Setting

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404040 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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22 October 2008 Ms R Phillips Hurley Pre-School Hurley House Kempsford Road Kennington London SE11 4PB

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Ofsted subject survey: good practice in promoting equality

Thank you for your hospitality and co-operation, and that of your staff at Hurley Pre-school during my visit on 21 October 2008 to look at work in promoting equality.

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Ofsted subject survey: good practice in promoting equality

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions, but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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Ofsted subject survey: good practice in promoting equality

The evidence used to inform the judgements made included: observations of children and staff, discussions with yourself, staff and parents and scrutiny of documents.

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Ofsted subject survey: good practice in promoting equality

The quality of provision to promote equalities is good.

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Features of good practice observed

ƒ A strong commitment by the manager to meeting the needs of disadvantaged children in the local community. The exceptional lengths you go to in order to ensure that the most disadvantaged children are able to attend means that children can start their learning in the pre-school earlier and derive more benefit from it.

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Features of good practice observed

ƒ Effective strategies for involving parents in the pre-school and in their children’s learning. Successfully engaging parents through inviting them into the pre-school to participate in activities, sharing assessments of progress and by sending books and activities home, help to establish an expectation that parents become involved in their child’s learning and acknowledge their position as their child’s first educator. ƒ Involvement of parents in the management of the pre-school allows them to ensure that the setting meets the needs of the children in the local community.

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Features of good practice observed

ƒ Excellent support for parents; for example, meeting their needs through providing interpreters so that parents can fully participate in IEP reviews, help with form filling and support for parents undergoing training courses. As a result parents are better able to support their child.

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Features of good practice observed

ƒ Respectful, trusting relationships throughout the pre-school. This allows parents to feel comfortable in the setting and children to settle in well, build friendships with others and develop the social skills they need to learn in the setting.

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Features of good practice observed

ƒ Staff are skilled at adapting activities to the child’s stage of development so that each child is challenged appropriately.

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Areas for development

ƒ Encourage all staff to use every opportunity to model language use to the children in order to further support their language development

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Areas for development

ƒ Make more use of additional communication approaches when talking with all children to support them as they learn to communicate with each other.

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Areas for development

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop promoting equalities in the Hurley Pre-school.

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Areas for development

As I explained previously, a copy of this letter will be sent to your local authority and will be published on Ofsted’s website. It will also be available to the team for your next institutional inspection.

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