Bambini Childrens Nursery

Bambini Nursery Inspection report for early years provision

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EY338297 Unique Reference Number 05 July 2007 Inspection date Amanda Jane Tyson Inspector

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Ewell Court House, Lake Hurst Road, Ewell, Surrey, KT19 0EB Setting Address

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0203 2583031 Telephone number info@bambininursery.co.uk E-mail IMI (GB) Limited Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care Type of care

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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?

Bambini Nursery opened at these premises in 2006. The nursery operates from five base rooms in Ewell Court House in Ewell in Surrey. There are currently 51 children on roll, of these 30 are in receipt of funding for nursery education. A large number of children speak English as a second language to Japanese, or are bi-lingual. The nursery is open each weekday from 08:00 to 18:00 all year round. Children come from a wide catchment area, but since the recent move to this premises more children are now attending from the immediate community.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery employs 12 members of staff, 11 of whom hold appropriate child care or early years teaching qualifications. One staff is working towards NVQ 2 in childcare and education. Three members of staff hold a current first aid certificate.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The setting receives support from the Early Years Childcare Service.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. Children are cared for in an exceptionally calm and happy environment. They cheerfully say goodbye to parents and immediately become engaged in play. Younger children are able to sleep according to their home routines because they each have their own cot or bed. They all have their own trays where they keep their personal items and have special places for their toothbrushes. Children's sense of belonging is very well fostered. The risk of the spread of infection and bacteria is well minimised because staff ensure consistently good hygiene practice such as during nappy changing, parents fully understand their responsibility to keep sick children at home, and strict kitchen and food hygiene standards are maintained. Older children brush their teeth and meticulously wash their hands before meals and cooking activities, and after using the toilet paying careful attention to the pictorial instructions in front of them.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children's individual health and medical needs are thoroughly discussed with parents and documented, including allergy information which is further displayed in the base rooms and kitchen to minimise the risk of accidental consumption. There are systems in place to record accidents and any medication administered to children. Parental wishes in relation to children's health needs, such as to enable staff to administer medication and to seek emergency treatment if necessary are clarified. Three members of the team currently hold valid first aid certificates which is sufficient to meet children's needs whilst on the premises, but these staff do not always accompany small group trips to the park. Nevertheless, there are good systems in place to enable a rapid attendance by a first aider from the setting because the location and route taken is clearly identified before they leave the premises. Staff also carry mobile telephones.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children benefit from curriculum planning that pays very good attention to providing physically challenging activities. The children had tremendous fun participating in a sports day recently, and during the Japanese children's festival of Shichi-go-san each year children learn about, and celebrate healthy growth and development. Younger children enjoy daily walks to feed the ducks and run around playing peek-a-boo behind trees, and older children regularly visit the nearby playground where they are well challenged by a variety of apparatus and trees to climb. During the winter months the children have fun in the snow, and when it rains they like nothing better than a splash in the puddles. Regular activities such as these ensure they receive daily fresh air and exercise. The excellent daily menu of naturally low fat nutritious meals is helping to foster a healthy approach to food and tempt even the most reluctant eaters. The children

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Helping children to be healthy

have tremendous appetites, they enjoy morning snacks of fruit and crackers and request second helpings of sumptuous traditional Japanese meals which include lots of vegetables, fish such as crab, and chicken.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. The premises is secure, well maintained, warm and welcoming. Babies and toddlers benefit from having a separate room for sleeping, and good use is made of the immediate public facilities. The setting are equipped with a good range of play and learning resources which are stored so that children can help themselves safely. Play resources and equipment are maintained in good condition and there are enough cots and baby chairs to meet the needs of all the children. Staff use baby monitors at sleep times and are rigorous in their checking of sleeping children every 15 minutes.

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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 Potential hazards are identified and a range of good precautions are taken to prevent accidents. For example, radiator's are fitted with padded quilts, electrical sockets are covered and access to the stairs is protected by a child safety gate. Children are familiar with what to do and where to go if the fire alarm goes off because they practice the emergency evacuation every month with staff. Risk assessment s are conducted on every venue prior to a visit and during the daily walks to the park and library children hold hands and walk nicely. There is a missing child procedure which staff are familiar with, they carry mobile telephones and the system for enabling premises based staff to locate the whereabouts of groups visiting areas of the park is a particularly helpful initiative. However, children do not wear any form of labelling to connect

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

them to the setting which compromises the speed at which they could be reunited with the setting if they did become lost.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children's welfare is safeguarded by a well thought through and comprehensively detailed child protection procedure. Staff are secure in their understanding of possible signs and symptoms of abuse and are clear about what to do if they become concerned about a child. The procedure is well covered during induction and specific training is identified in their individual development plans. Parents understand their responsibility to inform the setting of injuries that children sustain outside the nursery and staff keep records in the same way that they record accidents on the premises. However, the organisation of the different types of records are a little disjointed; it is difficult to identify an overall picture because records are not stored in a central system for each child.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. The organisation of the grouping of children and the high adult to child ratio's enables staff to provide young children with plenty of individual support and attention. The relationship between staff and children is strong and affectionate. Children have access to a good range of activities throughout the day to promote and support their learning. Of particular benefit, is that children are able to take part in routine activities such as feeding the ducks and visiting the library as regularly as they would in their home environment. Activity planning follows the same theme as that for nursery education, but learning intentions focus appropriately on helping children to make connections through sensory and practical activities and encouraging their use of language. For example, children played with sea animals in the water, observed the ducks on the pond, looked at picture books showing bathing and swimming, and enthusiastically

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

joined in associated songs and action rhymes as part of the 'water' theme. A range of heuristic objects and materials inspire their natural impulse to investigative through touch, for example crackling paper, wooden spoons and sponges. Children have daily opportunities to be creative and imaginative with resources such as paint, dough, cornflour and shaving foam, and with different role play toys. However, these are mostly provided at set times and role play opportunities are not fully extended to encourage imitative play. Nevertheless, the activities are good fun, the children are very happy, and are becoming confident communicators and competent learners. Staff are using the 'Birth to three matters' framework as a guide for planning and to monitor and record children's progress and development. Training has been identified to enable further staff knowledge and skill development.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Staffs knowledge and understanding of the foundation stage curriculum is developing at a rapid rate. Children's progress and development towards the early learning goals and associated stepping stones is monitored, although better demonstrated verbally by staff who do know them very well. Staff record their planned and instantaneous observations of the children at play and use this information to inform

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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 assessments, which in turn are used to identify next steps for learning. The organisation and presentation of the pre-school room into clearly defined learning areas enables children to independently access the curriculum throughout the day. Activities offer extension and are generally well adapted to provide sufficient and appropriate challenges to meet the needs of all children, although younger children sometimes become restless during whole group story time when staff translate into either Japanese or English.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are motivated to learn because the activities are interesting, practical and fun. Curriculum planning provides excellent opportunities for children to learn about the wider world; how it works and how people live. For example, during the theme of 'water' children learned that in some countries there are no taps. They learned how water is fetched in buckets and carried for long distances, and after testing the weight of buckets of water for themselves and determining that they were 'heavy', they thought about how hard this would be. Children then looked at photographs of people bathing in rivers and made comparisons to how they bathed at home. Great enjoyment is derived from a wide range of outings, which are usually connected to the curriculum theme or as part of seasonal celebrations such as the theatre at Christmas. Most recently children visited the local garden centre where they observed a working

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The programme for mathematics is skilfully woven into curriculum planning. For example, children measured the length of ribbons whilst making decorations for the Trinidad and Tobago carnival. They use simple origami to create interesting geometric designs, decorations and props for Japanese festival celebrations and this further develops their fine motor skills as they fold small pieces of paper into different shapes. The children's knowledge of flat shapes is very secure, but older children have not yet been introduced to solid shapes such as a cylinder or cube, and they are ready to progress to this. Children count confidently to high numbers in English and Japanese and can name numerals such as the date during register time and numbers on the clock. A wealth of print, in both Japanese and English is displayed around the setting and all children are keen to write for different purposes using a combination of Japanese and

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

English; they label and attempt to caption their pictures, recognise and write their names. Older children are beginning to link letters to sounds. Children enjoy making books and use paper and clipboards in pretend play. Staff skilfully deliver the curriculum in two languages side by side. Japanese children are being introduced to key words in English, for example they are asked to answer 'yes' at register time, but opportunities to introduce English speaking children to key Japanese words are not exploited and this conflicts slightly with the otherwise very good promotion of inclusion.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children's learning is frequently brought to life by the vibrant visual drama productions performed by staff which make children gasp in awe and squeal with laughter, especially as the lead up to significant parts is enhanced by the use of the musical keyboard. Children confidently perform on the stage for family and friends at Christmas time, but although staff have worked hard to improve the presentation of the role play corner, there is still not enough variable cultural influences or everyday real resources to enable all children to act out everyday experiences. The children create and design amazing pictures, some of the self portraits are outstanding. All the children are keen to experiment with colour and a very significant feature is the way that children think about what they are going to draw before starting. For such young children this attention to planning is quite advanced.

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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. The setting pays high levels of attention to finding out about children's individual needs and to planning a wide range of play and learning activities that introduce children to diversity. The Japanese culture dominates, but other cultures are well acknowledge and celebrated to. The way that this is delivered through music, drama and animated story telling is inspirational. For example children watched mesmerised as staff performed the folk tale connected to the festival of Tanabata (Japanese star festival) which carries a moral message relating to friendships. Non Japanese speaking children particularly benefit from this very visual teaching style and are further supported by staff who translate throughout. Children learn about Muslim and Hindu religious beliefs as well as all the traditional English ones. Activities and routines enable children to make progress according to their individual needs. Activities are adapted and staff

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Helping children make a positive contribution

support children as they move around activities so that their identified individual development and learning needs are encouraged. Whilst there are no children currently attending who have physical and/or learning disabilities, children have in the past, and staff are secure in their knowledge and understanding of their responsibilities under the Code of Practice for special educational needs. Staff's flexible and skilled approach to enabling both Japanese and English speaking children to take part in the activities together indicates that the needs of any children with specific requirements would be met well.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children are polite and considerate of each other. Older children have formed preferred friendships, although there is still a tendency for them to remain within their naturally spoken language groups, which sometimes restricts integration. Language differences provide much less of a barrier for younger children though; this group of children are very integrated within their play. Children share and take turns and are frequently physically demonstrative towards each other, for example holding hands and cuddling each other. Older children enjoy working together to construct modals during role play or in planning creative pictures. Occasionally squabbles surface with some of the older boys, but these are minimal and well managed by staff's calm and gentle approach and use of redirection and explanation. The interesting and exciting curriculum for older children means that there are few reasons for misbehaviour and

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Helping children make a positive contribution

many of the folk tales carry moral messages which interests the children and encourages their positive behaviour. Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership of parents and carers is good. High levels of communication is enabled because staff speak, and provide a wealth of written information in both Japanese and English. Parents receive a report each term which highlights their child's progress towards the early learning goals and they all attend formal appointments to discuss this in detail with key staff. As a result, they are very secure in their knowledge and understanding of how the foundation stage curriculum is delivered through play and are able to contribute fully to the setting of their child's individual learning programme. Thematic curriculum plans are displayed and the term's topic is further highlighted in the newsletter. This wealth of information enables parents to provide continual support within the home.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Parents are familiar with the policies and procedures that underpin the day to day running of the nursery and that clearly explain the settings regulatory responsibilities, for example the procedure for making a complaint. Parents of children aged under three years attend regular consultation appointments with their child's key staff member in the same way that parents of older children do. Children's progress towards the 'Birth to three matters' framework is discussed and agreements are reached so that both parents and staff are providing consistent care and developmental support. Parents receive daily information sheets which detail care

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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 routines, such as sleep times, food consumption and nappy changes in addition to a summary of their play activities. They highlight the high levels of communication as a key strength of the setting; parents feel welcomed and valued.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Children's safety, well-being and development is very well supported by the settings robust staff recruitment procedures. Practical assessment of candidates interaction with children is used in combination with a formal interview, references are obtained, and police and health checks are completed. The supportive programme for induction and personal and professional development ensures that staff understand the settings policies and procedures and continue to develop their knowledge and skills. Management demonstrate a highly proactive approach towards staff training, although the strive for improvement in the delivery of nursery education has to some extent limited the opportunities for staff working with the under threes to develop their knowledge and skills at the same rate. This is best demonstrated by the differences in the way that activities and play areas are organised in toddler rooms in comparison to the pre-school.

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Organisation

Nevertheless, rapid improvement has been made within a short period of time and the action plan for improvement clearly identifies the way forward over the next twelve months. Staff are well deployed so that their skills match the needs of the children, and the grouping of children according to stage of development, rather than age is beneficial.

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Organisation

Leadership and management of nursery education is good. Curriculum planning is thorough and well monitored and evaluated to identify the strengths and weaknesses. The management team demonstrate a united and proactive vision for on-going improvement. This is particularly well demonstrated by the current and frequently updated action plan for improvement. For example, funding has been obtained to create a secure outdoor play and learning environment which includes a sensory and growing area, and they are in the process of improving the systems for documenting children's progress and development so that they are more useful as a tool to inform assessment and planning. Management have worked very closely with the local authority early years teaching advisor (EYTA) whose astute advice they have followed, and frequently used as a springboard for extending their own ideas, such as by reorganising the layout of the learning environment to encourage independent access to the early learning

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Organisation

Records and documentation that are required for the safe and efficient management of the provision and to promote the welfare, care and learning of the children are mostly all very well maintained. Systems for recording accidents, existing injuries, medication and behavioural incidents are currently less efficient. Nevertheless, children are thriving and are exceedingly happy in this delightful setting. They are cared by a dedicated staff team who are striving for excellence. The provision meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The last inspection for care and nursery education raised a total of seven actions for improvement. These relate to: the provision of food and drink (standard 8); safety (standard 6); and the keeping of records and documentation (standards 2 and 14); the monitoring and assessment of children's progress towards the early learning goals; curriculum planning; and systems for supporting and developing staff's knowledge and skills. All actions for improvement have been well met within a relatively short period of time.

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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

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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 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

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • further improve the procedure for keeping children safe whilst on outings • improve the organisation of children's records to provide a clear overview of children's health and well-being • evaluate and further improve the organisation of the base rooms and activity planning for younger children, particularly role play

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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): • continue to further develop teaching and the delivery of the curriculum; pay particular attention to role play, the social integration of English and non English children within play, and the organisation of whole group story time.

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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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