St Mary's Pre-school

Ice experiments and a fruit and vegetable shop gave St Mary's Pre-school's January 2025 provision a practical, playful character. Children explored how things work and developed their own ideas through stories and pretend shopping. The setting has capacity for 25 children in total.

At its 31 January 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good, found safeguarding effective and recognised that coordinated support was helping children with special educational needs and/or disabilities close gaps in learning. Children attending then were aged two to four.

In January 2025, children investigated how to release toys trapped in ice, using warm water after staff helped them think through possible solutions. This was learning through a problem children could see and tackle themselves.

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: here, the January 2025 examples included exploration, conversation and imaginative play. During stories, children anticipated events, joined in familiar passages and began inventing narratives with characters and endings. Stories became starting points for children's own ideas.

Outdoors that January, the fruit and vegetable shop used real produce, baskets and pretend transactions. Children chose roles and carried their play into a kitchen role-play area, where they prepared vegetables with child-safe knives. The physical arrangement let one idea develop across different activities, rather than ending when children moved elsewhere.

In January 2025, home visits helped staff gather information from parents before planning settling sessions around each child. That gave the settling process a personal starting point.

Communication that January included newsletters, online platforms and conversations with key persons. These arrangements followed feedback from parents asking for better information about learning and development, giving families more ways to connect activities at home with their child's preschool experiences.

The address is Cookham Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7EG.

In January 2025, opening hours were 9am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday, during term time. These describe the operating window at that date. The setting was also eligible to provide funded early education for children aged two to four.

• Changes between activities. In January 2025, tidying up and gathering for circle time sometimes took too long, with children becoming restless and staff giving inconsistent guidance. Ask how these transitions are organised now.
• Teaching tailored to each child. In January 2025, leaders needed more precise monitoring of individual staff practice and more targeted support for adapting activities to children's existing understanding. Ask how staff now plan and review each child's next steps.
• Term-time fit. The January 2025 operating pattern followed term time and ended at 3.30pm. How does the current attendance arrangement fit your family's working hours and holiday childcare needs?

St Mary's suits families drawn to practical exploration, storytelling and imaginative outdoor play. Its January 2025 provision paired these experiences with individual settling arrangements and several routes for parent communication. The important qualification is consistency: transitions and support for individual staff practice needed attention. For families considering a term-time preschool rhythm, those are useful points to explore alongside the setting's playful character.