The Windsor Boys' School

Fairthorne Manor Day Nursery & Holiday Playscheme Inspection report for early years provision

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110056 Unique Reference Number 12 July 2007 Inspection date Heidi Wilton Inspector

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Curdridge, Southampton, Hampshire, SO30 2GH Setting Address

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01489 785228 Telephone number info@ymca-fg.org E-mail YMCA Fairthorne Group Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care, Out of School 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 outstanding.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Fairthorne Manor provides several childcare facilities. The nursery operates from the Manor house and the holiday club operate from the grounds on the estate and the sports hall.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery provides places for 89 children aged from four months to five years and currently have 165 children on roll. They are registered to accept nursery education funding for three and four year olds and currently have 51 children in receipt of this funding. Sessions run from 8:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday all year round. Children are also able to attend half day sessions, either morning or afternoon. Children have access to several rooms throughout the nursery, with an enclosed garden available. There are 20 full-time and four part-time staff who work with the children; 13 have qualifications to level 3, four have qualifications to level 2 and four are working towards a level 3 qualification.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The Holiday Club (Day-camps) is registered to provide care to 790 children from four years to eight years old, although children attend that are up to 16 years old. Children over seven years are able to access the residential facilities. Sessions run from 9:00 until 16:00 and care is available from 7:45 at the breakfast club and from 16:00 until 18:00.

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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 There are appropriate procedures in place which support children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and the group are able to support children who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The setting receives support from a teacher from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership and the Area Inclusion Co-ordinator.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. Children know the routine and wash their hands before eating meals and after going to the toilet. They use soap and water to ensure cross contamination is prevented. Children attending the holiday club have access to toilets next to their base on the large field to ensure their needs are catered for.

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Helping children to be healthy

Staff in the nursery clean tables with antibacterial cleaner to ensure cross contamination is further prevented. Each room has daily and weekly checklists to ensure the environment is kept clean and well maintained. The setting has a sick child procedure for both the day nursery and holiday club which is shared with parents from the outset. This ensures they are well informed of incubation periods should their child contract a communicable disease. First aid signs detailing where first aid boxes and supplies are kept are clearly displayed both within the nursery and around the holiday club site. This ensures staff access them quickly in the event of an accident or emergency. The setting have gained written parental permission for both types of provision to seek emergency medical treatment which ensures children will be treated without delay in an emergency.

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Helping children to be healthy

The head chef and her team have good procedures in place to ensure foods are stored appropriately and cross contamination is prevented. The kitchen team use robust forms to ensure they are fully knowledgeable about children's allergies and dietary requirements. Children enjoy a hot lunch of sausages, mash potatoes and peas and staff sit with the children and talk to them about the different foods. Children socialise together at snack times and talk to their peers. They enjoy a snack of fruit and select their own fruit from the bowl in the middle of the table. However, children do not select the food hygienically as often they touch fruit which they do not take and do not have plates to independently place their fruit.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children have many opportunities to engage in physical activity. They enjoy walks through the woods and have fun crab fishing when the tide goes out. Children have fun playing on the large wooden pirate ship and enjoy dancing to music and moving ribbons in the air with their arms. They enjoy moving themselves around on push along cars and have fun moving the pedals on the tractor and tricycles. Children experience physical activity as they run around the large field and staff talk to the children about the effects of physical exercise on their bodies.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Staff organise the environment well to ensure children are safe. Children play with age and stage appropriate toys and resources in all rooms to ensure their needs are met. The holiday club ensure children have access to age and stage appropriate resources and equipment and children have to be aged seven or above to use specific activities.

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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 The day nursery have good procedures to ensure children are secure within the building. All doors are secured when not in use and the door leading into the corridor from the manager's office is always kept locked with a high bolt. Children attending the holiday club under eight years of age are situated within a designated area of the site and staff ensure the children all know the boundaries. Staff have robust procedures in place for both the day nursery and holiday club to ensure children are collected by their designated person.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

When out on walks with children around the site staff talk to them about road safety. Children demonstrate a good knowledge of road safety stating we 'stop, look and listen'. Staff ensure adult to child ratios are maintained when out on walks around the site and count the children regularly to ensure they are all accounted for. Sleeping children are visually checked regularly and this is marked onto a checklist to ensure they are safe.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have gained written parental permissions from parents for outings, to take photographs and to join in with water activities. The holiday club conduct good risk assessments of all activities and equipment and ensure safety measures are used at all times. For example, staff have high staff to child ratios when going out on the boat and all children wear appropriate life jackets to ensure their safety.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Fire drills are displayed and staff practise the fire drill with the children on a regular basis to ensure they are fully knowledgeable about what to do in the event of a fire. Staff log all fire drills into a log book to ensure they are reviewed and improvements made the next time. The setting have a lost and uncollected child policy for both the holiday club and day nursery. This ensures children are safe and parents well informed of procedures followed should such an event occur.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The whole staff team within both types of provision have a good knowledge of child protection procedures. The director ensures all staff gain internal and external training in child protection to ensure they are well informed. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of where to make referrals and how to record signs and symptoms. The two types of provision both have a child protection procedure in place which includes information if an allegation is made against a member of staff.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is outstanding. Children and parents are extremely welcomed when they first start at both the day nursery or holiday club. Staff for both provisions are extremely dedicated to the children and highly effectively manage children's settling in periods. This ensures a very smooth transition between home and the setting is achieved. Staff at the day nursery offer home visits for the children which also ensures the smooth transition between home and the setting. The manager of the holiday club has extremely detailed records about the children and highly effectively uses this information. She ensures resources and the environment are adapted and suitable to meet the needs of all the children.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children attending the holiday club are cared for by highly trained and experienced staff. Children between the ages of four and eight have their own section of the day camp. Staff highly effectively talk to these children at child-level to ensure they are aware of and continually reminded of the boundaries to ensure they are very safe. They have access to an extensive range of activities and resources to ensure they are extremely stimulated and highly active. Children have access to a large bouncy pillow surrounded by a sandpit where they engage in

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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 high levels of physical activity, jumping, bouncing and moving their bodies. Children seven years and above have access to aerial runways where they have great amounts of fun and they immensely enjoy boat trips out on the river. They have opportunities to explore and engage with a large variety of arts and crafts, ball games and free play resources. Children have fun on walks through the woodlands where staff talk to them about the different wildlife and they have lots of fun as they wear their Wellington boots to go pond dipping to see what pond life they can find. Children have many opportunities to relax and rest as they can sit under large oak trees and look at books or engage with small world play.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young babies and toddlers have immense amounts of fun as they explore the extensive variety of age and stage appropriate resources and toys. They thoroughly enjoy playing with musical instruments as they excitedly shake tambourines and bang their fists on top of drums. They giggle and laugh as they pull themselves up on the bar attached to the mirror and become very engaged as they look at their reflections. Babies and young toddlers have extensive opportunities to explore and investigate toys and resources with both their hands and their mouths and have wonderful opportunities to explore different textures with the texture boards at child height. They become extremely animated as they gaze at bubbles being blown from bubble pots and have great amounts of fun chasing and clapping the bubbles between their hands. Children are very acknowledged and extremely valued for what they communicate as staff listen and

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

respond to children's babbling. Children who become tired or want to relax have appropriate sleeping areas and bedding to ensure their needs are extremely well catered for.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children within the two year old room have amazing fun as they submerge their hands into different properties such as cellulose, corn flour, sand and water play. Staff are extremely well skilled in extending children's learning as they ask open ended questions and talk to the children about how the different properties feel. Staff take the children on walks through the woodland and to the river and stop at a distance to look at the beehive. The environmentalist employed on the site shows children the honey from inside the beehive and staff talk to the children at child-level about honey and how the bees make it. Children have a wonderful time as they partake in a wide variety of cooking activities and staff skilfully extend the learning by talking to and showing the children the whole fruit first and then what the fruits look like inside. Children engage in an extensive range of role-play activities both with purchased play equipment

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

and with natural resources such as sticks and leaves.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children in both the two year old rooms and children in the pre-school age range room all have access to a free-flow system between the inside and outside for the majority of the day. Room leaders delegate staff extremely well to ensure all children's needs are catered for. Staff conduct extremely thorough observations and records of all the children and individual development is tracked extremely well in line with the Birth to three matters framework.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The teaching and learning for children in receipt of nursery education funding is outstanding. Staff work very effectively together to ensure children are offered an extensive range of stimulating and purposeful experiences. The staff team are very experienced and work hard to facilitate children's learning. Staff demonstrate their expert practice as they interact with and extend children's learning within the six areas of the Foundation Stage. Staff highly effectively incorporate all areas of learning to ensure children gain the maximum potential from all activities and resources. Staff plan activities and display these on the notice board with links to the stepping stones to ensure parents are extremely well informed. Staff know their key worker children exceptionally well and all staff have a very good understanding of the importance of

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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 conducting observations of the children. Staff record these observations with additional photographic evidence and show clear detailed links to the stepping stones and early learning goals. These highly effective observations inform both staff and parents about children's current developmental milestones and inform of the next steps in learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are extremely enthusiastic and full of energy when they enter the nursery and show high levels of interest to explore and learn. Children are able to make their own choices throughout the day and are given space and time to become absorbed with the activity. They become highly animated as they interact at circle times and show great pleasure when joining in with familiar rhymes and songs. Children demonstrate an extremely good understanding of tidy up time and show great amounts of respect for the resources and environment as they help each other to tidy away.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children become very excited as they talk to the staff and their peers about their lives and themselves and the things they did at the weekend. They have extensive and fun opportunities to engage with emergent writing as they make marks in the sand with their fingers and sticks and use chalks to make marks on the ground and blackboard. Staff extend the learning as they talk to the children about letters sounds and ask open ended questions to increase the children's learning and understanding. Children have a wonderful time at the pond looking at and talking about the pond life and use clipboards to make marks and drawings of what they see.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff highly effectively use open questions within everyday activities to extend children's learning of number and measure. For example, staff extend children's learning at the pond by encouraging children to sort pond life into groups. Addition and subtraction is introduced for older children as they are encouraged to work out which group has more pond life and how many more does it have. Children's learning of the written number is supported incidentally as children are encouraged to find the correct sized Wellington boots by looking for the written numbers on the soles. Their learning of weight and measure is highly fostered through everyday play as staff encourage children to find long sticks to build dens and short sticks to build camp fires. Children are encouraged to look for different sized sticks and staff carefully pose open ended questions to foster an extremely good understanding of mathematical vocabulary such

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Knowledge and understanding of the world is an excellent strength of the nursery. Children have amazing amounts of fun as they walk through the woody area on site. They become extremely stimulated and interested by the things they see, hear and can feel around them and excitedly inform their friends of what they can see and hear. Children are extremely intrigued as they lift up logs to see what creepy crawlies are moving underneath and show great amounts of respect for these creatures as they carefully put the logs back down again. Staff highly effectively use opportunities to extend children's learning as they talk about the holes in the ground the children have found and talk to the children about animals who live in holes. Children have lots of fun planting vegetables at the allotment on site and staff use their expert practice to extend children's learning by talking to them about how to look after the vegetables and

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have extensive opportunities to engage in arts and crafts and are able to investigate using all of their senses. They have great fun exploring paints and glue and can access these resources independently at anytime from the low level shelving and drawers. Messy play is encouraged both indoors and outdoors and children excitedly call to their friends to show them their art work. Children have an extensive range of opportunities to explore musical instruments. They become extremely excited as they bang wooden spoons onto large metal pots hanging

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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 from the fences in the outside area. Children have exceptional fun as they engage with role-play activities both with purchased resources and costumes and with natural objects around the environment. For example, children make houses and dens with large sticks and twigs and engage with role-play with their friends.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Children foster an understanding of diversity within society and the wider world as they look at books and posters, a variety of artefacts linked to countries and dress up in a variety of costumes. The staff treat all children equally and show them respect as individuals both within the day nursery and the holiday club. Children's art work is displayed to ensure they feel valued for what they do. The holiday club respect children and build upon children's confidence allowing them to gradually explore and experience activities. The setting work hard within both types of provision to include all children within the setting and gain support and advice to help children with additional needs. The learning disabilities and/or difficulties co-ordinator makes links with the Area Inclusion Co-ordinator and works in partnership with parents to ensure consistency is achieved for the children. The learning disabilities and/or difficulties co-ordinator

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Helping children make a positive contribution

does have training relevant to her role but is intending to embark on further training to further develop her expertise.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children behave well within the setting. The day nursery and holiday club both have behavioural policies in place to ensure staff and parents are well informed. Staff use positive language and praise for good behaviour and achievements which in turn boosts children's self esteem and confidence. Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered. Staff monitor any unacceptable behaviour and track the behaviour to identify patterns and possible triggers. They communicate with children at child-level about their behaviour and discuss any concerns or good behaviour with parents. This ensures consistent strategies are used both within the home environment and the setting.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Parents are happy with the care provision being provided. They feel they gain good feedback at the end of the day and feel the staff team are all approachable. The team have their photographs and brief description of themselves displayed outside each room to ensure parents are fully aware of who the staff are. The setting display notices on the parents notice boards to ensure they are well informed about important information. Parents are offered home visits when their child first starts at the setting. This is a good link for children between home and the setting and helps with the smooth transition. Parents are given a parents prospectus when they first start which ensures they are informed about the setting. The setting displays the complaints procedure on the notice board and include this in the parents prospectus. This ensures parents are aware of routes to follow should they have a concern.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The partnership with parents and carers for children in receipt of nursery education funding is outstanding. Highly experienced staff ensure parents and carers are very well informed about their child's development and ensure they are included with their child's learning. Parents are given extremely good verbal feedback at the end of each day and staff make themselves available to parents. Staff offer parents additional written feedback to support the verbal feedback if they feel this is beneficial but their wishes are respected if they prefer to just have the verbal feedback. During parents evenings staff discuss with parents their child's developmental milestones and show them well detailed and extremely clear observations of the children. Staff discuss with parents children's next steps and this ensures parents are fully knowledgeable and able to support and consolidate learning at home. Parents are given very

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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 detailed information at the outset within the parents information booklet which informs them of the Birth to three matters framework and the Foundation Stage. This ensures parents are very knowledgeable about the provision being provided at the setting. Staff ensure weekly plans are displayed with links to the stepping stones and early learning goals to ensure parents are extremely well informed and learning can be consolidated within the home environment. Parents are very well aware that they can talk to their child's key worker at anytime to discuss their child's development and are fully knowledgeable that they can take their child's records home to read at their own leisure. Parents are extremely welcomed to come and help during the sessions and to see what learning their child is experiencing. Again, this learning can then

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Helping children make a positive contribution

be supported and consolidated at home. Once a year children have great fun decorating invitations for their parents and invite their parents to come and spend time with them at the nursery. This offers a wonderful link between the home and the setting. Staff strive to involve parents within the setting as much as they can and welcome parents to come and join in with event days such as teddy bears picnics, obstacle courses and Christmas plays. Staff actively make links with local schools and teachers from these schools come and visit the children in the nursery environment. Parents are actively encouraged and welcomed to come to these visits to enable them to meet the teachers and to ensure they are involved with the initial part of their child's transition process to the primary school.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. The setting organise children into rooms depending upon their ages where they play with suitable age and stage appropriate activities and resources. Ratios are well maintained and contingency staff are used to cover staff absences to ensure children's needs are met. The holiday club keep all children under eight within a designated area of the site and ensure adult to child ratios are maintained. The setting display their registration certificate to ensure parents are well informed of conditions of registration for both types of provision. Staff have jobs allocated to them daily to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities. The majority of the staff team within both the day nursery and holiday club have up-to-date paediatric first aid qualifications to ensure children are treated appropriately in an accident or emergency. Robust procedures are in place to ensure staff are vetted and suitable to work with the children for

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Organisation

both types of provision offered. The setting have good systems in place to ensure all staff are fully inducted and attend in-house and external training. This ensures they are fully knowledgeable about the setting and their job roles. The setting meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides.

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Organisation

Leadership and management are outstanding. The manager of the day nursery, her line manager and director of the provision all have an extremely clear vision for the nursery. They continuously evaluate and seek new ideas to further improve the practice. The manager of the setting has a very good knowledge of her job role. She oversees the senior room leader and staff within the nursery education room to ensure children are gaining optimal benefit from the education provision being provided. All staff are extremely dedicated to their job roles and gain very comprehensive inductions and training at the outset. This ensures they are fully knowledgeable about their job roles. Staff experience very regular reviews and management conduct annual appraisals to ensure best practice is gained from the working practice of all the staff. Any achievements, concerns and training needs are discussed and identified at this time to ensure

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Organisation

targets and action plans can be implemented.

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Organisation

Highly effective communications between the hierarchy of the management structure ensure any concerns or issues are highlighted and resolved promptly and any achievements are

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Organisation

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 celebrated. Management meet on an extremely regular basis and the manager of the day nursery ensures she feeds back any information promptly during regular staff meetings to ensure the staff team are very well informed. The team demonstrate high quality practice and ensure children are offered purposeful and stimulating experiences.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last care inspection the provision was asked to address two recommendations. The setting was asked to develop procedures to ensure all children in the nursery take part in fire evacuation drills. The setting now practise the fire drill with all the children on a regular basis to ensure they are fully knowledgeable about what to do in a fire. These fire drills are recorded in a log book to ensure staff are aware of when the next drill is due.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The setting was asked to ensure a policy is in place regarding uncollected children within all areas of the provision. The setting now has an uncollected child policy for both the day nursery and holiday club. This ensures children are safe and parents are well informed of procedures followed should such an event occur.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last education inspection the provision was asked to address one recommendation. The setting was asked to extend the current systems of planning and assessments to contain further and consistent reference to the intended learning outcome of activities and to include how children's learning can be extended. The setting now make detailed observations of all the children and support these observations with photographic evidence. These observations are tracked against the stepping stones and early learning goals, and next steps in learning are identified to ensure children gain their full potential. Staff plan activities for the children detailing the intended learning outcomes linking them to the stepping stones within the Foundation Stage. This enables children to engage in activities within all areas of learning ensuring developmental milestones are achieved.

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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 outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the care

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

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The quality and standards of the care

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 • review the organisation of snack time to further develop children's independence through using plates and ensure children select their own food hygienically to further prevent cross contamination.

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of nursery education are outstanding.

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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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