Kids 1st - Rake LaneOfsted inspection, 17 Oct 2005

Kids 1st - Rake Lane

Inspection report for early years provision

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Kids 1st - Rake Lane

Unique Reference Number EY283548 Inspection date 17 October 2005 Inspector Kathleen Snowdon

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Kids 1st - Rake Lane

Setting Address North Tyneside General Hospital, Rake Lane, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE29 8NH Telephone number 0191 258 7785

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E-mail

Registered person Kids 1st Childrens Nurseries Type of inspection Integrated Type of care Full day 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 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 outstanding. 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 outstanding.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

Kids 1st - Rake Lane Nursery opened in 2004 and operates from purpose-built premises providing eight playrooms with integral supporting facilities and adjoining outdoor play areas. Situated in the grounds of North Tyneside General Hospital, the nursery offers care and education to the children of the staff of North Tyneside General Hospital and to children of parents in the local and wider community. A maximum of 112 children from birth to 8-years-old may attend at any one time. The

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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 nursery is open each weekday from 07.00 until 18.00 all year round. There are currently 187 children on roll; of these, 15 children receive funding for nursery education. The nursery currently supports a number of children with special educational needs and also supports children with English as an additional language. The nursery employs 28 staff to work directly with children. The manager and deputy manager are supernumerary. All staff working on the premises are appropriately qualified and suitably experienced for the positions they hold. The nursery has membership with the national day nurseries association and receives support from an early years advisor and from the local authority.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is outstanding. The children enjoy a wide range of delicious and highly nutritious snacks and meals which are planned and prepared on site, taking the children's individual needs and preferences in to consideration. The provision of such well balanced, appetising meals makes a highly positive contribution to the children's good health overall. All staff have excellent awareness about hygiene, including basic food hygiene, which ensures that food is appropriately and hygienically prepared in scrupulously clean surroundings. Staff encourage the children to try out new tastes and textures to broaden the children's experience of food and to promote healthy eating. The children and staff sit together at beautifully set tables at meal times. Staff are very alert to the potential excellent learning opportunities during these times and talk with the children about food and help them to master the use of cutlery.

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Helping children to be healthy

Consequently, many of the children identify successfully a wide range of fruit and vegetables, several use spoons, knives and forks competently and all are becoming effective communicators, given their various starting points and abilities. When they are thirsty, the children help themselves to water from beakers or dispensers which are readily available throughout the nursery. This encourages the children to use their initiative and promotes independence. The babies are given regular drinks of water to ensure that they are fully hydrated and comfortable. Very sensible arrangements are in place to deal with children who are ill. These, alongside extremely effective practices, such as staff and children wearing indoor shoes while in nursery, protect the children from common illnesses and the spread of infection. Staff are exceptional role models to the children. For instance, they explain to them the importance of hand washing after using the toilet and before eating their

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Helping children to be healthy

meals and snacks. They instil in the children the importance of brushing their teeth to help the children to make the connection between good hygiene and good health. Up to date and meticulously organised details relevant to the children's health are held securely on site to inform staff's day-to-day practices and to safeguard the children's health. The very well balanced daily routine with it's very good mix of quiet and busy times, provides the children with excellent opportunities to use a range of movements.

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Helping children to be healthy

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 who are not fully mobile crawl, roll and shuffle to get from place to another. They practice new skills, such as standing, using staff and nursery furniture as supports. Mobile children climb up frames, ride bikes and walk and run with energy and vigour. They manipulate play dough, brush their teeth and use paintbrushes and pencils with growing competence and absolute enthusiasm. Excellent opportunities such as these allow the children to develop their fine and gross motor skills and assist the development of hand/eye co-ordination. The lovely areas in which the children sleep ensure that the children do so peacefully and soundly. In fine weather, the youngest children sleep outdoors. They are very well protected through regular checks by vigilant staff and wrapped up snugly in their

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Helping children to be healthy

prams or buggies in the highly secure outdoor area, to give them the benefit of fresh air and sunlight. Very comfortable soft furnishings and extremely affectionate staff provide the children with alternative places to rest and relax, to ensure that they enjoy fully the time that they spend at the setting.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is outstanding. The children are encouraged to keep their environment safe through the excellent use of music which defines times to tidy up. They do so willingly and with great enthusiasm which helps them to understand that good habits make a positive difference and encourages them to take some responsibility for their safety and wellbeing. The children demonstrate a remarkable awareness of safety issues in day-to-day situations, such as when they remind their friends that it is dangerous to wave a knife about. Through excellent play opportunities, such as model-making or cutting and sticking, the children are learning to use potentially dangerous items like scissors sensibly and efficiently. Children choose from an excellent range of resources that are judiciously placed to allow them safe and independent access. They play with very good quality toys which are in immaculate condition through routine checking by nursery staff for

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

breakages and other problems. The children learn other ways to stay safe through the very sensible guidance that they receive from vigilant and concerned staff. They are reminded to walk, not run in nursery, for instance, and they are asked to refrain from climbing on nursery furniture that is not designed for that purpose. Staff point out to the children how these actions could cause harm to them or others. Consequently, the children treat the nursery environment and the equipment with care and respect. Participation in regular fire drills helps to raise the children's awareness of how to stay safe in emergencies. Very good quality, eye-catching wall posters provide the children with visual reminders of how to stay safe in a variety of contexts both in and outdoors. These encourage the children to comply with staff who give very high priority to the children's safety. During outings, for instance, the children stay close to staff through

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

the use of reins or wrist bands, which they wear willingly, to ensure their safety while outside of the nursery environment. Older children are taught to stop, look and listen before they cross a road with staff to alert them to the potential danger around them.

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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 The children talk knowledgeably about significant people in the community, such as police officers and fire fighters and they understand how they protect people. The very well lit, well ventilated and beautifully organised nursery environment enables the children to move freely and safely from one area to another, protecting them from injury and accidents. All staff show excellent awareness of child protection issues. This is consolidated by frequent training and awareness raising sessions to ensure that the children are extremely well protected in the long term.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is outstanding. The children enter nursery happily and settle quickly to self-chosen tasks. They have very easy access to an excellent range of stimulating and top quality resources which help them to make very rapid progress in all areas of their development. The superbly organised nursery environment makes this possible and encourages the children to make independent choices. This encourages the children's play to evolve naturally, helping them to learn and experience things at their own rate, such as when the very youngest children explore "treasure baskets" and scrutinise the contents with joy and wonder or gaze with delight and amazement at bubbles blown through the air around them. Through the highly effective key worker system, staff plan innovative and exciting activities, such as jelly or flour painting, which are favourites with the very young children. These activities are based on the children's individual needs, preferences

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

and abilities. During activities, the children experience a range of sensations to stimulate their senses and provide them with excellent opportunities to vocalise and gesture. Highly skilled and enthusiastic staff encourage the children to take the next step and help them to see ways to extend their play, to help the children to grow in confidence and to keep them focused. Children and staff form very good relationships with each other. Highly efficient staff deployment means that staff are on hand to reassure the children if they feel uncertain or unsure about something, such as when visitors call. Staff are very affectionate towards the children and are focused completely on them. Consequently, the children are happy, confident and secure as a result. The children have excellent opportunities to represent and experiment, using a very good range of media, such as paint, play dough and clay. This introduces them to the

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

concepts of colour, texture, form and balance. They play with gusto in the outdoor area, where they are able to talk about things that they observe there, sometimes using "magnifying glasses" which they have made themselves in an earlier activity. They show wonder and curiosity about their findings and happily share their thoughts with and ask questions of adults who are close by. This helps the children to take an interest in their environment and encourages them to find out about the world in which they live. The children play with water and sand with great enthusiasm. They pour, sieve, weigh and balance using a range of items, such as sieves and scales, with growing

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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 skill and dexterity. This introduces the children to basic mathematical concepts, such as weight and capacity and helps to improve their hand/eye co-ordination. They thoroughly enjoy experimentation, when mixing water with sand, for example and they describe the result accurately and articulately using new and known words, to extend their vocabulary. Nursery Education The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding so the children make excellent progress. The children are highly motivated and very keen to take part in the exciting and imaginative range of activities available to them. This enables them to spend their time in nursery in a highly productive and very enjoyable way. For example, they scrutinise "mini-beasts" such as earthworms, to help them to understand how living

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

things react and behave. Planting herbs and plants, counting along as they go, gives the children the chance to observe growth, grapple with the concept of quantity and to understand cause and effect. There are ample opportunities for the children to use pens, pencils, paintbrushes, computers and other items that encourage the development of good hand/eye co-ordination and fine motor skills. The children use these tools both spontaneously and in well planned activities with growing competence, such as when they practice writing lists and letters in role play and when they play computer games. Frequent outings in the local and surrounding communities build on the children's interest in the world in which they live. During these trips, the children identify places of interest and significance, such as the post office and the park and discuss the things and the people that they see there. This encourages the children to observe

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

what happens around them. To supplement their knowledge and understanding of the world, the children talk with each other and staff about this country and others, when they play with and around an excellent range of resources such as books, music cassettes and role play props which help the children to form highly positive views of diversity. The children listen attentively and with obvious pleasure to songs, rhymes and a range of music, from classical to popular. To do so, they load cassettes into compact disc players with total competence and dance and sway rhythmically and spontaneously in response to what they hear. They sing with absolute enthusiasm as a group and softly, to themselves, often when busy with other activities. This gives the children the chance to appreciate a variety of sounds and teaches them about rhythm, pitch and tone. The children construct models ambitiously and with growing dexterity. They

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

collaborate productively with one another to achieve a common goal, such as when they use boxes and other materials to make aeroplanes. This teaches the children that working in harmony with others gets good results and gives them the opportunity to use mathematical language correctly, when they describe the size and shape of their project, for example. They use mirrors and watch with delight as the light "dances" across the nursery walls and ceiling. This introduces the children to how light and reflection work. Overall, the children make very good progress towards the early learning goals given their capability and starting points.

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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 Staff build highly secure relationships with the children and understand very well their needs and preferences. The staff have high expectations of the children and use sensitive and effective methods consistently to manage their behaviour. The staff make regular observations of the children and use these judiciously when planning imaginative and stimulating activities which offer excellent challenges to children of varying abilities. Staff use a very good range of teaching methods to keep the children interested and engaged. Highly efficient staff deployment ensures that the children receive help, total support and very good guidance when it is needed. Staff are passionate about their work and show a very strong awareness of how children learn. They evaluate the quality of their teaching when they meet weekly to

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

discuss issues and strive to improve their practice by attending relevant training courses and seeking the views of parents. Very well defined play areas encourage the children to focus fully on their chosen tasks. The staff ensure that the children's art work is displayed beautifully on the nursery walls which helps the children to feel valued and gives them a strong sense of pride. Resources are used very well indeed and are organised in a way that gives the children effortless access to them. This directs the children in a highly effective way towards independent learning.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is outstanding. Children's behaviour is exemplary through the excellent behaviour management techniques used by the highly skilled staff. Staff are calm and composed when they explain to the children why certain actions, such as squabbling, are unacceptable. This teaches the children that negative behaviour brings no reward and sets the scene for the development of the children's understanding of right from wrong. In addition, it helps to ensure that the children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered. Staff remind the children consistently to practice good manners, helping the children to learn ways of behaving acceptably around others. This is supplemented by the "Six Golden Rules" poster displayed in the pre-school area which gives the children a text endorsement of the merits of good behaviour, such as being kind to others and looking after books and toys. The children readily

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Helping children make a positive contribution

seek the attention and solace of their carers, when they are tired or hungry, for instance. This teaches the children to trust other people and gives them an insight into their own needs. Staff are quick to praise the children when they act positively, such as when they help to serve lunch to the other children. This boosts the children's self-esteem and teaches them that helping others is rewarding and important. An excellent range of resources, including books, dressing up clothes and bright wall posters, are readily available and visible to the children. These introduce the children to images of people of from other cultures and countries, to encourage the children to form positive views of diversity. The children see other aspects of the local community during their frequent trips in the local area. This stimulates lively conversation with other children and adults and fosters a sense of community and

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Helping children make a positive contribution

belonging. The children frequently observe the resident goldfish and help the staff to feed and clean them. This helps the children to understand that living things need

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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 care and attention Partnership with parents is outstanding. Very good quality information is given to parents before their child starts the nursery to outline the aims of the setting and familiarise them with nursery routines. Parents value the very effective settling-in procedures which help to ease the child's transition from home to nursery. Parents have extremely positive views about the staff, their skills, their personal qualities and their commitment, which one parent described as "second to none". Most of the parents think that the location of the nursery is ideal and they are very impressed with the range and quality of the equipment and the resources. They think that their children benefit enormously from attendance at the setting and state that it has helped their child make very good progress in all areas of their development. Parents

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Helping children make a positive contribution

can look through their child's progress file at any time, on request. Parents have ample opportunity to express their views and opinions through daily discussion with staff, at parent's meetings and through questionnaires. An excellent daily diary system ensures that staff, parents and the children's extended families are kept fully informed about day-to-day and significant events in the children's lives. Parents contributions to the diaries are very highly valued by the staff. Using parents' first-hand knowledge of their child enables the staff to plan effectively and ensure that the children's individual needs and preferences are taken in to account. General information about future plans and events is available on a dedicated parent's notice board. Parents appreciate this and state that it helps them to remember important dates, holiday times for instance. Additional information, about the Birth to three matters framework and the Foundation Stage, for example, is

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Helping children make a positive contribution

available on the notice board to guide parents in supporting their children's learning at home. A very good range of reference books about parenting issues is available for parents to borrow or to refer to in the designated parents room.

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Organisation

The organisation is outstanding. Very well qualified and highly skilled staff have an excellent awareness of the children as individuals through the highly effective key worker system that is in place. This enables staff to plan effectively to promote the children's individual needs and preferences, based on the children's abilities and starting points. Staff use the Birth to three matters framework to inform their excellent practice with children whose age or developmental stage is under three years old. The staff's knowledge of the Foundation Stage is extremely good and totally effective in helping the children to make sound progress towards the early learning goals. Leadership and management is excellent. Staff are guided by highly experienced and skilled managers who inspire, encourage and value their contributions. Regular appraisals with management offer staff opportunities to discuss career plans and

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Organisation

training courses as well as issues concerning the children for whom they are the key worker. Staff participate in regular and relevant training courses, such as child protection and the Foundation Stage. This enables all staff to keep abreast of current trends and ensures that their day-to-day practice is up-to-date and well informed.

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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 Staff are subject to rigorous recruitment and induction procedures. They are extremely well aware of their roles and responsibilities and are guided by highly effective written procedures. Records are meticulous and are monitored and stored with absolute efficiency. The nursery environment is beautifully organised with superbly defined play areas containing an outstanding range of very good quality resources, which are readily accessible to the children. Within this, staff are deployed in a highly effective way, enabling them to focus completely on the children. Consequently, the children are purposefully engaged in their play, behave exceptionally well, and are happy and settled. This contributes to the pleasant and harmonious atmosphere and the exceptionally low noise levels within the nursery. Staff are courteous, friendly and

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Organisation

helpful to all who enter the nursery environment. They are excellent role models to the children, who are learning from them the importance of treating others with respect and kindness. Overall, the provision is outstanding and is exceptional in meeting the needs of the children who attend.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Since the last inspection, the setting ensures that children in all age groups are involved in an excellent range of activities and have ready access to outstanding resources which help them to form highly positive views of all aspects of diversity.

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Complaints since the last inspection

There are no complaints to report. 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 outstanding. 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 outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the care

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of care are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the care

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 nursery education

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of nursery education are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the nursery education

procedures set out in the leaflet Building better childcare: Compliments and concerns about inspectors' judgements 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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