They support the staff to keep up to date about safeguarding through attending training and discussions in supervision and staff meetings. For example, they discuss how staff can support parents to keep children safe online.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove the curriculum for mathematics to support children's understanding of mathematics, in particular, shape, space and measure strengthen support for most-able children to extend their learning further.

Also at this postcode