Early Years Foundation Stage
Good leadership ensures that children are well cared for in a safe environment where relationships are good. Links with parents are good. Behaviour is good and all groups of children are happy. They play and learn well together in a caring environment. Children enjoy the range of activities including construction and outdoor activities. Staff know the children well and are aware of any specific needs, with good procedures to support the welfare of children in place.
Standards on entry to the Early Years Foundation Stage are below those expected but children make good progress to enter Year 1 with age-expected standards. Progress is regularly monitored but the effectiveness of using this information for ongoing assessment and determining the next steps of learning is variable. Children benefit from an exciting range of resources which give children a good choice of activities. Reception children were seen carrying out some very good investigation work with magnets. Teaching is good throughout the provision. However, the curriculum is limited for the Reception children because they do not have direct access to an outdoor area and so outdoor activities have to be timetabled. There are plans to rectify this by the summer. Learning in the classroom is linked to that experienced outdoors wherever possible, to reinforce the children's wider understanding. Adults provide a broad range of activities to promote all areas of learning and every opportunity is taken to extend pupils' knowledge through innovative resources. The balance of adult-directed activities and those that children choose for themselves is good.
The provision for children aged 0 to 3 is good and fully complies with the requirements for registration. The care provided is extremely good within a well-managed facility. Activities are designed to ensure children make as much progress as possible and this is monitored well by the supervising teacher. No areas were identified as requiring improvement.
These are the grades for the Early Years Foundation Stage
