Ashton Keynes Pre-School

INSPECTION DETAILS

Inspection Date 28/09/2004 Inspector Name Nikki Whinton

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SETTING DETAILS

Day Care Type Sessional Day Care Setting Name Ashton Keynes Playgroup Setting Address Ashton Keynes Village Hall Park Place, Ashton Keynes, Swindon Wiltshire SN6 6NX

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ORGANISATION DETAILS

Name Ashton Keynes Playgroup Address Ashton Keynes Village Hall Park Place,Ashton Keynes, Swindon Wiltshire SN6 6NX

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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

Ashton Keynes Playgroup opened in 1979. It operates from the village hall in Ashton Keynes, near Swindon. There are currently 19 children from 2 to under 5 years on roll. This includes 15 funded three-year-olds and no funded four-year-olds. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently no children attending with special needs or who speak English as an additional language. The group opens five days a week during school term times. Sessions are from 09.00 to 11.45, with extended sessions until 12.55 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two part-time and two full-time staff work with the children. Two have early years qualifications. The group receives support from a teacher from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership.

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How good is the Day Care?

Ashton Keynes Playgroup provides good quality care for children. The lead practitioners have appropriate qualifications and training. Support staff have relevant experience and the ability to work successfully with young children. Good staffing ratios are maintained: adults are well deployed within the setting. The premises are clean, well maintained, warm and welcoming to children and parents. Staff offer a wide range of stimulating, age appropriate equipment. However, children have limited opportunities to self select resources. Staff have a good awareness of safety issues within the provision and take positive steps to prevent accidents. They have a good understanding of the need to actively promote the children's good health and hygiene. They encourage children to eat healthy snacks. However children are not able to freely help themselves to drinking water. Staff have a good understanding of their role in the protection of children.

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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 The staff know the children well and have a good relationship with them. They provide a wide variety of stimulating activities to help support children's learning and development. Staff have valuable experience of caring for children with a range of additional needs. They have a good understanding of how to manage children's behaviour. Staff have an effective partnership with the parents and carers, with regard to children's individual care needs. They provide regular, good quality information about the provision and offer informal opportunities to discuss care issues. All required regulatory documentation is easily accessible and carefully maintained.

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What is being done well?

• The staff know the children very well and have a good relationship with them. They have a good understanding of each child's particular needs and value every child as an individual. Children are relaxed, well occupied and interested in the stimulating range of age appropriate play opportunities available to them. • The staff have a very good understanding of safety issues. They have a very good awareness of their fire evacuation responsibilities. Staff are well deployed to support the children and help prevent accidents. Children are cared for within an environment which actively promotes their welfare and safety. • The staff have a very good understanding of the importance of taking positive steps to support children's good health and hygiene. They have effective procedures in place to protect children from infection and to enable them to look after children appropriately should they become ill. Children are

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What is being done well?

developing their own awareness of good hygiene practices through the role modelling of the staff and an effective daily routine. • The staff have a very good understanding of effective ways to promote children's positive behaviour. They realise the importance of consistency of approach between staff members. Children are developing their understanding of acceptable behaviour through the staff's skilful use of praise and encouragement. • The staff have an effective partnership with the parents and carers. Staff ensure children are looked after according to parents' individual requirements. They provide regular, good quality written information about the provision and offer frequent, informal opportunities to discuss care issues. • The premises are safe, clean, well-maintained, warm and welcoming to children and parents. Children have access to all the facilities they need to support their welfare and development.

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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 staff's provision of opportunities for children to self select from a range of easily accessible resources • the arrangements to enable children to freely help themselves to drinking water.

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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 5 Ensure resources are easily accessible to children for self selection. 8 Ensure drinking water is easily accessible to children, in order that they may help themselves.

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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?

Ashton Keynes Playgroup offers good quality provision, which helps children to make generally good progress towards the early learning goals. Communication, language and literacy, physical development and personal, social and emotional development are particular strengths of the setting. In these areas children's progress is very good. Teaching is generally good. Staff are enthusiastic, well motivated and work well together as a team. They plan and provide a varied programme of interesting activities to support children's learning. They ask children good indirect questions to make them think. However, the assessment system is not used effectively and children have few opportunities to explore information and communication technology. Staff manage children's behaviour very well. They act as good role models and support children in developing their confidence, independence and self esteem. They give children the time they need to complete activities to their own

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How effective is the nursery education?

satisfaction. Leadership and management are generally good. The staff and committee work well together as a team. However, some key issues from the last inspection have not been satisfactorily completed and the setting does not effectively monitor the educational provision. The group has a good understanding of its strengths and areas for development and has put strategies in place to support improvement. The staff and committee are committed to further developing the quality of the care and education offered to the children. The partnership with parents is generally good. Parents are provided with regular, detailed information about the provision. However, they are not encouraged to share with staff what they know about their child, to aid assessment. There are limited opportunities for parents to become involved in their child's learning. They are offered regular, informal opportunities to be kept advised about the activities their

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How effective is the nursery education?

children have experienced and the progress they have made.

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What is being done well?

• Children are confident, enthusiastic and well motivated. They behave extremely well and are forming positive relationships with peers and adults. They are developing their social skills and their ability to share and to take turns. Children have good self esteem and are developing their independence through the daily routine. • Staff are enthusiastic, well motivated and act as good role models. They know the children very well and have a very positive relationship with them. They manage children's behaviour very effectively and support them very well in developing their confidence, independence and self esteem.

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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 have a good range of vocabulary, which they use confidently when talking to adults and peers. They use language well to initiate their thoughts and ideas. Children have meaningful opportunities to develop their awareness of the written word and to recognise familiar words in print. They love exploring books, both individually and with adults. They enthusiastically practice and develop their early writing skills as part of their play. • Children move confidently and safely. They show good spatial awareness and are improving their coordination and control skills. They enthusiastically take part in well planned, daily physical education sessions and regularly use a varied range of large and small equipment to support their large muscle

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What is being done well?

development. • Children thoroughly enjoy using their imagination whilst involved in sustained role play. They play cooperatively with their peers, using a wide range of stimulating props and resources to develop and enhance their play.

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What needs to be improved?

• the staff's use of the assessment programme, to ensure regular assessments are undertaken across all areas of development and cluster groups. The use of the information obtained to plan for individual children's future learning • the staff's partnership with parents, to ensure parents are encouraged to share with staff what they know about their child, to aid assessment and the parents' opportunities to become actively involved in their child's learning, both within the group and at home • the staff's provision of opportunities for children to use information and communication technology to support their play and learning.

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What has improved since the last inspection?

The setting has made limited progress since the last inspection. As a result of the last inspection, the group was given the following key issues; . introduce and use a manageable system for recording children's progress and achievements in each of the early learning goals . introduce and implement an effective means of communicating children's progress and achievements across all areas of learning with parents . continue to develop the playgroup's programme to include all aspects of learning, notably use of technology, large climbing equipment and use of musical instruments . develop staff knowledge about cultures and beliefs in the wider world and use this to promote children's awareness of these. The staff have introduced an assessment programme for recording progress and achievements. They offer informal opportunities for parents and staff to discuss

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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 children's progress and achievements. Children regularly explore musical instruments and use large climbing equipment. They take part in practical activities to raise their awareness of a range of cultures and beliefs. However, staff do not complete regular assessments across all areas of development and cluster groups, or use the information to plan for individual children's future learning. Parents are not encouraged to share with staff what they know about their child to aid assessment. Children have limited opportunities to investigate information and communication technology. .

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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 confident, enthusiastic and have good self esteem. They behave very well and have positive relationships with adults and peers. Children are developing their social skills and their awareness of the need to share and take turns. They are considerate, finding a missing jigsaw piece for a friend, telling others not to talk too loud, otherwise it might hurt her friend's ears. They are developing their independence; washing and drying their hands and taking it in turns to be a monitor.

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COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Judgement: Very Good Children have a good range of vocabulary, which they use confidently. They are learning to recognise their name in print, such as when self registering or finding their named place mats at snack time. They love exploring books in the inviting book corner and sharing stories with others. Children have practical opportunities to practice and develop their early writing skills, when making optician's appointments for an adult in the role play area diary and labelling their art creations.

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MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children have meaningful opportunities to count and develop their awareness of numbers as labels, when counting children, using a number line, completing number puzzles and recognising numbers on the optician's chart. They enjoy practical activities to increase their understanding of shape, position, size and quantity; growing and measuring sunflowers and building shape towers. However, children have limited chances to develop their awareness of calculation or solve simple mathematical problems.

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Judgement: Generally Good Children enjoy building and designing a wide range of objects using construction materials. They have stimulating opportunities to investigate and experiment, such as placing celery in coloured water and observing what happens to gloop over time. They enjoy discussing past and present news, such as buying new shoes and visiting the hairdressers. However, children have limited chances to explore their local environment or to use information and communication technology.

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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: Very Good Children move confidently, showing good spatial awareness. They use a wide range of equipment, tools and materials safely, with developing coordination and control. They are learning the importance of warm up and warm down exercises during physical education sessions. They understand the need for good hygiene practices, children carefully wash and dry their hands so "we don't get germs". They are developing their awareness of healthy snack options through the daily routine.

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CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Judgement: Generally Good Children thoroughly enjoy using their imagination in role play and construction design. They enjoy exploring colour, texture, shape, form and space through activities such as clay, playdough, investigating jelly and playing with shaving foam. They enthusiastically sing simple songs from memory, explore musical instruments and take part in music and movement sessions. However, children do not always have the chance to use their own imaginative and creative ideas during art and craft activities.

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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 the assessment programme, to ensure regular assessments are undertaken across all areas of development and cluster groups. Use the information obtained to plan for individual children's future learning • improve the partnership with parents, by ensuring parents are encouraged to share with staff what they know about their child, to aid assessment. Provide parents with opportunities to become actively involved in their child's learning, both within the group and at home • plan and provide opportunities for children to use information and communication technology to support their play and learning.

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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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