Spinney Pre School

Spinney Pre School

Unique reference number (URN): 502232 Address: Spinney Avenue, Widnes, Cheshire, WA8 8LD Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 08/06/2001 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Spinney Pre-School Committee

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Expected standard

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make progress through the curriculum. Children who start pre-school unable to speak clearly receive targeted support from staff and other professionals. These children develop the communication and language skills they need to promote their all-round development and progress, and they quickly become confident communicators. Children are developing the small muscles in their hands and are able to confidently manipulate dough, use scissors, make marks with chalks and begin to form some letters. Children are developing secure social and emotional skills. They are able to follow instructions and confidently remind one another of the rules, such as pointing out how to 'make things fair' by sharing out the play dough equally. Although some children start pre-school with gaps in their learning, they make consistent progress and catch up in time for starting school.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and teach them about the importance of sharing, turn-taking and good manners. Children are very kind to one another, particularly to those children they know have some barriers to their learning. Staff have lovely relationships with children and recognise that routines need to be adapted to support them. For instance, some children need more preparation time and support from objects of reference during transition times. This is done seamlessly and helps children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to stay calm and regulated.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children are friendly and play collaboratively. They work together in the garden to build structures with bricks and transport each other in crates. Children are happy to be around each other and demonstrate lovely relationships. They know the routines well and respond quickly to the 'tidy up' song, becoming very competitive when challenged to beat the song. Children are eager and motivated to engage in learning.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders have very secure procedures in place for monitoring punctuality and attendance. When children do not arrive at nursery, they follow this up as appropriate by sending text messages, making telephone calls or visiting the child at home. Leaders have a secure understanding of the impact of attendance on attainment and how it links to safeguarding.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children benefit from well-embedded key-person routines and a clear focus on emotional wellbeing. They form strong bonds with staff and seek them out for cuddles and reassurance. Children trust staff and are supported to talk to them confidently about their feelings and emotions.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff teach children about the importance of good hygiene and care routines, such as handwashing. They talk to children about healthy foods and the impact that exercise has on the body. Leaders support children and their families to understand the importance of a healthy diet. They provide parents with healthy lunch box information and healthy food training sessions from the local authority. This helps to promote children's overall good health.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children have access to the outdoors every day and benefit from lots of opportunities to exercise. For children who prefer to learn indoors, staff model dancing and large action songs to help them strengthen their large muscles and coordination skills.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders design the curriculum well across the areas of learning. They understand the needs of children they care for and plan their curriculum with these in mind. For instance, on entry, children typically have gaps in their language and personal, social and emotional skills. Therefore, leaders prioritise these areas.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children's communication and language development is well promoted. Staff talk to children a lot, modelling new language and narrating what they do. Staff help children to develop their mathematical skills, for instance by using number songs to count by rote and blocks to count with one-to-one correspondence.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children's physical development is a priority for the pre-school. Leaders recognise that some children need more support to develop their fine motor skills. They intentionally provide a range of opportunities for children to regularly use their hands and fingers to strengthen their muscles.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

During free-play time, staff adapt their teaching very well for children's differing needs. They use visual references for children who do not speak and timers for those who struggle to share. However, they do not consistently adapt their teaching during large-group activities to support children's stages of development. Consequently, at times, children become distracted and do not benefit from the learning experience.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders identify children's needs quickly when they first start pre-school. They collect information from parents and previous settings, complete assessments and use additional screening tools to gain a clearer understanding of what children need support with. Leaders use the information they gather to create bespoke plans that focus on children's unique next steps in learning. These are monitored each term with parents and outside agencies to ensure they continue to meet children's needs.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders responsible for special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well trained and experienced. They work closely with outside agencies to advocate for children. Leaders access specific training that helps them to adapt the environment and implement strategies, such as communication boards, a visual timetable and objects of reference. This helps children who are pre-verbal to communicate and develop their understanding. Leaders use additional funding strategically, so that resources and experiences benefit individual children. Decisions about the use of funding are made alongside parents and key persons to ensure support is targeted well. Children with SEND make sustained progress from their individual starting points.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have a secure understanding of the context of the pre-school and how this informs their areas for improvement. They take swift and effective action when areas for development are identified and work in close partnership with the local authority. Leaders have worked hard to enhance their outdoor provision since the last inspection. Leaders have good relationships with outside agencies, particularly those who support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They work effectively to ensure that children with SEND receive what they need from agencies and that advice and action plans are accurate, up to date and implemented.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders place a high priority on staff wellbeing, and the long-standing team work very well together. Leaders check in with staff every day to ensure they are happy and able to fulfil their roles. Recent changes to supervision procedures have been made to ensure that the wellbeing of leaders is monitored by senior leaders. This ensures everyone feels supported. Staff receive regular supervision meetings and access training to support them to understand children's different needs. However, leaders do not consistently offer accurate feedback specific to staff's individual performance needs. This does not help staff to strengthen their skills and knowledge further.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children are very happy, safe and settled at the pre-school. Attendance is well promoted and, as such, children separate from parents with ease and quickly engage in play and learning. Children take ownership of the environment and feel confident to make choices about where they want to play. They are becoming increasingly independent, confidently using the water dispenser, putting their own coats on and preparing snack. Children demonstrate secure skills needed for the future.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The pre-school staff teach children about inclusion from the start. They help children to understand how some aspects of the curriculum and routines need to be adapted to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff teach children how to sign

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Inspector:

Kayte Farrell to enable them to communicate with children who are pre-verbal. This helps children to develop empathy, understanding and positive relationships with their peers.

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Inspector:

The curriculum for literacy is well implemented. Staff read to children throughout the day and promote a love of books. Children eagerly choose stories they are familiar with and recite them with ease. Staff talk to children about the story, testing out their comprehension skills. Children use words such as 'happy', 'sad', and 'angry' to describe how they think the characters feel. Staff value children's thoughts and validate their opinions. This boosts children's confidence and self-esteem.

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Next steps

Leaders should support staff to recognise more consistently when teaching needs to be adapted further to consider children's stages of development, with particular regard to group times. Leaders should provide staff with precise performance feedback matched to their individual needs more consistently to strengthen their skills and knowledge further.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, practitioners, the special educational needs coordinator, parents and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

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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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Spinney Pre-School Committee

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:45 - 11:45,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 12:15 - 14:50,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:45 - 14:50

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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