Underwood, Marie Ann

Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number EY289309 Inspection date 04/11/2009 Inspector Heidi Abernethy

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Type of setting Childminder to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It rates council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404040, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann's Square Manchester M2 7LA

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T: 08456 404040 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk 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.

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Introduction

Please see our website for more information about each childcare provider. We publish inspection reports, conditions of registration and details of complaints we receive where we or the provider take action to meet the requirements of registration. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Description of the childminding

The childminder was registered in 2004. She lives with her partner and two children aged seven and four years old. They live in a house in Swanwick, Hampshire. The whole of the home is registered, although minding mostly takes place downstairs. Toileting facilities are upstairs. There is a fully enclosed garden for outside play.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder is registered to care for maximum of four children under eight years at any one time, of whom no more than two may be in the early years age range. She is currently minding six children in this age group. She also offers care to children aged over five years. This provision is registered by Ofsted on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder collects children from local schools and pre-schools and is within walking distance to local shops and parks. She is a member of the National Childminding Association (NCMA). The childminder has two pet guinea pigs.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall the quality of the provision is outstanding.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Highly effective partnerships between providers and parents ensure individual children's needs are extremely well met. Children enjoy excellent experiences with the very experienced and caring childminder who has exceptionally high aspirations for quality. This means children make excellent progress in relation to their starting points, age and ability. Ongoing self-evaluation reflects rigorous monitoring and analysis of what the setting does well and what it needs to do to improve. This ensures children and their families experience high quality care and education.

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further?

To further improve the high quality early years provision the registered person should consider:

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further?

 continuing to access training made available by the local authority and other sources to further enhance professional knowledge and understanding.

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the early years provision

The childminder has an extremely comprehensive awareness of safeguarding issues and procedures. She ensures parents are very well informed about her professional responsibility by providing them with a very detailed and informative safeguarding policy. The childminder is highly proactive in keeping abreast with latest legislation and has obtained relevant safeguarding children guidance to This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 ensure she is up-to-date and very well informed. Risk assessments are very comprehensive, showing when they have been conducted and any action taken to minimise hazards to the children. This ensures children are kept very safe whilst in the care of the childminder.

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the early years provision

The childminder has an extensive range of high quality age and stage appropriate resources for the children to play with both inside and outside. She makes exceptionally good use of resources made available to her, such as obtaining posters and stickers from the childminding forum about road safety. The childminder very effectively obtains additional resources for the children to explore from local toy libraries, such as musical instruments from around the world.

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the early years provision

The childminder has very recently started to care for a young child with English as an additional language. She has communicated very effectively with parents and plans to purchase additional resources, such as picture books with the words written in their home language. She has an extensive variety of resources depicting diversity in society, such as puzzles, books and dressing up clothes. Children thoroughly enjoy obtaining holiday brochures from their local travel agents and have a wonderful time cutting out the pictures and making their own collages. The childminder skilfully extends the learning as she links the countries to the world map and talks to them about the people and their lifestyles.

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the early years provision

The childminder has high aspirations for quality through ongoing improvement and has a clear and achievable plan in place for self-evaluation. Parents and children's views are sought on a very regular basis and the childminder utilises the information she obtains to further improve the outcomes for the children and their families. The childminder is extremely keen to continue accessing childcare training to further enhance her professional knowledge and expertise.

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the early years provision

Parents are kept extremely well informed about the childminding provision and their child's well-being and learning. Parents state through written comments 'the childminder is incredibly conscientious, experienced childcare provider whom we feel lucky to have as part of our lives. She has provided a stable, stimulating environment for our children'. The childminder is highly committed to working in partnership with others. She takes a lead role in establishing extremely good partnerships with other early years providers, seeking information about what the children have been doing and their overall next steps in learning.

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and outcomes for children

The childminder has an extremely secure knowledge of the children's interests and progress and each child is wholly respected as an individual. The exceptional organisation of the educational programmes reflects rich, varied and imaginative experiences that meet the needs of all children exceedingly well. A ssessment through high quality observations is rigorous and the information obtained is used extremely well to securely identify children's next steps across the areas of learning. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 Children show a strong sense of security and appear to feel safe within the setting. Relationships between the childminder and children are excellent, with children enjoying the company and interaction with the childminder. Children's safety, health and well-being are significantly enhanced by the robust and highly consistent implementation of policies, procedures and practice that are individual

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and outcomes for children

Children have an extensive range of opportunities to develop their numeracy skills through extremely fun and well planned activities. For example, they have a wonderful time rolling a dice and match the numbers to numbered items of clothing, such as hats, scarves and gloves. Learning is skilfully extended by the childminder, such as encouraging children to work out who is the tallest and shortest when measuring each other with the tape measure.

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and outcomes for children

Children independently select books from the low level book case and very happily snuggle into the childminder to listen to the story. The childminder very effectively involves the children by pausing momentarily throughout the story to give children opportunities to interact and talk about what they see. Emergent writing is extremely accessible to the children through an extensive range of resources, such as making marks in paints and carrying clipboards and pencils on outings. Babies have a wonderful time as they explore their external world through using a whole range of senses. They smile at the noises from the musical toys and become fascinated by the texture of the leaves in the childminder's garden.

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and outcomes for children

Children have an extensive range of opportunities to engage in a wide range of physical activities, both indoors and out, and obtain a very secure understanding about the importance of regular exercise as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They have immense fun dancing and moving their whole bodies to the music from 'Sticky Kids' and the childminder effectively extends the learning by talking to them about the effects exercise has on their bodies and about drinking fluids to keep their bodies hydrated.

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and outcomes for children

Children show an excellent understanding of what standards of behaviour are expected and apply these in order to keep themselves safe. They are very well equipped with the tools to manage their own behaviour because the childminder continually talks to them about the reason why safety rules are important and in place. Their behaviour is exemplary and children show high levels of respect and awareness of responsibility within the environment. For example, they independently tidy away what they have been using before getting the next thing out. 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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children in the Early Years Foundation Stage?

The capacity of the provision to maintain continuous improvement

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and managed?

The effectiveness of leadership and management in embedding ambition and driving improvement The effectiveness with which the setting deploys resources 1 The effectiveness with which the setting promotes equality and diversity The effectiveness of safeguarding 1 The effectiveness of the setting’s self-evaluation, including the steps taken to promote improvement The effectiveness of partnerships 1 The effectiveness of the setting’s engagement with parents and carers

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Stage

The quality of the provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage 1

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Stage

The extent to which children achieve and enjoy their learning 1 The extent to which children feel safe 1 The extent to which children adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which children make a positive contribution 1 The extent to which children develop skills for the future 1

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Stage

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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