1st Place Children & Parents Centre

1st Place Children and Parents' Centre

Inspection report for early years provision

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1st Place Children and Parents' Centre

Unique Reference Number EY311475 Inspection date 02 August 2006 Inspector Lorna Lorraine Hall

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1st Place Children and Parents' Centre

Setting Address Chumleigh Street, Burgess Park, London, SE5 0RN

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E-mail

Registered person 1st Place Type of inspection Integrated Type of care Full day care, Out of School 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 good. 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 good.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

1st Place Children and Parent's centre opened in 2005. It is a run by its members, the majority of whom are parents from the local community. The centre follow the "Reggio Emilia" approach to learning. It operates from a large purpose built building. A part of the building is used by other community groups and has crèche facilities where parents can leave their children while they attend training. A maximum of 50 children may attend the day care and 20 children may attend the

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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 crèche and out of school provision. The out of school provision is currently not open. The centre is open each weekday from 08:00 to 18:00 for 52 weeks a year. All children have access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area There are currently 38 children from aged three months to under five on roll. Of these, eight receive funding for early education. Children come from the local area. The nursery currently supports children with learning difficulties and/or disability. The centre employs 19 members of staff who work directly with the children, all of whom have a relevant early years qualification.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. Children learn and understand the importance of good personal hygiene through every day routines such as washing their hands after using the toilet and before lunchtime. All the children have easy access to low level sinks with suitable facilities for them to wash and dry their hands independently. They are protected from cross infection because staff follow good hygiene procedures when changing children's nappies, for example by wearing disposable gloves. Staff do not wear outdoor shoes in the baby room; this means babies are able to crawl and explore in a clean environment. All the children benefit from being in the fresh air and take part in physical exercise suitable to promote their good health and development. In the event of an accident, children benefit from having a number of staff with a current first aid certificate on the premises at all times. Children enjoy wholesome and nutritious meals which meet special dietary needs

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Helping children to be healthy

and ensures children remain healthy. The meals are freshly prepared on the premises by a qualified cook and consist of many fresh vegetables. Parents are asked to provide information about their children's likes and dislikes. Staff use this information to develop individual menu planner for the babies. This ensures consistency of care. Children enjoy healthy snacks of fruit and drinks. To ensure babies are not thirsty staff record their drinks intake throughout the day, and older children can help themselves to drinking water according to their needs. Younger children are able to rest according to their needs and cots or beds are available in the baby and toddler room. Older children can relax on a bean bag in the book corner. Staff actively work in partnership with parents to ensure that the health needs of the children are effectively met.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

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 provision is good. All the children benefit from playing in a spacious well-organised environment. This allows them to move around and play safely. Children have access to a excellent selection of age appropriate resources suitable to promote their all round development. The nursery follows good security precautions to keep children safe, by ensuring that the reception area is manned at all times. As a extra safety measure visitors and regular users are asked to sign themselves in and out of the building. Regular risk assessments are completed to identify potential hazards to children indoor and outdoor. A member of staff has sole responsibility to ensure health and safety in the whole of the building. Children use a range of resources suitable to enable them to take risks in a controlled and safe way; these resources are easily accessible,

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

particularly in the pre-school room. The organisation of the rooms means they can move safely and freely between the inside and outside areas. Children are protected from risk of fire, because fire marshals are in each classroom to ensure the safe evacuation of the rooms and regular drills are carried out with staff and children. Children's welfare is promoted well because the manager has responsibility to ensure staff are up-to date with recent legislation to support them in their work to protect children. This means that children are well protected from any form of abuse. Staff have a good understanding of the signs and symptoms of abuse and who to contact to report concerns.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children enjoy learning in a rich and stimulating environment. The same range would be available in the crèche and out of school provision. Staff make good use of observations to ensure activities are interesting and enable the children to make good progress. Children between the ages of three months and three years have very good opportunities to explore a wide range of natural resources and play equipment every day. A great deal of the play equipment is made of natural materials, and children play enthusiastically with brightly coloured pop-up toys and musical instruments. Activities plans are evaluated on a daily basis to ensure children are sufficiently challenged and to identify and plan for gaps in the children's learning. Children benefit from having regular access to a painting easel, sand and water, as well as other activities, and these equipment are easily accessible. This means that the

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

children are able to make independent choices to extend their learning and enjoyment. Staff make good use of the outdoor area to ensure there is a natural flow and children can learn about their environment in a meaningful way. For example, they plant vegetable seeds with the resident gardener.

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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 make effective use of the " Birth to 3 matters framework" as a guide to planning and to provide a excellent range of stimulating and appriopriate activities. This means that children have the opportunity to explore a wide range of textured materials through seeing, feeling, tasting and smelling. For example, babies walk barefoot on smooth concrete surface and pebbled surfaces. Staff take responsibility to supervise individual activities and to ensure all the children are involved. Children engage in activities which are geared to enable them to make progress in their learning. For example, the large wooden activity set supports the children who are learning to walk. Nursery Education The quality of teaching and learning is good. Children make good progress because

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

staff plan and deliver a broad range of activities and play experiences across the six areas of learning. Well written progress reports give a clear picture of the stage which children have reached in their learning and how staff will move them on. Children are cared for by staff who have high expectations of them and ensures all the children have access to quality and sufficient resources to challenge them to excel in their learning. In accordance with the "Reggio model" staff work closely with an artist and local professionals to ensure all the children achieve as much as they can. Children show good self confidence; they are independent and attend to their personal needs well. For example, they wash their hands after messy activities. They spend time looking around the room exploring the different activities before settling down to play. Children show affection to each other because staff encourage them to

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

develop good relationships. More able children enjoy carrying out staff's request in an adult manner. For example, they help and encourage the other children to prepare for the next activity. However, opportunities are missed as staff are not consistent in involving the children at large group activities. Children are interested and motivated to learn and they preserve for long periods at chosen activities, for example, when cutting fresh vegetables form the vegetable patch in the garden. Older children have a range of vocabulary which they use well to express themselves, extend their play and describe events in their lives, such as visits to the park and visits to local restaurant with members of their family. For example, they talk clearly about a dinosaurs' display and how they made the dinosaurs using different materials. There are lots of opportunities for children to practise their writing skills.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

For example, most of the children write recognisable words in their writing book. Children learn that print carries meaning through labelling and simple captions. They enjoy looking at books and contribute during story time. Children can count confidently and match numbers, colours and shapes. They use a variety of tapes and rulers to measure but they do not fully identify the length of items. They use mathematical language to describe different sizes, for example, big and small. Children are beginning to learn simple addition and subtraction through the use of different objects. They are developing an understanding of volume through transferring water from one container to another. Children explore an excellent range of natural resources and develop a good knowledge of living things, for example by growing and looking after their own

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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 vegetable patch in the garden. They plant seeds, watch them grow and pick them to use as ingredients for cooking. They cut up vegetables such as spinach, broad bean, tomato, courgette and mange-tout and talk about the different textures. Children use the computer to complete simple programs. They learn about their local environment through planned outings to the park, market and shops and museum. A recent visit was made to the museum to learn about dinosaurs, this activity was further extended to a dinosaur hut in the garden. The children also use collage materials to make dinosaurs for their display. This means that children are able to reinforce their learning in a variety way. Children develop their imagination and express themselves well through using the available resources, for example, they dance spontaneously to the music playing in

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

the background. They walk confidently on balancing beams and show good co-ordination when riding bikes and running fast. Children laugh and show enjoyment as they play with their friends in the home corner. Children take part in activities such as painting and sticking. They enjoy these activities and show much creativity to create their own designs due to the excellent selection of interesting textured materials. They use scissors, and other cutting implements with precision.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. There are lots of opportunities for children to learn about other cultures in a meaningful way. For example, parents are encouraged to use their mother tongue at home and at the nursery. Generally children are well behaved and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered. Staff are in the process of working closely with outside agencies to develop effective strategies to manage the children behaviour especially during large group activities. Children's self esteem is promoted well because staff praise and encourage them appropriately. Most of the children are co-operative and respond positively to staff's gentle reminder of acceptable behaviour. Children with special education needs are fully supported in the nursery and staff work closely with outside agencies and parents to ensure individual learning needs are met. Partnership with parents is good. Children settle well because parents and children

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Helping children make a positive contribution

are greeted in a friendly manner by the staff. Staff respect parents' wishes about children's individual needs and approach parents to negotiate changes. For example, parents sit on the interview panel to appoint new members of staff. They are also invited to attend meetings about the provision. The nursery's handbook is made available to parents, which includes details of the main policies and procedures. Parents receive verbal information about their children's progress and development. This means children benefit from a two way sharing of information between parents and staff. Parents are regularly invited to come into the nursery to share their skills. The weekly activity plan is displayed for parents to chart their children learning and

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Helping children make a positive contribution

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 see how they can contribute to learning at home and enhance their children's learning.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Staff carefully plan and carry out a range of exciting and interesting activities, and make good use of the available resources and learning environment. This means that staff plan a delivery interesting opportunities suitable to promote learning through play in the nursery, out of school care and the crèche. The good organisation enables the children to make independent choices about their play. Staff make effective use of the outside area as a learning environment for all the children. This means that children can play inside and outside and benefit from a wide range of play experiences. The room leader in the baby room has suitable training and experience of working with children under two. The recruitment procedures are effective in identifying which age group staff are best suited to work with. A rigorous induction programme ensures that staff are well informed how they work in practice to promote children' health,

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Organisation

safety, enjoyment, achievement and ability to make a positive contribution. Leadership and management are good. The management ensures that there are effective systems in place to monitor what staff are doing and to establish training needs. For example, they are hands on and they regularly meet with staff to celebrate achievements and to discuss training needs. Staff are encouraged to access in-house and external training to enhance their work with children who are in receipt of nursery education funding.

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Organisation

Leadership and management have developed strong links with outside agencies to ensure staff are well supported in their role to provide a good education for all the children. A number of staff with specialised training is employed to ensure that the curriculum for children under three and the funded children is based on the Reggio Emilio approach to learning.

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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 parents, which they can see on request. The complaints records 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 good. 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 good.

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The quality and standards of the care

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • develop effective strategies to manage children's behaviour especially during large group activities (this also applies to nursery education)

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

To improve the quality and standards of nursery education further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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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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