All Sorts At All Souls School

All Sorts At All Souls School Inspection report for early years provision

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EY362430 Unique Reference Number 12 May 2008 Inspection date Sharon Waterfall Inspector

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All Souls RC Infant School, Abercorn Road, COVENTRY, CV5 8ED Setting Address

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02476 675836 Telephone number headteacher@souls.coventry.sch.uk E-mail Voluntary Management Committee Of all Souls School 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 satisfactory.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

All Sorts at All Souls School registered in 2007. It operates from rooms within All Souls RC Infants School in Coventry, West Midlands. There are two base classrooms and additional playrooms laid out over two floors. There is a fully enclosed outdoor play area.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The setting serves children who attend the school and live in the local and surrounding areas. The setting is registered to care for a maximum of 24 children under eight years of age at any one time. There are currently 102 children on roll including 13 funded three-year-olds.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Children attend a variety of sessions. The nursery is open during term time, Monday to Friday during school hours. The provision includes a before and after school service. The setting supports children with learning disabilities/and or difficulties and children who speak English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

There is an established staff team of seven employed to work directly with the children, of whom all hold an appropriate early years qualification. The nursery receives support from the early years department of 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. The main lunch meals for the pre-school children are prepared and cooked by the school kitchens. The children go into the small dining room before the whole school and are able to choose for themselves what they would like. The menu's are changed weekly and are healthy and nutritious offering the children a good variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Staff sit with the children during meals times, supporting and making the occasion more sociable. Drinks are accessible to the children throughout the day and healthy fruit snacks are given mid-morning and afternoon ensuring that the children receive adequate quantities of food for their needs. In the out of school facility, children have choices for breakfast which range from cereals to a more substantial bread product. In the evenings, a range of foods are available and children show their enjoyment as they have second helpings of the noodles. Fruit is always available to

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Helping children to be healthy

the children at each session. Children are aware of the importance of drinking regularly as staff talk to them about being hydrated in the warm weather and fresh drinking water is available to the children at all times.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy a very wide range of energetic physical activities both indoors and outdoors that contribute to their health and well-being. They benefit from having opportunities to play in the garden on a regular basis. Within an adventure park, large climbing apparatus enables the children to challenge their limits in a safe environment as staff supervise at all times. They learn to control their balance as they move across balancing beams, step up and down on graded log steps and walk over chain bridges. Importantly, they very much enjoy themselves whilst partaking in these activities. In a further garden area, the children have use of wheeled equipment which they are confident in manoeuvring around obstacles. Smaller muscle skills are used when throwing and catching balls and bean bags, and moving the parachute up and down. Activities such as manipulating materials, construction, mark-making and pouring and

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Helping children to be healthy

scooping sand, water and seeds supports the hand developments required for pre-writing skills.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children learn the importance of good personal hygiene routines well, with the support of the staff. Nappy changing procedures ensure that the spread of infection is limited as staff use gloves and aprons when changing children. Young children are offered excellent support and encouragement when potty training and older children are independent, only needing occasional reminders to wash their hands. Tissues are accessible to the children and they are aware of disposing of them after use. They are protected from infection because a sick children's policy is in place and shared with parents, however, at times limited information is gained regarding specific health issues which could have an adverse affect. Comprehensive policies are in place for accident and medication recording and appropriate staff hold first aid certificates ensuring immediate action in an emergency.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Children use premises that are suitable; they are welcoming, clean and well-maintained. For example: there are specific rooms for sole use during the sessions. The play group room is laid out within areas of learning where resources that are accessible to children are also stored. The children actively choose what activities they want to play with and can be inside or out. It is a very beautiful environment, children's work is well displayed attractively as individual pictures and staff ensure that children can value their work as it is labelled. Mobiles and number lines

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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 hang from the ceiling and the room is organised with flowing lines and specific learning areas. The out of school facilities take place in the dining room which the children are currently designing and making pictures on canvas to hang and brighten up the room.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Throughout the facility the children have easy access to a very wide range of appropriate, well- maintained equipment at child height, encouraging independent choice in all rooms. Staff have assessed resources and have used funding to expand them in all areas, ensuring a variety of learning experiences for the children and supporting all areas of the curriculum. The outdoor area and gardens are very well utilised during the day by all age groups of children providing vital active play.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are cared for very well in a clean, secure and well-maintained environment. They are very comfortable within the effective boundaries set by staff for safety, for example, understand why they cannot climb on furniture and wait to be escorted by staff. Risk assessments are completed for the building with staff visually checking the rooms and the outdoor area. Staff are very vigilant about the children's safety and well-being, the staff to child ratios meet the required minimum. Very good security ensures that all visitors are monitored, recorded and accurate registers are kept. Children in the pre-school develop a good awareness of safety issues as they practise fire evacuation, howeve,r this is not consistent through the facility and at times items stored near exits present hazards. Fire safety equipment and electrical equipment are checked regularly.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are very well protected from abuse or neglect. Staff have attended training and appropriate policies and procedures are in place. Senior staff take a lead role for child protection and staff are fully aware of the types of abuse and the signs to look for.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children benefit from extremely caring and positive staff, who really do take the children to their hearts and offer good care. Young children entering the group can have their parents stay with them as long as they need and then their parents stay for shorter and shorter periods until they feel secure enough to stay on their own. Within the setting they are able to explore their environment freely choosing from a good range of age appropriate activities, many of which provide them with new experiences. For example, the younger children enjoy the tactile play such as gloop, seeds, shredded paper and sand. They use their hands to feel the new sensations pushing, lifting, pulling and pouring to explore their properties. They begin to communicate with larger and more unfamiliar groups, eventually becoming more confident in expressing their likes and dislikes. The large milestone of toilet training is excellently promoted by staff

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

who all delight in the child's achievements, giving lashings of praise and stickers to encourage further development. Through creative activities, children show their representations of the world around them, exploring colour and different mediums. Their symbolism and pictures show their ideas which are valued by staff and displayed labelled with their names for all to see. This raises their confidence and self-esteem and supports them in exploring and creating further, extending their motivation for learning.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. Staff have an appropriate understanding of the Foundation Stage and the six learning outcomes. They generally plan a varied curriculum that includes all six areas, though assessment and planning demonstrate that within the

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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 mathematical development some aspects are not balanced. Number and counting activities are plentiful but activities that promote problem solving, shape and pattern though implemented occasionally through other activities are not as specifically planned and are presented with less depth. The present planning system relies mainly on key staff planning focused activities for their own children, linking into long term themes and topics. Which means that activities are inconsistently implemented and the children are not able to equally access experiences and opportunities during each session.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Also the key groups include a wide gap of ages and abilities and at times the activities offered can be less challenging for the older children or too difficult for the younger ones. Staff complete on-going assessment and with the concept of working with key groups is quite new, staff feel as though they are now getting to know their children's learning needs well and can build and adapt on this knowledge. Staff are beginning to use this information effectively to support children in the daily activities. The organisation of the sessions enable children to have free time and staff have plans to provide a better free-flow structure demonstrating how they are evaluating their provision. Children's behaviour is good and staff use very positive strategies such as discussion to resolve issues.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Many of the children are confident speakers and staff encourage all children to be involved in group discussions during key group time and circle time. During all activities the children talk to the staff about what they are doing and are confident in expressing their views, needs and opinions. The children enjoy listening to stories and they often look at books independently and ask staff to read to them. The children are beginning to understand that print has meaning, they have brought in labels from home to display in the writing area. Children enjoy mark making and emergent writing, some children can write their names and others are forming recognisable letters.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Opportunities for counting are provided during activities in the sessions such as at group time, through number rhymes and in some stories. The children are asked to count out a number of items and play a game that requires them to count the correct number of steps they have taken. The children show great care and concern for one another, fetching things for their peers when prompted and without being prompted. They are encouraged to be independent, trying things out for themselves before staff aid them, such as putting on aprons and coats.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

More emphasis has been put on enabling the children to explore and have hands-on experiences particularly within creative and textural activities. for example, the children have opportunities to feel and play with corn flour and water, explaining that it is hard and runny and deciding that it can do this because it is magic. They look for items in the shredded paper and pour and scoop sunflower seeds and lentils into trucks. The children can easily enter the creative area and use the resources freely, displays evidence that value is placed on the children's representations of what they observe around them. They are beginning to understand their world as they plant and care for beans and sunflowers, learn how to care for babies and visit local places of interest such as the church.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. Children's individuality is respected by caring staff who are just beginning to effectively use their observations, assessments, planning and information from parents to value and support children's personal development. The key worker system works well to support children's care and sense of well-being. Throughout the setting staff show excellent knowledge of the children

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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 in their care and aim to make the children's attendance in the setting a positive experience. Displays show that children's representations of the world around them are valued developing their creativity and competence. Out of school children show delight in seeing their artwork displayed adding to their sense of belonging, security and identity.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The children show interest in cultural and religious differences through the planning of activities relating to differing festivals during the year and use a good range of resources that promote positive images of differing cultures and religions in their play. The setting is aware of inclusion for all children and works extremely well with parents and appropriate agencies to support children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The staff are proactive in accessing equipment and putting into place strategies to protect children's welfare.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children's behaviour is managed by a staff team that show appropriate awareness of children's individual levels of development throughout the pre-school and out of school, and manage behaviour accordingly. Staff are good role models for the children as their behaviour and language and their expectations for the children are consistent. Positive praise is used to raise children's self-esteem and rewards such as stickers are given for achievement. Strategies such as reminding children to use kind hands and active demonstrations of what that means ensures that children understand the concepts, use of sand timers aids them in learning about fairness and taking turns. In the out of school facilities the children are able to make active decisions for themselves raising their confidence and independence. Children's social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Partnership with parents is satisfactory. Discussions with parents show that they are happy with the levels of care their children receive and find staff very approachable. They know who their child's key person is and have opportunities to speak to them daily. As staff have just begun to develop funded children's progress records with photographs, observations and examples of the creative work, they have not as yet been shared with parents. As a result parents have not been involved formally in discussions about how to support children's on-going development.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Settling in procedures are very flexible to the individual families and parents feel very able to communicate with staff throughout the nursery to discuss aspects of care regarding their children. Communication is excellent with the setting being very sensitive to families lifestyles and supporting them at transitional times. Written information is shared daily regarding the young children's care needs and menu's are shared with them in advance.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Funded children's parents are aware of the topics and themes in their educational planning through regular newsletters and daily displayed activities. The children regularly take home artwork and parents are invited in to share information with the children supporting their topics and themes.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Children are developing well and have fun within their learning through the excellent care and the range of activities offered. Recruitment is robust and staff are deployed effectively within the setting at all times, both indoors and out. The environment is very child focused with labelled individual work beautifully displayed throughout the rooms. The space is adapted regularly to meet the needs of the children with future plans in place to change it formally to provide better changing facilities and all year round outdoor play. Written policies and procedures

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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 are in place ensuring children’s health, safety and welfare are promoted, though they are not always consistent through the differing elements of the service.

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Organisation

The new manager is continually monitoring and reviewing practice in the setting, effectively adapting care and learning procedures. All staff hold appropriate qualifications and each of them completes on-going in-house and external training, ensuring they keep up to date with developments in early years. Through regular staff meetings they share their knowledge and skills with colleagues and discuss new ideas. The welfare of the children is the priority in the setting and all staff work as a team to meet all the needs of the children. Adult to child ratios are very good, enabling children to receive a lot of individual attention, including those settling in and children needing extra support.

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Organisation

Leadership and management are satisfactory. New, more formal procedures and policies support the staff in working successfully in partnership with parents and carers. Through recent evaluative practices the staff have developed children's experiences and continue to implement an assessment and observation system that supports individual children but requires better links into overall planning. Staff create a wide learning environment that provides children with interesting and explorative activities. Evaluation and monitoring of the educational provision is overviewed by the manager, although key worker staff have begun to initially ensure that each child is individually supported. Information is shared in planning meetings relevant for each child and activities are planned accordingly. Staff attend courses and workshops on aspects of the Foundation Stage and areas of learning and implement new ideas and improvements

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Organisation

regularly. Advice is sought from outside agencies and implemented to further enhance children’s learning.

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Organisation

Overall the provision meets the need of the range of the children for whom it provides.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Not applicable, as this is the first inspection.

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Complaints since the last inspection

Since registration 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 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): • ensure full details are recorded regarding children's specific health and medical needs • improve fire safety procedures ensuring fire evacuation procedures are consistently undertaken throughout the facility and all fire escape routes can be easily exited.

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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 planning of activities for children includes differentiation to meet their individual learning needs and that activities are equally available to all children • development the curriculum for mathematics to provide more depth in problem solving, shape and pattern in activities.

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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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