Bright Horizons Barford Day Nursery and Preschool

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 17/06/2004 Inspector Name Sheila Dawn Flounders

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Full Day Care Setting Name BEEHIVE NURSERY (BARFORD)- VAR Setting Address CHURCH STREET BARFORD WARWICK CV35 8EW

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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 opened in Barford in 1997. It is one of six facilities owned by the company. It operates from the former village school premises, which consists of four main areas for the differing ages of children attending and additional facilities including a milk kitchen, sleep room and staff area. There is also a fully enclosed outdoor play area and access to the school playground. The nursery serves the local area and children attend from many surrounding towns and villages. There are currently 104 children from three months to five years on roll. This includes 11 funded three-year-olds and 9 funded four-year-olds. Children attend for a variety of sessions in all age groups. Children attend who have special needs and the group is also able to support children who speak English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

The group opens 5 days a week all year round. They are open from 08:00 until 18:00. Sixteen staff work with the children, either full or part time. Over half the staff have early years qualifications to NVQ level 2 or 3, or are currently working towards a recognised early years qualification. The setting receives regular support from a teacher/mentor from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP).

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How good is the Day Care?

Beehive nursery provides good care. There are good levels of qualified staff, with experienced room leaders and strong management in place. Staff are keen to attend additional training relevant to their roles. There is a warm and welcoming environment with space well used to meet the needs of the children in their separate playrooms and communal areas. They have plenty of furniture and equipment for those attending. All necessary documentation, policies and procedures are in place and fully available to staff and parents.

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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 Safety is given a high priority, with improvements made to the access of the building. Risk assessments are maintained on most activities and sleeping children are monitored regularly. A thorough fire procedure is frequently practised and staff are vigilant when using the garden area. Prescribed medication is only given to children with parental consent, although a signature has not been gained afterwards. Staff are active in promoting good health and hygiene routines throughout the nursery. All children have healthy meals and snacks, with younger babies fed according to individual routines. They are encouraged to access frequent drinks, independently for older children. Staff are well aware of any allergies and food preferences.

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How good is the Day Care?

All children have access to a wide range of age appropriate activities, with free choice in all rooms, including resources, which promote equality. The organisation ensures that resources are always available to challenge children of all abilities. Staff interact well with the children and respond to individual needs, with high expectations of their behaviour. Regular developmental records are maintained on the younger children, with more detailed records for the pre-school children. There is a strong partnership with parents, who are welcomed into the nursery at any time, provided with ample information before their child attends and regularly informed about their progress.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

At their last inspection the nursery were asked to obtain permission for emergency medical treatment from parents, which have been done by the implementation of a permission form for all children. They were also to ensure that ratios were maintained. To ensure this the manager considers the attendance figures, organises staff accordingly including extra staff over the lunch period, with herself supernumery for additional cover. They also have access to several agencies for additional staff if needed or from other facilities run by the management. Lastly they were to make a wider range of books and large construction available for older children and have since purchased more books and two sets of large construction.

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What is being done well?

• Children behave well, as the staff encourage good behaviour and use frequent praise. They act as positive role models for the children and treat them with respect. There is a robust policy in place, with strategies in place, which are applied consistently through the nursery and are appropriate to the ages and stage of development of the children. • Parents are kept informed about their child's progress in a variety of ways, including written reports and contact with their keyworker. Young children and babies also have diaries to detail their daily routines. All parents are able to visit the nursery before their child attends and stay to settle them in. • Good use is made of the environment to provide separate facilities for differing age groups. The self-contained baby unit has its own kitchen, sleep room and nappy changing facilities. The rest of the nursery is divided into three age groups. All children share the garden area at different times of day.

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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 • Children of all ages have access to a wide range of resources. These are sometimes shared between rooms, giving extensive choices of activities to staff. The children have periods of free play, mixed in with appropriate adult led activities. Planning is in place in all units to ensure activities are varied and enable children to develop in all areas.

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What needs to be improved?

• the obtaining of a parental signature after medication has been administered • additional specific training for staff to ensure they have the correct knowledge and skills for roles and responsibilities they have within the nursery.

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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 that staff attend training relevant to their roles and responsibilities within the nursery. 7 Obtain written permission from parents before administering medication to children and keep a record, signed by parents, of medicines given to children.

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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?

Children are making generally good progress towards the early learning goals with particular strengths in personal, social and emotional development, knowledge and understanding of the world and creative development. The quality of teaching is generally good. The staff currently working with the group have mixed knowledge and experience of the Foundation Stage curriculum and are working to improve this. The planning has the basic requirements in place and is shared with all staff, but is not sufficiently detailed to identify challenges set for children and activities are often not evaluated. Assessments are done regularly, but do not show enough detail of what children need to do next to inform future plans. A variety of methods are used with the children including whole group, small group or individual work with specialist input for Spanish, ballet and football. Staff generally make good use of their time and resources, although they do not always site

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How effective is the nursery education?

themselves at activities where children need their input and some large group activities are less appropriate for younger children. Staff act as positive role models for children and as a result children behave well. The internal and external leadership of the group is very good, with regular meetings between staff at all levels. This has enabled them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, with the manager aware of the issues as she maintains an overview over the nursery education provision. The setting demonstrates a strong commitment to improvement. Partnership with parents is very good. Parents are provided with good quality information when their child starts nursery or moves through into this group. They are well informed about their child's progress through the year when they also are given opportunity to share their knowledge of the child. They have some opportunities to be involved with their child's learning by sending in resources or

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What is being done well?

• Children are given many good opportunities to learn. They are able to access a wide variety of resources and activities, largely independently, to make progress in all areas. • Children are confident, well motivated, enthusiastic in all that they do and generally behave well. Staff and children show respect to one another, which creates a caring environment. • Parents are kept well informed about their child's progress with general end of topic reports, individual twice-yearly parents evenings, and access to their scrapbooks containing examples of creative work and copies of the planning on the notice boards.

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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 all children have to access large physical play • the variety of books available for independent reading • the opportunities given to younger children to practice their numbers • the planning to detail more challenge and individual focus, with main activities evaluated • the assessments to identify what children need to do next to inform future planning.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

The setting has made generally good progress since the last inspection. They were firstly asked to improve planning to identify learning intentions, which they have done although they are not linked clearly to the stepping stones; also to plan more opportunities for children to use their imagination and respond to their feelings which has been done through a wide range of planned creative activities available on a daily basis. They were also to make their assessments more effective and comprehensive, regular and to share them with parents, which they have partially achieved. Assessments are done very regularly and shared with parents fully, but they do not clearly identify individual learning needs and are therefore not fully effective in informing the planning process.

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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 interested in their play, excited in activities and mainly self-motivated. They are aware of their own needs and growing in confidence. They play well together, forming strong relationships and accept the group codes well. They are beginning to consider the needs of others and understand why rules are in place. Independence is well promoted with children able to self select many resources. They have good opportunities to build a sense of community from frequent visitors.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Generally Good Language is used to negotiate with each other, in role-play and when joining in with stories. Older children are extending this to explain their actions. All children enjoy rhymes and most know the initial letters of their name. They have access to fact and fiction books, but the limited number does not attract them to read independently. All children have opportunities for mark making, writing for other purposes and to practise pre-writing skills. Most older children can write their names.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children have some opportunities to see number around them in practical situations. Older children can recognise numerals to nine, but opportunities are missed to reinforce familiarity with low numbers for the younger children. They are introduced to subtraction when counting back in rhymes and older children can count on from a number when looking at the date. All have done recent work on basic shapes and some children confidently use the correct language to describe shape during activities.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Very Good Children have good opportunities to explore and investigate daily with sand, water and growing flowers. They access construction and older children begin to form their own designs. Children access some technology via the computer or in role-play with tills and scales. They are able to recall previous events and differentiate the past and present. They frequently look at the local environment and activities are used to increase their awareness of other cultures like Spanish or the food topic.

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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 have good opportunities to practise a variety of movement in ballet or football and daily outdoor play, although they have limited access to large apparatus. They have a good awareness of their own personal space when moving around the room or garden. Recent topic work on healthy eating has made them very informed about what food to eat. They access on a daily basis a range of small equipment and tools, with a few large items, all children show a good level of skill and control.

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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good They have frequent opportunities to explore media and materials in two and three dimensions, individually or in-group projects, including some unusual items like plaster of paris. All enjoy regular musical sessions and are able to keep to a rhythm. Daily they indulge in imaginative play during role-play, mime in ballet or small world play when they act out situations from their own experiences. They express their feelings and ideas through creative activities, music and role-play.

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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

• ensure that number activities are appropriate to the ages of the children and that low numbers are frequently reinforced for younger children • increase the availability of large physical play for all children • improve the planning and assessment processes to clearly identify individual progression, what children need to do next and how that will be achieved.

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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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