St Gabriels Catholic Pre-school

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

This long-established pre-school operates at the heart of the local community.

Leaders actively promote an ethos of tolerance and respect for all. Children and families feel welcome and valued. For example, children proudly show the contents of the 'treasure boxes' that they bring from home.

They talk about the family photographs and remember where they found the bird feather. Partnerships with other settings are a particular strength of the provision. This helps children to transfer smoothly between settings.

For example, some children attend the pre-school and the out-of-school club. Practitioners make sure ...that they exchange information that promotes continuity for children's care and well-being. Practitioners plan activities that help children to make good progress.

They ably weave the areas of learning into a curriculum that children are eager to engage with. That said, the organisation of the day sometimes limits the time available for children's self-directed play. On occasion, practitioners ask children questions that do not promote their learning really effectively.

Managers establish procedures that help to keep children safe. For example, they teach children to follow consistent rules for playing on outdoor equipment. Leaders and managers evaluate the provision and make improvements.

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

Leaders and managers demonstrate vision and ambition for the pre-school. The partnership with the school is strong. Improvement planning helps the team to raise the quality of the care and education that they offer.

Parents praise the friendly, attentive practitioners. They say that new children are supported to settle in quickly. They comment that children gain confidence at the pre-school.

Parents like the daily information that they receive about activities. They feel well informed about matters such as children's accidents.Supervision and training help the well-qualified practitioners to improve their professional knowledge and skills.

The team work together effectively to review and improve practice. For example, they wanted to build on the existing arrangements for preparing children to start school. They worked with school practitioners to ensure that children were confident about new routines.

This included, for example, teaching children to carry their lunch on a tray to the table.Children arrive at the pre-school ready to explore the interesting toys and activities indoors and outdoors. Practitioners plan daily routines so that children often have time to direct their own play.

However, on occasion, the organisation of the day does not give children enough time to develop their own ideas and deepen their thinking.Practitioners establish clear expectations for children's behaviour. This helps children to feel secure and to develop self-control.

For example, children quickly line up, ready to be invited onto the carpet for register time. Practitioners skilfully incorporate specific learning into the routine. For instance, they point to the letters printed on the carpet and tell children which letter they must sit on.

This helps children to begin to learn about written letters and the sounds that they represent.Practitioners invent activities that arouse children's curiosity. For example, children busily thread small beads onto vertical sticks.

This helps to promote their concentration and physical development. Practitioners join in and encourage children to count the beads. This teaches children to associate numbers and counting with quantity.

Practitioners ask children questions that help them to extend and consolidate what they know. For example, they ask children whether they think the weather is cloudy or very cloudy today. This helps to develop children's understanding of familiar words in a meaningful context.

However, sometimes, practitioners do not match questions precisely enough to what children know and are ready to learn next. This means that some questions are not meaningful enough and children do not know how to respond.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and practitioners attend training that updates and refreshes their knowledge of child protection matters. They know the action they must take if an allegation is made against a member of staff. All practitioners demonstrate an intention to seek advice and to report suspected abuse and neglect.

The provider follows safe recruitment procedures. New practitioners are carefully vetted before they start work 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: review procedures to ensure that relevant changes are notified to Ofsted in a timely way strengthen questioning techniques, so that practitioners ask precise questions that promote children's learning really effectively give children more time to instigate and follow their own lines of enquiry.

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