Asquith Nursery - Surbiton

Asquith Nursery - Surbiton

Inspection report for early years provision

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Asquith Nursery - Surbiton

EY290666 Unique Reference Number 01 December 2006 Inspection date Christine Stimson Inspector

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Asquith Nursery - Surbiton

23 Upper Brighton Road, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 6QX Setting Address

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E-mail

Asquith Court Nurseries Limited 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 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 AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are satisfactory.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Asquith Nursery Surbiton is one of a chain of nurseries run by Asquith Court Ltd. It was registered in 2005 under a different company number and title, but was originally registered in 1998. The nursery children are cared for in five large rooms within a three storey building. The premises are situated in Surbiton, close to the main line station and local bus routes. A maximum of 72 children may attend the nursery at any one time. The nursery opens each weekday from 08:00 until 18:00, for 51 weeks of the year, excluding Bank Holidays. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are currently 80 children aged from three months to five years on roll. Of these 18 receive funding for nursery education. The nursery currently 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 nursery employs 21 staff, 14 of the staff, including the manager hold appropriate early years qualifications, one staff member is working towards a qualification.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is satisfactory. Children play in a generally clean environment where they are encouraged to follow good hygiene practice such as washing hands before meals and after using the toilet. Staff explain to children who are old enough to understand, why they need to do this and other children learn about hygiene practice from following the example of others.

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Helping children to be healthy

Many staff hold first aid qualifications and this, along with well stocked first aid boxes and written permission from parents to take children to hospital in an emergency, means that children will be given appropriate care if they have an accident. Prior written consent to administer medication to children, together with staff adhering to medication procedures, ensures children receive the correct dosage according to their needs. This supports children's health and well being.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy freshly prepared nutritious snacks and meals whilst they are at the nursery. Fruit is always given at snack time and this is accompanied by water or milk. Drinking water is freely available to all children and older children are encouraged to help themselves throughout the day. Menus are displayed for parents to see and vegetarian alternatives are provided for children. Steps are taken to ensure children with allergies are protected from the foods that may harm them and only permanent staff, who know the children well, are allowed to serve food to them.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children have regular access to the garden, but this is not used to its full potential with the grassed area and the old nature walk hardly ever used. Children play on a tarmac area developing their pedalling and manoeuvring skills on tricycles and bikes; they use climbing frames to practise going up, under and through and they explore their imaginations in a play house. Children's fine motor skills are developed as they have access to crayons, scissors, glue sticks, paintbrushes and cutlery. Opportunities are given for children to play with malleable materials such as dough and corn flour.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Children play in an environment where they have the space to move around safely. Appropriate sized toilets are available to children, but some of these do not allow them to have privacy. The garden area used by children is safe and secure, but they are deprived from accessing all of the garden, thereby limiting their experience of the natural world. Children have easy access to a range of toys and resources appropriate for their age and stage of development; these are maintained in good condition by staff.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children play in an environment where care has been taken to ensure their safety. For example, access to the building is restricted to those people who can be identified on close circuit

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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 television monitoring the outside of the premises and who can explain to staff why they are visiting. Regular risk assessments are carried out on the premises to minimize hazards and ensure the safety of children. However, the risk assessment has failed to identify the sharp corners on the storage units kept in the toddler room. This compromises children's safety.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children and staff practise the emergency evacuation procedure regularly, with all staff aware of their responsibilities to help younger children to leave the building safely. This helps children to become familiar with the routine in the event of an emergency.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have an awareness of child protection issues and know how to proceed if they have a concern about a child in their care. A copy of the local safeguarding guidelines is kept on site for staff to refer to and the manager is the designated person who deals with child protection concerns. This supports children's well being.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is satisfactory. All staff have developed warm relationships with the children in their rooms. They speak to them in kind, pleasant tones of voice. Staff take pride in children's achievements displaying their work on the walls, showing that is it valued. The atmosphere, particularly in the baby room is quiet and peaceful. Children are confident to approach staff for support and affection.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Individual planning for children under three years of age shows that they have experienced a variety of activities that are suitable for their age and ability. Activities are linked to the components of the Birth to three framework and staff have noted how they will support children to their next step of development. However, no evidence can be found to show this is carried through. Information about what activities children participate in is now recorded in each child's diary for parents to see. However, the weekly planner put up on parents notice boards is lacking in detail and gives the impression children do very little.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young children have opportunities to experience messy play whilst being cared for by staff. They paint, play with dough and mix corn flour and water together to experience the textures created. Children are given the opportunity to be independent as all resources are kept at child height and the nursery subscribes to a philosophy of all activities being child led.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. Children are engaged in a range of activities throughout the day, all of which are child led, with adult support provided to extend children's learning. For example, a ladybird landed on a child's hand and he was encouraged to count the spots on its wings. A discussion followed about where the ladybird would be more comfortable and after exploring the possibility of putting it in his pocket, the decision was made to take it out into the garden. The following day children found resources that enabled them to create their own ladybird model. This developed further with children using magnifying glasses to find other creatures like worms in soil collected from the garden.

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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 link up with friends to participate in activities and are confident to approach staff for support and guidance. Independence is encouraged with children serving their own meals and pouring their own drinks. They are kind and considerate to each other, offering assistance to each other when it is needed. For example, a child was struggling with a game on the computer. Another child, who has very good skills on Information & Communication Technology equipment came along and showed him what to do. The child was then able to continue with his game.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are confident language users. They share experiences with each other over meals and snacks, developing good listening skills and gaining the confidence to speak up in a familiar group. Children are beginning to write, using correctly formed letters. Staff make sure mark making materials are available throughout the room.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children sing number rhymes whilst playing in the pre-school and some of the songs are teaching children to count down as well as up. However, there is a lack of visual images relating to number, limiting children's ability to recognise numbers.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are beginning to develop a knowledge and understanding of the world through experiences presented at the pre-school. For example, they can freely use the computer for educational games or the tape machine if they want to listen to music. However, they do not go out to explore the features of the local environment, or have visitors come into the setting to widen their horizons. A lack of play resources that depict people from different cultures or of all abilities further inhibits their knowledge of the wider world.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children's physical development is supported with frequent opportunities to go outside in the play area to practise skills such as balancing, climbing, riding bikes and kicking balls. Warm up aerobic sessions teach them the importance of safe exercise and children have drinks to hand to help them cool down.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children's creative development is supported as they use malleable materials to create models from their imaginations. Children are confident in naming colours and have opportunities to extend their fine motor skills using scissors, glue sticks, cutlery and pencils. Musical instruments feature in the activities children participate in and they use these to make loud and soft sounds and to tap out beats and rhythms.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff have attended training courses to develop their knowledge of the Foundation Stage of learning. Staff have devised a system to build on what children already know with reports coming from children's previous room leaders informing them of what each child has already achieved. Staff successfully challenge children's thinking and language skills by asking open questions. They maintain written observations to record children's achievements and note the adult support that needs to be given to move children to their next step of development. However, these notes are not always referred back to and no evidence is provided to show that children have achieved the stepping stones that are marked off on the children's profile records. Like all the other rooms in the setting, information given to parents about children's activities is limited, with the result that some parents are not aware of what their children do all day.

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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 satisfactory. All children are welcomed and play a full part in the nursery because staff value and respect their individuality. The nursery has experience of working with children with learning difficulties or physical disabilities and they are made to feel welcome and are supported.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children across the nursery have limited resources to play with or view that give positive images of people from other cultures and those of all abilities. Most children, with the exception of the children under one year, do have the opportunity to explore their local community. Outings are infrequent and restricted to children attending on days when the least children attend. With the exception of the librarian, visitors to the setting are limited and this restricts children's ability to learn about the wider world.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children are generally well behaved and staff are skilled at using methods to deal with inappropriate behaviour. For example, children take responsibility for managing their own behaviour from quite a young age, usually in the one to two year room where they are starting to become independent. Children are reminded to be kind and are encouraged to put toys away. Staff use a deeper tone of voice to make children realise that what they are doing is being disapproved of and they start to manage their behaviour accordingly.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Relationships with parents are improving since the new manager took over. A new system of keeping a daily diary has been introduced to all rooms caring for children under three years of age. This details children's food intake, notes children's personal details and shows what activities children have taken part in during the day. Parents are invited to add comments to the book, particularly about weekend excursions, so that this can be shared with the rest of the children. A similar system is being devised for pre-school children. Parents' evenings have been organised and this give parents the opportunity to discuss their children's progress with their child's key worker.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership with parents who receive nursery education funding is satisfactory. Parents were recently invited to an open evening where they shared their children's records with key workers. However, some parents expressed the wish for a written report as they found the observation records unhelpful in detailing their children's development. Parents find staff approachable and caring towards their children and they have seen a change for the better in the way children are taught in the last few weeks. Parents expressed concern that their children do not have opportunities to go out into the local community or have visits from people in the community who are there to help us. They would also like their children to make more use of the garden.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered whilst they are attending the nursery. For example, children have opportunities to show wonder at living things, like the guinea pigs in the garden and the worms collected in the soil box. Children like to help each other and are learning to take turns and share fairly. They link up together, making friendships and relationships in their classroom. Children have the confidence to turn to staff for support, guidance and comfort. They enjoy social occasions like snack time where they are encouraged to engage in conversation with each other and the staff. Children do have occasional

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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 opportunities to learn about the customs and beliefs of others, but the lack of resources and planning for these festivals means this is limited.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Children are cared for in rooms that are specific to their age group and where they can play in a spacious environment, organised to meet their needs. Each child has a key worker allocated to them and this benefits their emotional needs.

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Organisation

The nursery has a thorough and efficient recruitment procedure to ensure only suitable people are employed to work with children. The majority of staff hold childcare qualifications and staff training needs are identified at one to one meetings, where all staff are encouraged to embrace training opportunities to further improve their childcare practice.

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Organisation

All documentation required for the safe and effective management of the nursery is in place.

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Organisation

Leadership and management are satisfactory. The manager, who has only been in post for seven weeks, offers support and guidance to her staff and spends time in the pre-school room identifying strengths and weaknesses. Regular meetings are held with supervisors and staff to enable her to monitor the effectiveness of activities and planning for each room. The manager has taken steps to address issues raised by last the Ofsted report and is working closely with staff and parents to improve the quality of education offered to children. She in turn is supported by area managers who regularly visit to solve any issues. Further support is received from teaching advisors in the local authority who regularly monitor the progress children are making toward the early learning goals.

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Organisation

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

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last inspection recommendations were raised to improve the care given to children. Children's health is now supported as they wash their hands prior to eating, have plates provided for their snack and sit together making it a social occasion. Their safety is supported as risk assessments are completed daily within rooms using check lists and the whole premises is checked regularly by management. Steps have been taken to make sure confidentiality is maintained so that children with learning difficulties are not identified. Accidents that occur to children whilst in the care of the nursery are now reported to the parents on the same day and this helps supports children's health.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last inspection actions were raised to improve nursery education. Individual plans for each child are now in place and these stem from whatever the child has shown an interest in. Adult support is provided to help move children to their next step of development, but these are not always followed through and therefore this is a recommendation for the purpose of this inspection. Children's starting points are now identified when they move into pre-school. Reports are prepared by staff in the toddler room advising key workers of what children can already do. Staff now undertake regular observations on children's progress and link these to

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Improvements 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 the early learning goals. Most of the observations are meaningful with the learning intention clear, however staff need to make sure that these are used effectively to help children make progress. An improvement has been seen in the communication, language and literacy programme with staff encouraging children to express themselves, link sounds to letters and to enjoy books and words. Boxes holding resources are now labelled and supported by a picture and children have opportunities to identify their own names at various times of the day. A diary completed by parents about Bubbles the bear, who is a weekend guest at the children's homes, is read to children who enjoy hearing about his adventures. The programme for Mathematical development has also improved and children are now encouraged to say and use numbers as

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Improvements since the last inspection

a part of their everyday play as well as using tape measures to explore measurement and construction to explore shape and space.

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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. 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 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 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 AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are satisfactory.

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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 children are given the opportunity to use the entire garden for play and learning • ensure children cannot harm themselves on the storage units in the room used for two to three year olds • ensure all children in the nursery get regular opportunities to develop an awareness of their local community and the wider society. Make sure children have access to a range of resources that reflect diversity within the nursery • make sure parents are made aware of the activities provided for children

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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

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 • make sure notes on children's next step of development are followed through by staff so that children's progress can be monitored • continue to develop a partnership with parents so that they are kept informed about their child's progress in order to extend children's learning at home.

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

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 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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