Little Nippers Preschool

Little Nippers Pre-School

Inspection report for early years provision

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Little Nippers Pre-School

EY335257 Unique Reference Number 08 December 2006 Inspection date Angela Hufton Inspector

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Little Nippers Pre-School

Python Hill Primary School, Kirklington Road, Rainworth, MANSFIELD, Nottinghamshire, NG21 0JZ

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E-mail

Rainworth Playgroup Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care, Sessional 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?

Little Nippers Pre-School registered in 2006. It operates from a designated unit at Python Hill Primary School in the village of Rainworth, near Mansfield, North Nottinghamshire. Children have access to a main play room and quiet room and also have access to a classroom and hall within the school. An enclosed outdoor play area is available. Most of the parents whose children attend the setting live or work in the local area. It offers 30 places for children between the ages of two and eight years. The pre-school is open for 39 weeks of the year during term time. Sessions last from 09:00 to 11:30, a lunch club runs from 11:30 to 13:00 and 13:00 to 15:30, Monday to Friday. Children attend a variety of sessions each week. There are currently 75 children on roll and this includes 27 funded children. The pre-school supports children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are nine staff that work with the children, all have early years qualifications for their role with some staff working towards higher qualifications. All staff attend additional training

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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 relevant to their roles. The setting receives support from the local authority and is a member of the Pre-School Learning Alliance.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. Children's good health is promoted well by staff who effectively follow the provision's comprehensive health and hygiene procedures. Sufficient staff hold current first aid certificates and therefore can deal with any accident effectively. Clear procedures are in place for recording accidents and medication, however, on occasion some records lack sufficient details to fully ensure children's ongoing welfare. Children rest and relax in the comfortable book area according to their needs, with staff offering gentle reassurance to sleepy children.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children's dietary needs are met effectively by staff and parents sharing information. Children gain a good understanding of healthy eating through topics, baking activities and discussion. They enjoy an extremely wide variety of nutritious snacks including fresh fruit such as water melon, Satsumas, cherry tomatoes and Croissants. Water is always available for children to help themselves to as they wish, ensuring that they do not become thirsty.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children have regular opportunities to take part in a suitable range of physical play activities. Whilst the children have daily access to an outdoor play area, space is limited at times for children to take part in more challenging, energetic exercise or to practise climbing skills. Through developing planning based on children's interests, staff support children to understand about exercise for their health. For example, a recent topic around a cartoon character, 'Sporticus' supported the children's understanding of different types of exercise and activity through sports that they enjoyed.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Children are cared for in a well maintained, welcoming environment which is safe and secure. The risk of accidental injury to children is minimised through staff's well-organised checking routines, the active supervision of children and the effective use of risk assessments. Children learn to keep themselves safe in the setting through gentle explanations from the staff, including why they should be careful about splashing water on the floor when they wash their hands so others do not slip on the wet floor.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children use a wide range of good quality, clean, stimulating and developmentally appropriate toys and equipment. They develop their independence as they move freely and safely around the room because activities are set out so that clear walkways are maintained and play equipment does not present a hazard to children who are working at tables. Children's understanding of safety is developed well through familiar daily routines and enhanced by visits from people, related to topics about safety. They also take part in regular fire drills so they are aware how to evacuate the building in an emergency.

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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 Children are well protected by staff who attend relevant child protection training. Staff have a good awareness of safeguarding procedures and know how to put these into place should they have concerns about the welfare of a child. Children are further protected through effective systems to ensure they are only released to authorised adults.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. The care and play experiences for children in the pre-school are good. Children arrive happy and are confident to leave their parent or carer and eagerly engage in play of their choice. Staff and children interact extremely well with each other. Children under three years are cared for in the same room as older children. Staff have recently accessed training to develop their use of the "Birth to three matters" framework to ensure that young children are making progress in all areas, however, all children are confident and enthusiastic. They concentrate well as activities are generally planned to take account of children's development and their varying interests, so that they learn whilst having fun. There is a suitable balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities which promotes choice and independence. For example, children choose freely which dressing-up costume to wear and negotiate with their friends who is going to have

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Children make progress in their learning because practitioners have a good knowledge of the Foundation Stage curriculum, recognise how individual children learn and generally challenge them to extend their learning. All the staff are involved in assessments of children's learning. They use their knowledge of the children, through observation, to extend children in the activities on offer. This information is shared with parents on request. Initial assessments are carried out with the children and their development is recorded and a few targets are set for their next steps. However, this is not fully effective or sufficiently linked back into the planning of activities to differentiate for individual children's learning needs and to ensure they are challenged equally in all areas of the curriculum.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have a positive attitude to learning, show good initiative and enjoy making their own decisions. They concentrate well and persevere with tasks showing good levels of confidence and self-esteem, for example, they sit for a period of time to make and decorate Christmas cards. Staff effectively support children and give them time to complete projects.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff read stories expressively, making very good use of puppets to involve all ages. Children listen attentively and respond with excitement. They actively contribute to discussions, listen to each other and ask questions, for example, during register time or in lunch club. Children enjoy writing for a variety of purposes and some are able to recognise and write correctly formed letters and numbers. Mathematical language is beginning to be used by children across the curriculum, as are problem solving skills and the idea of pattern. Children have different opportunities to explore, gather information and satisfy their curiosity through first hand experiences which helps them make sense of the world. For example, they plant seeds and see how things grow, or explore a range of metallic objects. Children's use of magnifying glasses,

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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 magnets and tools develop their investigative skills. They use scissors with increasing skill and are helped as needed by staff. Children respond well to the questioning techniques of the staff which extend and consolidate their learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff value children's creativity and encourage them to express themselves imaginatively. This enables them to make connections between one area of learning and another. They enjoy painting including different methods, for example, foot printing. They create various items from play dough and act out stories and life experiences in the home corner. Children listen and move to a wide variety of music from pop to classical and enjoy using musical instruments and singing.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Children feel a sense of belonging and all take an active part in the life of the pre-school. Staff know the children very well and raise their self-esteem by cherishing them as individuals. All children are fully included in the setting and staff have attended relevant training and seek external support to ensure children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities have their needs met. Children develop a positive attitude and respect for others through the staff being very good role models. They increase their awareness of their own and differing cultures through planned activities, for example, snack time is used effectively to introduce foods from around the world, including food from Japan. Through children's discussions during the food tasting staff extend the conversations to talk about other aspects of the country. Children also access a range of resources that show positive images of culture, ethnicity, gender and disability

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Helping children make a positive contribution

including learning some sign language or looking at family photographs from different cultural backgrounds. Children's social, spiritual and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children behave very well. They have a routine that is familiar to them and they know what to expect and what is going to happen next. For example, children understand to tidy up through staff effectively using pictures for them to follow. Staff keep children very well informed of what they will be doing so that children can experience excitement and fulfilment. Children are happy and occupied and play harmoniously as a group. They respond very well to staff and are helpful and considerate.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The partnership with parents and carers of funded children is good. Parents are able to access their child's records and assessments on request, so that they can contribute to their child's learning if they wish. Daily information is shared verbally with parents on their child's progress and at intervals parents receive some written information on targets their child is working towards. All children benefit because each child's key-worker regularly liaises with parents and consequently parents are fully involved in their child's learning, such as taking favourite books or dressing up costumes home to share. Staff keep parents well informed about pre-school issues and also providing parents with a notice board for other interesting news.

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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. Children's care is mostly enhanced by the pre-school's comprehensive policies and procedures, which support everyday practice. However, a few records do not contain all the required details to ensure children's welfare in every area. This relates to staff registers, the child protection policy and lost child policy. Effective recruitment and vetting procedures, ongoing staff meetings and training ensure that children are well protected and are cared for by staff who are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and clear about their individual roles. This results in a happy, committed staff team who work very well together under the clear leadership of the manager. Effective deployment of staff, who have warm, friendly relationships with the children allows them to feel secure and develop a strong sense of their own self-worth.

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Organisation

The quality of leadership and management of the nursery education is good. The manager and deputy form a highly motivated partnership who lead by example and inspire the staff to provide good quality care and education for the children. The pre-school has clear aims and objectives. The effectiveness of what the staff and children do is regularly reviewed and some evaluations are used to make improvements to teaching and learning. Annual appraisals are beginning to be used to identify training that will further develop staffs knowledge and understanding and so increase the progress children are making towards the early learning goals.

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Organisation

Overall, the provision 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 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 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 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

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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): • improve the range of opportunities for physical and outdoor play to ensure sufficient challenge for all children, including climbing skills • continue to develop policies, procedures and record keeping to promote the welfare of children including registers, accident and medication records, the child protection policy and lost child policy.

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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): • make more effective use of observations and assessment to ensure children's next steps in learning are clearly identified and linked to planning to ensure their progress is maximised (also applies to care) • evaluate the routine and planned activities and implement a system to ensure all six areas of the curriculum are regularly and equally covered through focused and everyday activities, with particular reference to mathematics and calculation.

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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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