Holy Trinity Pre-School

Holy Trinity Pre-School Inspection report for early years provision

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EY360454 Unique Reference Number 03 July 2008 Inspection date Nicola Hill / Catherine Hill Inspector

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Holy Trinity Church Hall, Chobham Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 2SX Setting Address

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01483 473 489 Telephone number holy-trinity@tiscali.co.uk E-mail Holy Trinity Church Registered person Integrated Type of inspection Sessional 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 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?

Holy Trinity Pre-School was registered in 2007. It is a committee run provision and operates from the Holy Trinity Church in Knaphill, Surrey. Children are accommodated in the main hall and an adjoining room and have use of an enclosed outdoor play area. Suitable toilet and kitchen facilities are available.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The pre-school serves the needs of families in the area and the local community. The group is registered to care for a maximum of 26 children aged between two and under five years. There are currently 44 children on roll. This includes 34 funded three-year-olds and four funded four-year-olds. There is one child currently attending with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and one child speaks English as an additional language.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The pre-school operates each weekday from 09.00 to 12.00, during school term times. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are two full-time and six part-time staff currently working with the children, four of whom hold a recognised early years qualification. The setting receives support through a teacher mentor from the local school and 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. The environment is clean and appropriately maintained, providing a pleasant, healthy environment for the children's care and play. Staff adhere to sound hygiene procedures such as cleaning tables before meals and wearing gloves to prepare and serve snack. Although these procedures are in place, no member of staff has received training in food hygiene, which contradicts the pre-school policy. Children begin to learn about how to keep themselves healthy through daily routines and discussion with staff. Older children are independent in their self-care skills, such as toileting, and all children are encouraged to wash their hands at appropriate times. There are suitable systems in place to record accidents and administration of medication and all parents have signed their consent for staff to seek medical attention in the event of an emergency. Although there are only two out of eight staff trained in administering first aid,

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Helping children to be healthy

the pre-school ensures there is always at least one member of staff who is qualified on duty.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children's physical development is encouraged and promoted through regular activities, both inside the hall and outside in the fresh air. Children develop co-ordination and spatial awareness as they pedal and steer on bikes and scooters in the enclosed church garden, run around and aim beanbags into target nets. They develop physical control as they climb on the climbing frame and bounce on the mini trampoline. Indoors, staff provide music and movement sessions, parachute games and climbing apparatus, to enable children to try out new skills. Staff also take children on occasional walks around the surrounding area and to visit the environmental area at the local school.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children learn about healthy eating as staff encourage parents to provide healthy and nutritious snacks to be shared at the group, such as banana, apple and satsuma. Children make their own decision about when to stop and have snack as they freely access the snack bar during the session. All children have a choice of water or milk and are encouraged to be independent as they pour their own drinks. Drinking water is also available to the children throughout the session, as children bring in their own sports bottles. However, not all of these bottles are labelled, so there is the potential for cross-contamination. Children's dietary needs are met effectively because the provider records full information from parents. Children are also beginning to learn about healthy eating and different foods as they take part in cooking activities and taste new foods when celebrating different cultural festivals.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. Children are cared for in premises which are safe and suitable. Staff greet parents and children warmly as they arrive so they develop a sense of belonging and good self-esteem. Some children's work is on display in the hall, although this is limited. The children benefit from the space provided by the hall, which enables lots of different activities to be set up at any one time. Children move around with ease from activity to activity which helps them to settle and feel confident. Children play with a variety of safe and suitable toys, which are easily accessible on floor level and at tabletop. There are some opportunities for children to make independent choices, for example, from the book, writing and craft areas.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children are kept safe as they are closely supervised by staff at all times. Good security precautions contribute to child safety and staff carry out daily safety audits to ensure that the

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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 environment is safe. The member of staff responsible for the safety audit also carries out regular head counts during the session, and ensures all staff are aware of their responsibilities in the event of a fire. A board displayed in the hall clearly shows how many adults and children are present, and children take part in regular fire drills, which helps them to learn about keeping themselves safe. Children also learn about safe through topic work and have recently enjoyed visits from the fire brigade, the police and the lollipop lady.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff have a sound understanding of the known indicators of child abuse and the referral procedures if they are concerned about a child in their care. However, staff have not attended formal child protection training for some time and do not have easy access to the contact details for their local Social Services or the guidelines in the Government booklet 'What to do if you're worried a child is being abused'. In addition, the written child protection statement does not include the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff, which is a mandatory requirement in regulations.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is satisfactory. There is a happy and busy atmosphere at this pre-school. Children enter the setting eagerly and immediately begin to play with the resources on offer. Staff develop caring relationships with children in order to support their emotional needs. As a consequence, children's sense of security and well-being are increased and they become confident to explore the environment and engage in activities that support their play and development. Children are content and enjoy themselves whilst at the pre-school.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Younger children who are not in receipt of nursery funding confidently engage in a variety of activities which they freely choose to undertake. Staff have a realistic expectation of what younger children are able to achieve, although they do not use the Birth to three matters framework to support their planning of activities for children less than three years of age. Children's progress is recorded using Birth to three development records, however, these have not been updated for some time. Younger children remain well-occupied throughout the session. They enjoy looking at books for pleasure, playing in the sand and playing outside on the stepping stones. They join in when the lollipop lady shows them how to cross the road safely and give her a round of applause to thank her for her visit.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. All staff contribute to planning a range of activities which promote skill development in all areas. They very effectively use resources and plan activities which show solid links to the topic being covered. This allows children to reinforce and consolidate their learning in all skill areas. However, short term plans do not show how activities will be differentiated to meet individual children’s learning needs and staff are not always clear about the learning objectives of some planned activities. They make observation notes on children’s learning and use these notes to track children’s progress through the stepping stones towards the early learning goals. Children’s development records, however, have not been regularly updated to clearly show progression in learning and there are no short term learning targets recorded for individual children. Staff skilfully use questions whilst children

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

play to make them think and children respond positively to staff interest in what they are doing and confidently name, for example, different colours of shapes they play with.

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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 are very confident and happily separate from their parents and carers to explore the range of activities set out for them. They patiently wait their turn when involved in a shape and colour matching activity and amicably share resources, such as scissors and play dough. They show a good motivation to learn as they actively engage in learning through play. They concentrate well to complete a 12 piece puzzle of a police car scene and are proud of their achievements. They develop in self-esteem as staff praise their efforts, and show independence as they attend to personal hygiene and pour their own drinks at snack time. Children show an interest in books as they independently choose books to look at in the book area. Staff foster children’s interest in literature as they sit and read stories to them, such as ‘Don’t be a bully,

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Billy’. Children develop an understanding that print carries meaning as they recognise their name cards on arrival and some word labels are displayed in the role play area relating to the theme of the role play. They seize opportunities to practise their mark making as writing resources are freely accessible to them and some children write their name on their work with some recognisable letters.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Singing number rhymes, such as ‘Five little fingers’ helps reinforce children’s understanding of basic calculation. Staff reinforce children’s counting skills as they encourage children to repeatedly count how many are left as one finger is taken away. Children confidently and correctly count the number of objects in a tray as they sort according to colour. They recognise and can name shapes, such as a circle, square, star and heart. Children develop an understanding of the wider world and the roles of people in their community through visitors to the pre-school. They have had visits, for example, from the police, fire service, a health visitor and lollipop lady. They learn about the natural world through use of the outdoor area where they have observed a slug and frog and have visited the adjoining school’s environmental area. Planned activities covering topics, such as Diwali, develop children’s awareness of different cultures. They freely

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

access the computer where they can develop their skills in the use of technology and have fun as they use walkie talkies whilst pretending to be police officers. Photographic evidence shows that children have learnt about the changes that happen when sugar is added to lemonade, grass is left without water and coloured dye is added to the water given to flowers.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have very good opportunities to develop their physical skills at the pre-school. They enthusiastically take part in music and movement sessions where they jump, skip, hop, clap and dance. They have fun as they take part in action rhymes and laugh and giggle as they run around pretending to be motor cars on a journey. Outside, they play with balls and practise their kicking and use stepping stones to practise balancing. They use their imagination as they engage in role play and small world play and as they freely draw pictures of their choice. They enjoy singing songs and learn about tempo as they merrily shake musical bells fast and slow according to the music being played on the piano.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. All children are warmly welcomed into the pre-school, and are treated with equal concern. Staff give children lots of praise and encouragement and equal access to the different activities and resources on offer. Staff seek to provide an inclusive environment for all children, and work with parents and other agencies as appropriate to support children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. Children gain an understanding of their own community and the wider world as they invite people from the community to visit, and access resources that reflect different aspects of social diversity, such as books, role play items and play figures. They also learn about different cultures as they

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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 celebrate a variety of festivals, such as Diwali, Hannukah and Chinese New Year. As a result, children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Children behave generally well overall, although the behaviour of some children does deteriorate at whole group times which impacts adversely on everyone. Staff do not always manage these situations well. Children do play harmoniously together however, happily share resources and have good manners. Staff are good role-models and model calm and polite behaviour. A written policy supports the pre-school's expectations of children and staff, although it does not include a statement about bullying.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

There is a friendly relationship with parents who feel able to approach staff. Parents speak well of the group and staff, commenting that the staff are friendly and reassuring, helping new children to settle well. Staff make parents feel welcome and take time to talk and listen to them about their children. Parents share in the life of the pre-school in various ways, such as joining the committee and signing up to the 'Parents' Rota' to help out when they can during sessions. They are suitably informed about the organisation of the group by means of a registration pack and the display of other information on the notice board. A file of written policies and procedures is also easily accessible.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The partnership with parents and carers of children receiving nursery education is satisfactory. Some information is displayed for parents about the Birth to three matters framework and how it links to the Foundation Stage curriculum. Parents receive regular verbal feedback on their child’s progress but there is no formal procedure in place to share children’s development records and their future learning targets. Basic information is shared with parents, via newsletters, about forthcoming activity plans but weekly activity plans are not displayed to inform parents of the current learning objectives being covered with their children. Staff are proactive in taking photographs of children and some of the activities they have done and these are displayed for parents to view in a pre-school diary.

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Organisation

The organisation is satisfactory. The pre-school has a staff team who are aware of their day to day roles and responsibilities, and work together to ensure children are cared for within a happy environment. Ratios are met and maintained, which promotes children's well-being and generally ensures they receive appropriate levels of interaction and supervision from the staff. However, there are times when staff are not effectively deployed, such as when the majority of staff start to tidy away resources, whilst others are left to occupy the children.

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Organisation

The setting meets minimum qualification requirements and all staff and committee members are vetted, which ensures children's welfare is safeguarded. There are appropriate recruitment procedures in place to ensure staff are suitable to work with children, although insufficient questions are asked about staff health in order to determine their medical suitability. The committee and staff work together to promote satisfactory outcomes for children. Required policies and other documentation which contribute to the good health, safety and welfare of children and which underpin the safe and efficient management of the provision are mostly in place. However, some of the pre-school policies need to be updated.

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Organisation

The leadership and management of the nursery education is satisfactory. The manager understands her role with regard to nursery education and has identified areas for improvement within the provision. Professional development is supported and in-house training has been

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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 arranged to develop staff knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage which is to be implemented from September. Systems are in place to monitor and evaluate the provision for nursery education but these are not rigorous, as children’s development records have not been closely monitored to ensure they are all in place and regularly updated. Overall, the setting meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides.

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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 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

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • ensure all children's drinking bottles are labelled, in order to prevent cross-contamination, and ensure that all staff responsible for food preparation and handling receive appropriate training in food hygiene • ensure all staff are kept up-to-date in their knowledge of child protection procedures and have easy access to the Local Safeguarding Children Board guidelines. Develop the child protection policy to include the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff • improve existing arrangements for managing children’s behaviour at whole group times, and ensure a statement about bullying is added to the current behaviour management policy • further develop the current procedures for recruiting staff and ensuring they are medically suitable to work with children.

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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 • improve planning records by clearly showing activity learning objectives linked to the curriculum being covered and how activities will be differentiated to meet individual children’s needs • improve children’s development records by tracking their progression in skills and by recording their future short term learning targets (also applies to care) • improve the partnership with parents by consistently sharing information about children’s weekly activities and their future short term learning targets within their development records • devise and implement a rigorous system to monitor children’s development records to ensure they are regularly updated.

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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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