Tynemouth Nursery at Billy Mill

Tynemouth Lilliput Nursery Inspection report for early years provision

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310213 Unique Reference Number 06 March 2008 Inspection date Sharon Greener Inspector

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142-144 Queen Alexandra Road West, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE29 9AF

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Setting Address

0191 259 6922 or 07872971437 Telephone number sm@tynemouthnursery.com E-mail Tynemouth Nursery Group Limited Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Full day care Type of care

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Setting Address

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?

Tynemouth Nursery is one of five settings run by Tynemouth Nursery Group Limited. The nursery was registered in 2001 under the ownership of Tynemouth Nursery Group Limited and operates from seven playrooms and associated facilities. The nursery is situated in the residential area of North Shields in Tyne and Wear. A maximum of 56 children may attend the setting at any one time. The nursery is open each weekday from 07.30 to 18.00 for 52 weeks of the year, except for public holidays. All children share access to an enclosed outdoor play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are currently 78 children aged from four months to under five years on roll, of these, 11 children receive funding for early education. The nursery serves the local community and wider area. The setting currently supports a number of children with learning difficulties and disabilities and some who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery employs 16 staff members, of these, 13 hold an early years qualification. Four staff members, including the manager, are currently working towards a higher qualification. 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 good. Staff have a very good awareness of the nursery's health policies and procedures, such as the care of a sick child and the action to be taken regarding an accident. The vast majority of policies and procedures are implemented effectively to help promote children's well-being. However, details on the packaging of prescribed medication supplied by parents and carers for administration to children is not checked immediately by staff upon receipt to ensure that it is clearly and correctly labelled. Not all soothers used by babies are appropriately stored at all times. Staff follow stringent nappy changing procedures and ensure that resources and equipment are kept clean.

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Helping children to be healthy

All children benefit from the familiar pattern of good hygiene routines and the positive role modelling of staff. Children show a developing awareness of the need to adopt good personal hygiene practices, such as hand washing and cleaning their teeth. Older children know that hand washing kills germs and cleaning their teeth helps keep teeth healthy. The nursery is clean and well maintained. Most staff are trained to administer first aid. This helps protect children's welfare.

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Helping children to be healthy

A healthy eating programme is encouraged and the nursery actively promotes the 'Stop the rot' campaign. Menus are very well balanced and nutritious. Children are offered fresh fruit and vegetables each day. They show an emerging awareness of the positive effects of healthy eating and know that good foods help them to grow strong. Fresh drinking water is accessible to children in each playroom. Staff work in close harmony with parents and carers to ensure that children's individual dietary needs are very well met, whether for cultural, medical, religious or life style choices of the parents and carers. Babies are able to feed and sleep according to their own daily routines. Mealtimes are social occasions and staff promote good table manners. Written information is shared daily with all parents and carers to keep them well informed of what their children have had to eat and drink.

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Helping children to be healthy

All children benefit from fresh air and exercise. They have regular outdoor play opportunities each day, weather permitting. A varied range of activities and resources are provided to encourage and nurture children's physical development. Children are able to practise and refine their physical skills in a very supportive environment and are sufficiently challenged. Children are able to rest and sleep according to their individual needs. This helps to promote their physical well-being.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Children are able to move freely and independently, both indoors and outdoors, within the constraints of safety whilst under the very close supervision of staff. Staff are vigilant and show a good understanding of relevant policies and procedures which they use well. For example, students and visitors are fully supervised and spillages are quickly cleaned up from the floor. Staff complete daily risk assessment of the playrooms and resources, and a record is kept. They continue to visually monitor the facilities and resources as an ongoing process throughout the day. A formal documented risk assessment of the premises and facilities is carried out and reviewed by the manager on a regular basis. Appropriate safety equipment is in place to remove

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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 or minimise the risk of accidents or injury. However, all safety gates are not kept in a state of good repair.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are helped to develop an understanding of danger by staff that give simple and clear explanations of ground rules. Children respond very well to the positive role modelling of the staff. Older children are beginning to take responsibility for preserving their own safety and that of others. This is shown in the way they help tidy toys away and attempt to clean up spillages. Regular fire drills are carried out and a record kept. Staff have a clear understanding of the evacuation procedure. Staff have a good understanding of their role and responsibility to safeguard children. A copy of the recommended child protection literature and the contact details for the Local Safeguarding Children Board are in place for reference purposes. Most staff have completed relevant training. This helps protect children from harm.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children settle very well into the nursery and are cared for by staff who build extremely warm relationships with them. In turn, children establish very close bonds with the staff, relate well to their peers and are most happy and contented. Staff working with children under three years have attended training in respect of the 'Birth to three matters' framework and make very good use of it to support the care of younger children. Each individual child is regularly monitored by their key worker and developmental records are kept. This includes quarterly reports on children's progress, photographs and examples of their work. Babies and young children have access to a wide variety of man-made and natural resources which they are actively encouraged to explore. They have frequent opportunities to use and develop all of their senses. They enjoy listening to music, using mirrors, playing with dough, paint, and cause and effect toys. They

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

have lots of opportunities to explore different textures, such as, when playing with various fabrics and colourful shredded tissue paper. Children have regular opportunities for a variety of creative play. For instance, small groups of children aged one to two years took it in turn to sit in a paddling pool of warm water whilst closely supervised by staff. They gurgled and splashed with delight and staff gave them plenty of good eye contact and warmly encouraged their vocalisations and play. It was evident that the children enjoyed the sensation of the warm water on their skin and the positive interaction of the staff. A very good balance of child-led and adult-led experiences is provided during the daily programme of activities. This helps to ensure that babies and young children are very well supported and sufficiently challenged in accordance to their age and stage of development. Playrooms are very well laid out and very well resourced.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have easy access to a wide range of age appropriate equipment and resources and low level storage systems enable children to self-select their own toys and activities. This helps to encourage children’s independence and decision making skills.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of the teaching and learning is good. Key workers regularly monitor individual children's progress and development, and records are frequently updated. Staff have a very good knowledge of the Foundation Stage curriculum. This, coupled with their sound knowledge of the abilities of the children for whom they care, enables them to plan effectively to provide a very good range of purposeful activities and learning experiences. Staff offer suggestions and ask questions which challenge children to think and develop their ideas. Children are eager and enthusiastic participants in group activities and they enjoy exploring and using resources independently. This enables children to learn through hands-on experiences. Children make very good progress.

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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 Staff give high priority to nurturing children's mathematical skills and their communication, language and literacy, and personal, social and emotional development. Children are very competent speakers and listeners. They initiate conversation with confidence and express their thoughts and ideas readily. For example, a child playing with dough described it as 'pink, soft, cold' and said 'it smells like strawberries'. Children make independent use of books and enjoy listening to stories. They are able to predict storylines and name familiar characters. They show an increasing interest in text and have frequent opportunities to develop and practise their mark making and writing skills. Clear and effective labelling, some of which is in other languages, helps to develops children's letter and word recognition. Children are able to recognise and

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

name letters and link them correctly to the correct letter sound. They draw detailed self-portraits. Many form recognisable letters and numbers and can write their first name unaided. Children's mathematical skills are developing very well. They can recognise and name simple shapes, primary and many secondary colours. They count with confidence from one to ten and some beyond ten. For example, a four-year-old child counted twenty pasta shapes into a bowl and then pointed out that some pieces where straight and others curly. Children are beginning to recognise written numbers and are developing an understanding of basic addition and subtraction. They are able to identify which group of items contains more or less. Children show a good understanding of concepts, such as size and spatial awareness. They use words, such as big, little, beside and under in their conversations. Children show an emerging interest in

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

the concepts of weight and measure. For example, they enjoy monitoring and plotting their height on a wall chart and have access to small plastic rules. However, additional resources to enable children to explore such concepts independently are not readily available.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have regular opportunities to learn about the natural world through a range of well planned and spontaneous activities. These include exploring in the garden, planting bulbs and seeds and tending them, and observing the actual life cycle of a butterfly. Children are able to express themselves creatively through a very wide variety of creative media, such as painting, cutting and sticking, modelling, dough, sand, water, music and dance. Physical skills are developing very well. Children manipulate hand tools, such as scissors and paint brushes, with ease and build with construction materials with purpose and dexterity. Their gross motor skills are very good. They run, jump, climb and manoeuvre wheeled toys safely. Children have access to a computer and simple programmable toys. This helps to foster their understanding of how things work and information technology skills.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Children are valued as individuals and staff help them to settle quickly by tailoring their admission to the nursery. For example, babies follow their individual feeding and sleep routines. Children show a positive attitude towards others. This is shown in the way that they willingly share toys, take turns and respect the personal space of others. Staff promote and manage children's behaviour particularly well. This is done through the calm, consistent use of age appropriate strategies and the recognition and praise of good behaviour. Children respond most positively; their behaviour is very good and they are beginning to show an understanding of right and wrong.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The nursery has appropriate procedures in place to support children with learning difficulties and disabilities. Staff show a good understanding of these and some staff have previous experience of caring for children with such needs. A suitable selection of resources and activities are provided to help raise children's awareness of diversity. All children benefit from regular outings into the local community or to places of interest. This helps to develop their awareness

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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 of the local environment and the wider world. The setting fosters children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership with parents and carers is very good. They receive good quality written information about the nursery and the policies and procedures in place. Copies of these are readily available on site along with other relevant literature. For example, information about the Foundation Stage curriculum, the 'Birth to three matters' framework and activity plans. Respective parents and carers have access to their own child's records. They are kept very well informed of how their children are progressing and general events via daily written and verbal feedback from staff. More formal opportunities to discuss and review their child's progress are regularly offered through designated appointments, during which, reports produced by their child's key worker are shared with them.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Parents and carers are actively encouraged to discuss their child's development with key workers and to keep them informed of any pertinent information that may impact upon the care or progress of their child. This enables staff to work closely in partnership with parents and carers and in keeping with their wishes. This helps to ensure that children's needs are very well met. Verbal feedback from parents and carers at the time of the inspection was most positive and very complimentary about the staff and the good quality of care given to the children.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Overall, the provision meets the needs of the range of the children for whom it provides. The leadership and management are good. The required record keeping and documentation is in place and is very well organised and presented. Staff are very well supported through regular team meetings, individual appraisal sessions, access to relevant, staff incentives and the open-door style of management adopted. The manager regularly monitors and evaluates practice and this has a positive impact and helps to ensure that the service provided is of very good quality. The nursery's recruitment and selection procedures help to ensure that staff are suitable for their posts and are appropriately screened and checked.

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Organisation

The manager and staff show an ongoing commitment to their own professional development and the continued development of the care and education provided to the children. Staff make effective use of the observation and assessment of individual children to ensure that each child's needs are very well met. The systems of planning and evaluating activities effectively supports and nurtures children's developmental progression and learning. Staff work effectively together as a team and morale is high. This has a positive impact on the children who benefit from the interaction of staff that are very enthusiastic and very well motivated.

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Organisation

In general, effective use is made of space, time and resources. Each of the playrooms is divided into different areas so as to accommodate various types of play. Each area is very well resourced. Children can take part in a range of activities to support and enhance their all-round development and learning. However, the after lunch routine for children aged two to three years needs to be reviewed so that children are not expected to sit and look at books for a long period of time.

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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

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the time of the last inspection the provider was asked to further develop policies and procedures relating to health and safety, safeguarding children from harm, and to extend children's access to resources and activities to help promote equal opportunity.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Appropriate systems are in place to ensure that written consent is obtained from parents and carers in respect of the administration of medication. The safeguarding children from harm policy includes information about the action to be taken should an allegation be made against a member of staff. Suitable storage facilities are provided for buggies, and children have access to resources and activities to help raise awareness in all aspects of diversity. This helps to improve operational procedures, partnership with parents and carers, and the care and safety of the children.

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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): • staff to check immediately the details written on the packaging of medication provided by parents and carers to verify that it is clear and correct and staff to ensure that babies' soothers are stored hygienically at all times • ensure that safety gates are kept in good repair at all times • review the after lunch and lead-up to sleep time routine for children in the two to three years playroom, to ensure that those children not wishing to look at books, rest or sleep are provided with sufficient resources and activities to keep them stimulated and engaged in 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):

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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 • provide additional opportunities for children to develop their awareness of concepts, such as weight and measure (also applies to care).

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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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