North Marston Church of England School

Burghclere Pre-School and Toddler Group Inspection report for early years provision

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110412 Unique Reference Number 14 September 2007 Inspection date Doreen Forsyth Inspector

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Portal Hall, Church Lane, Burghclere, Newbury, Berkshire, RG20 9HX Setting Address

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E-mail

Burghclere Pre-School & Toddler Group Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care Type of care

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E-mail

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

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ABOUT THIS INSPECTION

The purpose of this inspection is to assure government, parents and the public of the quality of childcare and, if applicable, of nursery education. The inspection was carried out under Part XA Children Act 1989 as introduced by the Care Standards Act 2000 and, where nursery education is provided, under Schedule 26 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcomes for children set out in the Children Act 2004; the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding; and, where nursery education is provided, the Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. The report includes information on any complaints about the childcare provision which Ofsted has received since the last inspection or registration or 1 April 2004 whichever is the later.

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The key inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough

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The key inspection judgements and what they mean

For more information about early years inspections, please see the booklet Are you ready for your inspection? which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the care are satisfactory. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are satisfactory.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Burghclere Pre-School and Toddler group is a committee organised setting and has been registered since 1999. The setting uses the Portal village hall in Burghclere, Hampshire. They use part of the hall grounds for outside play.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The pre-school is registered to care for up to 26 children aged between two and five years old. Currently there are 21 children on roll, including 13 children who are in receipt of government funding for nursery education.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The pre-school opens on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 9:00-15:00, during school term times; children may attend morning or afternoon sessions and the lunch club. The setting welcomes children with learning difficulties or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are three full or part-time members of staff working with the children, two of these have relevant early years qualifications at level 3 or above; one member of staff is currently attending early years training at level 3. The setting receives support from the local authority.

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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 satisfactory. Children are kept appropriately well and healthy at the pre-school because the staff follow suitable health and hygiene routines and encourage the children to practice good daily routines such as washing their hands before eating or after visiting the toilet. Children are well taken care of if they become unwell or have an accident as all the permanent members of staff have up to date first aid qualifications.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children are beginning to learn about healthy eating, in their topic work they discuss healthy living and the importance of exercise. They have daily snacks of fruit, but often have the less healthy option of biscuits as well. Parents provide children with packed lunches, the pre-school provides ideas for nutritious lunch box contents. Any perishable items from the lunch boxes can be stored in the fridge when necessary. There are cups and a jug of water at kept children's height so that children can help themselves to a drink whenever they wish. If children have special dietary requirements these are suitably recorded.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children have regular opportunities to take part in physical activities both indoors and outside. There is a small area of ground attached to the village hall that the children use to ride bikes and play with balls, balance on stilts and bounce on a small trampoline. There is space inside for children to use a parachute, take part in movement and music activities and ring games.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Children play in a light, bright, spacious and well maintained village hall, staff work hard at making the play environment warm, attractive and welcoming. Risk assessments are regularly undertaken, the new manager has identified any potential hazards within the setting, and with the management committee is in the process of putting steps into place to minimise them. For example, the hall is not kept completely secure and the outside play area has unsuitable temporary fencing and a very uneven surface.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The pre-school is well resourced, there is a good range of toys and equipment available to the children, these all have to be stored away and the hall cleared at the end of each day. There are some opportunities for the children to chose their own activities and resources, especially their own craft and mark making resources.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are suitably safeguarded as most staff understand their role in child protection and can put appropriate procedures into place if necessary. The manager has attended some relevant training and has the overall responsibility for ensuring that children's wellbeing is protected. The setting's child protection policies and procedures require some reviewing and updating. The safeguarding children policies are shared with parents.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children are becoming settled and are happy in the pre-school. As the inspection took place at the beginning of the new school year there are some children attending who are new to the pre-school, but they are settling well with the help of the staff, and are confidently leaving

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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 their parents and enjoying the activities provided. Staff plan a good range of activities that support children's learning and development. Staff interact well with the children, they are very interested in what the children do and say, they help them to explore the play activities and talk about their interests. Children concentrate well in the pre-school, they are well occupied and are interested in the activities that the staff plan, the good adult/ child ratio provided ensures children receive sufficient adult support.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Teaching and learning are satisfactory. The pre-school provides children with a broad and balanced curriculum; the setting is organised into different learning areas which help to ensure all six areas of the Foundation Stage are promoted. Most of the staff have a suitable understanding of the early learning goals and how children learn. They are very good at sitting and interacting with the children and keeping them focussed onto their tasks. The manager is implementing new planning, and will use the information that staff record on the children's assessment records to inform the planning so that they can help all children to move onto the next steps in their learning. The assessment records currently in place are not up to date and do not easily show where children are in their learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Interesting topics and themes form a basis to the planning, the medium term planning shows what stepping stones the staff plan to promote over the different terms. However, the weekly adult-led activities do not show what staff expect children to learn from these planned activities and are not linked sufficiently to the aspects of the stepping stones towards the early learning goals. When children first start in the setting staff use an initial assessment that is completed by parents to help them to find out where the children are in their learning. The pre-school Special needs Co-ordinator(Senco) ensures that all children are helped to move forward and their individual learning needs are met as far as possible.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are learning to share and to take turns; for example, when they use the computer, they use a timer to indicate how long one child can play on the computer and when it’s the next child's turn. They have some opportunities to be independent, they go to the toilet by themselves and are learning to pour their own drinks if they become thirsty. A new snack time routine has been introduced that will allow children to serve their own snacks and mid-morning drink. They are learning a new registration time routine and already answer their names with confidence. Children enjoy writing and mark making in their play, some are able to write recognisable letters for their names. They enjoy looking at books and listening to stories and often sit with an adult looking at books in the comfortable, well equipped book corner. Children are learning to link sounds to letters through the 'sound of the week', when children are

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

encouraged to bring an item into pre-school linked to that letter.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff skilfully help children to count and use numbers in their everyday play, for example, the children help to count how many children are present at registration, at show and tell they counted the number of wheels on a toy car. The manager counted with a child how many times she bounced on the trampoline. They use different resources such as threading beads to make patterns and to look at position, they solve simple problems when building with construction resources. Children's knowledge and understanding of the world is promoted through the topics and themes they explore, currently they are learning about themselves. and then will explore their local community with visits to the nearby school and church. Children are very skilled at using the pre-school lap top and confidently use it to support their learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 Children have good opportunities to explore craft and collage materials, they can freely chose materials they wish to use from the craft trolley. They can paint and explore colour using the easel free painting. They listen to classical music as they help to tidy up and have opportunities to explore musical instruments. When using the craft resources children have opportunities to practise using tools such as scissors and glue sticks. Children develop small muscle control using tools such as cutters and scissors in the playdough, or the mouse at the computer, and their large muscles when riding bikes in the outside area or controlling balancing stilts.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. All children are welcomed and valued at the pre-school, including any that may have a disability or learning difficulty, or that speak English as an additional language. The Senco works closely with parents and outside professionals if necessary, to ensure that all children have their individual needs met. Children benefit from taking part in activities and using resources that help them to value diversity; such as celebrating different festivals including Christmas and harvest and different special events, they play with dolls, small world figures and look at a variety of books that show different backgrounds and skin colours.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children learn to co-operate and to work with others, for example, when tidying up the toys together. They are aware of the feelings and needs of others and were very concerned when a child fell and hurt herself. Staff are able to use different strategies if necessary, to help children behave appropriately. They value children's good behaviour and act as suitable role models. Children's efforts and achievements are acknowledged and praised. Children's social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The setting is building a strong working partnership with parents. Parent's are welcomed into the setting and can help at or visit the pre-school whenever they wish. They serve on the management committee, help at fund raising events and they receive regular newsletters. Parents are given some of the pre-school policies and procedures but these require updating and making sure they are currently relevant to the pre-school. There is a complaint's book and procedure in place but these do not completely conform with current legislation.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

In regard to nursery education the partnership with parents and carers is satisfactory. The information pack given to parents has information about the curriculum and the early learning goals. Parents currently are invited to yearly parents evenings and given yearly reports, but the manager plans to change this to termly meetings and to have regular keyworker meetings for parents. Parent's are informed of the different topics in the newsletters and are invited to help children to find related items at home and also to share their skills with the pre-school. Parent's opportunities to share what they know about their children's learning and to discuss their progress and to see the records kept on their progress are quite limited, but parents do regularly exchange information with staff on an informal basis, before and after the play session.

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Organisation

The organisation is satisfactory. The pre-school is suitably organised; there is a active management committee in place that aims to support the setting and staff. All adults that work at the pre-school have been suitably vetted and undergo appropriate induction procedures. Any unvetted adults do not have unsupervised access to the children. All the permanent staff have or are undertaking appropriate

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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 qualifications, the pre-school encourages staff training, staff often attend relevant courses to update their skills and expertise.

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Organisation

Most of the required records procedures and policies that help to ensure children's health, safety and wellbeing are in place, some require updating and clarification. A good record of children's staff and visitors attendance is kept. The provision meets the needs of the range of the children for whom it provides.

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Organisation

Leadership and management of the pre-school is satisfactory. The pre-school staff and the management committee are committed to ensuring children receive high quality care and education. The chairperson is in the setting daily and uses this as an opportunity to monitor and evaluate the provision provided, regular staff and committee meetings are in place to ensure all staff and committee are kept well informed of the settings' progress and children's needs. Staff have regular appraisals, this is when their development is assessed and any training needs discussed. Parents feedback is actively sought and acted on where possible. The setting values the support of outside professionals.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last care inspection the pre-school was set recommendations regarding children's independence, opportunities to select their own resources and confidentiality in regard to record keeping. The setting has considered ways to allow children to select more of their own resources and now uses trolleys for children to chose their own mark making and craft resources. Children can also freely chose what they do from the large selection of activities presented each day. All documentation is kept confidential where necessary.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the nursery education inspection the key issues for improvement were to increase children's opportunities to be independent and to develop and improve planning, evaluation and assessment. Staff are reviewing ways to foster children's independence, including allowing children to manage their own snack time. The planning and evaluation has recently undergone revision and has improved, so staff are clearer about what they want children to achieve, although some areas still require attention. The assessment documents kept on the children have not been well recorded, but this is an area the new manager has identified for improvement.

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Complaints since the last inspection

Since 1 April 2004 there have been no complaints made to Ofsted that required the provider or Ofsted to take any action in order to meet the National Standards. The provider is required to keep a record of complaints made by parents which they can see on request. The complaints record may contain complaints other than those made to Ofsted.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the care are satisfactory. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

The quality and standards of the nursery education are satisfactory.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE AND NURSERY EDUCATION

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

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The quality and standards of the care

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • improve the children's security, by ensuring the front door is locked when the pre-school is in session and that children cannot access the fire door handles • update the safeguarding children procedures and include a procedure to follow if allegations are made against an adult in the setting • ensure that all relevant policies and procedures including a complaints procedure that conforms to current legislation are reviewed and shared with parents.

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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): • ensure that the planned adult-led activities show what children should learn from these activities and clearly link them to an aspect of the early learning goals • provide parents with more opportunities to be informed of their children's learning and achievements, to see their assessment records and to share with the setting what they know about their children's learning.

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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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