Bare Necessities Preschool

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 17/01/2005 Inspector Name Lesley Ormrod

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Sessional Day Care Setting Name Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup Setting Address Bare Methodist Church Hall St Margarets Road, Bare Morecambe Lancashire LA4 6EF

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REGISTERED PROVIDER DETAILS

Name Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup 1040512

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

Name Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup Address Bare Methodist Church Hall St Margarets Road, Bare Morecambe Lancashire LA4 6EF

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of 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 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

Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup is run by Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup Committee. It opened in 1978 and operates from three rooms and associated facilities in a church hall. The pre-school is situated in Morecambe. A maximum of 30 children may attend the facility at any one time. The setting is open weekdays for four mornings from 09.05 to 13.00 and one afternoon 11.50 to 15.45 in term-time. There are currently 45 children aged from 2 to under 5 years on roll. Of these 28 children receive funding for nursery education. Children come from the town of Morecambe. The playgroup currently supports a number of children with special educational needs. The playgroup employs 11 staff. Five of the staff hold appropriate early years qualifications. Five staff are working towards a qualification.

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Information about the setting

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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How effective is the nursery education?

Bare Necessities Pre-School Playgroup provides good quality education overall which enables children to make generally good progress towards the early learning goals. Provision for personal, social and emotional development is a strength and children make very good progress in this area. Mathematical development, creative development, knowledge and understanding of the world and physical development are well taught and children are making very good progress in these areas. The quality of teaching is generally good. The staff manage the children well with good relationships with them. They plan exciting, well-thought-out activities with effective use of resources that interest children and stimulate their responses. The staff understand what children need to learn but do not systematically observe and record the good responses children make to inform the planning to meet individual learning needs particularly in aspects of communication, language and literacy.

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How effective is the nursery education?

Children with special needs are fully included and make good progress. There is a strong sense of community within the pre-school. Staff complete monitoring sheets that assess children's learning against the stepping stones and early learning goals. They complete pre-transition profiles summarising children's progress to assist their transfer to school and share these with parents. The leadership and management of the pre-school are generally good. The supervisor with her enthusiastic staff team are committed to achieving the clearly stated aims and objectives for the pre-school. Most staff are well qualified and all take up extensive training opportunities to extend their skills. The supervisor regularly monitors the quality of teaching but the system for observation of children is not in place. The partnership with parents is generally good. Staff have good relationships with parents giving time each day to chat informally. Parents' knowledge of their children

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What is being done well?

• Children are given very good opportunities and support to become confident in their play and to show good curiosity in finding out about things. They explore the contents of the sound bags with eager excitement and run the shoe shop, identifying types of shoes and socks that their customers might like. • Staff plan a good range of interesting and motivating activities within the free play and focussed learning that gain children's attention. Children wear wellingtons to make footprints in paint. They follow the actions in Simple Simon Says to mime taking on and off items of clothing.

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What is being done well?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 • Children learn to show care and concern for each other through the staff's good management of their behaviour. Staff help children to understand the rules of the pre-school and how to play safely together. Children learn to let each other have a turn to speak and listen with interest to what each has to say. • The staff encourage children's mathematical skills well with effective questioning and using opportunities to count in practical activities and circle time. Children confidently recognise two of a kind make a pair and anticipate the number that the clock will strike next as they sing Hickory Dickory Dock.

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What needs to be improved?

• the arrangements to regularly collect information from parents about their children's learning and use this to inform the planning • the arrangements for key workers to observe and record children's learning to inform the planning to meet individual children's learning needs • the use of focussed observation and recording to sufficiently challenge individual children in aspects of communication, language and literacy.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

Very good progress has been made since the last inspection. The staff have introduced effective measures to improve the planning and use of assessment; children make good use of information and communication technology in their play and learning and children now recognise and use number and mathematical skills in their play and learning. The staff revised their formal planning system after the last inspection. The early learning goals and stepping stones are now fully linked into the long term, medium term and short term plans. The short term planning indicates how children will be grouped and how staff will support and extend activities to allow all children to make progress. Children now have access to information and communication technology as an integral part of their play and learning and make good progress in this aspect. The staff improved their understanding of the use of assessment procedures by

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What has improved since the last inspection?

accessing further training and advice. They now use the assessment procedures effectively to monitor children's progress towards achieving the early learning goals by the time that they are five. The area of learning for mathematical development was developed extensively after the last inspection. Staff attended training and received help and advice in implementing a programme that now allows all children to make very good progress in using number and achieving mathematical skills. Children now use their skills to count confidently in their play and solve mathematical problems.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good There are very good relationships between children, staff and parents that help children to develop good self esteem and confidence as they select their choices of activities to play and learn from. Children's independence is clearly promoted as staff encourage them to attend to their personal care needs. They persist at challenging tasks such as writing their names and cutting out pictures of shoes for a collage. Children have a clear sense of community and show concern for each other.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Generally Good Children eagerly use their language skills to describe to staff their experiences and ideas. They learn a range of vocabulary well taught by staff as part of each topic. Children can link sounds to letters well as they use the sound bags although more able children's phonic skills are not always sufficiently challenged. Most children can recognise and read their names. They enjoy looking at books and make up a story to the pictures. Children use mark makers confidently to draw and write.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children have many opportunities to recognise numbers as labels and enjoy recognising the numerals on the clock face as part of their song. They can count confidently to ten and beyond. They are developing good early calculation skills and use the estimating game to compare numbers. Children can name basic shapes and use these in their art work. Staff encourage their use of mathematical skills to solve problems such as one shoe too many when matching pairs.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Very Good Children are encouraged well to use their senses to explore and investigate. They close their eyes to feel in the sound bag and excitedly look at their find. Children use their design skills to set out the large floor train track. They understand how to use technology and choose their software programme to run on the computer. Children learn about time and can describe events past such as last Christmas and what day of the week it is. They learn about local places and visit the park.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children confidently run, jump, balance and climb using the balancing bars and large apparatus. They can move imaginatively and enjoy pretending to be sleeping bunnies, waking up and hopping away. Children are developing good spatial skills and can find their personal space to act out 10 Little Indians. They learn about healthy bodies. Children handle equipment confidently when they build or play in the sand tray. They use pencils, paintbrushes and felt-tips with increasing control.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Very Good Children enjoy the stimulating creative activities and decide what colours to use to paint their clothes choices on a body shape and cut out the play dough shapes. They sing confidently, ask for their favourite songs and delightedly repeat the phonic 'm' sound in the munching monkeys song. Staff plan stimulating role play such as the shoe shop to develop children's imagination. Children measure their customers' feet, describe the colours and sizes of their goods and use the bar code reader.

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

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of 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

• incorporate information regularly collected from parents about their children's progress and the information from staff's observation of children's learning into the planning framework to sufficiently challenge all children and meet individual learning needs: devise an observational timetable so that key workers routinely observe children that they are responsible for, recording their learning in a systematic way.

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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 Section 122 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998

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