Pebbles Pre-School

Pebbles Pre-School

Unique reference number (URN): EY542812 Address: 11a Wedgewood Road, Luton, LU4 0RH Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 08/02/2017 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Pebbles Pre-School (Luton) Ltd

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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 Needs attention

Pre-school children do not always follow appropriate behaviours during routines, which limits opportunities to concentrate and fully engage in pre-school routines. Not all children are encouraged to follow instructions, such as to sit at the table until they have finished eating. They go back and forth between play and eating, without listening and focusing on instructions.

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Achievement Needs attention

Young children display the skills that will enable them to join their older friends and settle well in the pre-school room. They are competent in their physical abilities, beginning to understand boundaries, and are already familiar with their busy, new environment.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are generally able to communicate their needs and ideas. Babies express themselves through gestures and by using simple words. Older children use their language skills to join in discussions with their friends and play cooperatively, showing perseverance and resilience when they tackle new tasks.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Children generally cooperate in play and enjoy the company of others. Babies enjoy exploring sensory activities as a group, with staff on hand to support their understanding of appropriate behaviours, such as not throwing sand. Older children work as a team, dressing and bathing dolls and helping one another to manage tricky fastenings on the clothes. However, not all children, specifically those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, get the support they need in large groups. These sessions are not organised effectively, and staff are not deployed appropriately to provide targeted teaching around appropriate behaviours, such as taking turns and sharing.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Leaders monitor children's attendance and have processes in place to work with families when they identify concerns around punctuality and attendance. This ensures that children receive their full entitlement of early education and prepares them and their families for the expectations of school.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Leaders understand the need to prepare children for the next stage of their learning. At various points during the day, babies and young children, with nurturing support from their key persons, join their friends in the pre-school room. This helps them to become familiar with routines and slowly builds their confidence prior to them transitioning to their busy, new environment.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

Babies and young children enjoy sociable mealtimes alongside attentive staff who monitor their safety and support them to use cutlery appropriately. However, pre-school lunches are at times disorganised. Some children eat lunches at the neighbouring school. This prepares them for the busy lunchtime environment they will progress to. However, this limits the number of staff who are available to supervise lunchtimes in the pre-school room. As a result, children frequently get up and down from the table to play and are not developing appropriate mealtime routines.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

Children are learning about their emotions and the impact these can have on their behaviours. Together with staff, children explore their feelings through discussions and by using visual aids, such as photos. This particularly promotes the emotional understanding of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

Staff monitor babies closely while they are asleep. They create a calm environment where they consider babies' sleep routines at home. For example, staff remain close to babies throughout nap time, soothing and comforting them when and if necessary.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

Leaders and staff understand the importance of developing children's understanding of essential hygiene routines. Staff supervise children brushing their teeth after meals, and all children independently wash their hands before eating and after messy activities and outdoor play.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Communication and language is a focus of the curriculum throughout the setting, with staff delivering age-appropriate strategies to develop children's vocabulary. Babies and young children listen intently to stories and songs, dancing and joining in where appropriate. Staff role model simple words during play, such as highlighting the 'soft' sand. However, children in the pre-school room are not always able to benefit from purposeful teaching strategies due to the poor organisation of routines. For example, snack time is conducted at the same time as a group song and rhyme session that is delivered by external professionals. This means some children are eating and cannot join in. Staff interactions at this time are limited, as they are focusing on monitoring snack time. As a result, some children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, become distracted and interrupt the

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders and staff work together to create an appropriate curriculum that is commonly understood in all areas. Babies form close attachments to staff, who support their emotional wellbeing and encourage confidence and independence during play. Older children develop mathematical skills in fun and age-appropriate ways. For example, during regular sessions of outdoor play, children create structures using foam and bricks. They count how many bricks they use and compare the height of their towers to their friends.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff typically adapt their teaching for the needs of children, providing more challenge for the most able children who attend. For example, when children are sorting plastic animals into different coloured bowls, staff identify children who show more skill and introduce number mats to encourage counting.

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Inclusion Needs attention

All staff and leaders have an understanding of the specific needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Their close monitoring of children's progress

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Urgent improvement

means that they have clear support plans in place to aid children's progression. For example, they have recently introduced a song and rhyme session to promote children's communication skills. However, inappropriate planning of other routines means that staff cannot be effectively deployed to provide the precise support children need during these times. As a result, children with SEND do not always engage and benefit from the opportunity to practise simple sign language and develop their language skills in these sessions.

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Urgent improvement

Staff develop supportive and collaborative relationships with families. Children's achievements and evolving needs are shared regularly during face-to-face consultation sessions. This enables families to have good oversight of children's progress and feel confident in the strategies that staff put in place, such as engaging with other professionals and following referral processes.

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Urgent improvement

Additional funding is generally used effectively to allow children to access learning experiences that they may not otherwise receive. For example, this term, children are engaging in gardening sessions and developing a deeper understanding of healthy eating during cooking sessions.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders have not demonstrated a capacity to improve the quality of children's experiences. Routines across the pre-school room are still not organised appropriately. Snack time is conducted alongside focused group activities. This means some children are unable to access these key learning experiences. Furthermore, leaders do not consider the impact that this has on the effectiveness of staff deployment. As a result, the additional support that some children require to engage is not available. At times, this impacts on the quality of teaching that all children receive, particularly for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

In addition, leaders do not act upon their findings when they identify that some routines are not meeting children's needs and create additional work for staff. For example, leaders acknowledge that current lunchtime processes impact staffing in the pre-school area but have not thoroughly considered alternative approaches and taken prompt action to ensure that children's needs are met.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders develop collaborative relationships with families that support children's learning and wellbeing. Parents attend regular consultation sessions, and leaders hold engagement sessions with families, inviting them in to explore the ethos of the setting and access additional support for their wellbeing.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders conduct regular supervision meetings with staff. They use these as an opportunity to discuss staff wellbeing and to identify training opportunities to enhance staff knowledge and further their skills. However, the leadership team is not secure in its understanding of individual roles and responsibilities. This means that administrative processes get missed and, in addition, contributes to some confusion over routines within the pre-school room.

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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

Leaders have not taken appropriate action to address the concerns highlighted at their previous inspection. They do not sufficiently consider the organisation of daily routines, such as lunchtimes and snack times, and how this can impact the effectiveness of staff deployment on meeting children's needs. As a result, staff are not always available to provide the required support for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, during certain activities, and, on occasion, this impacts the teaching for other children.

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

Children all arrive happy and swiftly settle to play. On arrival, older children follow routines by putting their water bottles away and hanging up their coats. Babies hold their arms out to their key persons, who greet them warmly at the door and welcome them to the setting. These processes enable all children to start their day with a positive attitude to their learning.

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

Children generally engage in interesting learning opportunities alongside their peers, where they work as a team to achieve a common goal. For example, children are excited to help one another build towers by sticking bricks together with shaving foam 'cement'.

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

All children access exciting learning opportunities that provide them with experiences and knowledge that they may not otherwise receive. Leaders and staff have created a gardening club where children are developing their outdoor play area. Children are also developing their knowledge of nutrition during cooking sessions. Staff are supporting them to explore healthy alternatives by creating their own pizza parlour, where children will make pizzas to take home and share with their families.

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

Children form close relationships with staff, who identify their emotional needs and are swift to offer support when required. For example, when staff identify children are quieter than usual, they join them in play, holding gentle and sensitive discussions with them to explore their feelings.

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Next steps

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must take the following actions by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

improve staffing arrangements and ensure staff are deployed appropriately to meet the needs of all children, specifically during group routines and learning 12/05/2026

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Action Completion Date

consider the individual needs and stage of development of each child when organising learning experiences that will support all children to make appropriate progress 12/05/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, practitioners and parents during the inspection.

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Pebbles Pre-School (Luton) Ltd

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

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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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Age range of children at the time of 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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Age range of children at the time of inspection

We carried out this inspection as a result of a risk assessment, following the information we received about the provider. The provider will be able to give parents further information about this.

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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

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

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