St Peter's Preschool

Inspection of St Peter's Preschool St. Peters Church, Kingstown Road, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 0BB

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

The quality of education Outstanding Behaviour and attitudes Outstanding Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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The provision is outstanding

The experienced manager and her team of professional staff place children at the heart of everything they do. They uphold a shared vision 'to create a happy and safe environment that inspires children to become curious, imaginative, independent and articulated learners'. The challenging and fun learning experiences that staff provide are of the highest quality and precisely build on children's interests, learning needs and any experiences from home. This helps children to become deeply engrossed in their learning and contributes towards the outstanding progress that they make.

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The provision is outstanding

The devoted staff cherish each and every child. They place a sharp emphasis on ensuring that all children are extremely happy, settled and assured in their care. Staff are positive role models. They implement novel ideas, such as a kindness tree, to value and celebrate the many acts of kindness that children demonstrate on a daily basis. Staff give clear safety instructions to children during more complex activities. This helps to advance their ability to manage risks independently and gain a superior knowledge of how to keep themselves safe. Staff continually provide children with an abundance of support, encouragement and praise during their play. This contributes towards children becoming remarkably resilient, confident and independent individuals.

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need to do better?

n The inspirational manager and her team of professional staff show admirable energy and enthusiasm. Their considerable evaluations of practice and precise priorities for improvement are focused intently on providing high-quality care and learning experiences for children. n The manager invests highly in her staff team. Purposeful supervisions and customised professional development are skilfully aimed at enriching the quality of teaching. For instance, staff have applied their new-found learning from recent mathematics training to extend opportunities for children to compare, sequence and measure, to cumulatively build on their excellent skills. n Staff use the information from their precise assessments of children's learning to make educated decisions about what they need to learn next. The wide range of ambitious learning experiences that staff provide consistently support children to make the highest rates of progress across all areas. Additional funding is

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need to do better?

precisely steered to help all children to gain the essential skills they need for their future success. n Children show confidence to take part in new activities that help to equip them with some of the practical skills that they will later use throughout life. For example, children are eager to challenge themselves when attempting to hammer nails into wood. They listen carefully to safety instructions and follow

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need to do better?

19 September 2019 these perfectly to gain a superb understanding of how to keep themselves safe. n The friendly staff promote a very positive ethos across the pre-school. Older children revel in opportunities to show younger children how to complete more complex tasks, such as making fresh orange juice, and demonstrate pride when seeing their friends achieve the desired effect. n Staff swiftly embrace children's love for books. They provide a key focus on stories with fundamental morals that help children to develop a greater awareness of feelings and emotions and difference and diversity. Exceptional learning ideas, such as encouraging children to create a personalised 'family tree', help to extend their superb knowledge of what makes them unique. n Staff rapidly build on children's learning from home. For example, following a visit to observe a steam locomotive, staff invite children to create a role-play

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need to do better?

train to help inspire their imagination further. Staff's highly effective interventions encourage children to recall and use new language, such as 'buffers' and 'couplings', to precisely describe special features. This contributes towards all children becoming extremely fluent and confident communicators. n The expert staff involve children in exciting experiences, such as picking apples from trees in the allotment, to help extend their understanding of where their healthy food comes from. Staff's timely interventions encourage children to assess whether fruits are ripe, conquer problems and learn about how inedible organic waste can be used to create other useful materials. n Parents are expertly involved in all aspects of their children's learning and development and nursery life. Staff provide ingenious home learning ideas, such as embarking upon a nature walk to search for sticks that represent characters

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need to do better?

from well-known stories, to enhance children's early reading skills at home.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The manager and her team of staff adopt a coherent culture of vigilance and have an excellent understanding of their role in keeping children safe. Extensive training, informative updates and the sharing of a wide range of safeguarding scenarios help to equip staff with an expert knowledge of the procedures to follow to protect children's welfare. Recruitment and induction procedures are tremendously thorough and help to ensure that all staff have a superb understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Learning from valuable research is promptly applied to enhance the safety procedures within the preschool and eliminate any risks.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 317607 Local authority Cumbria Inspection number 10109875 Type of provision Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Registers

Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register, Voluntary Childcare Register Day care type Sessional day care Age range of children 2 to 4 Total number of places 30 Number of children on roll 12 Name of registered person Bravo, Margaret Emma

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reference number

Telephone number 01228 548156 Date of previous inspection 4 March 2014

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Information about this early years setting

St Peter's Preschool registered in 2001 and is privately owned. The pre-school operates from within St Peter's Church Hall on the outskirts of Carlisle. It employs four members of childcare staff. Of these, three hold appropriate qualifications at levels 3 and 4. The pre-school is open Monday to Friday, from 9am to midday, during term time. It provides funded early education for two- three- and four-year- old children.

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Inspection activities

n The manager accompanied the inspector on a 'learning walk' to explain how the pre-school is organised and to share information about the aims of the curriculum. n The inspector and manager carried out a joint observation of staff's teaching during a planned activity outdoors. The inspector observed teaching further throughout the session both indoors and outside. n The inspector held discussions with the children and staff at appropriate times during the inspection. She held a meeting with the manager. n A range of documents, including evidence of staff suitability, a record of staff qualifications and training, health and safety records and policies and procedures, were viewed by the inspector. n The inspector spoke to a number of parents during the inspection and took account of their views.

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Inspection activities

We carried out this inspection 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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Inspection activities

19 September 2019 regulates and inspects to 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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, 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, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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