Whitehawk After School Project (WASP)

Project (WASP)

Inspection report for early years provision

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Project (WASP)

EY270868 Unique Reference Number 19 October 2006 Inspection date Fler Wright Inspector

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Project (WASP)

Whitehawk Primary School Canteen, Whitehawk Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 5FL

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Setting Address

01273 674427 Telephone number wpap@impact-initiatives.org.uk E-mail Impact Initiatives Registered person Childcare Type of inspection Out of School care Type of care

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Setting Address

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

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

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

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Impact Initiatives Whitehawk After School Project (WASP) was registered in 2003. It operates from Whitehawk Primary School in Brighton. It is a charity run group and serves the Whitehawk and Manor Farm community.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The group use the canteen area of the school with kitchen and toilet facilities and have sole use of the premises during opening hours. There is a secure outdoor play area available. A maximum of 40 children may attend the club at any one time. The after school club is open from 15:15 to 17:30, five days a week, term time only. The holiday club is open every Easter and Summer holiday from 10:00 to 16:00.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are currently 95 children aged from four to 111 years on roll that attend for a variety of sessions. The club currently supports a number of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and also supports children who speak English as an additional language.

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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 The club employs eight members of staff, six of whom hold appropriate play work qualifications.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. Well established hygiene routines and simple explanations help to increase children’s understanding of the importance of washing their hands to help maintain good health. They know they need to wash their hands before eating and after using the toilet. The environment is cleaned daily by staff who try to ensure it is clean, warm and welcoming for children at all times.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children have access to nutritious snacks such as cheese, sweet corn and raw vegetables and are able to choose what they would like to eat. Children have made a lovely cookery book containing all of their favourite recipes, information about the five-a-day recommendations and general health and safety in the kitchen. This shows they have a secure knowledge and understanding of this area. Staff help children to see this as important as they have enlisted the help of an illustrator to present the book in an interesting and fun way. Children help themselves to fruit from the well stocked fruit bowl available at all times, encouraging them to eat healthily. Interesting daily cooking activities include curry, cheese and pineapple hedgehogs and watermelon boats. Regardless of the number of children participating, everyone is able to taste the results, helping to ensure their dietary needs are met. Children eagerly help

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Helping children to be healthy

with clearing up and wiping down tables. There is a strong focus on healthy eating within the setting although sweets are occasionally given as rewards for good behaviour, sending slightly mixed signals to the children. Fresh diluted fruit juices and water are available at all times, and children confidently help themselves from the jug and beakers placed on the kitchen side. This encourages their independence and help them to think about their personal needs.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy a range of activities that help to develop their physical skills on a daily basis. They have free access to a grassed outdoor area that is well supervised by staff and are also to make use of the school playgrounds on a regular basis. Physical play mats are available indoors, and children enjoy showing staff their forward roll skills. The good range of sports equipment is used regularly, helping to promote children's physical development.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Children benefit from playing in a spacious and well organised space that allows them to move around and play safely. The environment is warm and welcoming with displays of children’s work, showing staff value their contributions. The main room is set up to ensure children have the opportunity to become involved with a variety of experiences such as table top activities, cooking, role play, looking at books in the quiet area, playing on the computer and physical play. The free flow structure helps to ensure children are able to benefit from all of the activities and experiences on offer. Children have access to a good variety of toys and resources appropriate for their ages which include table football, sports equipment, board games, imaginary play and a wealth of art and craft materials.

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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 Staff deployment is effective and helps to ensure children are well-supervised and safe at all times. Staff have designated roles throughout the session that help to offer consistency to the children whilst ensuring all areas are covered. Staff have a good awareness of safety issues. They conduct daily visual risk assessments, such as picking up litter outside, to help ensure hazards are minimised. Each area is labelled with the risks to continually look out for, helping to ensure children are able to enjoy their play in a safe environment. The premises are very secure, helping to ensure unwanted visitors are unable to gain access.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and staff practise the fire evacuation procedure on a regular basis which helps to ensure everyone knows what to do in the event of an emergency.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have an understanding of the signs and symptoms of abuse and know what action to take should they have concerns about a child in their care. Incidents and existing injuries are recorded, helping to ensure staff are able to quickly recognise when a child is in danger and act in the child’s best interests.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children are happy, relaxed and confident and most enjoy the time they spend at the setting. They relate well to staff and to each other and approach staff for support, indicating good, trusting relationships are built. Staff regularly ask children for their feedback about what they like and do not like doing at the club, and how they feel about the play workers. This helps children to develop an important sense of belonging and lets them know that their views are an important part of how the setting improves.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are involved in a broad and fun variety of activities during their time at the club including cooking, marbling, curtain making, juggling, table football, karaoke, imaginary play and outdoor games. Activities are planned in advance, although the programme is flexible to allow for spontaneous activities requested by the children. The setting is very child led and staff focus on children being able to relax and freely participate in the different activities and experiences on offer each day, which works well within the group. Staff help children to take pride in the work as they are made to feel good about what they have achieved. For example, children spend time painting glass jars as part of the Diwali topic and the festival of light, and they are surprised by staff when returning from outside play as candles burn inside the jars. Staff dim the lights for children to see and enjoy their work.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff are well trained and have a good knowledge of how children learn through play. They establish good relationships with children, which helps them to feel secure and confident in their environment. They interact with children well, and regularly involve themselves in children's play. They are able to successfully involve children of all ages in a variety of activities, should they not want to participate in those on offer. For example, some of the older children often get a little bored and staff are able to quickly help instigate and resource a game which involves the children pretending to be play workers, that they thoroughly enjoy. Staff offer lots of praise and encouragement and are good, positive role models that children are able to learn from.

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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 good. Children are treated with respect and are made to feel good about themselves as their achievements are celebrated. Their work is displayed showing that staff value their contributions and individual folders with their names on help to create an important sense of belonging. There are a range of activities on offer that help to promote children's understanding of the wider world, such as cooking foods from different countries, and celebrating festivals such as Diwali.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Staff have experience of caring for children with special needs and have attended inclusion training. They work closely with parents and outside agencies to help ensure children's individual needs are met. Staff offer regular praise and encouragement to children to help increase their confidence and self-esteem. Most children behave appropriately and staff generally manage children's behaviour well. They are able to effectively adapt their strategies to ensure most of the children, despite their varying ages, respond to their requests appropriately. Behaviour incidents are dealt with quickly, and staff support each other generally well when dealing with inappropriate behaviour. However, some of the older children take advantage of the fact that a number of staff do not fully understand where children are and are not allowed to go when playing outside, meaning some messages are slightly inconsistent. There is a good behaviour

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Helping children make a positive contribution

reward system in place, that ensures children's positive behaviour is recorded and acknowledged with a small prize.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Parents are very happy with the care provided. They say they particularly like the safe environment and range of activities on offer. Regular newsletters detail up and coming activities, and daily verbal chats between staff and parents help to make sure information is exchanged regularly ensuring each child's ever-changing care needs are met. Parents complete regular feedback forms giving them effective opportunities to air their views whilst helping the setting to highlight any particular strengths or potential weaknesses to enable them to continually look at how they can improve.

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Organisation

The organisation is satisfactory. The vast majority of mandatory records are in place, are confidential and well maintained. This helps to ensure the safe and effective management of the setting in order to promote children's welfare. However, staff sometimes forget to sign themselves in on the register and the children's time of arrival is not recorded, which breaches a regulation. Although an oversight, the omission of this detail puts children at risk as the register does not clearly show the staff or children in attendance at any given time. This risk is greatly reduced as staff mark their names next to the children they are collecting on arrival, although this particular issue was a recommendation at the last inspection, and has since been made a regulation meaning that the quality of care can be no more than satisfactory overall.

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Organisation

Staff are currently in the process of updating some of the policies and procedures to integrate them into one document, and some require updating to ensure they contain the most relevant information for parents for example the child protection policy and complaints procedure.

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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 Children benefit from a well organised environment where they receive good adult support to help them feel secure and confident. Staff meet before each session to talk about how the session will run and who is in attendance helping to ensure consistency of care, and they evaluate each session at the end of the day sharing any strengths or concerns occurring. This generally works well, although there is a slight lack of communication and understanding in staff knowledge of behaviour boundaries, and adhering to confidentiality when discussing issues with parents.

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Organisation

Staff all have designated roles on a rota system to ensure all areas of the setting are covered helping to enhance the care offered to children. Overall, staff meet the needs of the range of children for whom they provide.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last inspection the setting were asked to implement the planned recruitment to ensure a named deputy is employed, and ensure documentation included; children's and staff arrival and departure times and fire drill evaluations.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Since the last inspection a named deputy has been recruited which helps to ensure there is sufficient support for the supervisor should she be unable to attend the session for any reason offering extra continuity of care to children. The fire drills are also now recorded in detail, giving staff the opportunity to evaluate them appropriately, minimising any further risk to children. However, the register still does not show the accurate times of arrival for children or staff, breaching a regulation. The document does not clearly show exactly who is on the premises at any given time, putting both staff and children at a potential risk.

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Complaints since the last inspection

Since the last inspection 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.

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Complaints since the last inspection

The provider is required to keep a record of complaints made by parents, which they can see on request. The complaints record may contain complaints other than those made to Ofsted.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

The quality and standards of the care are satisfactory. 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

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

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The quality and standards of the care

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 • improve staff knowledge of the behavioural boundaries for children to ensure an entirely consistent approach • ensure the registers clearly show the accurate times of arrival and departure of all staff and children at any one time throughout the session

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The quality and standards of the care

set out in the leaflet Complaints about Ofsted Early Years: concerns or complaints about Ofsted's role in regulating and inspecting childcare and early education (HMI ref no 2599) which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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The quality and standards of the care

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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