Islamia School for Girls'

Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated. Chipmunks Day Nursery Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number 101575 Inspection date 12/12/2008 Inspector Jenny Read

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Setting address The Old Primary School, Churchfield Road, Upton St Leonards,, Gloucester, Glos, GL4 8AE Telephone number 01452 613828 Email Type of setting Childcare on non-domestic premises This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of the registered early years provision. ‘Early years provision’ refers to provision regulated by Ofsted for children from birth to 31 August following their fifth birthday (the early years age group). The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and welfare, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Introduction

The provider must provide a copy of this report to all parents with children at the setting where reasonably practicable. The provider must provide a copy of the report to any other person who asks for one, but may charge a fee for this service (The Childcare (Inspection) Regulations 2008 regulations 9 and 10).

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Introduction

The setting also makes provision for children older than the early years age group which is registered on the voluntary and/or compulsory part(s) of the Childcare Register. This report does not include an evaluation of that provision, but a comment about compliance with the requirements of the Childcare Register is included in Annex B. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Description of the setting

Chipmunks Day Nursery has been operating since 1997. The privately owned nursery operates from the old village school in the village of Upton-St-Leonard's, on the outskirts of Gloucester. Children are cared for in age-related groups; each with their own base play room. All children share use of the sensory room, craft area, sleep room, toilets and eat meals together in part of the main hall. There are enclosed outdoor areas with grass and hard standing surfaces and a nature area for outdoor activities. The nursery provides meals and snacks prepared on the premises and offers weekly stretch and grow classes provided by external instructors. There is a small step at the entrance and wide doorways throughout the nursery. Children attend from the village and neighbouring areas.

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Description of the setting

A maximum of 50 children under eight years may attend the nursery on a sessional and full-time basis at any one time. There are currently 95 children on roll within the early years age group. Of these, 38 children receive funding for nursery education. There are currently no children attending within the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery is open each week day from 08.00 to 17.45 all year round with the exception of Bank Holidays and one week at Christmas. Sessional times operate from 08.00 to 12.45 and from 13.00 to 17.45. The Nursery support children with English as an additional language and children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

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Description of the setting

The nursery employs 15 childcare staff as well as a cook and office manager. The owner is a qualified early years teacher. Nine staff, including the manager, hold relevant level three qualifications. Two staff are currently working towards the National Vocational Qualification in Childcare and Education at Level 3. A high percentage of staff are also trained in first aid, child protection and food hygiene.

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Overall effectiveness of the early years provision

The nursery promotes several aspects of children's welfare with success, ensuring that they are safe and secure. The children are comfortable and have a nice time, however, a number of statutory welfare requirements are not met, resulting in significant weaknesses in meeting children's individual needs. Many aspects of planning and children's learning across the nursery are weak. A number of staff demonstrate poor understanding of providing appropriate activities to support children's learning and development across the curriculum and show little awareness of their role in challenging children's play and learning, meaning not all children are progressing as well as they can do. Continuous improvement is weak as systems for monitoring and evaluating the quality of the provision to promote children's care and education have not been recently updated. As a result, the management and staff team do not always successfully identify practice, key

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Overall effectiveness of the early years provision

strengths and areas for improvement to ensure outcomes for children are continually improved.

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Overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall, the early years provision requires significant improvement. The registered person is given a Notice to Improve that sets out actions to be carried out. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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further?

To comply with the requirements of the EYFS the registered person must take the following action by the specified date:

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further?

 develop understanding of the key person approach to ensure systems are effective and tailored to meet the individual needs of the children (Organisation) 27/02/2009  ensure the planning purposefully covers the six areas of learning and development to make up the skills, knowledge and experiences appropriate for babies and children to challenge their learning and to enable them to become competent learners (Learning and development) 27/02/2009  develop skills and knowledge of the staff to provide appropriate support in order for staff to effectively carry out their role and know how to support children in their learning (Suitable people) 27/02/2009  update and implement systems for identifying strengths and monitoring areas for improvement to raise the quality of care and children's education (Organisation) 27/02/2009 To improve the early years provision the registered person should:

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further?

 plan more effectively for the outdoor environment to ensure activities reflect the learning indoors to extend their experiences and ensure that every child enjoys daily fresh air  ensure daily routines are effective and well planned to ensure time is utilised well to support children's independence and learning  develop staff's knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage and awareness of how and when to intervene in children's play to maximise their learning and ensure they are well supported.

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provision

Suitable steps are taken to promote children's health and safety because stringent security measures and procedures to prevent the spread of infection are generally well understood and implemented. Risk assessments are thorough and routinely updated to minimise hazards to children throughout the setting. Staff demonstrate basic awareness of child protection concerns but inconsistent knowledge of safeguarding procedures when reporting concerns, which places children at risk of harm.

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provision

Suitable recruitment and vetting procedures are well documented and children's personal information is well maintained to support their care. Policies and This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 procedures are in place and clearly displayed for parents. However, some lack detail, do not reflect the Early Years Foundation Stage and are not reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they are all well known and understood by staff. This confirms that current systems to monitor staff continuing performance are weak. The management team are committed to the children, parents and nursery as a whole and have developed a close staff team. There is a generally good emphasis on encouraging staff's personal and professional development, providing reasonable opportunities to attend training. However, not enough has been done to develop and support some staff's basic skills.

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provision

The management have taken account of the actions raised at previous visit. However, no robust action plans to address staff awareness of appropriate behaviour management strategies, interaction and questioning during play, and knowledge and understanding of their role in supporting and challenging children's learning are in place. This hinders children's experiences and impacts significantly on their learning. Processes of self-evaluation are not up to date, resulting in the management team having little awareness of the nursery's current strengths and areas for improvement to enhance outcomes for children. Consequently, there are many gaps and weaknesses in practice. For example, staff demonstrate an insecure understanding of the learning requirements and deployment of staff to meet children's individual needs. As a result, there are low expectations and children are making inconsistent progress from their starting points.

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provision

Children benefit from satisfactory partnerships between their parents and staff. The parents are generally happy and value the informal communication, numerous notice boards, displays and daily diaries for the younger children. Yearly parent meetings help inform parents about what their children have done. Although, systems are not in place to enable parents to contribute to the assessment process and to receive information about their children's next steps to support their children's learning at home. Links with other settings children attend have not been fully developed, meaning information is not shared to ensure progression and continuity of learning to support children's individual needs. However, staff are prompt in referring concerns about children's learning to the nominated staff member. Regular monitoring, modelling of language and sharing of information with parents and the area Special Educational Needs Coordinator is promoting

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provision

integration. However, an oversight in sharing information internally means relevant staff are not sufficiently informed to be able to provide purposeful support.

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

Children play in a generally well-organised setting where suitable emphasis is given in most rooms to enabling children to choose their toys and become independent learners. Nice displays of children's work, photographs for their own coat pegs and on their individual drawers in pre-school promotes a real sense of identity. A few staff have genuine, close bonds with their key children, which helps the children to become familiar with the provision. However, the key person approach is not fully understood or successful in responding to some children's emotional well-being, learning or individual needs, particularly at key times, such as sleep and nappy changing, to help them feel confident and secure. In addition, the moving of key This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 staff to cover absence and staff breaks is not always well thought through to ensure deployment meets the needs of the children attending. Also, toilet, nappy

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

changing and hand washing routines are often laborious and although children know the routines and understand the importance of personal hygiene, they are not well thought through and do not meet individual needs. As a result, children have to stand and wait for long periods of time.

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

Children benefit from healthy, wholesome, home-cooked food and enjoy weekly stretch and grow sessions to music, learning about warming up, cooling down and the importance of exercise on their healthy well-being. Children appear to have a nice time and play cooperatively with their peers. They are generally well behaved and readily help staff with tidying away their toys. The manager models good practice in promoting children's independence and strategies to manage inappropriate behaviour, however, a number of staff do not assimilate and take this on board, resulting in poor management and a lack of respect for children when handling sharing and turn taking issues. Children show little awareness of the rules within the pre-school room as these are not discussed with the children to help them learn to negotiate and manage their own behaviour. Children gain generally good awareness of the wider world, celebrating their own and other

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

cultures. They learn to value people's differences through occasional planned activities and access to resources that reflect positive images of culture.

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

Children are making slow progress in their learning, because information regarding their achievements, interests and needs are not well known or are not used successfully to support children in taking the next step in their learning and development. Some staff are attentive and interaction during play is purposeful, resulting in children successfully completing simple slot in puzzles and excitedly choosing and joining in their favourite Christmas songs. However, this is not consistent. Children observed to become bored in pre-school and the baby room because there is minimal questioning, conversation or dynamic involvement from staff. For example, when making soup with fresh vegetables, children take little part, quietly sitting and watching the staff member, gaining very little from the activity. Planning in the baby room is not good enough. They have few toys to play with at any one time and often stand around doing nothing with little narrative

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

from staff to encourage their interests and early communication skills.

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

The toddler and pre-school children enjoy free play throughout the day, encouraging children's ideas and imagination as they play in the sand and marvel at their own creations with the construction. In the role play children choose to make a pirate ship and then a Santa's grotto, requesting appropriate dressing up clothes and getting into role. However, there are no planning systems in place that monitor the activities and track the six areas of learning. Consequently, there are numerous gaps in children's learning, including use of information and communication technology, problem solving, reasoning and numeracy and opportunities to practise their emergent writing skills as staff write children's names.

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The quality and standards of the early years provision

Some children enjoy occasional outdoor play and fresh air. However, the learning experiences outdoors are seldom planned and staff do not utilise the nature garden or resources to enhance children's learning experiences. Each staff member This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 is responsible for planning the one daily adult-led activity. However, these activities are not purposefully planned or linked to children's ideas or individual learning needs because there are no discussions with other staff about their key children and there are no next steps in place to help inform planning and support children's progress. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Annex A: record of inspection judgements

The key inspection judgements and what they mean

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Annex A: record of inspection judgements

Grade 1 is Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Grade 2 is Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Grade 3 is Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Grade 4 is Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough

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of children in the Early Years Foundation Stage?

How well does the provision promote inclusive practice? 4 The capacity of the provision to maintain continuous improvement.

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Foundation Stage led and managed?

How effective is the setting’s self-evaluation, including the steps taken to promote improvement? How well does the setting work in partnership with parents and others? How well are children safeguarded? 3

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Years Foundation Stage promoted?

How well are children helped to stay safe? 3 How well are children helped to be healthy? 3 How well are children helped to enjoy and achieve? 4 How well are children helped to make a positive contribution? How well are children helped develop skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being?

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Years Foundation Stage promoted?

procedures set out in the guidance available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Annex B: the Childcare Register

The provider confirms that the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are: Met

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Annex B: the Childcare Register

The provider confirms that the requirements of the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are: Met

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