Self-evaluation              01/08/2024         

Overview of our setting

We are in a rural area of Cambridgeshire, in the village of Parson Drove. We are based in a mobile building in the grounds of the local primary school in a residential area and we mainly have children from the village attend, but occasionally attract families from Lincolnshire and neighbouring villages. We mostly have white British families attend with children from the Travelling community also. We have Multi Language Learners attend (currently Lithuanian) and we regularly have Care Experienced Children. We have children with additional needs that include speech, language and communication, behaviour and autism. We lease the building from Cambridgeshire County Council. The building was installed new over the summer 2018 and gives us twice the area we had previously, including a large covered decking.

We have our own play area that we operate as a free flow system. We also use the large school playground and field, including a trim trail and den making area. Security onto the site is rigorous with visitors being required to use the intercom system which also has a camera at a locked gate entering the school playground. This provides a direct link to the pre-school mobile and once their identity or intent is established visitors are then escorted to the building which is locked at all times.

The village has several businesses within walking distance and we frequently take advantage of this valuable resource through village walks and visits. We have ramp access to the building and it meets the requirements for access. We are open all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (8.30am – 3pm) during term time and have up to 22 children at any one time, ranging from, on average, 2 years to school age. 

We are committee run and affiliated with the Early Years Alliance. Our Annual General Meeting is usually held in November each year and we maintain links to the primary school as the head teacher sits on our committee. The Manager is the nominated person. We have a good working relationship with the Child and Families Centres in the nearby town.

Staff include the Manager (Level 5), Deputy Manager (Level 3) and three general practitioners (Level 3) and two unqualified staff. The Manager and Deputy are all trained to Designated Person level for Child Protection. The Manager is trained to Designated Person level in ENCO and SENCO along with another practitioner.

We have experienced problems in the past recruiting and retaining staff but feel that we have a positive outlook for the future with all staff working towards the EYFS together. Staff are deployed according to their strengths, for example, creativity, physical play, gardening etc…

At the start of a day staff are directed to the area/activities they will be involved with and this information can also be found on the weekly plan.

Views of those who use our setting or who work with us.

We recently undertook a survey to assess how effective our methods of communication are. At this early stage of our survey the following have been expressed:

• Home visits are a good idea and useful
• Families who have ‘Facebook’ will use this method for information sharing (general information only)
• Families like to have access to the Home/Setting books in case they forget to let us know something important but generally prefer face to face time.
• Not everybody realised we have a link to our website on the primary school’s website.
• Most find the newsletters useful but not everybody reads all of the content; using it mostly for the term dates.
• All of the families who use the App find it very useful and well thought out.

Here is an email from a parent about our new style communication with families.

Just a quick e-mail to say that I LOVE the fortnightly 'Whats on'

As a parent this is really great to see as nice to know what wee ones are doing and also reminds the parents who educational the pre school is and that its not just a form of childcare!

Newsletter also great :-) Great job, well done!

Wendy

These are comments from families during the 2020 Pandemic…

Just emailing to say thank you to you and the other staff from Pre-school for putting together the resources on the ap to help parents during this difficult and uncertain time. It has been really helpful to have the resources and ideas to do with Evie while my older daughter has done her school work.

Take care and stay safe.

Alice

These are some general comments made by parents…

“Our daughter, E, settled fantastically well at the pre-school. Her keyworker has been amazing and really got to know our little girl and her interests. E adores going to pre-school and when she is not there she will often role-play being at pre-school”.

Stay safe. Hope to see you soon.

Thanks

Ella thoroughly enjoyed the 2 years that she spent at Parson Drove Pre School and this special time not only prepared her for her subsequent journey into primary education, but also gave her the routine and passion for learning that was always nurtured and encouraged by all pre school staff members. 

Ella's key worker, Dani was a great influence and covering all areas of the EYFS curriculum, really helped to develop her skills and prepare her for school. Ella always enjoyed doing her number work in Mathematics and practising letter formation in Literacy as well as having the opportunity to be creative in Expressive Art and Design. Evidence of her work was always sent home which was lovely to see and homework tasks were regularly given which allowed us to support Ella's learning at home and reinforce the good work that she was doing at pre school. Pre school also provided the opportunity for Ella to develop her social and emotional skills and all staff were very supportive if she found situations difficult or upsetting. 

We, as parents, cannot praise you Carol, Dani and your team highly enough for your kind, caring, nurturing approach to Ella during her time with you and we would not hesitate in recommending this setting to others with younger children of pre school age. The new building is fantastic and has provided such a wonderful learning environment for the children to really enjoy and excel in. It really is a superb pre school with an equally superb team!

Thank you so much and kind regards

Sarah

Staff take part in staff meetings and half-termly supervision meetings. They also have the chance to share views during these meetings and their annual appraisal and through the Manager/Deputy at committee meetings

Children’s views are seen through the observations that we do as part of the daily routine and through conversations with parents. 

 We feel that we work in a respectful way with other professionals and have received positive comments that support this.

Our local Speech & Language Therapy Assistant said this about us:

“It’s been just over four years since I started work on the Children’s Centre contract & throughout that time I’ve always found you & your staff to be very approachable. You have all attended the training sessions that we have offered in order to develop your own skills & have also encouraged the take up of the Chattersacks by parents & children in turn developing parents understanding of language development & improving children’s outcomes. Staff have also promoted our drop-in sessions to families ensuring they can readily access our service. In turn, if you have needed our support or assistance with a matter you have contacted us directly & we have then worked together to ensure that the speech & language needs of children attending the setting have been met.”

We are effective in evaluating practice and implementing changes that impact the environment and how we deliver the curriculum to children. We doggedly persist in trying to engage families to support us and their children and live in hope that one of our strategies will prove effective.