Brereton Playgroup and Preschool

Brereton Playgroup Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number 304989 Inspection date 15/03/2010 Inspector Rachel Ruth Britten

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Setting address School Lane, Brereton Green, Nr Sandbach, CW11 1RN

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Telephone number 07814 821952 and 07756354684 Email 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

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

Brereton Playgroup was registered in 1983. The setting is committee run and operates from a portable building situated in the grounds of Brereton infant and junior school. Children are cared for within one room and have access to the school hall and playground. There is also a designated secure area available for outdoor play. A maximum of 12 children aged two and a half to five years may attend the setting at any one time. The setting is open five days a week during term time, from 9am to 12noon and for two afternoons from 1pm to 3.30pm. Children attend from the local community and surrounding areas.

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Description of the setting

There are currently 20 children on roll aged from two and a half to four years. All of these are within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The setting receives funding for nursery education. The setting is not currently supporting any children with special educational needs or disabilities and there are currently no children attending who speak English as an additional language.

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Description of the setting

The setting employs two members of staff including the manager. The manager is qualified to level three in early years and the assistant is working towards a recognised early years level three qualification. The setting receives support from the local authority early years advisory team.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall the quality of the provision is good.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

The setting successfully meets the unique needs of each child and forges supportive relationships with families. Experienced, motivated staff provide excellently for all children to develop social and independence skills and every child makes good progress in their learning and development. The children enjoy a safe, yet very enabling environment with strong links to the school and community. Partnerships with parents and the school are good, but are less well developed with other involved providers of childcare. Good teamwork, self-evaluation tools and training are continuously used to update and develop the provision.

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further?

To further improve the early years provision the registered person should:

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further?

 develop the exchange of assessments and plans for individual children who receive the EYFS in more than one setting, so that partnerships facilitate consistent and complementary care and education  make periodic summative assessments of children's progress under each area of learning, so that their progress and plans for their next steps are easy to see, use and share with parents and all those involved with them  maintain privacy and confidentiality with regard to behaviour incident and accident records This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006  ensure that regular evacuation drills are carried out and details recorded in a log book of any problems encountered and how they were resolved.

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the early years provision

Children are well safeguarded in the small setting because staff effectively balance vigilance and support without reducing children's sense of belonging and independence. The staff team of two work very well together ensuring that daily checks are undertaken and equipment is safely and invitingly available for children to choose and use. Staff are both trained in first aid and food safety and know their responsibilities to inform the committee and Ofsted of any circumstances which may compromise their continued suitability. Door security is good and movements inside and outside are carefully conducted. Arrival and departure, registration, accident, incident and medication administration procedures safeguard all individuals without compromising warm and supportive relationships. However, incident records compromise confidentiality by naming both parties in one record. Each outing is thoroughly risk assessed, including the required adult-to-child ratios.

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the early years provision

This helps to ensure the safety of children on the regular trips undertaken as well as providing good opportunities for parents to be involved. Risk assessments and checks ensure that the building is kept in good working order, but regular fire evacuation practises have not been undertaken recently and there is no system to prompt staff to conduct these. Overall, policies and procedures are reviewed and implemented well. Parents have full copies of all policies, including the complaints and child protection policies. However, the complaints procedure is set out in the old National Standards rather than the Early Years Foundation Stage and the contact number for Ofsted is not the current one.

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the early years provision

The manager and assistant together communicate their vision for implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage with great enthusiasm and commitment. The setting displays good child and parent information so that everyone can understand how the setting works and feel both welcome and at home there. A wealth of new, robust and versatile resources are in place, including good use of sustainable and recyclables as well as technological equipment. Displays, using posters, photos and simple words, convey the setting's commitment to healthy lifestyles, good social behaviour, literacy, numeracy and safety. The manager and assistant attend frequent training and share their ideas for group work, role plays, experiments and projects which are both creative and active. They strive to improve the way they plan and provide for children's individual interests and needs and are actively recording, photographing and celebrating children's achievements.

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the early years provision

Their self-evaluation document details good ideas for improvements which will benefit the outcomes for children. Recent improvements to the snack menu, domestic role play and increased use of music follow parental feedback too. Staff daily practice promotes the inclusion of every child and develops understanding of the diverse cultures and lifestyles both in the local community and the wider world. This is achieved through resources which contain positive images of disability and other cultures and relevant activities to raise funds to help children in poor or disaster-struck countries. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 Many parents are involved on the committee and some assist in sessions as adult volunteers. All parents come into the setting at the beginning of sessions when key-workers are available to liaise and facilitate a secure handover. Parents are

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the early years provision

encouraged to give detailed information about their child's starting points and interests when they begin and at subsequent intervals. This information is used to help the child to settle and to plan activities which interest them and promote their development. Key-workers make regular observations in written and photographic form to provide evidence of each child's progress and parents can easily access their child's progress file. However, there are no regular summary assessments or next steps plans there for easy reference. Nevertheless, staff do plan and provide for the next steps each child needs to take, based upon their detailed knowledge of the child. Some children also have childminders or attend nursery. Some verbal exchanges take place between these parties because they are jointly providing the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. However, these partnerships do not extend to the sharing of assessments and next steps plans to best facilitate

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the early years provision

consistent and complementary care and education. Cooperative partnerships exist with social services and other agencies when children are receiving additional support. All children move on to the local schools and links with the reception class are close and effective, preparing children well for a confident move into school.

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and outcomes for children

The two staff successfully support each child's learning and development, effectively using a key-worker system and the small setting size to ensure that they provide for each child very well. Simple session routines provide a good balance of adult-led and child-initiated activity both indoors and outdoors. This promotes children's social skills and confidence very well and they are able to play and persist with activities both alone, in small groups and as a large group. They are praised and rewarded with stars for acts of kindness and consideration and will help each other freely, perhaps to do the actions for a song. They work together in pairs to unfold and place the table cloths the right way on the rectangular tables or to find the hidden mouse, sharing the hand held remote to set off the sound to follow. They are able to speak confidently to the whole group, taking a turn to lead the traffic light game in the playground or a fingers number game at circle time.

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and outcomes for children

Children enjoy active and creative play and learning which effectively incorporates all the six areas of learning in a fun and exciting way. There is plenty of music, role play and investigation, and learning about letters and numbers is woven relevantly into this. For example, children learn action songs incorporating counting skills ready to perform in the local church for the village community variety show this weekend. They use torches to hunt for different shapes around the room and they collect leaves and play in the dark den they have made where the nocturnal animals are. They can play alone too, solving problems and learning about shape, weight and number as they complete quite complex puzzles, undertake shape matching and bead sorting activities or play the weighted monkey game to balance as many monkeys as they can before the palm tree falls down.

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and outcomes for children

Children communicate clearly and confidently and are enjoying books, stories and This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 mark making in preparation for joining their friends in school with whom they share regular play and activity time. They freely choose books to look at and join in confidently with questions arising from story time. They enjoy finger mark making in trays of flour, talk about words starting with the letter 'I' and carefully use ink on folded paper to make mirror image pictures. They confidently find their name cards and places at the snack table and pass on the 'hello wave' at register time. They enjoy taking part in all routines of the day, further developing their small movements as they spread their own toast, pour their own drinks, or carefully stick coloured chocolate circles onto a stick to create a small edible traffic light treat to take home.

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and outcomes for children

Children have good opportunities to look after themselves and their environment. They are becoming competent and considerate of the community and all others. For example, they wash and dry their hands, put on their own coats and hats, and help to get out and put away the bikes and ride on toys. They put the small farm animals back in the right box and are learning to sort the recyclables into the relevant boxes. They are going to grow vegetables this year and start to make compost. They go on frequent visits to the church, school, play area, heath-land and places of interest. They enjoy finding out about the natural world around them, watching chicks hatching and butterflies emerging from their chrysalis alongside their friends in the reception class. They undertake charitable efforts for children in need, for example, making savings boxes to fund mosquito nets for children in Africa or completing a sponsored walk.

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and outcomes for children

Children behave well and are enthusiastic learners. The staff use their personal skills to the full, inspiring the children with their dancing, singing, questions, praise and encouragement. They have created a safe and inspiring learning environment where children fully use and enjoy all the play areas. Children feel special when they are chosen to help with tasks that develop their skills still further and they are delighted when they earn enough stars to have the cup. They are healthy and safe, eating nutritious snacks and being active. They play parachute games, dance with 'lummy' sticks, perform a maypole dance and can climb, throw and catch competently. They love to have their photo taken for their progress books as they achieve a new skill. Their home interests and games are built upon so that they are interested and feel special. For example, they are able spend time on the computer and learn how to use a tape recorder or undertake baking. They are

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and outcomes for children

learning to listen and to recognise their feelings and those of others. For example, they take turns to choose songs to sing and discuss whether tunes sound happy or sad. 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 2 The effectiveness with which the setting promotes equality and diversity The effectiveness of safeguarding 2 The effectiveness of the setting’s self-evaluation, including the steps taken to promote improvement The effectiveness of partnerships 3 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 2

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Stage

The extent to which children achieve and enjoy their learning 2 The extent to which children feel safe 2 The extent to which children adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which children make a positive contribution 2 The extent to which children develop skills for the future 2

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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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