Bright Horizons Kenilworth Day Nursery and Preschool

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 08/10/2004 Inspector Name Teresa Marie Taylor

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Full Day Care Setting Name Beehive Nursery (Kenilworth) Setting Address Beehive Hill Kenilworth Warwickshire CV8 1BW

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

Name Beehive Day Nurseries Ltd Address St. James Road Southam Warwickshire CV47 0LY

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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ABOUT THE INSPECTION

The purpose of this inspection is to assure government, parents and the public of the quality and standard of day care in accordance with the National Standards for Under Eights Day Care and Childminding; and that the nursery education for funded three and four year old children is of an acceptable quality. Inspection of nursery education also identifies strengths and weaknesses so that providers can improve the quality of educational provision and help children to achieve the early learning goals (elgs) by the end of the Foundation Stage. This inspection report must be made available to all parents. If the setting has been inspected previously, an action plan will have been drawn up to tackle issues identified. This inspection, therefore, must also assess what progress has been made in the implementation of this plan.

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Information about the setting

Beehive Nursery Kenilworth is one of four nurseries run by the Beehive Company. It is situated on the outskirts of the town of Kenilworth. It is based in an old school building, which has recently been extended. The nursery was registered in 1998. The baby unit is based in the adjoining house. There are currently 120 children on roll. This includes 27 funded three and four year olds. Children attend for a variety of sessions. The setting can support children with special needs or for whom English is an additional language although none attend at present. Beehive nursery is open from 08:00hrs to 18:00hrs on weekdays, all year round. There are 22 full and part time staff working with the children. Half of the staff have early years qualifications to NVQ level 2 or 3. Four staff are currently working towards a recognised early years qualifications. The nursery receives support from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership advisory teacher.

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How good is the Day Care?

Beehive Nursery, Kenilworth provides satisfactory care for children with some standards recorded as good, including; care, learning and play, equipment, equal opportunities and behaviour management. Staff provide a welcoming environment for children and parents. There is a good range of toys and equipment and individual room planning ensures that all children attending are provided with a wide range of interesting and stimulating activities. Staff in the baby unit are aware of the need to keep babies interested and stimulated, they do this very well. Planned activities and free play run along side each other and children are free to choose which activities they do. Staff support children's choices well. Interaction between children and staff is good and staff work well as a team. Although the nursery has sufficient staff overall they need to ensure that appropriate ratios are maintained in individual rooms.

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How good is the Day 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; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 There is generally a good awareness of health and safety issues and children's hygiene is well attended to. However the nursery does need to ensure that all rooms are at an acceptable temperature prior to children arriving. The risk assessment needs to be extended, especially relating to external activities. Internal maintenance needs to be maintained to ensure the safety of the children and staff. There are good relationships with parents and they are provided with a full set of nursery policies, with an additional set always available in reception. There is a large notice board containing a wealth of information and a comments box for parents to remark on any aspect of the nursery. Staff ensure that all parents receive a verbal

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How good is the Day Care?

daily report and all under 2's have a daily diary completed. Parental comments included; professional yet personal, friendly staff, good atmosphere and children well looked after. Documentation is up to date and appropriately stored with confidentiality maintained.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

Not applicable as no actions were raised at the last inspection.

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What is being done well?

• Staff provide a welcoming environment for children and parents, were children are relaxed and settled. Staff work well as a team. • A wide range of toys and equipment are available and staff planning ensures good use and rotation of equipment and activities. Staff are actively involved with children's play and they encourage exploration and free choice. • Children's behaviour is good with staff providing good role models. Staff are gentle and consistent towards the children, being aware of each child's individual needs. • There are good relationships with parents and their responses to the questionnaires included; professional yet personal, friendly staff, good atmosphere and, children well looked after.

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What needs to be improved?

• consistency in staffing ratios in individual rooms • the ambient temperature of some of the rooms • the risk assessment.

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Outcome of the inspection

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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CONDITIONS OF REGISTRATION

All registered persons must comply with all conditions of registration included on his/her certificate of registration. As a result of this inspection conditions of registration have been imposed / varied / removed and a new certificate of registration will be issued.

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by the time of the next inspection

Std Recommendation 2 Ensure staffing ratios are maintained with all groups throughout the day. 4 Ensure an adequate temperature is maintained in all rooms. 6 Ensure the risk assessment is completed and includes external activities. 6 Ensure internal maintainance is completed as required.

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by the time of the next inspection

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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How effective is the nursery education?

The provision is acceptable and of good quality and children make generally good progress towards the early learning goals, with strengths in personal, social and emotional development, communication, language and literacy and knowledge and understanding of the world. The quality of teaching is generally good, with staff confident in the use of the stepping stones relevant to this age range. They know exactly what they are doing each session and the room co-ordinator plans weekly to allow targeting of individual children when necessary. General learning intentions are included, but are not specific enough to allow meaningful evaluation of activities. Staff interact well with the children ensuring they are aware of what is available and ask probing questions during adult led activities to aid learning. There is appropriate and stimulating input from visiting staff for activities such as Spanish, ballet and football. All staff act as

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How effective is the nursery education?

positive role models and as a result children's behaviour is very good. They use a wide variety of resources but do not always direct the adult input to differing areas of the curriculum. They make regular assessments of the children's progress. The leadership and management is generally good with the nursery manager having a regular presence in the unit. She oversees all of the children's assessments to enable monitoring of the provision. Frequent whole staff meetings and annual appraisals are held, although the pre-school room staff do not meet as a group to arrange planning. There is a strong commitment to improve with a training co-ordinator in place, regular visits from the advisory teacher and plans to develop the outdoor play area. The partnership with parents is very good. They feel welcome, have good access to information about the provision and their child's progress via end of topic reports and

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How effective is the nursery education?

parents evenings. These are also daily opportunities to share what they know about their child.

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What is being done well?

• Children behave very well, which enables them to get the most out of the discussions, stories and activities, which they are engaged in. • Children are confident, able to speak well within the group and are becoming considerate of the needs of others such as giving less confident children the chance to answer question without interrupting. They are well motivated and eager to learn. • Parents are kept well informed about their child's progress both informally, by daily exchange with staff and more formally. They have opportunities to be involved with their child's learning by attending concerts and outings and by sending in items in connection with current topics.

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What is being done well?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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What needs to be improved?

• the opportunities for activities which promote the use of imagination, particularly via art and role play • the organisation of time and resources to allow more child led activities • increased involvement of all staff in the planning process • planning, to show more specific learning intentions and their evaluation.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

The setting has made generally good progress in the areas for improvement at the last inspection. They were asked to 'provide suitable interaction with children at all times, particularly in recreational activities outdoors, to ensure children participate in purposeful play'. Since then they have discussed this issues in meetings, encourage the staff to interact more with the children when outdoors and have specific outdoor play session in the planning, but balance this with allowing them time and space to play and socialise together. They were also asked to ' increase the range of resources for knowledge and understanding of the world to encourage children to further question why things happen and how things work'. This was specifically an absence of magnets, which have since been added to the resources.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children are enthusiastic, keen to join in activities and concentrate well in a large group. Most are confident and able to talk about their families and their feelings. They relate well to each other and the staff and are able to work in flexible groupings. All are aware of the group rules and behave very well, showing respect and allowing others the chance to give answers without interrupting. They have good opportunities for self care when putting on their coats and serving their own snacks.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Very Good Children have daily discussions to develop language skills, including in Spanish, with group activities to encourage speaking and listening, which they do well. They all enjoy rhymes and stories, with a range of books available independently. They talk about the stories and what might happen next. Using chalk, pencils, magnetic boards and hand eye co-ordination activities, such as threading, children are learning pre-writing skills and more able children can write some correctly formed letters.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good They have frequent experience of numbers to ten, with more able children knowing the order and recognising most numerals, but this is not used to solve problems such as how many plates are needed. They are beginning to use addition and subtraction when counting backwards, in some rhymes and by using the number scales. They know basic shapes well and have many opportunities to copy patterns. They are introduced to mathematical language in many activities such as round and between in football.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Very Good They experience living things when caring for the fish or growing bulbs and have looked closely at themselves to make face plates. They discuss issues such as how they know it is dark in stories and what they wear in the cold. They access a range of small construction, with realistic 'tools' available and resources for junk modelling. Children use the computer with confidence and have good mouse control. They talk about past events such as holidays, recall story endings and celebrate festivals.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children confidently move with control and co-ordination in football and ballet, when they practise balance and use differing speeds. They show good awareness of space when riding around on the bikes outside or when sitting closely together. They discuss parts of their body, but not the effect their activities have. They access a range of large and small equipment daily, which enables them to have increasing control with balls, glue spreaders and to stack chairs or use a dustpan and brush.

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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children use a wide range of materials to explore texture and media such as sand, glitter, string and hand prints in two and three dimensions. They are exposed to music regularly either by listening to tapes, singing or timetabled music sessions. The role-play area is available daily, presently a bus and varied with topics. Children discuss their feelings, have some periods of imaginative play and opportunity to express themselves via art and movement, although much of this is adult directed.

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Children's spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development is fostered

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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OUTCOME OF THE INSPECTION

The provision is acceptable and is of good quality overall. Children are making generally good progress towards the early learning goals. The next inspection will take place in three to four years time.

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WHAT THE SETTING NEEDS TO DO NEXT: THE KEY ISSUES

• refine the planning process, to detail more specific learning intentions and associated evaluations, with contributions from all staff • make more effective use of time and resources, to promote more child led creative activities.

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WHAT THE SETTING NEEDS TO DO NEXT: THE KEY ISSUES

The provider must draw up an action plan within 40 working days of receipt of this report showing how the key issues detailed above will be addressed. The action plan must be made available to all parents and to the Local Authority if required. An evaluation of the action taken will form part of the next inspection of funded nursery education.

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WHAT THE SETTING NEEDS TO DO NEXT: THE KEY ISSUES

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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STANDARD 1 - SUITABLE PERSON

Adults providing day care, looking after children or having unsupervised access to them are suitable to do so.

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STANDARD 2 - ORGANISATION

The registered person meets required adult: child ratios, ensures that training and qualifications requirements are met and organises space and resources to meet the children's needs effectively.

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STANDARD 3 - CARE, LEARNING AND PLAY

The registered person meets children's individual needs and promotes their welfare. They plan and provide activities and play opportunities to develop children's emotional, physical, social and intellectual capabilities.

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STANDARD 4 - PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The premises are safe, secure and suitable for their purpose. They provide adequate space in an appropriate location, are welcoming to children and offer access to the necessary facilities for a range of activities which promote their development.

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STANDARD 5 - EQUIPMENT

Furniture, equipment and toys are provided which are appropriate for their purpose and help to create an accessible and stimulating environment. They are of suitable design and condition, well maintained and conform to safety standards.

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STANDARD 6 - SAFETY

The registered person takes positive steps to promote safety within the setting and on outings and ensures proper precautions are taken to prevent accidents.

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STANDARD 7 - HEALTH

The registered person promotes the good health of children and takes positive steps to prevent the spread of infection and appropriate measures when they are ill.

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STANDARD 8 - FOOD AND DRINK

Children are provided with regular drinks and food in adequate quantities for their needs. Food and drink is properly prepared, nutritious and complies with dietary and religious requirements.

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STANDARD 9 - EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

The registered person and staff actively promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children.

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NEEDS AND DISABILITIES)

The registered person is aware that some children may have special needs and is

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NEEDS AND DISABILITIES)

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 proactive in ensuring that appropriate action can be taken when such a child is identified or admitted to the provision. Steps are taken to promote the welfare and development of the child within the setting in partnership with the parents and other relevant parties.

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STANDARD 11 - BEHAVIOUR

Adults caring for children in the provision are able to manage a wide range of children's behaviour in a way which promotes their welfare and development.

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STANDARD 12 - WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS AND CARERS

The registered person and staff work in partnership with parents and to meet the needs of the children, both individually and as a group. Information is shared.

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STANDARD 13 - CHILD PROTECTION

The registered person complies with local child protection procedures approved by the Area Child Protection Committee and ensures that all adults working and looking after children in the provision are able to put the procedures into practice.

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STANDARD 14 - DOCUMENTATION

Records, policies and procedures which are required for the efficient and safe management of the provision, or to promote the welfare, care and learning of children are maintained. Records about individual children are shared with the child's parent.

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STANDARD 14 - DOCUMENTATION

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000; and Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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