Holy Trinity Pre-School

Fruit preparation, conversations about caterpillars and imaginative character play give Holy Trinity Pre-School a practical, child-led character in its June 2023 account of daily life. Everyday experiences became opportunities to talk, investigate and play together.

Ofsted rated the pre-school Good on 20 June 2023. Based at Holy Trinity Community Centre in Newcastle under Lyme, it has 20 places in total and accepts children aged 6 to 59 months. Capacity describes the whole setting, rather than the size of a child's daily group.

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: play and everyday routines support learning alongside children's personal development.

In June 2023, children helped prepare fruit and discussed apples, seeds and growing trees. Staff demonstrated how to fill containers during soil play, while caterpillars prompted conversations. These examples show how ordinary materials supplied something concrete for children to explore and describe. Fruit preparation connected a familiar snack with questions about what was inside it and what its seeds could become. Children discussed kiwi fruits as well as apples, giving conversation specific objects to work from.

The soil activity that June also illustrates the adult's part in play: staff showed children how a spoon could transfer soil into a container. A practical demonstration gave them an action to try themselves. Caterpillars supplied a different starting point, with staff developing discussion around something that had caught children's attention. These were concrete examples of learning through handling materials, watching and talking, rather than a list of activities detached from children's interests.

Outdoors that June, children tackled obstacles and experimented with moving a scooter over equipment. Indoors, dressing up supported shared pretend stories. Physical exploration and imaginative play both had a place in the day.

The outdoor equipment gave children opportunities to practise balance and coordination as they worked out how to move across it. Their scooter experiments added their own ideas to that exploration. Inside, children took account of one another's contributions to pretend play and developed a story together; one example involved acting as a spider. For parents, those examples distinguish individual exploration from shared play: children could test a movement for themselves, then join others in an imagined role.

At the June 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged safeguarding effective and found that the SENCO worked with outside agencies, with referrals and interventions used when children missed developmental milestones. This gave support a practical route beyond the setting itself.

In June 2023, staff and children ate lunch together, making meals a social occasion with adult examples of manners and healthy eating. Breakfast and fruit snacks also featured. Parents received detailed feedback about development and guidance for continuing learning at home, connecting nursery experiences with family life.

Three childcare practitioners were employed at that time. That staffing snapshot describes June 2023, rather than today's deployment.

During June 2023, the manager used professional development and supervision meetings to support staff. This made discussion of practitioners' work part of the organisation of care. Children also practised the rules needed for this particular building: moving around it involved stairs and crossing a car park. Staff used gentle prompts, and children responded to them. These practical routines matter alongside play because they concern how children move between parts of the premises.

Holy Trinity Pre-School operates at Holy Trinity Community Centre, London Road, Newcastle under Lyme, ST5 1LQ. Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, during term time; it closes for school holidays. Families needing holiday care should factor those closures into their arrangements.

In June 2023, the pre-school provided funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-olds.

• Older children's next steps. In June 2023, curriculum sequencing for older children needed greater precision, and staff planning needed to target individual learning more closely. At a visit, ask how an older child's existing skills now shape their next activities.
• Term-time boundaries. The 9am to 3pm opening window and school-holiday closures suit a term-time routine. Families needing care beyond those hours will need a different arrangement for that part of the day.
• Joining and costs. For a child joining this community-centre setting, what settling arrangements and funded-hours terms apply, including responsibility for meals and consumables? Request a current written quotation before committing.

Holy Trinity suits families seeking a term-time pre-school routine within a 9am to 3pm opening window. Its June 2023 daily-life examples give substance to the Good judgement: conversation grew from fruit and caterpillars, and children explored movement and shared pretend play. For older preschool children, the precision of next-step teaching is the central point to examine.