The Bristol Standard Quality Improvement Framework

 

“Improving on our previous best”

 

The Bristol Standard is a self-evaluation framework that is used by early years practitioners and play workers to enable them to take part in reflective discussions around ten dimensions of quality to identify their current strengths and targets for improvement. This is an annual cycle which settings complete and then submit for validation. Children are at the heart of the Bristol Standard and all targets detail the benefits for children of the actions being taken.

 

The Bristol Standard is recognised nationally and internationally as an outstanding framework to support a journey of continuous improvement. The benefits and impact of the Bristol Standard have been well-evidenced. It can be used effectively as a framework for action planning and is very useful as evidence for Ofsted and other stakeholders. The Bristol Standard brings teams together with a shared vision and supports ongoing staff professional development.

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OUR BRISTOL STANDARD JOURNEY

Play and Learning Experiences

We are a language rich environment, staff have a great understanding of enriching children's learning and knowledge through conversations they have with children, knowing all children well. They spend time listening to children, giving them time to think and process what they are learning or what they want to talk about. Staff get down on the level of children when engaging with them, we sit with children at lunchtime around tables and engage in conversations.  Staff empower children to have a voice and incorporate their interests in our daily planning of the room activities.

 

We have staff who speak additional languages, and they sing songs and read stories in their home language to children. We have shared story times; children can bring in books from home to share. We use Makaton with all children, basic words such as please, thank you, yes, no, toilet, home, outside, snack, drink. For our EAL children and SEN children we use PEC cards which are visuals to help our children make choices without needing to use speech to communicate. A visual timetable is always displayed for children to use so they understand what is going to happen during the day.

 

We have a large open space within our preschool room which is set up to support the individual children within our setting. Supporting those with additional needs, speech and language delay and those children that have English as an additional language.
 

Our planning focuses on the interests of the children, they are the voice to how we plan for their learning, what we do to provide the best learning environment and how we can extend on what the children already know to find a new level of interest and experiences.
 

The children have the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions on what they would like to learn, what resources they would like to have out. As a pack away we are fortunate that our space is adaptable and can change daily and weekly to link the interests of the children, the cohort of children and specific areas that need to be developed.
 

Our outside environment is an area of focus as we have many children that thrive on learning outdoors. We have many loose parts, this really encourages children to do their critical thinking, finding new ways to do things and solve problems. Work collectively to create and build, challenge themselves using balancing equipment and den building, small world and using their gross motor skills though running, jumping, balancing, throwing, and catching.

 

Children have opportunities to explore beyond the preschool setting, the woods, allotment, and park. This provides opportunities for children to have new experiences.

 

Relationships and Interactions
 

Before children start at our preschool, we do home visits to each of the children's homes to meet them and their families. We always endeavour to send the child's key person to their home visit as this is allocated before the child starts. This helps the child recognise their key person and begins the relationship between the key person, child and their family relationship with the key person.
 

Once the child starts, the key persons role it to support the child with settling in, this involves greeting the child at the door, supporting the child emotionally and socially.  The key person also supports the parent whilst their child is at our setting, this can be through a chat on the door at drop off or pick up, phone call, text, or meetings.  The key person ensures that their children are making progress in their learning by doing observations, planning activities to support next steps, and engaging in quality interactions through discussion, support, using resources to engage the child, stories and singing. Our key persons will know their children exceptionally well and will be there to support them through their time at preschool. Our key persons encourage children to be socially confident, they encourage turn taking, discussions in small groups and give many opportunities for children to freely engage with one another, during welcome time, group times, snack and lunch times and learning times. Staff have an exceptional understanding of how children learn to communicate.
 

We endeavour to build strong relationships with all our parents/carers. We welcome and encourage all contributions from parents/carers and their families. The beginning of the relationship starts with home visits, this ensures the home life is reflected at the setting. We benefit from the parents/carers expertise in the knowledge of their own children and work closely together to improve learning and develop strong, nurturing relationships. Parent involvement is encouraged from the day their child(ren) has been offered a place at our pre-school.

An open and honest dialogue is encouraged by all staff and parents are made to feel valued as part of thr pre-school family. We encourage the families to bring their children along for stay and play sessions, prior to them starting. This is an opportunity for children to familiarise themselves with the preschool and staff and for parents to begin to build the secure relationships with the staff.

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Physical Environment
 

We ensure that each child is supported fully within their development, through working
cohesively with families to maximise outcomes for all children.  By recognising our weaknesses and strengths and striving to improve our physical environment, we reflect on our work and fulfil our learning potential. We value and empower our children and staff by recognising and celebrating successes and achievements.
 

We work in partnership with other schools and our communities to promote the welfare of our children. We have built relationships with feeder schools to ensure a smooth transition for children and parents moving from pre-school to primary school. Our preschool has a large indoor area that is split in to 2 spaces in the main hall with a further room through a corridor. Our indoor space is set up with the prime areas in mind and one of the main focuses is Physical development.
 

We support children’s physical development through the resources we provide, how we set up our environment to meet the needs of every individual child with their specific needs in mind. We focus on providing an environment that have an emphasis on challenging children to be independent and self-select their resources and how they want to learn.  Our resources encourage open ended play, that supports children to challenge their ideas and thinking. To explore items that are reusable and that can be used in many different ways. We recycle many resources, we visit charity shops, car boots and our local scrap store for all our open-ended resources. We continue to use less plastic and more wooden, natural materials, we find this is very through provoking for children especially for those children who we feel at home use technology more than ever.  We use spot trays in every room, these are used for sensory activities, rice, pasta (cooked and uncooked), gloop, play dough, cornflakes and animals, cars and painting.
 

We provide quiet enclosed spaces for children who want to have a safe space away from the busy environment, we use backdrops, fences and drapes to enclose a space with soft furnishings, cushions, throws and seating.  We use a variety of objects to support children’s fine motor skills; this begins from the age we take them at 2 years old. We have a treasure basket which is full of objects that children can use for stacking, hanging, and threading. Most of these objects have been sourced from charity shops and car boots sales.  We use safety knives to encourage children to cut up their own fruit for snack time.  These safety safety knives are also accessible in our home area for chopping up real food.

 

Parent/Carer & Community Relationships
 

The beginning of a child’s relationship with us starts at the home visit, where we learn about the child’s home environment, culture, family, and their communities. Two members of staff, one of which is the key person will attend the home visit, which is arranged between staff and parents. The staff will engage with the child verbally and through play, mainly the toys that the child has at home. Parents have the opportunity to ask questions about preschool, our routine and anything that has changed since the forms were filled out. Staff take notes on what the child enjoys, any dislikes and how the child likes to be comforted when upset. We provide our new families with a parent’s pack; this has a booklet all about preschool. We discuss the settling in sessions, which start with an hour in the setting with a parent staying with them, the 2nd session will be without a parent and for no longer than 1.5 hours. Key person then discusses the next step, if the child is happy then they can stay for 3 hours.

 

Parents are invited to ‘stay and play’ every Wednesday, this is open to children who are due to start our preschool and for parents to come along to play and observe what their children do at preschool. This really benefits both child a parent, this allows parents to observe how their child engages, responds to others and also supports learning at home.  We have now implemented an outdoor learning day every week. We attend our allotment; children walk with their friends on a walking rope or holding hands with staff. Children learn about road safety, and we talk about our environment. Children once at the allotment, help with watering, planting, and harvesting fruit and vegetables, looking for bugs and learn about the changes that we observe happening around us. Local Park,
 

We were invited to an event for children to plant some fruit trees for the community. We
helped dig the holes, plant the trees, and fill them in. Children had a wonderful time learning about growth and we take ourselves to the park to observe the changes that is happening with our trees. A group of children visit our local woods, with support from our parents helping us we take the local bus and head to the woods. Children and parents engage in outdoor activities, rolling down the hill, hide and seek. On summer days children have their lunch at the woods before returning to preschool. We take local community walks, looking at the local shops, popping into the local barbers, nail salon and coffee shop. Watching the cars, buses and lorries pass under the bridge and occasionally the supermarket to buy ingredients for our cooking club. All parents/carersand family members are invited to join the outings.