St Marks Pre School

Small hammers, vegetable play and stories about feelings gave St Marks Pre School a practical character in July 2025. At that inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good and safeguarding effective. Based at St. Marks Church Centre, the setting has 58 places in total.

Children attending in July 2025 were aged two to four. The strongest examples involved children doing things themselves: preparing vegetables, experimenting with tools and learning to wait for a turn. There were also clear priorities for improvement, especially in how activities and group learning served younger children.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning and care, including developing communication, physical skills and relationships. In July 2025, practical experiences brought these areas together: older children joined shapes using nails and small hammers, while practitioners introduced pipettes and juicers alongside words describing how to use them.

Mathematics grew out of everyday materials. During that July, fruit cutting introduced older children to fractions, while younger children practised counting. Circle-time activities included a weekly sign and French greetings, giving children different ways to communicate.

Outdoor and Community Life

In July 2025, outdoor play took place daily, with bikes, a trampoline and a mud kitchen supporting movement and exploration. Weekly forest school sessions involved nature exploration and working together; a sports coach also visited weekly. Outings included the park and local pier, extending children's experiences beyond the setting.

The Colour Monster, a story used to explore emotions, helped children connect facial expressions with feelings in July 2025. A visual board showing what would happen next helped younger children wait to use the swing. These were concrete ways to make emotions and routines easier to understand.

During the same period, practitioners gathered information from parents and observed children's development. Nurture stars provided targeted support in particular areas of learning, while links with outside professionals and other settings helped coordinate that support. A special educational needs coordinator contributed to the inspection discussion.

Stay-and-play sessions had been introduced to help children settle following the summer holiday. In July 2025, staff also shared potty-training strategies with parents and invited families to join outings, connecting home routines with the pre-school day.

Sessions and Attendance

In July 2025, attendance was term-time only, Monday to Friday. Pre-school sessions ran from 9am to 3.30pm, with wraparound provision before and after school within an 8am to 6pm window. These were different arrangements: a pre-school day and care around school hours.

Getting There

The address is St. Marks Church Centre, St. Marks Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS22 7PW.

Funding and Paid Extras

In July 2025, the setting offered government-funded places.

• Individual learning. In July 2025, activities were not consistently adjusted to children's next learning steps. Ask how practitioners now adapt an activity for children needing different levels of challenge.
• Younger children's group time. During that July, some group activities lasted too long and involved too many children for younger participants to stay engaged. Planning and the order of learning also needed greater attention to their needs. A visit should explore how these sessions now work.
• Attendance arrangements. The July 2025 model combined term-time pre-school sessions with school wraparound care. Before joining, establish which arrangement fits your child's age and your working week.

In July 2025, St Marks suited families seeking term-time pre-school days or school wraparound care. Its July 2025 experiences combined practical learning, outdoor activity and support for understanding feelings. The decision point is younger children's experience: individual adaptation, group organisation and the sequence of learning all deserve attention alongside those strengths.