Bright Horizons at Trafford

Bright Horizons at Trafford Inspection report for early years provision

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EY361168 Unique Reference Number 12 August 2008 Inspection date Zoe Smith Inspector

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463 Stretford Road, Old Trafford, Manchester, M16 4AB Setting Address

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E-mail

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd. 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?

Bright Horizons at Trafford was established in 2007. It operates from single storey, purpose built premises in the Old Trafford district of Trafford. There are four children's playrooms and two enclosed outdoor play areas. The nursery is open Monday to Friday from 08.00 to 18.00, throughout the year, with the exception of bank holidays and a week at Christmas.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery is registered to provide full day care for 70 children. There are currently 69 children on roll, of these 11 are funded three and four-year-olds. The nursery supports children who speak English as an additional language and is able to support children who have learning difficulties and disabilities.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The nursery is owned Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited. An appropriately qualified manager is employed to manage the day to day running of the nursery. She is assisted by a team of four support staff and 18 early years workers, most of whom hold relevant childcare 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 are learning about the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle through enjoyable and interesting activities, discussions and stories. In the nursery garden they have grown tomatoes, beans, herbs and peas. Children water and tend them until they are ready to be picked and eaten for lunch. They clean their teeth at nursery at least once a day and learnt about dental care when the ‘brush bus’ visited. Children have made collages of foods that are healthy and good for them on paper plates to display on the wall. Posters are displayed in the bathroom to remind children about washing hands and pre-school children know to wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating.

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Helping children to be healthy

Children enjoy participating in a very good range of fun and energetic physical play activities inside and outside. In the nursery garden, they have opportunities to climb, run up and down the hill, and pedal bicycles and wheeled toys round. Babies use the furniture and hold staff hands to practise taking their first steps. Children excitedly and eagerly stamp and jump up and down on bubble wrap in their efforts to make the bubbles pop. Inclement weather does not prevent children playing outside. Children love to put coats and their Wellington boots on and go outside to splash in puddles and ride bicycles through them when it rains. These activities provide children with lots of fresh air, exercise and help them to gain good control and coordination over their bodies.

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Helping children to be healthy

Highly effective hygiene practices and routines are implemented to help keep children healthy. Surfaces, toys and equipment are regularly cleaned with anti-bacterial disinfectants. Hand gel is applied by adults before entering children’s rooms, colour coded cloths and buckets and scrupulous nappy changing procedures all help to prevent cross contamination. Well maintained records are in place regarding accidents and the administration of medication to children. Several members of staff have up to date training in administering first aid and staff involved in food preparation have current training in food hygiene. Babies and young children benefit immensely from continuity of care. They sleep, eat and rest according to their individual needs and home routines.

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Helping children to be healthy

All food is freshly prepared and cooked on the premises. Children benefit from eating a varied and nutritious diet that includes plenty of vegetables and fresh and dried fruit as healthy options. Children happily eat toasted teacakes, plums, pineapple, banana and melon for their afternoon snack, whilst sitting together to enjoy each others company. Pre-school enjoy filing their own snack boxes with healthy foods in the morning to eat whenever they are hungry. Dietary requirements are discussed and agreed with parents and are well catered for at the nursery. Children are able to readily access fresh drinking water throughout the day. This ensures they can quench their thirst and are kept hydrated.

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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 safe, secure and well maintained environment. Displays, educational posters and lots of examples of the children's art work and creativity are displayed on the walls. This makes the nursery welcoming, stimulating and child orientated. Ample toilets and hand wash basins are provided for the numbers of children in attendance. However, the large cubicle doors in the pre-school bathroom are wedged open to keep children safe. Therefore, children

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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 are not learning about the importance of respecting their own privacy and that of others when using the bathroom. The staff team is very well deployed and vigilantly supervises the children at all times. The child protection co-ordinator is well trained in safeguarding issues and procedures. She ensures all staff fully understand safeguarding procedures and their individual responsibility to take immediate action should they have concerns.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Risk assessments and safety checks are frequently conducted to ensure the premises, equipment and toys are safe and suitable for their purpose at all times. Effective precautions have been put in place to minimise identified hazards. Covers are fitted to exposed plug sockets, climbing frames are placed on impact absorbing surfaces and the outdoor play area is checked before children go outside to play. Highly effective fire precautions and procedures are in place. Appropriate fire equipment, such as fire blankets, emergency lighting, alarms, smoke detectors and extinguishers are provided and regularly checked to make sure they are in good working order. Frequent fire drills are conducted to ensure children and staff are well practised and proficient in emergency evacuation procedures.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children choose what to play with from a wide range of safe, high quality resources, which are suitable for their age and stage of development. Toys and equipment are attractively set out and are readily accessible for children to make independent choices. The management is proactive in offering incentives to ensure children’s rooms are always well maintained and fully functional. Staff work very hard to achieve recognition and a reward for having the ‘room of the week’. Children are learning how to keep safe and prevent accidents at the nursery by following simple rules. They help to tidy up, sit down when using scissors, walk whilst inside and pick things up off the floor to prevent trip hazards. However, children only have a small number of opportunities to learn how to keep themselves safe at home or when they are on outings.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. Children’s developmental needs are well met because staff have a very good understanding of early years guidance, such as the ‘Birth to three matters’ framework. Effective systems are used to monitor and evaluate individual children’s progress and to plan for the next stages in their development and learning. Children participate in a wide variety of enjoyable and interesting play and learning opportunities. Their interest and enthusiasm is captivated because toys and activities are fun, stimulating and regularly changed. Extremely positive adult and child interactions help children to form very good bonds and attachments to staff and to feel secure and confident.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children are learning new words, to listen and to become skilful communicators. They love to look at books on their own or with a member of staff and happily listen to stories and join in singing sessions. They energetically play musical instruments and sing and dance to music. Children have very good opportunities to investigate natural products when they explore the contents of treasure baskets and the sensory play area. They relish the feel of the wool, brush, wood and feathers on their skin. There are lots of smiles and laughter when staff blow feathers into the air and children watch them fall to the ground.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have access to a good range of imaginative and make believe play toys and resources. They use gestures and imitate actions as they happily play in the role corner areas. Children become engrossed in their play as they take the trains on imaginary journeys round the rail track. They enjoy building using a variety of construction toys and materials, carefully

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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 manipulating the bricks into place to make towers, putting zoo animals on top and then knocking the towers down. Children enjoy the challenge of simple inset puzzles and jigsaws, with a little help and lots of encouragement they carefully fit the pieces into the correct place.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have opportunities to freely explore a very good range of sensory, messy and creative activities, such as sand, paint, chalk, water and dough. They enjoy playing in the sand, filling the moulds up, pouring it through the sand wheel and grasping the sand and watching it flow threw their fingers. They have lots of fun and get very wet when they play with hose pipes in the nursery garden, washing the wheeled toys and each other down and splashing in the water. Children make marks with different coloured pens on the large wipe clean board. They thoroughly enjoy playing with the boats in the water and exploring the properties of ‘gloop’ as they squeeze and squelch it through their hands.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Observations are used effectively to monitor and assess the children’s learning and progress. Staff have a very good knowledge of the abilities of individual children and the Foundation Stage. Activities are well planned to ensure children take the next steps in their learning. Teaching effectively reinforces and builds on what children already know, skilful questioning techniques are used to extend and consolidate children’s learning. Continuous provision of different types of play and learning activities and weekly plans ensure a broad range of enjoyable, interesting and challenging activities are provided to cover the six areas of learning. However, sometimes planning is not in place on a Monday morning and therefore targeted activities for specific learning outcomes are not well planned for that day.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have good relationships with their peers and staff, and are responsive to each other and constantly talk and listen to each other. They are developing good self-help and independence skills. They attend to their own personal care, serve their own food and pour their own drinks out and then help to clear the table. Children are able to maintain their attention and concentrate when they listen to stories, become engrossed in their play or find activities challenging.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children’s spoken language is developing well and they are becoming confident speakers. They initiate conversations and recollect events that have happened at home and the nursery. A love of books is fostered at the nursery. Children happily sit on their own to look at books and are engrossed when staff read them stories. They have a good understanding that print carries meaning and are developing early writing skills. They make marks and recognisable letters as they write in the well stocked writing area, and as they take food orders at the restaurant. Children are beginning to recognise letters and to learn the different letter sounds through informal and fun activities involving the letter of the week. They talk about and look for items round the room and in catalogues that begin with the letter and enjoy playing with the fish in the water play because ‘f’ is the letter of the week.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children show an awareness and keen interest in counting and number activities. They enjoy using the tape measure to see who is the tallest. Children have opportunities to use and recognise numerals in everyday situations. Lots of number and counting posters and books are available for the children to see and use to support their learning. They enjoy putting the magnetic numbers in the correct sequence on the magnetic board. Children have opportunities to compare and sort using brightly coloured plastic bears. They arrange the bears into a ‘long’ line and a ‘big’ circle, count how many bears they have and sort them into different colours. Children

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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 recognise numerals and know to park their bicycles and wheeled toys at the bay that has the same number as their vehicle.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children have access to a variety of information technology resources, such as compact disc players, remote control toys, mobile phones and electronic tills. However, currently the computer is broken and therefore children are not able to further develop their skills by using a computer. Children show a keen interest and fascination in the world they live and explore their environment using magnifying glasses and they use magnets to find out what materials and objects are magnetic. Children use a range of construction toys, tools and resources to design and make models. They love to explore and investigate how things work. Children use plastic tubes and different coloured water to observe and track how the water flows and moves round the tubes and water tray.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Children’s physical skills are developing well. They regularly use tools, such as scissors that help to develop their fine motor and hand to eye coordination. Children play imaginatively in the role play area and express themselves creatively using a wide variety of media during activities, such as construction, creative materials and musical instruments. They become engrossed in their play as they take orders in the restaurant, prepare and serve the food and then collect payment and a tip. Children work well together to design, build and paint a very large dinosaur using old boxes and cartoons. They enjoy mixing powder paint to the right consistency and then painting pictures at the easel.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. The children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered. Children have access to a wide range of resources that provide positive images of diversity, such as posters, books, dressing up clothes and imaginative play equipment. Children are learning about the wider world they live in and to respect and value differences. Discussions and enjoyable activities frequently take place about their own and the religious and cultural festivals and customs of others. To find out about Chinese New Year the children made a dragon and then danced with the dragon, did some Chinese writing, made lanterns and ate noodles using chopsticks.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Staff have been proactive in attending additional training to enable them to positively welcome and meet the specific needs of children with learning difficulties and disabilities. Children are learning to play nicely, share and take turns. Quick intervention by staff ensures minor squabbles are resolved amicably; children hug each other and are quickly friends again. Pre-school children show genuine concern if one of their friends has hurt themselves. Through discussions they are learning to be kind and considerate to each other and to treat others how they would like to be treated. Children respond to the plentiful attention and meaningful praise they receive and behave well.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The partnership with parents and carers is good. Parents are greeted in a professional, friendly and welcoming manner. Discussions, notice boards, newsletters, information leaflets, the nursery brochure and written daily record sheets keep them well informed about their child and what happens at the nursery. Parents speak highly of the nursery, the progress their children are making, the approachable staff team and the information that is shared with them about their children. Surveys are used to regularly ascertain parent’s opinions on the quality of care and to enable the nursery to continual review and develop the service provided. Observations, development records and three monthly reviews effectively inform parents about their child’s progress, the care provided and nursery curriculum.

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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

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Organisation

The organisation is good. Children are content, happy and settled at the friendly and very well organised nursery. The key person system is highly effective in enabling staff to get to know individual children well, to monitor their development and to plan for ‘what’s next’ in their development and learning. The effective deployment of staff ensures all children get lots of support and individual attention. Good planning and well thought out arrangements for staff absence ensures children are always cared for by adults who are familiar to them and who know them as individuals. The nursery has an extremely strong and positive commitment to staff training and development. Most staff hold an appropriate early years childcare qualification or are working towards achieving one or a higher level qualification. Regular attendance on short courses enables staff to continually enhance their skills and knowledge in specific subjects, such as ‘Bringing puppets

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Organisation

The leadership and management are good. The management and staffing structure is well established, and has a clear sense of purpose and direction. Individual staff members are pro-active in taking full responsibility for their additional roles and delegated responsibilities. One to one supervisions and a nine block succession plan are used to effectively support individual staff in their personal and professional development. Frequent team and planning meetings ensure staff work together to continually review, evaluate and develop practice. All required records and documentation are in place, clear, well maintained and retained for inspection. Established corporate policies and procedures effectively inform staff practice and the care provided. Robust recruitment, selection and induction procedures ensure the suitability of staff to work with children. The nursery accesses support from an early years development

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Organisation

officer and an early years consultant to help them continually develop and improve the quality of care and education for the children.

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Organisation

Overall, the provision meets the needs of the range of the 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. 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 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 children can have privacy when using the bathroom and further develop the range of activities that help children learn how they can keep themselves safe.

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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): • make sure that weekly plans are always in place to inform the provision of activities that promote the children's learning and development • make sure children can readily access information technology equipment that is in good working order.

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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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