Twin Oaks Pre-school

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children separate well from their parents and carers and are eager to come into the welcoming and well-resourced environment. There is a well-planned curriculum, and staff have high expectations for the children to achieve.

Children show a great sense of achievement when they master a new skill. For example, staff frequently read stories to children to help them develop a love of books and promote their early literacy. The children excitedly participate in a story, using cards to enable them to create their own version of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.

Staff provide targeted support to help children count and sort objec...ts, and children ask the staff to do it again when they have finished.Children receive good support to regulate and manage their behaviour, particularly the younger ones. For example, staff use sign language and get down to the children's level to clearly explain when their behaviour is not appropriate.

Staff role model their expectations to share toys, for example, which helps the children to understand. Older children show consideration to each other and the younger ones, including them in their play and helping them at snack time. The setting has received support as part of the COVID-19 recovery programme.

Management and staff have found this particularly useful, for example to split the children into their key-person groups for snack time and targeted activities. The staff have found that all children make good progress because they focus more directly on the children's next steps.

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

Staff work well together as a team.

They report that they feel valued and that their well-being is well supported by the manager and committee. The manager ensures that the staff work together in pairs in their key groups so that children receive good levels of support. This also enables staff to provide structured support to their key children in each other's absence.

The manager provides regular supervision for staff to talk about all aspects of the pre-school and their continued professional development.The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is exceptionally knowledgeable and provides children, parents and staff with targeted support to enable all children to make good progress. In addition, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities have additional one-to-one support at different times during the sessions from a designated member of staff.

The SENCo works closely with other agencies to make sure that children get the appropriate funding and support.In general, the daily routines are well managed. For example, children know what to expect when they are working in their small groups or moving to a larger story-time group.

However, during the lunchtime period, children who are waiting to go home and children who are waiting for the second sitting of lunch struggle to sit and wait. Staff try distracting them by singing or reading a book, but some of the younger ones become disruptive, which results in other children's artwork getting broken.Staff work hard to build positive relationships with parents and carers.

They have diaries and focus weeks where parents are encouraged to share information about their children's progress at home. The key person meets with them, and they talk about the child's progress and what they are going to learn next. Parents report that their children are progressing well and those that are moving on to school are well prepared.

However, when children move from other early years settings to this setting, staff are not proactive in gaining information from these settings to help them find out what the children already know and what they need to learn next.Staff use all areas of the pre-school well and provide good learning opportunities for the children. For example, children learn about the life cycle of plants and enjoy planting red pepper seeds and observing how they grow.

Other children practise their physical skills using balance bicycles with safety helmets in the exceptionally well-resourced outside area. Children learn about good oral health as they play with dough, for example to make teeth. They enjoy using the role-play area, that is set up like a dental practice, to act out what they know.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: gather information from other settings that children have attended, to gain an accurate picture of what they can already do and what they need to learn next nimprove transitions during lunchtimes to make sure that children are engaged in meaningful learning and not waiting for long periods of time.

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