Mother Goose Nursery - Greendale Field LtdOfsted inspection, 8 Sept 2006

Mother Goose Nursery - Greendale Field Ltd

Inspection report for early years provision

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Mother Goose Nursery - Greendale Field Ltd

EY316472 Unique Reference Number 08 September 2006 Inspection date Lorna Lorraine Hall Inspector

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Mother Goose Nursery - Greendale Field Ltd

65 Greendale, London, SE5 8JZ Setting Address

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E-mail

Mother Goose Nursery - Greendale Field Ltd Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care Type of 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

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The key inspection judgements and what they mean

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?

Mother Goose Day Nursery is an established nursery, due to changes in the company status they re- registered in 2006. The nursery operates from a purpose built building. It is situated in a residential area of Dulwich. A maximum of 36 children may attend the nursery at any one time. The nursery is open each weekday from 08:00 to 18:00 for 50 weeks of the year. All the children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are currently 50 children aged from three months to under fives on roll. Children attend for a variety of sessions. Of these, 11 children receive funding for early education. Children come from the local area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery employs 13 members of staff. Of these 11 hold appropriate early years qualification and two are working towards a qualification.

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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

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. All the children learn the importance of good personal hygiene, through well organised activities and routines. For example, they wash their hands several times throughout the day and they brush their teeth after lunch. Staff are good role models in promoting good hygiene. For example they wear disposable gloves when handling body fluids and use antibacterial fluid to clean the tables after each activity. Cross infection to children is minimised because parents receive good information about the care and exclusion of children who are ill. Children's personal belongings are clearly labelled and easily identified. For example, they readily recognise their tooth brush and flannels.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children regularly engage in a good range of physical activities which contributes to their good health. For example, they skilfully jump on the trampoline use hoops and throw frisbees.

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Helping children to be healthy

Staff use the Birth to three framework to provide a good range of physical play experiences for babies and children under three years. This means that younger children are sufficiently challenged physically.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children are cared for in an environment that enable them to rest and be active according to their needs. Staff follow babies’ individual routines for sleeping. This ensures continuity of care and contributes to their physical well-being.

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Helping children to be healthy

Accidents to the children is appropriately dealt with as most of the staff team hold, current first aid certificate. Effective systems are in place to ensure the safe administration of medication, for example, staff will only administer medication that is prescribed and a member of staff signs to witness. This ensures children receive the correct dose.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children benefit from a healthy diet. They enjoy wholesome nutritious meals that are freshly prepared by the nursery cook. Staff monitor the menu to ensure it caters for all tastes they work in partnership with parents to ensure individual dietary needs are met. For example, on parent's advice staff replaced sweet puddings with fresh fruit. To ensure individual dietary needs are met a list of the children's dietary needs is displayed in the kitchen and on the children's place mats. Staff observe good practices when handling food because most of them have attended food handling training.

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Helping children to be healthy

Older children have access to drinking water throughout the day and younger children are regularly offered drinks to ensure none remain thirsty. Staff follow babies' individual routines for eating. This ensures continuity of care and contributes to their physical well being. Through discussion, older children learn the benefits of a healthy diet. For example, they know that milk helps to build strong muscles.

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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

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Children are cared for in a bright, attractive and well maintained environment. The children's art work is attractively displayed around the nursery. All the children benefit from playing in a spacious well-organised environment. This allows them to move around safely and freely to independently access available resources, from tables, trays, shelves and boxes at child height. Babies are able to crawl and learn to walk in a safe well-organised environment. Children have access throughout the day to a good range of quality toys and resources appropriate to their age and stage of development. Staff are generally deployed effectively to support the children throughout the nursery.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The outdoor area is organised well to enable children to enjoy play outside and to be able to take risks in a safe and controlled environment.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Suitable safety measures are in place, for example fire doors are clearly labelled and escape procedures displayed. Staff are vigilant and make sure that items with small parts that could cause choking are not accessible to babies. The premises are very secure and appropriate procedures are in place to prevent unauthorised persons gaining access.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are well protected from abuse or neglect within the nursery because staff have a good understanding of the procedures to follow with any concerns. Staff have access to good and clear documentation to support them in their work. This promotes children's welfare.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. All the children enjoy learning in a rich and stimulating environment. Staff make good use of observations to ensure activities are interesting and enable the children to make good progress. Heuristic play enables children between the ages of three months and three years to investigate and explore a range of textured materials. This means that children are able to use their senses to interpret their experiences. 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.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children’s creative, imaginative and physical development is encouraged through well planned activities such as art and craft, painting, listening to and playing music, singing, dancing, role-play and dressing up. Children are cared for by staff who know them well and use good questioning techniques to develop their vocabulary. For example, repeating children’s responses and using visual aids encourages use of language.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff make good use of the Birth to three framework to ensure children under three years old explore through a range of well planned activities that are appropriate for their stage of development. For example, staff inform parents where their children are at in their learning and how they can move them on. The weekly activity plan is evaluated on a daily basis to ensure children are sufficiently challenged and to identify and plan for gaps in the children's learning.

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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 Children are happy in the nursery environment they confidently help themselves to resources and relate well with staff and other children. This means that children contribute to their play in a meaningful way.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff make good use of the outdoor area to ensure that children enjoy indoor and outdoor play and 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

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Children make good progress because 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 ensure all the children have access to quality and sufficient resources to challenge them to excel in their learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children show good self confidence; they are independent and attend to their personal needs well. For example, they wash their hands after messy activities and they self select learning resources to extend their play. More able children enjoy carrying out staff's requests in an adult manner. For example, they help and encourage the younger children to prepare for the next activity. Children are interested and motivated to learn and they persevere for long periods at chosen activities, for example, during cooking activities. Children are well behaved because staff give good explanations and reason with them.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Story time is used well to introduce additional learning. For example, during story the children relate to past experiences. There are lots of opportunities for children to practise their writing skills. For example, they frequently attempt writing in the well resourced writing area and easily recognise everyday situations when writing is used. Children learn that print carries meaning through labelling, simple captions and self registration. They enjoy looking at books on their own or in small groups. During story time they choose favourite books for staff to read. This enables the children to contribute to their learning in a meaningful way.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children count reliably up to ten and beyond. Staff provide opportunities for them to use their mathematical knowledge to problem solve. For example, they count the number of chairs at lunch time and work out how many plates and cutlery is needed for the number of children. They use mathematical language to describe different sizes, for example, big and small. They are developing an understanding of weight during cooking activity. Children have daily access to a range of quality and sufficient resources to promote their mathematical development. For example, they balance different size circle boxes to make high towers.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

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 vegetable patch in the garden. They plant seeds, watch them grow and pick them to use as ingredients for cooking and to share with residents at the local old people's home. This means that they learn about how they can contribute and help others in the community.

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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 Older children skilfully manipulate the computer to carry out simple programmes, they use other programmable toys to enhance their knowledge of the world around them. For example, large globe of the world programmed to give information about different countries. There are lots of opportunities for children to fit and make things work, for example, they connect wires on a circuit board to make the fan work.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children develop their imagination and express themselves well through using the available resources, for example, during outdoor play they create a pirate ship and use appropriate dressing up clothes. Children join in enthusiastically when singing songs and rhymes, music playing in the back ground creates a calming effect. They use hoops to practice their balancing skills and skilfully handle a range of malleable materials, using scissors, and other cutting implements with precision.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. There are lots of opportunities for children to learn about other cultures in a meaningful way. For example, children have access to good range of resources suitable to promote their understanding of other cultures. Older children enjoy weekly French lesson from an external French tutor. They can count in French and carry out simple instructions.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children are well behaved and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered. Their self esteem is promoted well because staff praise and encourage them appropriately. Children are given choices to manage their behaviour. Staff have strong links with outside agencies to support them in their work.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

There is good support for children and families who have special education needs and they are fully supported in the nursery.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership with parents is satisfactory. Children settle well because parents and children are greeted in a friendly manner by the staff. Staff respect parents' wishes about children's individual needs and approach parents to negotiate changes. Parents are regularly invited to come into the nursery to share their skills and professional knowledge with the children. The nursery's handbook is made available to parents, which includes details of the main policies and procedures.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Parents receive regular verbal information about their children's progress and development. They also receive a detailed written progress report covering the six areas of learning at the end of the year. However, parents would like more information on how staff use the stepping stones to achieve the learning intention for individual children, in line with the curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage of learning. The information would enable them to use the curriculum guidance as a guide to support learning at home.

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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

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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 and deliver interesting opportunities suitable to promote learning through play. The good organisation enables the children to make independent choices about their play.

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Organisation

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.

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Organisation

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's health, safety, enjoyment, achievement and ability to make a positive contribution.

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Organisation

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 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. Staff are generally deployed effectively to support children in their learning.

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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.

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Organisation

As part of their commitment to good childcare the nursery are currently working towards Southwark quality kite mark and have successfully completed module 2, working in partnership with parents carers and friends of the community. As part of the assessment parents were asked to completed questionnaires on the service they receive.

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Organisation

The setting meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides.

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Complaints since the last inspection

Since registration there have been no complaints made to Ofsted that required the provider or Ofsted to take any action in order to meet the National Standards. The complaints records may contain complaints other than those made to Ofsted.

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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

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 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): • ensure staff are effectively deployed to supervise the children at all times

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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): • develop systems to ensure parents receive clear written information about the Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage and how they can contribute to learning at home

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

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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