Strengths
Aspects for improvement
How well do children learn and achieve?
Welcoming and inclusive learning environments help support almost all children to settle and participate enthusiastically in activities. Most children are generally very motivated and eager participants in their learning. There is an improving emphasis on the use of ICT to support learning. Children’s natural curiosity is encouraged more frequently and they are able to follow their particular interests. Children have considerable choice in selecting activities during play. However, there is scope for children in a minority of centres to make more choices and decisions, to develop their independent learning skills or to be involved in planning the nursery activities.
In the first Improving Scottish Education report, it was noted that the quality of interactions between adults and children was not consistently high. There is still room to improve further the quality of interactions. Where interaction is effective, staff know their children as individuals, interact well with them during play sessions, and display high levels of skill in their questioning and timing of their interventions. These staff are mostly well qualified and experienced.
In effective practice, staff observe children at play and use this assessment information effectively to identify needs and plan learning to suit children’s development stage, and the challenge and support required. There is still a need to improve the use of the information staff gather on children’s progress to provide activities which build on children’s skills and earlier learning. The level of challenge is sometimes not high enough, particularly for more able children.
Most children in pre-school make good or very good progress across key aspects of their learning. Children build confidence in social skills and can take increasing responsibilities in their learning. They make choices in their play activities and gain independence in personal tasks.
Most children are making good or very good progress in early language skills. They speak confidently to adults and each other and listen well to stories in small groups. Increasingly, children are becoming confident in early writing and reading activities in their play. Children are improving their understanding of numbers and shapes. Most can count, sort and match objects well in their play. Broader mathematical skills are less well developed in their activities. Children are developing a good awareness of their natural environment and enjoy exploring and finding out how things work. They show skill and enthusiasm in imaginative activities and are highly motivated when singing and acting out roles. At times, too many adult-led activities limit children’s individual creativity. Most children are developing their physical skills well. Increasingly, they are taking part in good quality energetic play. There is still room for improvement to make sure all children have access to high quality energetic play.
CHILDREN’S PROGRESS IN DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL SECTOR, USING FOUR-POINT SCALE, APRIL 2005-MARCH 2007
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL SECTOR, USING SIX-POINT SCALE, APRIL-DECEMBER 2007
Curriculum programmes remain strong and provide broad and enjoyable experiences. Staff provide well-integrated activities which link children’s learning. Early literacy and numeracy activities are found across curriculum areas which allow children to understand the context of these skills. Children are benefiting increasingly from learning out of doors. Activities are included which encourage children to look after the environment. ICT is used in most centres to develop children’s awareness and skills in using everyday technologies, such as cameras and computers. Curriculum provision in education authority centres is better overall than that of private and voluntary sectors. There is growing awareness of the four capacities to be developed through Curriculum for Excellence.
CURRICULUM AREAS
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL SECTOR, USING FOUR-POINT SCALE, APRIL 2005-MARCH 2007
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY INDICATOR EVALUATIONS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL SECTOR, USING SIX-POINT SCALE, APRIL-DECEMBER 2007
Do pre-school centres have a clear sense of direction?
Most headteachers or heads of centre successfully encourage teamwork amongst staff. They work effectively to ensure staff have direction, and support and demonstrate a strong commitment to improving the quality of children’s experiences.
Leadership was highlighted in the first Improving Scottish Education report as a key area for improvement. Since then, there have been signs of improvement, particularly in response to the Scottish Social Services Council’s (SSSC) registration and qualification requirements for managers of centres. There is growing recognition that leadership for learning is everyone’s job. However, more remains to be done to ensure all children attend centres where leaders are well qualified and provide high quality guidance to staff and children. Leadership in the private and voluntary sectors still lags behind that of education authority provision. In almost all of the centres where leadership was highlighted as a weakness, there were also weaknesses in children’s learning experiences.
How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
Most pre-school staff continue to provide effective pastoral care to children and their families and have built positive partnerships with parents, carers and families. Most centres have been successful in using book projects to promote literacy in partnership with parents. Parents and carers are often actively involved in discussing their children’s development and learning. Intervention initiatives are gaining more focus, particularly in local authority nursery schools and child and family centres.
Children with additional support needs achieve success with the help of various support networks in most local authority centres. However, in around a quarter of voluntary and private centres, children are less well supported. In effective practice, a varied range of partnership work is having positive outcomes on children and their families. Interagency groups provide effective support for children with disabilities. Families are well supported by strong multi-agency working, including Sure Start health visitors, speech and language therapists, extended care and family support and other council staff. Local authority-run integrated early years centres enable a wide range of family needs to be met very well through effective joint working amongst staff from the council and partner agencies, particularly health personnel. Support for parenting skills and for early child development is being encouraged effectively in some local authorities. However, children with more complex needs still require better support through well-coordinated learning plans and stronger and more effective interagency working.
Most centres have supportive transition arrangements which ensure a smooth transfer between stages in the nursery and from nursery to school. This often involves a programme of home visiting, effective exchanges of information about children’s needs and achievements, and well-planned induction visits involving both child and parent or carer. In the most effective cases, meetings also take place between staff in both nursery and school to ensure continuity in active approaches to learning.
Are staff and children actively involved in improving their pre-school centre community?
Staff listen more to children’s views and respond appropriately. There is scope for more emphasis on seeking children’s views and ensuring they are actively involved in planning their own activities.
A key feature which continues in the pre-school sector is strong team working by staff who were committed to the education and care for all children. The pre-school sector is characterised by positive working relationships and the commitment of most staff to their work. There are improvements in the qualifications of staff, with greater emphasis on leadership training through the SSSC and other routes to improving professional qualifications. However, there continues to be disparity in levels of qualifications between private and voluntary sector and the public sector.
Although the process of self-evaluation is being undertaken in most centres, staff are not always fully included and the impact is sometimes limited. Centres have developed a range of monitoring systems and procedures. For example, staff regularly ask parents their views about the experiences offered. However, information obtained from self-evaluation is not always focused on ensuring improvements in children’s learning. Better support for peer evaluation and reflection, particularly in the private and voluntary sectors, is needed for all staff to ensure continuous improvement. In almost all of the centres where self-evaluation was weak, there remain weaknesses in children’s experiences overall. Much remains to be done to ensure a reflective culture of improvement through self-evaluation amongst staff.
Do pre-school centres have high expectations of all children?
The ethos in pre-school centres continues to be very good. Pre-school centres are successful in the inclusion of children and families in welcoming and caring environments and where equality and fairness are shown. Staff work hard to develop and maintain positive relationships with children, parents and wider communities. They have high expectations of children, developing confidence and independence in their learning through play. Children’s natural curiosity is encouraged and they have choice in making decisions about their learning activities and developing their interests and ideas.