Langstone Community Nursery

Langstone Community Nursery

Inspection report for early years provision

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Langstone Community Nursery

Unique Reference Number EY312287 Inspection date 28 April 2006 Inspector Kerry Iden

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Langstone Community Nursery

Setting Address Langstone School, Ascot Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO3 6EY Telephone number 02392832642

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E-mail

Registered person Langstone Community Nursery Type of inspection Integrated Type of care Sessional care

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E-mail

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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ABOUT THIS INSPECTION

The purpose of this inspection is to assure government, parents and the public of the quality of childcare and, if applicable, of nursery education. The inspection was carried out under Part XA Children Act 1989 as introduced by the Care Standards Act 2000 and, where nursery education is provided, under Schedule 26 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcomes for children set out in the Children Act 2004; the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding; and, where nursery education is provided, the Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. The report includes information on any complaints about the childcare provision which Ofsted has received since the last inspection or registration or 1 April 2004 whichever is the later.

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The key inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough For more information about early years inspections, please see the booklet Are you ready for your inspection? which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the care are outstanding. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are outstanding.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Langstone Community Nursery, formerly known as Stacey Pre-school, was re-registered in it's new premises in June 2005. It is situated within Langstone infants school, in a residential area of the city of Portsmouth. A maximum of 26 children may attend the nursery at any one time. The nursery is open for sessions from 09:15 - 11:45 Monday to Friday and from 12:30 - 15:00 Tuesday to Friday, term time only. All children have access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 There are currently 60 children aged from 2.9 years to under 5 years on roll. Of these 53 receive funding for nursery education. Children come from the local and surrounding areas to attend the nursery. The nursery currently supports children with special educational needs. The nursery employs 7 main staff plus 5 bank staff, six of the main staff including the manager hold appropriate early years qualifications. One member of staff is working towards a suitable childcare qualification. Some of the bank staff are also qualified.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is outstanding. Children's health is exceptionally well maintained because staff have an in-depth knowledge of first aid and know how to effectively deal with accidents and incidents. They implement highly effective health and hygiene policies to ensure the risk of infection is minimised to children; for example, when preparing snacks. There is fantastic use of 'Buggy Bugs' who is a nursery puppet, who reminds the children about clean hands before snack time. He enforces positive messages to children in a way that they enjoy. Extremely secure procedures are implemented to record accidents, the administration of medication, obtaining written information about children’s health, medical and dietary requirements, to ensure children’s individual needs are fully met and they receive appropriate treatment in an emergency. Children are kept safe from suffering with any known allergies as staff are vigilant in

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Helping children to be healthy

ensuring they have correct information before giving a child anything to eat or drink. Children all sit at the table for snack time in their colour groups, they independently and successfully find their own table mats. They develop their independence choosing their drink and then pouring it from the jug, staff assist those that require help. Healthy Henry, a nursery puppet, is used to promote healthy eating and reference is made to healthy eating throughout the session, for example, as children make the packed lunch in their role play camping activity. Healthy Henry is only allowed to eat healthy food, this is used during a fantastic group time where children identify various foods. Some children link this to home experiences, for example, one child commented on how Mummy calls them little trees when the staff member held up broccoli. Children get very excited as they organise the foods into fruit and

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Helping children to be healthy

vegetables. Children benefit greatly from the wonderful daily opportunities to engage in a wide range of physical activities inside and out. They confidently use a very good range of climbing and balancing equipment, showing excellent co-ordination and developing exceptional understanding of spatial awareness. Children make good progress in their physical development as they use their bodies in different positions when taking part in action rhymes and dancing. Children are beginning to understand how exercise makes a difference to their bodies. Staff chat to the children about how their bodies get hot during exercise. One staff member said to a small group of children, "Do you remember what happens to our heart when we exercise", one child replied "It went really fast". Children recognise when their bodies are hot and need a drink

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Helping children to be healthy

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 and develop exceptional independence as they help themselves to their water bottles.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is outstanding. Children enter into an extremely well organised setting with a good arrangement of furniture and an extensive variety of play equipment. The use of children's art work displayed on the walls makes the setting look vibrant, interesting and a child centred environment. Staff maximise the use of space including the corridor link to the school for quiet activities, small group time and stories. The equipment in place is of exceptional quality, varied and plentiful. There are items and activities, which are well resourced and set up in anticipation of the children's arrival, these look inviting and stimulating to the children. Other areas are left for the children to self select from quality toys and equipment, storage trolleys of additional resources in designated areas allow the children to develop their play and learning further. Children's safety within the setting is paramount to the staff. They ensure that risk

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

assessments are carried out daily in the classroom, toilets and outside area and on all equipment, more detailed risk assessments are carried out weekly, monthly and termly. Children's safety is maintained at collection times as staff have organised an incredibly safe going home procedure where parents collect their children one at a time with staff positioned at strategic places to ensure the children's safety. Children are protected from harm and kept safe because staff have a very secure knowledge of their role with regards to child protection. They know and understand the procedures to follow should they believe a child to be at risk and implement highly effective procedures for the collection of children to ensure arrangements are secure and children are safeguarded from harm. The implementation of effective systems to record all children, staff and visitors to the pre-school ensure children are safe whilst

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is outstanding. Children excel in all aspects of their development and relish their time at pre-school because staff have a secure knowledge of child development and recognise how children learn most effectively. Excellent interaction between staff and children enables them to become extremely self assured and develop high levels of independence and competence in these early stages of their learning. There is a real feeling of family within the nursery; the children feel ownership of the space and everything in it. Without exception, all children appeared comfortable within their surroundings. There is a relaxed atmosphere within the room, but with high levels of motivation from staff and children.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 Staff are highly skilled in the way they adapt activities and experiences to suit the needs and abilities of the younger children and use regular observations of children’s individual achievements and progress to identify clear targets, which guide their planning. Consequently, children thrive in a wonderful and stimulating learning environment and are eager to gain new skills. Nursery Education The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding. Children relish their time at nursery and play a dynamic role in their learning. They make rapid strides in their development because all staff have an excellent understanding of how children learn most effectively. Children develop excellent independence as they freely help themselves to resources and make their own decisions about their play. Their

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

independence is further encouraged by the low level coat hooks for them to hang their outdoor clothes on and the easy availability of the bathroom. All children within the setting are interested, excited and motivated by the activities, they wait with anticipation at register time, showing their eagerness to go and explore the many activities that are available to them. Staff members enthusiastically explain to the children what they are talking about for the week and what activities are available today. Children's early reading and writing skills are exceptionally well developed. They confidently recognise and link sounds and letters pointing out familiar letters and words in their name cards and other print displayed around the room. Some children confidently label their own work and write letters for envelopes at the post office. All enjoy many opportunities to practise emergent writing, freely accessing an extensive

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

range of writing tools and materials. They develop extremely good speaking and listening skills contributing confidently to group discussions and listening to and valuing what others have to say. Children excitedly contribute to story time, especially during the rhyming story when they really think and successfully come up with the rhyming words. Staff use the story and circle times to introduce new words and extend children’s vocabulary. Children absorb new words enthusiastically and continue to use them throughout the session. Children use an excellent range of mathematical language and develop a secure understanding of the concept of number, shape, weight and measure as they freely experiment with an excellent range of mathematical resources, as well as participating in many planned activities. Staff members are highly effective in using incidental opportunities to develop and extend children's understanding of the

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

concept of number and calculating, for example, during snack time, children are asked how many cups they have and how many more they will need for everyone to have one. Similarly when talking about the caterpillars, staff give children the chance to calculate how much longer it will be before they hatch out of their cocoons. Children relish in the fantastic opportunities to express their own ideas through a variety of role-play situations, these are topic linked. This week the children loved camping as part of "The Bear Hunt" theme. Staff are highly effective in the way they support children's play following their leads and enabling them to fulfil their own ideas. Children can access the creative area at any time and activities here are changed throughout the session. The children particularly loved the shaving foam as

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 they swirled the foam around the table making fantastic patterns and squeezing the foam as it oozed between their fingers. Children have the opportunity to create works of art related to the topic, although children show confidence in using their own imagination to design their own ideas. The fantastic use of puppets throughout the nursery help the children in their understanding as Buggy Bugs reminds them about washing hands and Healthy Henry is used to promote healthy eating whilst Boris and Matilda are two large puppets who go home with the children for sleepovers. Children’s curiosity and investigative skills are extremely well promoted as they make predictions about how the large magnet will help when all the tap a shape pins fall to the floor. Children extend this themselves to establish what is made of metal

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

throughout the nursery. Children learn about how plants grow and have opportunities to grow and care for seeds which they plant gaining an understanding of how to look after them. Staff make excellent use of the local environment as a learning resource. Plans show that children learn about their local community and the photograph album is in use of features close to the nursery such as the school, local library and large pond. Children have an introduction to the wider world through discussions, stories and activities linked to pre-school topics as well as the many visitors to the setting. The arrival of the nursery’s own computer has made everyone so excited as children and staff are learning together to use the mouse and to work out the variety of programmes the staff have made available to the children. Children benefit enormously from daily opportunities to engage in a wide and exciting range of physical activities. They confidently ride bicycles and scooters, develop their

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

climbing and balancing skills using a good range of apparatus such as small trampolines, bikes, scooters and stilts. All children excitedly participate in outside play which the staff enthusiastically join in with as they kick balls to children and demonstrate some equipment such as the stilts. Children understand the concept of space and can organise themselves well during a spontaneous movement activity to the tape. Children show exceptional skills as they freely access an extensive range of tools and materials. They competently use paint brushes, scissors and glue sticks safely and with confidence and freely access a range of writing tools. Children excel in their development because staff have an expert understanding of how young children learn and a secure knowledge of the Foundation Stage curriculum. They make exceptional use of every opportunity to extend children’s learning, enabling them to become independent and autonomous learners. The

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

planning of the educational programme is excellent and the rich and stimulating learning environment and well planned curriculum provides exceptional opportunities for all children to extend their learning across all areas. Staff have an excellent knowledge of children’s individual needs, interests and abilities and rigorous assessment of their individual achievements enables them to plan specific individual targets for children to work towards. Teaching is continually inspiring and challenging for all children ensuring they thrive and respond to challenges in an exciting vibrant learning environment and achieve their individual potential whilst at the pre-school.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is outstanding. All children and their families, including those with special needs, receive outstanding support from staff and outside agencies, enabling them to thrive and make excellent individual progress. They have fantastic opportunities to gain an understanding of themselves, their families and the wider world through discussions, stories and activities linked to pre-school topics. Children enjoy visits from people who work in their local community, such as fire fighters, police and a lollipop lady helping to increase their understanding of the people who help them. They participate in many planned opportunities to gain an increasing knowledge of different cultures exploring some of the special events and festivals they celebrate. Therefore, children gain a well developed respect for others and learn to recognise and value the similarities and differences between themselves and other people. This positive approach

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Helping children make a positive contribution

fosters children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. All children settle exceptionally well and develop extremely positive and trusting relationships with all staff. They share and take turns negotiating well, recognising how to play well together. Children flourish and show a very caring attitude towards one another, which impacts on the relationships they build with one another. They develop a strong sense of re-assurance and the highly effective implementation of a successful key worker system contributes to enabling children to feel acknowledged and affirmed. Consistently applied, simple pre-school rules and the staff's very skilful handling in managing behaviour enables children to gain a very secure understanding of what is right and wrong helping them to appreciate how their actions affect other people. Children benefit from a superb partnership between staff and parents ensuring their

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Helping children make a positive contribution

individual needs are extremely well met. All children are valued and included into the pre-school and highly flexible induction arrangements ensure children settle well and develop a sense of security and belonging. Excellent links are in place between pre-school and home; for example, through the implementation of the home-pre-school comment book. Detailed information, both formal and informal, including regular newsletters, display board showing daily activities, a detailed prospectus and daily discussion with staff ensures parents are well informed about the group and the activities their child is involved in on a regular basis enabling them to play a full part in their learning. The partnerships with parents are outstanding. Children's learning is significantly enhanced because parents are invited to play a full and active role. They contribute to the base line assessments of their child and are invited to spend time in the

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Helping children make a positive contribution

pre-school helping out in sessions. Parents are fully informed about the curriculum and get to know their child's key worker well. Parents are provided with suggestions of activities to try at home with their child to extend their learning. These very strong and secure links ensure parents play an active role in their child’s early education, which successfully impacts on the individual progress children make.

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Organisation

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 The organisation is outstanding. Children receive excellent care from qualified and experienced staff who have a clear understanding of their responsibilities within the group. Detailed, effective systems are in place to recruit, appoint and induct new staff ensuring children are safe and well-protected. Staff are enthusiastic and motivated, they show good awareness of their roles and responsibilities within the setting. There are good levels of qualified staff and thorough records show ample opportunities are available for ongoing training. Staff are encouraged to share their training experiences across the team. There is excellent team performance and a committed and valued attitude from all staff. All staff have a clear understanding and implement the extensive policies and

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Organisation

procedures within the nursery. The manager takes responsibility to ensure these work in practice and continually monitors and updates these, to reflect current nursery practice and keep in line with all changes in legislation. Leadership and management within the setting is outstanding. All staff have an in-depth knowledge of the Foundation Stage and child development, management place high importance on monitoring and evaluating all aspects of the provision. Teaching is monitored on a daily basis as well as through annual reviews where strengths of individuals are recognised and areas for development identified. Staff are actively encouraged to increase their skills and knowledge and identify their own training needs as part of the review process. The close partnership between the nursery and admin managers ensure continual communication in an ever changing environment. The motivation and enthusiasm from the management within the

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Organisation

nursery has a positive impact on all staff, ultimately benefiting the children who attend. As a result, the setting meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides. Management have a clear knowledge of the strengths of the group and place high importance on reviewing the provision on a regular basis. The highly effective use of time and resources, very successful deployment of staff and the wonderfully stimulating learning environment provides children with ample opportunities to initiate their own learning, gain a real sense of belonging and thrive in a happy and secure environment.

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Complaints since the last inspection

There have been no complaints made to Ofsted since registration. The provider is required to keep a record of complaints made by the parents, which they can see on request. The complaints record may contain complaints other than those made to Ofsted.

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Complaints since the last inspection

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the care are outstanding. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the care

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of care are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of nursery education are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

procedures set out in the leaflet Building better childcare: Compliments and concerns about inspectors' judgements which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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