St Wilfrid's Pre-School

St Wilfrids Pre School Inspection report for early years provision

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305335 Unique Reference Number 02 October 2007 Inspection date Rachel Ruth Britten Inspector

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Greenbank Lane, Hartford, Northwich, Cheshire, CW8 1JW Setting Address

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E-mail

St Wilfrid's Pre-School 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 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?

St. Wilfrid's Pre-school is managed by a committee. It opened in 1987 and operates from an open plan classroom adjacent to the reception class within St. Wilfrid's Primary School. It is situated on the schools campus in Hartford, Northwich. A maximum of 30 children may attend the pre-school at any one time. The pre-school is open each weekday during term time from 9.00 to 15.15. All children share access to a secure enclosed play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There are currently 54 children aged from two to under five years on roll. Of these, 47 children receive funding for early education. Children come from a wide catchment area, as their parents travel in to work or have children attending the school. The pre-school currently supports a number of children with physical disabilities and learning difficulties, but is not currently supporting any children who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The pre-school employs four permanent members of staff, all of whom have appropriate early years qualifications.

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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 stay very healthy because practitioners employ a thorough knowledge of appropriate health and hygiene guidelines and procedures. They keep toilet areas very clean and equipped and keep food preparation and eating areas meticulously clean. Staff help children to become increasingly independent in washing their hands, wiping their noses, using wipes, putting in the bin any used tissues and paper towels, and clearing away their own snacks. There are frequent discussions about keeping ourselves healthy through wearing the right clothes for the weather, washing germs off our hands, eating healthy foods and getting plenty of fresh air and exercise, all of which children are encouraged to enjoy during sessions.

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Helping children to be healthy

Good attention to individual children's health needs means that dietary requirements and administration of any necessary medication are carefully undertaken according to each child's needs and their parents' wishes. Most staff have first aid qualifications and consent is obtained for the seeking of any necessary emergency medical treatment. Accident records are well maintained and parental consent for all medications given is kept with the relevant medicine administration record to show that specific consent was given in every case.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy very good levels of physical activity outdoors, taking part in climbing, balancing, ball skills, group games and riding activities in the playground. In addition, the outdoor area is set out with construction, role play, experimental and creative resources, so that children can continue their learning experience for extended periods outside, enjoying the fresh air. They also regularly walk locally to use woods, fields and rivers for exploring nature and getting to know their environment on foot. All this activity supports their physical health very well.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children are very well nourished and enjoy a healthy diet through snacks, such as bread sticks, sandwiches, crackers, cheese, banana, orange, carrot and apple, which they are sometimes involved in preparing. Water or milk is offered to drink and water is easily available throughout sessions. Children enjoy activities related to healthy eating and have created a survey chart showing how many of them like best cheese, tuna, ham or jam sandwiches. This is used as a point for discussion on the day of inspection.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Children are cared for in a very welcoming, bright, spacious and safe environment with a happy and purposeful atmosphere. There is room in the entrance for coats and bags, with varied use of name cards for children to designate their hook or find their place at the snack table. The room is also open to the reception classroom and children are welcome to move between these areas to share the painting easels and to socialise with friends who have gone up to school. Activities are prepared and set out before children arrive and low open shelving, chairs, mats, cushions, tables, posters and labelled resource boxes help children to see what they can choose in each area. These features help children to make sense of the setting and understand where things are.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There is good security to the public entrance doors of the school and these are locked during sessions. Registers are taken as children arrive and depart by parents signing their child in, so that it is always known exactly who is on the premises. Children are learning about how to keep

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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 themselves safe because staff show them how to manage tools, such as cutlery and scissors, as they make things or eat school meals. They take considered risks, learning to enjoy their play environment safely, for example, by being allowed to run about freely and use all the equipment outside under supervision. Children are taught to put their chairs under the table, but they are not involved enough in setting out and clearing away their own activities or undertaking the cleaning and tidying routines of the day. This somewhat holds back their understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are protected from abuse because all staff have a good understanding of their role in child protection. Careful arrangements using passwords and enrolment information are made to ensure that staff know exactly who is collecting a child and who is permitted to do so if this is not the usual parent or designated carer. Staff have experience of working together with other agencies to support children who are at risk and have procedures in place in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff. The named person for child protection has also been on recent safeguarding children training.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children quickly settle to play, discover and experiment. Staff and parents help them to find their name card, choose a peg, collect a book to take home in their work bag, and invite them to get started right away on activities. Staff come alongside children and play with them, constructing, role playing, playing simple board games, or using the sand and water with them. Children are quickly developing very good levels of self-confidence because purposeful staff talk and listen to them and have high expectations of what they can achieve, especially in assessed small group work. They help children to extend their knowledge and develop their natural curiosity through real experiences, for example, as they visit a building site and make constructions of their own. They frequently refer to activities already undertaken and displays they have made together, so that children can consolidate their learning and build upon their

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

experiences. For example, they remember their teddy bear's picnic and the bear hunt story and some of them then decide that they shall get out the binoculars and go on a bear hunt outside. Throughout sessions, children are confident, concentrate well and enjoy playing alongside one another and adults.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The session routine is simple and circle times are well used by the supervisor to clearly introduce the themes and link activities. In addition, children have plenty of free choice time and can select materials and toys, both from the clear storage boxes placed around the room, and from the activities already set out inside and outside. This promotes their independence and allows them to develop their own particular skills and interests. Good use is made of photographs, displayed for parents on the notice board and in large files, to show how children are enjoying and achieving in the setting. Some children stay all day while others stay for half day sessions, so staff work hard to explain to children know how long they are staying and what is happening now and next before parents will be back to collect them. This enables most children to settle well, enter into activities fully, behave well and enthusiastically join in with group activities like

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of the teaching and learning is good. Staff are highly committed to providing a caring, welcoming atmosphere and an approach which fosters self-confidence and good social behaviour. A varied programme of well planned activities, based upon a theme, ensure that all

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 the areas of learning are covered. Role play, stories, writing, creative, construction, small world, physical and experimental activities are all available and supported by the experienced staff who come alongside and extend children's learning as they play. For example, children re-create a beach holiday and plan and do all the preparations for this. They take photographs to make their own passports and set out their sand and sea scene, with deckchairs, life rings, and picnic hampers.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are making good progress in all the areas of learning. Staff are successful in providing for their personal, social and emotional development, which provides a basis from which the other areas of learning can follow. Social confidence is fostered well because children feel part of the school community and mix daily with the reception class, sharing some outdoor play, art and communication technology equipment with them. Staff foster an emphasis upon care and concern for all others and an appreciation of the community and natural world so that children have a strong sense of place and are in touch with their world. For example, they plant and grow flowers, explore the woods and paths nearby, put on an assembly for the school, are aware of the weather because they go out every day, and are taking care of their friends with particular needs. Staff also devise activities which incorporate learning about words, letters and numbers

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

throughout the routines of the day, so that children are learning about literacy and numeracy in creative, practical and relevant ways.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Staff have a good understanding of the Foundation Stage and how children learn. They plan in detail and know their key children very well. They regularly work with their key children and adjust and tailor their plans to ensure that individual children make progress according to their individual starting points. They evaluate activities, but make few observation notes during sessions about what they see children can do. They also make too few entries of photo or written evidence into children's progress profiles to illustrate how their play is leading to learning in each of the six areas. Children's work mostly goes home with them and many photos are compiled, showing children's activities, but none of these things are annotated to explain what they show of children's learning and achievements.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Children join in very well because the warm environment and friendly, purposeful staff help children feel at home from the outset. Catholic beliefs underpin a caring, sensitive approach to each individual child and a strong sense of community within the school as a whole. Parents and children are warmly welcomed by their key staff to exchange information about children's particular needs, so that sensitivity and due regard is given to children's present circumstances and feelings. The routines of the sessions include prayers, in keeping with the Catholic ethos of the setting, but children are helped to consider and value diversity because there are some books, dressing up costumes, dolls, play figures, puzzles, posters and games which show positive images of various cultures and disabilities. Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children and adults with physical disabilities and behaviour or learning needs are included fully in the life of the setting because the setting is on one level and staff are committed to inclusion. They liaise well with parents and relevant professionals to ensure that they plan and work together using recognised and consistent techniques which benefit children with physical and learning needs and have the support of one to one inclusion workers where appropriate.

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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 Staff use their time constructively to give children both one to one time and encouragement to join in with group activities. Children behave very well and are able to share and cooperate. There is appropriate use of the behaviour incident record to support early team work with parents to deal with behaviour issues. There are also good behaviour, equal opportunities, parent partnership and disability policies which are made available to parents in their handbook and the complaints policy is displayed. However, there have been no complaints to record and the complaints record has therefore not been started.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The quality of partnership with parents and carers is good. Children receive consistency of care between home and pre-school because key staff communicate well with parents and good quality consents and child details are obtained at enrolment. Photos and displays of the planning help adults to know what is going on in the setting and colour coded name cards ensure that they know who their child's key worker is. The parent handbook includes details of the Foundation Stage. There are also regular school newsletters incorporating information from pre-school and termly open days for prospective new starters. Parents are encouraged to take home books to use with their child, have access to good information about what their child has been doing in pre-school and are pleased with the close links to the school's reception class. Children's developmental records are also always available for viewing upon request, although

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Organisation

The organisation is good. The leadership and management of the nursery education is good. The supervisor provides good support to all staff and is well supported by the management group. She acts as a good role model and is committed to promoting an inclusive environment where every child matters. She has produced up to date polices, procedures and handbooks which show how the setting works to promote children's health, safety, enjoy, achievement and ability to make a positive contribution and she works together well with staff to plan and evaluate the education provision. She evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the care and education offered approximately half yearly and believes that the pre-school has improved greatly. She is aware that evidence of staff career paths, training and appraisals are not yet available and that staff do not have individual files containing required information about recruitment, training and qualifications.

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Organisation

Nevertheless, the staff group is well informed and responsibilities to be the named person for child protection, behaviour, equal opportunities and disabilities are shared.

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Organisation

Staff deployment contributes well to children’s good health, safety, enjoyment and achievement and ability to take an active part in the setting. Staff ratios are good, staff know exactly what their roles are throughout each session, and they adapt and cover for one another when children need one to one time, perhaps for personal care needs. Policies and procedures also work well in practice to promote good outcomes for children. For example, child details, daily registers, safety checklists and policy documents are in place to support children's welfare and safety. These are well organised and available to staff and parents, but specific contact details for Ofsted, social services and the local police are not all given. Accident, incident and medication procedures work well, but parents are not signing each record of medicine administration to indicate that they know for sure what has been given. Overall, the provision meets the needs

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Organisation

of the range of the children for whom it provides.

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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

There were four recommendations made at the last inspection of care in December 2003 and there were three points for consideration made at the last inspection of nursery education in March 2005.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The recommendations for care have mostly been satisfactorily met to improve children's safety and health in the setting. This is because children's arrival and departure for all sessions are now clearly recorded by parents and checked by staff; fire drills are held regularly each term at various times of the day so that all children know what to do; and there are three members of staff holding current first aid qualifications, so that there is always at least one in the pre-school to administer first aid if a child has an accident. However, evidence of staff's qualifications is still not clearly available on the premises because staff files containing this are not yet organised and qualification certificates are not displayed. Nevertheless, all staff are suitably qualified.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The points for consideration arising from the inspection of nursery education have been fully addressed to improve children's opportunities to write for a purpose; to improve children's knowledge and understanding of information and communication technology; and to ensure that resources are ready to use for all planned activities. For example, the setting and activity plans provide various mark making activities utilising the role play area, sand and crayons, and all children can regularly access the computers, interactive white board, digital cameras and binoculars. In addition, written plans identify all the resources required for activities and these are provided and prepared efficiently where appropriate.

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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. 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): • prepare a complaints and parent feedback record ready to use and make entries available to interested parties upon request • adapt medication records to provide a place for parent signatures of acknowledgement and provide up to date contact details for Ofsted, social services and the local police

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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 • update staff records so that information about recruitment, training, qualifications and contact details are readily available for use.

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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 regular observations and examples of what children can do are made and entered into their profiles.

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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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