St Thomas' Pre-School Playgroup opened in 1976. It operates from the premises of St Thomas' United Reformed Church in the Nascot Wood area of Watford, Hertfordshire. The provision has use of a self-contained room with its own fully enclosed outdoor play area and toilets. It has access to two large halls and a kitchen. 

The setting is open Monday to Friday, term time only from 9.15am to 12.15pm. A lunch club operates from 12.15pm to 1.15pm each day. It is registered by Ofsted on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is registered to care for a maximum of 24 children. There are currently 34 children on roll, all of whom are in the early years age group and of these, 21 children receive government funding for early years education. The setting supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. 

There are ten members of staff including the manager who is also the owner. The majority of the staff team hold early years qualifications.

The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall the quality of the provision is outstanding.

The setting provides a high quality service where children flourish in a child-centred, enabling environment. Highly effective partnerships between the pre-school, parents and others significantly contribute to the setting's knowledge of individual children to ensure their needs are fully met. A committed and motivated staff team effectively implement the setting's policies and procedures to ensure children's welfare is fully protected. Children are making excellent progress towards the early learning goals as their learning is purposefully promoted. Strong leadership and close monitoring of the quality of the provision demonstrates the settings commitment to continuous improvement.

What steps need to be taken to improve provision further?

The effectiveness of leadership and management of the early years provision

Arrangements for safeguarding children are robust with highly effective procedures in place to protect children. Rigorous recruitment and vetting procedures ensure children are cared for by staff who are suitable. They consider the welfare of children to be paramount and have an excellent understanding of how to safeguard children's welfare. They regularly update their child protection knowledge through attending safeguarding training and an informative safeguarding policy, which is currently under review, reflects the procedures to follow if they did have a concern. Children's safety is of high priority and staff are extremely vigilant in recognising hazards and take positive steps to minimise these. Security of the premises along with effective staff deployment and close supervision of children keep children safe. Risk assessments are managed efficiently and safely and include daily checks to ensure the environment remains safe at all times. 

The setting is committed to fully implementing the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and this is reflected in their outstanding practice. Staff are guided by the owner, who is also the manager. She has a clear vision for the setting and strives to provide a high quality service. Clear induction and appraisal systems ensure staff are well informed and are clear on their roles and responsibilities. Staff feel valued and become confident practitioners because responsibilities are shared out amongst them. Professional development is positively encouraged and staff undertake extensive and varied training. All staff are committed to the continuous evaluation and improvement of their practice and the setting closely monitors itself to assess the quality of the provision. It has previously participated in the Herts Quality Standards accreditation scheme and plan to undertake it again, as they found it to be a useful tool for establishing and maintaining high standards throughout. They are also pro-active in seeking feedback from parents and children through the use of questionnaires. The staff team are reflective in their practice and have a system of self-evaluation which helps to systematically identify the setting's strengths and areas they wish to enhance further. The setting aims to develop this further and actively use it as a way of ensuring continuous improvement. 

Exceptionally good use of space, resources and highly effective staff deployment ensure an enabling environment that is safe and fully inclusive. All children and their families are valued and included with staff who are approachable and friendly, helping parents feel secure and at ease. Excellent partnerships with parents significantly contributes to children's well-being and ensures their care and learning needs are fully supported. Parents receive a wealth of good quality information about the setting. Parent information packs inform new parents about the setting including details of their child's keyworker. Children also receive a welcome booklet which through the use of photographs ensures they become familiar with the pre-school environment and routine before they attend the setting. Staff are forthcoming in sharing information and seeking feedback which ensures children settle in quickly and any issues are dealt with swiftly. Frequent opportunities for parents to get involved in the pre-school and with their child's learning and development strengthens relationships. Events such as open mornings allow parents to see how their children learn when at pre-school. Parents enjoy looking at their children's development folders which are called special books and contribute to these records with their own 'magic moments' sheets when children have achieved something significant at home.

The setting actively promotes equality of opportunity and works with parents and others to support and meet the needs of individual children. Rigorous systems for working with parents and other agencies ensure children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are closely monitored and given valuable support to enable them to participate and achieve. The nursery is pro-active in liaising with other early years providers delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage. Very positive links have been established with some of the local schools which staff use constructively to ensure the transition of when children move on to school which helps them to understand what to expect.

The quality and standards of the early years provision and outcomes for children

The nursery offers a welcoming, child-centred environment that enables children to play and learn in stimulating surroundings. Activities cover the six areas of learning, with children's progress closely monitored through highly effective observation and assessment systems. Information gained from these is used by staff to purposefully plan activities to extend and reinforce children's learning. Consequently, all children's learning needs are identified and catered for and they are making excellent progress towards the early learning goals. Staff are very aware of the different ways children learn and this is taken into full consideration when planning play experiences and activities for individuals or specific groups of children, such as boys and girls or children with English as an additional language. Children are enthusiastic in their play as they keenly participate in a range of appropriately challenging and stimulating play experiences. 

They have extensive opportunities to express themselves creatively and enjoy a varied range of art and craft activities. The 'making table' is particularly popular and children delight in independently accessing a variety of art materials such as sticky tape, wool, string, foil strands and paper to make items to use in their play. Children use their imaginations to express themselves and confidently share ideas and thoughts with their peers. A free flow system enables children to freely move between the indoor and outdoor environments, taking their resources with them. Exceptional use is made of the outside area to maximise opportunities for children's learning. Children delight in mixing soil and water to make 'cement' to build a brick wall or dressing up as pirates and using their pirate ship to find hidden treasure. 

Children regularly experience music and listen and respond with great excitement when looking at books. They listen with great intent when hearing stories read in English alongside a variety of different languages including Urdu, Polish and Spanish. They have many opportunities to make connections and relationships with numbers, shapes and measures. Children confidently match and sort objects, learn about volume through filling containers when playing with dried pasta and enjoy singing songs which incorporate the use of numbers. Children learn about the wider world and about other cultures and religions. They have extensive opportunities to talk about their families and home life and delight is showing photographs of them as babies which are displayed as part of an 'all about me' topic. Children learn about the local community and have enjoyed writing postcards and walking to the post box to post them. They have had visits from a variety of people who work in the community including the police and the fire service. 

Staff are proactive in implementing highly effective strategies to promote and safeguard children's health and well-being. Children learn to take responsibility for washing their own hands, flushing toilets or wiping their noses and disposing of tissues appropriately. Good hygiene practice is reinforced through activities involving the handling and preparation of food, such as, when children make fruit smoothies. When asked children are able to confidently say why it is important to wash their hands before eating. Healthy eating is promoted and children make healthy choices at snack time and through planned activities where they learn about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. Plenty of fresh air and exercise keeps children fit. They confidently climb on the pirate ship, enjoy gardening and negotiate around obstacles on bikes in the garden and enjoy participating in obstacle courses or music and movement sessions in the large hall. 

Children demonstrate a strong sense of security and are confident and self-assured in the setting. Positive relationships between staff, children and parents enable children to feel secure. Children's understanding of keeping safe is evident. Staff help children gain an awareness of keeping themselves safe as they explain and practise simple procedures, such as not running when indoors. Children keenly participate in regular fire drills and therefore learn how to stay safe in an emergency. Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff are excellent role models and empower children to take responsibility for themselves as they learn to listen, share, take turns and be kind to others. Praise and encouragement from staff ensure children develop high levels of self-esteem and children show real enthusiasm for what they are doing and talk with eagerness about their achievements.