Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

Inspection report for early years provision

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Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

EY273422 Unique Reference Number 23 January 2007 Inspection date Sheila Collins Inspector

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Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

Horsepond Road, Gallowstree Common, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 9BT Setting Address

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Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

01189 722196 Telephone number info@bishopswooddaynursery.com E-mail Bishopswood Day Nursery Ltd Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care Type of care

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Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited

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 good.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Bishopswood Day Nursery is run by Bishopswood Day Nursery Limited. It opened in 2004 and operates from six rooms in a converted school. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is in Gallowstree Common, between Reading and Henley on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border. The nursery is open each weekday from 07.30 to 18.30 for 51 weeks of the year.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

A maximum of 128 children aged under five years may be cared for at any one time. Of these, not more than 53 may be under two years. There are currently 126 children on roll. Of these, there are 46 children aged between three and five years, 45 of whom receive funded nursery education. Children come from a wide catchment area. The nursery cares for children with learning difficulties and those for whom English is 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 A total of 28 staff are employed to work directly with the children. Of these staff, 20 including the manager hold appropriate early years qualifications.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is satisfactory. The children are developing an understanding of the need to follow good hygiene practices, such as washing their hands after using the toilet or before meals. The older, more able children are independent in their self-care skills, for example, taking themselves to the toilet and talking about getting the germs off their hands. Younger children are learning about the need to clean hands. Staff follow good hygiene practices when changing nappies but not all staff talk with the children when changing them. Babies individual routines for eating and sleeping are discussed with parents and followed by staff, which reassures the babies, making them feel secure.

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Helping children to be healthy

Staff have good knowledge of the children's health and dietary needs, which means that children’s health is promoted. There are staff trained in first aid on duty at all times. All the relevant documentation for the recording of accidents and medication are in place which supports the children's well being.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy well-balanced meals and snacks which include a variety of fresh food. Both the staff and the cook are aware of children’s individual dietary needs. Meals are prepared on site and special diets are catered for. Children eat with relish and can choose to have second helpings. Some children bring in lunches from home and in pre-school all children sit for some time waiting for the cooked meals to be given out before they can start eating. Staff give out the drinks and cutlery to the pre-school children but do not sit with the children at the tables. All children have access to drinks throughout the day. Older children can access these independently and the pre-school children pour their own water. Younger children have labelled cups to minimise the risk of using other children's. Babies are offered drinks at regular intervals in the day, for example when they have been asleep and at mealtimes. Not all children have appropriate

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Helping children to be healthy

stage cups and some toddlers find some difficult to handle which results in spillages. Staff, however, wipe up any spillages with the minimum of fuss and reassure the child concerned.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children learn to enjoy energetic outdoor play as part of developing a healthy lifestyle. There are daily opportunities for all children to enjoy outdoor play in order to help develop physical skills. The older children ride on bicycles and in cars, use swings and play throwing and catching balls. They run about freely and use blocks to build towers. Children learn to enjoy energetic outdoor play as part of developing a healthy lifestyle. Babies are taken out for walks in buggies around the area on a daily basis unless unsuitable weather. They are also learning about their own bodies and what they can do. They roll, crawl, sit and practise standing, gradually developing new skills as they play in their base room.

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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. There are good systems in place to monitor the safe arrival and departure of children, ensuring the children's safety. Children’s safety is maintained as staff have an awareness of safety issues, for example the height and location of the fire extinguisher in one of the toddler rooms is a potential hazard. However, the daily risk assessment for the outdoor area is not effective as staff have not recorded the location of an uneven slab, which a child nearly tripped on. There are also maintenance issues within the building as some doors are not easily opened and a door marked as a fire door in the main corridor does not shut, which compromises children's safety. In the babies' room, the children's health is compromised as the chairs which are used for feeding the children in and the edges of the tables are not cleaned effectively.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Most areas of the nursery are colourful and welcoming. Children in all areas have access to a range of resources, which are age and stage appropriate. Staff check these regularly to ensure that they are clean and safe for the children to use. However, some basic resources, for example the Treasure basket, have to be shared which means that they are not easily available for all children. Resources in the preschool are limited. Children choose from those which the staff have put out and have few choices for self selection. The book corner in the room used by the eldest children is not very inviting and the books show signs of wear.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children in the toddler and pre-school rooms are learning to keep themselves safe, by helping to tidy up in their base rooms, as part of the routine. They are confident when moving between areas of the nursery and within rooms. The children practise regular evacuation drills. They know the rules in place for their safety, for example no running indoors.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have a knowledge of safeguarding issues and management are clear on the routes of referral, which contributes to keeping the children safe.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children are well supported throughout the nursery. Each child has a key worker which ensures good support for that child. Children in all areas interact well with each other and have very positive relationships with their peers and adults present. They enjoy a variety of stage appropriate activities and experiences which help them develop new skills.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Babies receive a lot of individual attention and have stimulating activities such as the Treasure basket and sensory play. Older children are involved in appropriate activities and are able to self-select from the activities put out by staff. Staff ensure that the children are given a chance to take part in planned activities such as mask making, listening and identifying sounds, playing with dough, singing and story times, as well as free play. Each child is able to choose activities that they would like to take part in and staff are sensitive to the children’s individual needs. Staff support the children in their play, praising and encouraging them in their achievements which builds their self-esteem and self-confidence.

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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 The younger children are benefiting from the staff's awareness of the Birth to three matters framework, which they are beginning to use as a planning and assessment tool, so ensuring that the children have suitable stage appropriate experiences. Staff know the children’s individual needs and achievements. However, although there is a system in place to record the children’s development and progress, this is not used effectively in all areas of the nursery.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is good. The children are becoming independent and take responsibility for their own work, putting it in labelled boxes. However, some of these boxes are at a height where children cannot reach them easily. The children self-select from the activities out in the room but have few opportunities to select other resources for themselves.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

At group times, the children sit and listen well. They are becoming confident at speaking in a group, for example at group time when discussing the recent storm damage, and initiate conversations with adults, asking questions of visitors. They enjoy role play and use appropriate language to discuss events, for example, when going shopping and discussing mummy having a baby. The children have access to paper, pens and pencils on a daily basis and can mark make freely in this area. They are encouraged to try and write their names on their work and use their name cards to help identify the correct sequence of letters, for example when making named place mats. However, they have few opportunities to practise their emergent writing in everyday activities. They have good opportunities to see their names in print during the day. They understand how to use books and read to each other and adults. However, the book corner in

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

the older children’s room is little used and does not appear inviting to the children.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The children count confidently when taking part in activities. They enjoy games such as the bears and through this activity learn to add on and take away bears and about sizes, sequencing and sorting into groups. They use a good range of mathematical language appropriately, for example, big and little and positional language such as in front and at the back when lining up to go outside. They learn about different shapes, including three dimensional shapes when discussing making a model of ‘Big Ben’.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The children enjoy investigating, exploring and experimenting, for example, finding the blocks hidden in the sand tray and building towers out of wooden bricks. They build complex structures enlisting the help of staff. They talk with confidence about the days of the week and the weather. They initiate topics for discussion, for example, about the recent storm damage and involve the adults in this. They are beginning to understand technology when they use the telephones and the computer.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The children have opportunities to be creative everyday. They confidently paint, draw, colour and make collages. They use a wide range of different materials and media such as paint, spaghetti and sand. They create their own works of art by painting their hands and also work co-operatively to paint ‘Big Ben’. They are confident when describing their colouring to adults. They play imaginatively, when using small world play, the home corner and the dolls. They take part in singing sessions and can sing songs from memory.

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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 The children engage happily in physical activities, for example, in the outside play area. They balance on logs, ride bikes and enjoy outdoor play. However, there are limited opportunities for planned use of the outdoors as a learning environment.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The staff have good knowledge of the way children learn, the Foundation Stage and early learning goals. The staff in the pre-school rooms plan together and follow the same themes. Staff are aware of the need to share resources effectively to give the children interesting and varied activities. Although staff have good knowledge of each child's individual learning needs, planning and evaluations do not show how these different needs will be met. Staff undertake observations on the children which are used to update the children's development records. However, supporting evidence is mainly photographic and not individual for each child.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The staff praise and encourage the children in their efforts and achievements so boosting their self-esteem and confidence. They extend the children's knowledge and understanding by effective use of open ended questions. They ensure that they are on level with the children either by sitting at the tables or on the floor so that they can join in with work and play and hold conversations with the children.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. Children arrive happily and settle quickly. Staff meet and greet the parents and children individually, which gives them a sense of belonging. Staff know children’s individual needs and routines well. If they have concerns about a child's welfare they know the routes of referral.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children in all rooms have equal access to all activities. They are encouraged to take turns and share. Resources which reflect positive images of different cultures, ethnicity, gender and disability are limited, which means that children are unable to have free access to these. The children in toddlers and pre-school help to clear away toys and receive praise from staff for helping. Children understand what is expected from them in the way of behaviour. They behave well and respond to praise and encouragement from staff, which promotes their self-esteem and self-confidence and makes them feel good about themselves. Staff deal with any minor problems, such as younger children wanting the same toy, quickly and effectively. Staff allow older children to try and resolve any differences between each other with support. The children in the pre-school have drawn up their own class rules which they discuss and know why they

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership with parents and carers is good. All parents spoken to, are positive about the care their child receives and felt that they are kept well informed about the nursery and events. Parents of children receiving funded nursery education receive information about the Foundation Stage in the welcome pack. They receive information about the topics the children are involved in and can see plans and general information on the class notice board. Staff discuss the children's individual progress and achievements with parents at regular meetings with key workers.

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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 satisfactory. Good procedures are in place for the recruitment, vetting and induction of new staff. All staff are aware of their roles within the nursery. All policies and procedures are in place and used effectively to promote the health and welfare of the children.

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Organisation

Children in all areas have sufficient space to play and the nursery is organised in a child friendly way. Children are grouped appropriately with their peers. Each area of the nursery has low level child sized furniture appropriate to each stage. However, resources have to be shared between areas which means that they are not always available for the children.

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Organisation

The quality of leadership and management is satisfactory. The provider and manager have a programme in place to review all aspects of the provision in their commitment to continuous improvement. They meet regularly to ensure that policies reflect the working of the nursery and to evaluate the systems in place to monitor the nursery education and care management. The provision meets the needs of the range of children for whom they provide.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last care inspection, the nursery was given recommendations regarding training in child protection for staff, developing procedures for recording Criminal Records Bureau information on staff, making policies and procedures available for parents and reviewing systems in place to ensure sleeping children are checked regularly.

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Improvements since the last inspection

An ongoing training programme is in place to make sure that all staff have undergone training on child protection issues and to ensure that they are able to comply with the procedures of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. A new system is being implemented to record the Criminal Records Bureau information of the staff. Regular sleep checks backed by sleep charts recording the details of sleeping children are in place, which further safeguards the children's welfare.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Details of the main policies and procedures are included in the prospectus for parents. A full set of policies is displayed on the parent's notice board in the nursery and parents can request their own copy. This ensures that the parents are fully informed about the nursery procedures.

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Complaints since the last inspection

Since the last inspection Ofsted received one complaint relating to National Standard 1 - Suitable Person. Concerns were raised regarding the suitability of a member of staff. Ofsted carried out an investigation visit and discussed the concern in detail with the provider. Ofsted found evidence that the provider had not followed the correct child protection procedures and had not informed Ofsted of a significant event. The provider was set two actions under National Standard 13 - Child Protection and National Standard 14 - Documentation. A detailed response was received from the provider confirming the actions had been completed. The provider remained qualified for registration.

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Complaints since the last inspection

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 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 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): • review meal time arrangements to ensure that children are not sitting waiting for long periods for their meals • ensure that there are sufficient resources in all base areas of the nursery to meet the needs of the children being cared for in each area • review and extend the procedures in place for cleaning of equipment (especially in the baby rooms) risk assessments and maintenance • review the procedures in place for planning, evaluating and recording children's progress and development[also applies to nursery education] • ensure that children have an appropriate range of activities and resources that promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice • continue to review and extend the processes in place for monitoring and evaluating the nursery education and childcare management

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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): • extend the opportunities for children to practise their emergent writing on a daily basis • provide more opportunities for the children to be independent in selecting resources for themselves

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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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