St Francis Pre-School

St Francis Pre-School Coronation Road, South Ascot, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 9HG

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 04/12/2014 07/03/2012

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 3 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 Excellent leadership and management drive improvement and all staff strive for excellence. Self-evaluation is highly rigorous and reflects the views of all those involved, driving improved provision for children.  Partnerships with parents are exceptional. Staff and parents value these positive relationships. Parents are very well informed about their children's progress and staff are highly active in encouraging parents to promote children's learning at home.  The quality of teaching is exceptional because the staff have an in-depth knowledge of how children learn. Staff complete comprehensive assessments and plan effectively for individual children, to ensure they make extremely good progress in their learning.  The staff plan and organise an exciting environment, which provides both familiarity and new things for children to discover. This means children are curious and engage for sustained periods, as they investigate and figure out how things work.

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This provision is outstanding

 Staff work extremely closely with teachers at the adjacent school. This excellent partnership means that, together, they prepare children well for their move to school.  The staff are very positive role models and provide consistent guidance to children. Children are fully aware of behavioural expectations, so their behaviour is exemplary.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are:  scheduled at least once in every inspection cycle – the current cycle ends on 31 July

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Information about this inspection

 scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged inadequate  brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection  prioritised where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe  scheduled at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities in the classroom and the outside learning environment.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held meetings with the chairperson of the parent committee, the manager, and the local school's deputy head and reception class teacher.  The inspector examined children's assessment records and planning documentation.  The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

St Francis Pre-School opened in 1990. It is a registered charity and is managed by a voluntary committee of elected parents. The pre-school is set in the grounds of St Francis School, in South Ascot, Berkshire.

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Information about the setting

The pre-school operates from a self-contained portable building. Children have access to a large outdoor area and can make use of the school hall. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently 32 children on roll in the early years age group. The provider receives funding for the provision of free early education to children aged three and four years. The pre-school staff care for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who are learning English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

The pre-school opens five days a week, during school term time only. Morning sessions are from 9am to 12 noon and afternoon sessions from 12 noon to 3pm. Children can attend for both sessions and stay for lunch at the pre-school. There are four members of staff and all hold appropriate early years qualifications.

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To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

 maximise opportunities for children to climb and balance during outdoor free-flow play, in order to fully enhance their physical skills.

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who attend

The quality of teaching is outstanding. The staff plan and organise a highly stimulating environment. They provide a familiar order for children and add exciting resources to enhance children's interests. This makes the learning environment an exciting place for children to explore. Therefore, children become deeply absorbed and curious, as they investigate and figure out new ways of doing things.

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who attend

Staff make accurate observations and comprehensive assessments, and use these to plan exactly what children need to learn next. Staff actively encourage parents to contribute to the assessments and to support children's learning at home. The staff make timely interventions for children who require additional help, and work in partnership with parents and other professionals to identify effective strategies to enable all children to make progress. Children make extremely good progress in their learning and development in relation to their unique starting points. The staff expertly use a range of strategies to promote all children's communication skills. They help children search for the answers to their questions, for example, by posing another question to extend their thinking. Teaching is highly successful in developing the children's speaking and listening skills, laying the foundations for learning letter sounds.

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who attend

Children enjoy singing and listening to stories. They join in enthusiastically and anticipate key events and phrases in stories. Skilful teaching helps children recognise letters sounds and they are beginning to write identifiable letters to communicate meaning. Therefore, staff promote children's language skills, and their early reading and writing abilities extremely well.

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who attend

Highly effective teaching enables children freedom as they play. For example, staff give the children excellent opportunities to be independent and to have uninterrupted time to play and explore. Staff are extremely effective at observing children's play and listen carefully to what they say, and consider their intentions. They sensitively join in to provide excellent levels of stimulation. Staff skilfully help children to count and to recognise numerals. Therefore, children are developing a growing competence in solving simple calculations. During the inspection, the children were engrossed in role play; helping Santa in the grotto. They measured the amount of paper they needed to wrap presents. They talked about the different shapes and sizes of the boxes they needed. Staff extended learning extremely well by introducing mathematical names for two- and three- dimensional shapes, for example, square and cube. These activities demonstrate that

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who attend

children are gaining extremely useful skills in preparation for their move to school.

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who attend

Staff provide an excellent range of interesting media and materials, to encourage children's imaginative and creative play. Children combine and manipulate materials creatively to create different effects. Staff plan for children's imaginative play by providing resources that link to children's current play themes and interests. Children wrapped themselves in material and created their own scenarios playing characters in a popular film. They represented the characters in a way that was meaningful, sharing their ideas, and cooperating with their friends as they allocated roles. The children were extremely expressive as they sung and twirled around.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Staff are highly skilled at recognising and responding to children needs. The dedicated staff excel at nurturing children's self-esteem and confidence. Children have very strong bonds with their key persons and other staff. They turn to familiar staff for reassurance, confident in the warm and caring responses they receive. The close relationships between the staff and the children help children to feel extremely safe and secure in the pre-school.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The staff organise the environment well to encourage children to develop independence in their play and self-care, in readiness for the next stage of learning and school. In the summer term, the children spend a day in Forest School with their key persons and the school reception teacher. Consequently, this, and other joint activities, helps children to become familiar with their new teachers. It also means that staff at the local school and pre-school are highly effective in helping children to make the move to school without difficulty.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The staff are very positive role models and give consistent guidelines to children, which helps them to manage their emotions and adjust their behaviour around other children. Children have very few tussles and when they do, they are expert negotiators and are able to resolve most things by themselves. Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff actively teach children to take charge of their own safety. They are learning how to carry resources safely and how to evacuate the pre-school to keep themselves safe in the event of an emergency.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Staff provide children with a very healthy range of snacks and help them understand how these contribute to making healthy food choices. Staff teach children about different foods during games, explaining that a balanced diet helps them to grow strong. Teaching helps children learn about their muscles and how their bodies work. Staff make excellent use of the school grounds, to enable children to explore and discover nature, and climb trees. In the garden, children have good opportunities to practise their physical skills overall and to spend time outside in the fresh air. This approach helps children to gain a positive attitude to being outside and supports a healthy lifestyle. However, staff do not always maximise opportunities for children to strengthen their climbing and balancing skills, for example, during free-flow play in some outside areas. Therefore, they do not consistently take every opportunity to enhance children's large muscle and whole body movements.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The environment is well organised. For example, children can easily find their outdoor clothing and boots by the door that leads into the garden. This means they can make independent choices of where they wish to play.

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provision

The highly professional leadership team strives for excellence. The quality of teaching practice and delivery of the educational programmes is constantly under review, to provide the best possible learning opportunities for children. There has been excellent progress since the last inspection. The manager gathers the views of staff, parents and children to inform self-evaluation. This means that all those involved in the setting, contribute to the evaluation process to identify strengths and areas to enhance practice further. Consequently, the leadership and management's reflective practice is extremely successful in driving improvements.

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provision

The manager is highly effective in monitoring children's progress and she uses early interventions where needed to ensure that gaps are narrowing for children identified as being in need of support. The manager works closely with the school headteacher who acts as moderator to enhance practice further. Exemplary partnership working enhances children's learning and development extremely well.

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provision

Leaders and managers follow safe recruitment procedures, ensuring that relevant checks are completed on staff. This helps to check the suitability of staff working with the children, and the committee members. Excellent induction for staff means that the manager effectively mentors staff to carry out their roles. The leadership and management team has robust policies and procedures. Staff diligently observe the policies and procedures in their practice, which helps to promote their excellent practice.

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provision

The leadership and management team is dedicated to supporting the professional development of staff and improving their already excellent practice. Appraisals take place annually in order to praise the strong practice and identify where any additional support may be required. Appraisals also help to identify training to enhance professional qualifications. All staff are paediatric first-aid trained and the children benefit from the added expertise of the deputy manager, who is a practising paramedic. This means that all staff can deal with accidents in an emergency.

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provision

All staff and committee members have attended training for safeguarding children. They understand and follow safeguarding arrangements and are confident in the procedures to follow to address any child protection concerns. As a result, they help to keep children safe at all times. The premises are safe and secure with extremely effective safety procedures that staff follow. This ensures they are vigilant around the children and promote their safety extremely well.

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provision

Highly successful engagement between parents and their child's key person, means that parents have a comprehensive knowledge of their child's learning and development. Parents are very well informed about their children's progress and staff actively encourage parents to support children's learning at home. Staff work with parents and other professionals, such as speech therapists, to meet the needs of children who require additional help. Parents express a deep appreciation of how their children are developing skills for their future education. They comment, 'We are very pleased how settled and happy our child is at pre-school. We are helping her next steps, letters and numbers, and when we read at home, help her to recall the story'. Other parents feel the staff have helped their children to develop confidence in speaking English as well as their home languages. Therefore, the excellent partnerships between staff and parents help to

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provision

promote children's care and learning needs extremely well.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Outstanding provision is highly effective in meeting the needs of all children exceptionally well. This ensures that children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning. Grade 2 Good Good provision is effective in delivering provision that meets the needs of all children well. This ensures children are ready for the next stage of their learning. Grade 3 Requires improvement The provision is not giving children a good standard of early years education and/or there are minor breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. We re-inspect nurseries and pre-schools judged as requires improvement within 12 months of the date of inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate Provision that is inadequate requires significant improvement and/or enforcement action. The provision is failing to give children an acceptable standard of early years education and/or

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Grade Judgement Description

is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. Met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. The inspection judgement is that the provider does not meet the requirements for registration.

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Inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and care, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 108433 Local authority Windsor & Maidenhead Inspection number 816945 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 5 Total number of places 24 Number of children on roll 32 Name of provider St Francis Pre-School Committee Date of previous inspection 07/03/2012 Telephone number 01344 291140

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Setting details

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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