Newstead Children's Centre

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 01/03/2005 Inspector Name Maggie Thorp

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Full Day Care Setting Name Newstead Children & Family Centre Setting Address Newstead Childrens Centre Fallows Close, East Finchley London N2 8LG

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

Name London Borough Of Barnet Address EARLY YEARS AND PLAY SERVICE BARNARD HOUSE 158 BURNT OAK BROADWAY EDGWARE, MIDDX HA8 0UH

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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

Newstead Children and Family Centre opened in 1995. It is a purpose built centre situated in East Finchley and is run by the London Borough of Barnet. The centre offers a service to children and their parents and carers who have been identified as being 'in need'. It is open from 08:30 and children generally attend between 9:30 and 14:45. A maximum of 26 children may attend at any one time. The centre operates 51 weeks a year and is closed for 5 training days. There are currently 37 children on role from 0 to and 5 years and children attend for a variety of places. The majority of childrenn are aged between two and five years. Some children leave after they become five but before the statutory school age. Respite care is offered on an occasional basis to children under two years. Four services are offered within the provision, these are: a community drop in group which operates once a week, a family group two days a week and a waiting list

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Information about the setting

group. These are all for children and their parents and carers. The fourth service is a children's group which operates four days a week. The local authority receive nursery education funding for nine three and four year olds. The centre currently supports a number of children with special educational needs, and also supports a number of children who speak English as an additional language. There are five members of staff working with the children. All are qualified in childcare and early years education. In addition there is a head of centre, deputy, senior worker, administrator, cook, two general assistants and a handy person. The centre has links with a Barnet Early Years advisory teacher, area special educational needs co-ordinator, social workers and a number of support agencies. They also have a development worker from the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

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How good is the Day Care?

Newstead Children and Family Centre provides good care and a warm, stimulating environment for children. The premises are clean and well maintained. The staff

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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 team have a strong commitment to their work and to developing their skills. Comprehensive policies and procedures ensure staff are clear about their roles and responsibilities. A very effective risk assessment system is in place to ensure children's safety and measures to prevent the spread of infection are good. Children are introduced to a wide variety of healthy foods through the excellent meals provided and great care is taken to meet each child's dietary needs. Sound systems are in place to ensure children with special needs receive good support. However, the staff child ratio just after lunch is too low to ensure all children receive good attention sometimes. Effective child protection procedures in place and staff are well informed about

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How good is the Day Care?

these. Staff are very attentive and involved in children's play. Staff know their key children well and they observe and plan activities according to each child's interests and concerns. Children enjoy the very good opportunities for outdoor play available throughout the year regardless of the weather, if it rains children just don raincoats and brollies. Children choose from a very good range of accessible resources, which are labelled with text and pictures, and reflect children's diverse backgrounds very positively, thus effectively encouraging children's autonomy and self-confidence. Behaviour is good; staff listen to children's concerns and help children negotiate with each other. There is a very good partnership between staff and parents. Excellent opportunities are provided to support and encourage parents and to involve them in every aspect of the centre. However, occasionally some parents feel that they do not receive

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How good is the Day Care?

enough notice about events and changes. A very informative booklet provides new parents with information about the centre.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

Since the last inspection the nursery has effectively improved the information for parents regarding how to make a complaint by adding information about Ofsted's role and how to contact to their complaints policy.

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What is being done well?

• Key workers develop very secure relationships with children through home visits and visits with children to local schools, which are very effective in helping new children settle in and in supporting children starting school. • The organisation, resources and excellent display in both indoor and outdoor play areas and children's bathrooms provides children with an extremely stimulating environment for learning and play and fosters children's self help skills very effectively. • Excellent meals, freshly cooked on the premises, offer children opportunities to develop good eating habits and to encounter a wide variety of foods. • Children's safety is a high priority. The risk assessment and follow up on accidents is very comprehensive and the health and safety policies are

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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 implemented very effectively. • Staff know children's cultural backgrounds well and use display, food, resources, activities and the celebration of festivals extremely well to help children value their own and others differences and similarities.

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An aspect of outstanding practice:

The centre empowers parents by valuing their ideas and opinions and helping parents and carers in their role as their children's first educators very effectively. The current project, partly funded by 'Life Long Learning' is enabling parents to develop literacy and numeracy skills as they design, budget and place orders to completely refurbish the parents room and start up a parents and carers' support group.

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What needs to be improved?

• deployment of staff at staff break times • the amount of notice given of events and changes

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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 Review cover arrangements during staff lunch breaks to ensure appropriate staff child ratios are maintained to fully support each child. 12 Provide parents with more notice of events and staff changes whenever possible.

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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?

Newstead Children and Family Centre provides children with a stimulating, caring environment where children make generally good progress towards the early learning goals overall, and very good progress many areas. The good use made of the nursery's many resources and the very good use of the garden creates an interesting environment where children are enthusiastic about learning. The quality of teaching is generally good. Staff are well qualified and form a committed team. They support children with special educational needs effectively and children who are learning English as an additional language. Planning covers all six learning areas. Staff know children well and they observe, discuss and plan daily to ensure the activities provided reflect children's current interests and concerns and extend children's learning. However, not all the aspects of each learning area appear in each planning period or are regularly assessed. This leads to limitations in

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How effective is the nursery education?

children's interest and progress in those aspects, for example in developing children's interest in stories. The strong, well informed, leadership and management provides clear direction for the staff team. A high priority is placed on staff development through training, appraisal and providing time for staff to discuss and evaluate their work. Most aspects of provision are carefully monitored and evaluated, however, gaps in the new planning and assessment have not been spotted and addressed. Partnership with parents is very good. There is very good communication between key workers and parents. New parents receive good information about the nursery through a well a written booklet and they are able to settle their children in slowly. Parents are made welcome and regularly meet with their child's key person to discuss their child's progress. They are given excellent opportunities to understand how children learn through play.

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What is being done well?

• Children's creativity and imagination is supported very effectively by the close attention staff pay to children's interests and concerns, how these are swiftly incorporated into what is provided each day and how attractively resources are presented. • Children's physical development in encouraged very well by the freedom children have to play out of doors for a large part of each day. • The opportunities children have to find out about the natural world and to explore and investigate this are extremely well provided for. The garden is being developed into a very rich learning environment. • The management's provision of time for discussion and reflection and for further training underpins the aspects of very good practice of the nursery.

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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 • Staff see parents as children's first educators and they work very effectively in partnership with parents to support them in this role.

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What needs to be improved?

• Children's interest in books and the organisation of story times • the monitoring of planning and assessment systems

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What has improved since the last inspection?

The nursery has made very good progress since the last inspection. They have continued to develop and improve provision. The focus on developing outdoor play has provided children with a rich variety of sensory experiences and places to explore in the garden, including growing patches and discovery areas. Also opportunities for children to use technology have been increased. The excellent work with parents has continued to develop including a project to promote literacy and numeracy.

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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 very confident and independent, yet can ask for help when needed. Staff interaction and the organisation of resources support this very effectively. Children's interest in the digital camera led to them learning use it themselves with great pride. Children are able to negotiate with each other with excellent help from staff and behaviour is good. Children are learning to value their own cultures as these are reflected very positively in all aspects of the nursery.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Generally Good Children talk, ask questions and listen well and are learning how to greet people and to express their feelings. Children with impaired hearing and those learning English as an additional language are helped by staff signing. However, older children's interest in stories is not fostered well by the one simple story read each day. Children recognise the first letters of their names and the labelling and writing materials all round the nursery are encouraging their early writing skills very well.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children are learning to count up to ten, however, some opportunities to reinforce this learning with younger children are missed during activities. Children's knowledge of shape, sequencing, matching and size is more secure through the practical activities, games and songs they engage in. Children can measure themselves against a height chart, the units of which are hands to enable easy use, and can describe the size of aprons needed for different children and adults.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Very Good Children are busy investigating all over the nursery. In the garden they feel and speculate what has happened to a hard, water filled balloon before cutting it open to reveal ice. They learn about caring for birds by making bird feeders. They plant and grow herbs. Children's have access to variety of technical resources which they use enthusiastically. They are learning about different cultures in very exciting ways, for example, staff and parents took them to eat at a Chinese restaurant.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children use a wide variety of tools safely and with good control. They use hole punches and staplers in the writing area and blood pressure gauges in the play hospital. Children are confident in their use of large equipment and move confidently and imaginatively. They pedal and steer bikes pretending they are bus drivers, climb and play parachute games. Children and parents took part in a recent keep healthy project which included healthy eating and exercise and a sponsored walk.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

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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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children explore and express themselves with a rich variety of materials which are attractively and accessibly set out. Their creativity and imagination is promoted very effectively through rich opportunities for art and pretend play, and by staff who play too. Children make pictures of their faces using buttons, wool and fabric. Crates become a bus and the climbing frame, a ticket office. A very well equipped surgery is busy with children with broken arms and doctors fixing them.

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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

• Develop story times to match children's age and understanding more accurately to ensure children's interest in books and listening to stories is being fostered effectively. • Monitor the new planning and assessment systems to ensure they support children in making progress in all aspects of each learning area.

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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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