Carlton Hill Community Nursery

Carlton Hill Community Nursery Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number EY305988 Inspection date 23/06/2010 Inspector Caren Carpenter / Seema Parmar

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Setting address 86 Carlton Hill, Maida Vale, London, NW8 0ER

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Telephone number 0207 624 3814 Email carltonhill@wcs.org.uk Type of setting Childcare on non-domestic premises 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 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as

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you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann's Square Manchester M2 7LA

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T: 0300 123 1231 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 setting

Carlton Hill Community Nursery was registered in 2005 and is one of 20 nurseries run by The London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), formerly known as Westminster Children's Society. It operates from three floors in a large Victorian house within the London borough of Westminster.

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Description of the setting

All Children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area. Children come from the local and wider community. The nursery is registered for a maximum of 53 children under eight years, of these no more than 53 may be in the early years age group and of these not more than nine may be under two years at any one time. There are currently 91 children within the early years age range on roll.

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Description of the setting

The nursery is open each weekday 8am to 6pm for 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register.

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Description of the setting

The setting supports children with learning disabilities and children with English as an additional language. The nursery employs 18 staff including two learning support assistants and the manager. All staff hold appropriate early years qualifications with one staff working towards an early years degree. The manager has a level five management qualification and is also working towards an early years degree. The nursery employs a chef.

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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

Children thrive in this outstanding nursery and make excellent progress in their learning and their development. The manager and staff provide exceptionally clear direction, underpinned by strong management systems. Each child is valued, their interests and enthusiasms are sought out and nurtured. The nursery has an outstanding partnership with parents and carers which positively impacts upon the excellent progress that children make given their age, starting points and ability. Excellent reflected practice clearly identifies areas for continued progression, which results in well-targeted and sustained improvement.

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further?

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

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further?

 review systems to ensure the organisation of meal times in the baby room is tailored to meet their individual needs. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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the early years provision

Arrangements for safeguarding children are very effective. All staff are thoroughly vetted and there are rigorous systems in place to supervise visiting students and volunteers. Meticulous induction and support systems ensure new staff know the procedures to safeguard and protect children. Staff are highly qualified and well trained, with a strong commitment to making the nursery even better for the children. Staffing arrangements ensure children have continuity with a key person monitoring their progress as well as benefiting from a high ratio of staff to children. This allows children to move safely around the nursery and to play in areas of their choice in the spacious rooms and the outside play area. Staff are extremely vigilant in carrying out regular risk assessments and daily safety checks to ensure that children are very safe in all areas of the nursery.

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the early years provision

The high level of care, guidance and support for children is a particular strength of the nursery. Staff have created the ethos of a harmonious and caring nursery. They are extremely clear about their roles and responsibilities and have a strong commitment to continual professional development. There is an excellent and supportive management structure in place. This results in very effective teamwork. All policies and procedures are clearly written and are an effective aid to staff in their daily practice to support children's welfare. Quality resources are deployed to enable children to make outstanding progress in their learning and development.

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the early years provision

All staff contribute to an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the nursery and this is further aided with the valued suggestions and support from parents and outside agencies, identifying areas for improvements and implementing the necessary changes. This open self-reflecting approach ensures children are happy and thrive in a stimulating well planned environment. Excellent improvements have been made since the last inspection. For example, the nursery manager has developed effective planning systems to ensure that all children enjoy an excellent balance of both adult-led and child initiated activities based on children’s interest and their capabilities. As a result, children are making extremely good progress across the six areas of learning. In addition, small group activities are extremely well organised providing excellent support for individual children.

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the early years provision

Staff work exceptionally well with wide range of professional agencies, such as speech and language therapist and the Area Special Educational Needs team to develop and monitor individual educational plans to ensure that children with learning difficulties and or disabilities benefit from a very positive and rewarding experience. Children’s individual needs are met remarkably well from using the excellent range of equipment and resources in the wonderful sensory room. Children receive excellent on going one to one support from staff that have appropriate experience and skills to ensure their individual needs are successfully met. Children’s understanding of diversity and difference is enhanced as they celebrate festivals and special events from around the world. They access excellent resources that reflect positive images of people from different cultures. This ensures that children learn to value aspects of their lives and the diverse society in

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the early years provision

which they live. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 The nursery works tremendously well with parents and carers. The key person is very effective in keeping parents well informed of their children's progress and the informal friendly approach enables parents to verbally share their knowledge of their children with the staff. Parents are closely consulted on their children’s development and are invited to regular evening meetings to meet with staff to discuss their children’s achievements. They have excellent opportunities to attend regular coffee mornings and other social events. Staff actively encourage parental involvement in the nursery for example; parents come into the nursery to join in activities as well sharing their own skills with the children. This has proved to be very popular with the children as they feel very proud to have their parents and

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the early years provision

grandparents with them. Parents are provided with regular news letters to keep them extremely well informed about future plans and events. Parents are represented on the nursery’s management board and contribute to making decisions about the future of the nursery. The setting values parents' and carers' comments and seeks their views on what they are doing well and what they could do better and use this as an effective way of developing and maintaining excellent communication between staff and parents. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive. Many commented on how much their children enjoy coming to the nursery every day and on the welcoming, caring and supportive attitudes of all the staff. This is evident in the enthusiasm and fun seen in the nursery.

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the early years provision

The manager demonstrates an exemplary commitment towards working in partnership with other providers and has extremely good links in place to share information to help promote children’s welfare and development. For example, they have established excellent relationships with the local children’s centre and work successfully with them to ensure that all children and their families receive a high quality service.

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and outcomes for children

The nursery provides an excellent start to children's learning and play experiences. The high priority placed on children's welfare and personal development means that they soon feel secure and settle in quickly. The excellent progress made by all children is the result of outstanding teaching and learning, underpinned by a rich and vibrant curriculum. Activities are extremely well planned and evaluated. Staff work exceptionally well together to plan exciting learning activities which link the learning across the six areas of learning, both indoors and out. They share their skills and expertise, so that all aspects of children's learning and welfare are extremely well provided for.

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and outcomes for children

Teaching is highly engaging and the staff have an excellent understanding of the children's next steps in learning. As a result they are flexible and build well on the children's interests. Each child has a learning journey folder that is always accessible to their parents, which is sensitively written in a way which gives complete ownerships to the child. This includes photographic evidence of their work and clearly shows their progression during their time at the nursery. Staff make very accurate observations and assessments of children's achievements, so This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 that activities are very well matched to individual needs. High-quality support is provided quickly and effectively, so that all children make outstanding progress in all aspects of their learning and development.

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and outcomes for children

Babies play with a quality range of toys and experiences that promote the development of their senses. For example, they respond excitedly to the excellent range of equipment and resources in the fantastic sensory area. Sleeping and changing routines for the babies are thorough, and carefully recorded. Staff ensure that the daily routine is planned according to their individual needs and at their own pace. As a result, babies are very happy and feel secure. However, there are times when the organisation of meal times does not sufficiently meet babies’ individual needs.

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and outcomes for children

Children benefit from having the use of the fantastic and superb well designed outside play area where they participate in an exciting range of interesting and stimulating activities. For example, children have excellent opportunities to learn about how plants grow and take great pleasure in planting and watering strawberries, carrots, tomatoes, sweet corn, beans and potatoes. In addition, children enjoy preparing and eating their home grown produce. Children are provided with excellent first-hand experiences that encourage exploration, experimentation and critical thinking. For example, staff uses children’s interest about the environment, such as the erupting volcano in Iceland to extend and fully support their learning by providing them with an amazing opportunity to make a volcano with vinegar and bicarbonate soda and observe the effect of an erupting volcano. Children are developing an extremely good understanding of the

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and outcomes for children

importance of taking care of their environment. For example, by recycling various materials in the nursery as well as learning about their local area and their journey to nursery.

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and outcomes for children

Children are making excellent progress in their communication, language and literacy development. The nursery is involved in the 'Every child a talker' project. Staff create friendly spaces both in and outdoors to encourage and promote children’s communication skills during their spontaneous play experiences. This ensures that every child receives tremendous support and individual time by staff to develop their confidence in communicating with adults and each other. In addition, as part of the project staff use an excellent range of quality props and resources during story sessions to further develop children’s communication skills. Children are developing their early writing skills, they have excellent opportunities to write for different purposes and have access to a wide range of writing resources which they select independently. Children's creative development is given very good attention as they express their own ideas, use a variety of art

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and outcomes for children

equipment and take part in role-play which is highly imaginative and rich in learning opportunities.

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and outcomes for children

Staff have established effective systems to help children stay healthy for example, by explaining the importance of hand washing and good personal hygiene. Children are exceptionally well supported to develop a healthy life style through the provision of healthy and nutritious snacks and freshly cooked meals. Staff skilfully extends children’s understanding of food and nutrition by discussing the importance of including all food groups in their diet. Excellent considerations are This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 given to children’s dietary needs to ensure these are met sensitively. Children recognise when they are thirsty and help themselves to fresh drinking water from the water fountains. Children take part in an excellent range of activities that enhance their physical development, for example they have an amazing time in the in the superb garden as they confidently use a brilliant range of outdoor play

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and outcomes for children

equipment where they practise their large physical skills.

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and outcomes for children

Children are learning extremely well how to keep themselves safe; they are encouraged to take safe risk with close supervision of staff. They learn how to use the stairs safely by holding on to the hand rails and take part in regular fire drill practices.

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and outcomes for children

Children's emotional well being is extremely well nurtured. They learn to share and take turns and are considerate of each other as they build friendships with their peers and share warm and caring relationships with staff. Children know what is expected of them because boundaries are consistently and sensitively applied by caring and extremely supportive staff. 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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