Clevelands Prep School

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 12/10/2004 Inspector Name Ann Hilary Guy

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Sessional Day Care Setting Name Jigsaw Pre-School Nursery Setting Address Bury Park Community Centre 161 Dunstable Road Luton Bedfordshire LU1 1BW

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REGISTERED PROVIDER 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

Jigsaw Pre-School Nursery opened in 2000. It operates from one room within the Bury Park Community Centre in Luton. A maximum of 18 children attend the pre-school at any one time. The pre-school is open each week day from 09:15 to 11:45 and 12:30 to 15:00 term time only. All children have access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area. There are currently 25 children from three to under five years on roll. Of these 25 children receive funding for nursery education. Children attend for a variety of sessions and come from the local area. The pre-school makes appropriate provision for children with special needs or who speak English as an additional language. Five staff work at the pre-school. All of the staff have early years qualifications to NVQ level two or three, or equivalent. One member of staff is working towards furthering her early years qualifications. Staff receive support from an early years

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How good is the Day Care?

Jigsaw Pre-School provide a good standard of care of children. The provision is well organised with effective use made of staff to ensure children are well supported and cared for. The staff work well together as a team and compliment each others skills. All the staff hold early years qualifications and have a sound understanding of the policies and procedures that underpin their practice, although they do not fully meet the requirements of the National Standards for Day Care. Sound procedures are in place to ensure the safety of the children at all times, with staff suitably deployed to monitor all areas. They are very aware of the individual needs of the children and ensure good hygiene practices are observed. A stimulating range of activities, appropriate to the children's age and stage of development, is available throughout the session. They are well planned and the daily routine offers a very good pace to the day to ensure the children are fully

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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 occupied at all times. The multi-lingual staff are skilled at developing the children's language skills, giving explanations in their mother tongue when required, and listening to the children, increasing their understanding through the use of effective open-ended questioning. The partnership with parents and carers is good. They are made welcome and spoken to daily by a member of staff. Information is available to parents in different languages and they are invited to discuss their child's progress within an end of term meeting. The staff work closely with the parents to enable them to meet the individual needs of the children.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

At the last inspection the group were asked to ensure all records are kept confidential and on the premises; the register is kept up to date; the fire log book is kept up to date; the Ofsted telephone number and address is available to parents; and child protection procedures comply with the local Area Child Protection Committee documentation. All these actions have been suitably completed. All confidential information is kept on site in a locked filing cabinet; the register is maintained and shows the times of arrival and departure of children; a fire log book is maintained; parents are given a copy of the policies of the group which contains information about how to contact Ofsted; the child protection procedure has been reviewed and is in line with all current documentation.

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What is being done well?

• The staff work very well as a team and are skilled at offering suitable support to the children to enable them to develop and learn new skills. The staff play alongside the children, developing their language and understanding as well as developing their ability to play and use their imagination. • Good use is made of external resources. The children make regular visits to the public library, situated within the building, and enjoy listening to stories and songs and doing complimentary activities organised by the librarians in consultation with the staff. They also invite parents to come and talk to all the children and share their cultural festivals with them. One parent had been asked to talk to the children about Ramadan. • The internal organisation of the room is colourful and inviting to children with much of the equipment stored in boxes accessible to the children. Good use is made of cushions, floor and table space, together with free access to a

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What is being done well?

covered roof area for outdoor equipment, which is available throughout the session.

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An aspect of outstanding practice:

The staff adjust the pace of the session to meet the varying needs of the children. They maintain an interesting learning environment throughout the session by integrating free play, group play and snack time in a very successful manner. Initially, at group time, the children are assisted to choose activities and this free choice part of the session is effectively broken up with snack time and whole group

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An aspect of outstanding practice:

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 activities. The session alters as the year progresses and children develop greater skills of concentration.

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What needs to be improved?

• Some of the policies, in order to fully meet the requirements of the National Standards for Day Care.

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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 14 review the policies and ensure they contain all required information; especially the ones on behaviour management, lost and uncollected children, and outings

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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 for nursery education at Jigsaw Pre-School is of good quality overall. Children are making generally good progress overall, and their progress in personal, social and emotional development, communication, language and literacy and mathematical development is very good. Teaching is generally good and encourages children to learn effectively through purposeful play. The daily routines give good emphasis to speaking, listening and counting. However, children are given insufficient encouragement to use technology. There are insufficient opportunities to climb, balance and to use large equipment because some aspects of the physical programme are not planned. key strengths in many areas of learning are due to good quality interaction of staff when listening to and talking with the children. The staff have an increasing knowledge of the Foundation Stage and are relatively confident in planning the educational

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How effective is the nursery education?

programme, although there are minor gaps in coverage of the six areas of learning. The new assessment systems are likely to be effective in tracking children's progress towards the early learning goals and will be used to inform planning. Children behave very well because staff consistently use praise and encouragement. Children sit quietly and concentrate well in group activities. Leadership and management are generally good. The playleader strives to lead by example and shares her understanding of good practice with her team. She ensures that staff receive suitable training and is developing her evaluation skills with regard to the practice of the group. Thorough termly appraisals, a robust induction system and many improvements have been recently put into place by the management. The partnership with parents and carers is generally good. A noticeboard provides information in English, Bengali and Urdu to ensure that parents are well informed.

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How effective is the nursery education?

Parents can talk to staff informally and termly parent's evenings are well supported.

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What is being done well?

• Children develop trusting relationships with the adults in the group and are given support to develop caring relationships with each other. Children are very well behaved and respond positively to the gentle, calm nature of the staff and their consistent boundaries for acceptable behaviour. • The quality of staff interaction and engagement with children is excellent, and encourages children to express their needs, to ask questions and to think. Sound teaching encourages the children to experiment and discover for themselves, and to develop independence through making active choices about their learning. • The staff use every incidental opportunity to develop children's learning. In this language rich environment, which provides excellent support for children

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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 who have English as an additional language, the staff constantly engage the children in meaningful dialogue, checking children's understanding and extending their vocabulary. • Children enjoy a range of interesting and challenging activities based upon learning through purposeful play. The staff pace the activities appropriately, ensuring that children are not expected to sit for too long. The staff make very good use of the time and resources available. • Cooking activities and games integrate language and mathematics and are effectively used to help children to learn through practical skills. A 'Snakes and ladders' game was used effectively to introduce children to counting the dots on a dice and moving the correct number of spaces, using mathematical

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What needs to be improved?

• the regular use of information technology and technological toys • opportunities for children to use a range of small and large equipment for climbing and balancing.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

Jigsaw Pre-School has made generally good progress with the four key issues identified at the last inspection. The setting was required to develop planning to include assessment and evaluation. Much hard work has been done and remains as work in progress at the current time. The programme for communication, language and literacy is now very good and together with weekly visits to the on site library, is instrumental in helping children to link letters with sounds and to enjoy books regularly. The daily use of 'focus boxes' at snack time supports children's counting and number recognition effectively and the setting is continually looking for ways to extend the use of effective role play.

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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 developing confidence and self esteem supported by staff who are sensitive to their needs and get to know them well. They appear interested and confident with new activities and are developing skills of concentration and sitting quietly when required. Children are developing personal self care skills and are given excellent opportunities to select resources for themselves. Children behave very well, learn to take turns and develop a strong sense of community.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Very Good Children talk with other children and adults about recent events and the current wet and stormy weather. Children make marks and practice writing for a variety of purposes and develop language for thinking in a range of role play situations. Children enjoy a weekly storytime in the library and handle books frequently. Children learn about the links between sounds and letters through song and rhyme. They enjoy stories told with delightful hand puppets and recognise, and write, their names.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children benefit from independent and group support to develop their counting skills and to recognise shapes, colours and sizes. Focus boxes help staff to draw links between the numerals and the number based activities. Children's understanding of number is constantly reinforced as they take part in the daily routines of working out the date or counting the number of children present. Children have regular opportunities to develop simple calculation and practical problem solving skills.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Generally Good Children are developing exploratory skills through planned activities and perceptive questioning. They taste bread, make jelly, observe the weather and talk about familiar features of the locality. Both planned and unplanned opportunities help them notice changes that occur, for example, that there was lots of rain this week. Children make models using a variety of construction materials. Basic computer skills are just being introduced but children have insufficient access to technological toys.

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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 do not have enough planned opportunities to use large and small apparatus indoors or outdoors. These types of activities are not covered sufficiently in the programme, despite the group having a small, covered outdoor area. Some movement activities are arranged in the classroom. Children learn about the importance of hand washing, use a good range of tools and malleable materials to develop their fine motor skills and enjoy regular free play in the outside area.

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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children use a good variety of drawing, painting and collage materials. Work on display shows how they are encouraged to explore and develop their own ideas. They sing songs and join in with rhymes and actions. Children enjoy well supported role play situations in the Home Corner to help the children use their imaginations and begin to make up stories. They have regular access to musical instruments and are responding well to a range of sensorial experiences.

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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

• Demonstrate how you will ensure that children will use a range of large and small equipment providing the opportunity to travel under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment. • Improve and extend the regular use of information technology within the programme for knowledge and understanding of the world.

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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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