Mowden Infants' School

Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number 114182 Inspection date 09/11/2010 Inspector Kerry Iden

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Type of setting Childminder to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of the registered early years provision. ‘Early years provision’ refers to provision regulated by Ofsted for children from birth to 31 August following their fifth birthday (the early years age group). The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and welfare, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Introduction

The provider must provide a copy of this report to all parents with children at the setting where reasonably practicable. The provider must provide a copy of the report to any other person who asks for one, but may charge a fee for this service (The Childcare (Inspection) Regulations 2008 regulations 9 and 10).

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Introduction

The setting also makes provision for children older than the early years age group which is registered on the voluntary and/or compulsory part(s) of the Childcare Register. This report does not include an evaluation of that provision, but a comment about compliance with the requirements of the Childcare Register is included in Annex B.

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Introduction

Please see our website for more information about each childcare provider. We publish inspection reports, conditions of registration and details of complaints we receive where we or the provider take action to meet the requirements of registration. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Description of the childminding

The childminder was registered in 1998. She lives with her husband and their grown up daughter in north Horsham, West Sussex. The whole of the ground floor of the childminder's house is used for childminding with a bedroom on the first floor used for day time naps, there is a fully enclosed garden to the rear of the property.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register; to care for a maximum of six children at any one time, of whom no more than three maybe in the early years age group. The childminder is currently minding 11 children, five of whom are in the early years age group who all attend on a part time basis. The childminder is an accredited childminder. She attends the local toddler group, the library, parks and places of interests. The childminder is a member of the National Childminding Association.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall the quality of the provision is outstanding.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

The childminder offers an extremely professional service to the families she cares for. Her approach with the children is very calm and warming, although her quality of teaching is inspiring and children are therefore motivated to learn. Highly effective partnerships between the childminder, parents and other agencies ensure individual children's needs are fully met. Through her positive and pro-active attitude and systems of evaluation, the childminder demonstrates the capacity to continue to make improvements to her setting, which will have a positive impact on the children.

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further?

To further improve the high quality early years provision the registered person should consider:

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further?

 develop further opportunities for children to enhance their knowledge in technology

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the early years provision

Children are cared for in a safe and secure premises where the childminder demonstrates a comprehensive awareness of safeguarding issues. All written permissions from parents are in place including those for extra areas of care such as transport, outings and taking of photographs. Records for accidents and the This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 administration of any medication are clearly noted and parents sign each entry. The childminder keeps her first aid qualification up to date. Children are fully protected by the childminder's excellent understanding of all aspects of child protection. The childminder's detailed policies and procedures ensure parents are aware of her commitment to children's well being. The childminder and parents work in partnership to ensure children's safety; for example, the strict arrangements for collecting children from the setting with individual passwords

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the early years provision

used. Effective and detailed risk assessments for the home as well as daily visual checks ensure children can play and learn in a safe environment. The childminder continues with her commitment to the children's safety when away from the setting. There are extensive risk assessments completed on every outing the children go on and these are reviewed when places of interest are revisited. Children learn the importance of staying safe especially when away from the setting; with clear explanations from the childminder as to why, the children use the high visibility jackets on outings, allowing them to be easily seen by others and understand about potential dangers. Through routines and activities, children are gaining an excellent awareness of how to keep themselves safe.

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the early years provision

The childminder offers a well organised and professional service and shows great commitment and enthusiasm to the children and their families. She has fully embraced the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage; through her own critical evaluation of her work she has further developed her own systems to reflect the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. For example, adapting from the birth to three matters framework to the Foundation Stage and reviewing the systems in the way she records children's progress towards the early learning goals. The childminder is dedicated to keeping her own professional knowledge up to date; she regularly attends a variety of training, liaises within the childminding network and has been reassessed under the National Childminding Quality first scheme. Through her regular review of the Ofsted self-evaluation the childminder demonstrates that she has an accurate understanding of the strengths

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the early years provision

of her setting and areas that she is continuing to develop. Children's and parents' thoughts and feelings about the setting are regularly sought from the childminder to allow them to contribute to the evaluation of the setting.

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the early years provision

The childminder makes excellent use of not only her own home and her own knowledge but also the skills and expertise of others to extend opportunities for the children she cares for. The resources within the setting are totally fit for purpose and challenge the children encouraging the development in all their areas of learning. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations as the childminder adapts resources, such as within the builders tray, for example, the clever use of jungle coloured tissue paper with the wild animals offering different tactile materials. Through many connections with others, the children's experiences are vast, for example as children enjoy visitors with guide dogs or attend places of worship with other childminders within the childminding group. The childminder extends this liaison with others away from the setting to fully support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or health requirements. She has

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the early years provision

worked closely, developing her skills and knowledge to support individual children and their families. All children are able to make massive strides in their development as the childminder has an excellent awareness of the development of each child on an individual basis. The regular individual educational plans allow the This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 childminder to challenge each child knowing their capabilities. The childminder is keen to promote a totally inclusive service to all families. She adapts activities allowing all children to participate and actively promotes inclusive play to all children.

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the early years provision

The childminder has highly positive relationships with all parents. She ensures they are extremely well informed about their child's time in the setting. When they start in the setting the childminder shares detailed information with them about her service including all policies, procedures and information within her portfolio. On a daily basis the use of daily diaries offer the childminder and parents an opportunity to make notes that they may not otherwise have time to discuss. Parents' thoughts and ideas about their child's routines are respected and incorporated within the childminder's routine and parents truly value this. Through the regular review of children's progress towards the early learning goals parents are fully encouraged to contribute towards their child's learning as they add their ideas and thoughts to the development records. The views of the parents and children are regularly sought by the childminder, through daily discussion, email communication and

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the early years provision

formally through completed questionnaires all parents are encouraged to contribute their thoughts of the setting and suggestions for future practice, therefore relationships with all parents are extremely well established.

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and outcomes for children

Children are making massive strides in their development and progressing rapidly towards the early learning goals. This is mainly due to the expert knowledge the childminder has of all aspects of each area of learning and fully promotes these through the children's play. The childminder knows the children extremely well, their preferred activities and learning styles. She is keen to promote inclusion of all children and therefore adapts her questioning style and her approach depending upon each child, ensuring they are all able to achieve and enjoy their time in the setting. In the highly stimulating and welcoming environment children demonstrate high levels of confidence, imagination and concentration. They adore each other as well as the childminder and throughout the inspection children cooperated extremely well with each other, showing affection to one another and all join in with games which make everyone laugh. They are able to sustain high levels of

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and outcomes for children

concentration given their age as they sit to the table to complete craft activities and through meal times. They are proud of their achievements as they discuss the different pieces of art work that adorn the walls in the childminder's kitchen. Through the individual educational plans written regularly by the childminder for every child in the early years age group she is able to focus activities and experiences based on the identified next steps in children's individual development. The balance of adult led and child initiated play is well organised with planned activities being based on the observations made on the children. The childminder's quality of teaching is inspirational, she ensures children maximise their learning potential through every day play.

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and outcomes for children

Children show a strong sense of security and feel safe within the setting. They This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 demonstrate an ownership of the premises as they move around the ground floor of the house with confidence. The interaction between the children and the childminder is affectionately warm and caring with sometimes a little jealousy shown if there is no room left on the childminder's lap. The childminder uses every possible opportunity to extend children's knowledge of safety issues both inside the home and when away from the setting. For example, as children share stories with the childminder, she uses quality open ended questions to challenge the children to think about what they need to do to keep themselves safe when they are near the swings at the park or if they see a dog at the park. Through consistency with safety rules children know how to keep themselves safe within

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and outcomes for children

the home, for example as the childminder asks children about safety on the sofa and very young children know to sit down. Children are also developing an excellent understanding of the safety of others for example, as older children talk about toys with small parts and how these are not safe for the baby. The childminder actively promotes healthy lifestyles to the children in her care. They develop their understanding of healthy eating through the variety of meals and snacks they have within the setting. The childminder works with each individual family over meal requirements; she provides some healthy lunches for children adapted to their individual needs, whilst others supply their own. Snacks are varied and offer children a balance of fruit and carbohydrate items to sustain them through busy mornings. Children can make their own choices about their snacks and can access their drinks throughout the day. Children gain further knowledge

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and outcomes for children

through the regular baking activities they become involved in. Through the childminder?s commitment to reduce the spread of infection the children are learning the importance of good hygiene. They know to wash their hands after visiting the bathroom and use the individual flannels as hand towels which are laundered daily. As children prepare for snack times they wave their hands waiting for the antibacterial hand gel and know how to rub this in to all areas of their hands. The childminder continues to reduce the risk of infection with individual bedding for each child and clear procedures for dealing with children who become poorly within the setting. Children are learning about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle as they take part in physical activities in various places including in the fully enclosed garden, trips to the park and making use of indoor facilities such as the childminder drop ins during not such good weather.

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and outcomes for children

Children are developing particularly well in their skills for the future. In particularly in their communication skills as language is being developed for each child at every opportunity. Through child led play and organised activities the childminder reinforces the children's existing knowledge and encourages the use of new words and sounds. The use of books and stories encourage older children to begin to understand that print has meaning and all children become involved in stories as they find items in the pictures and together, predict what might happen next. The childminder uses her knowledge of children's favorites to encourage the use of books, for example, a Thomas the tank engine story with interactive buttons to encourage the structure of a story and picture matching to find the correct buttons. The children are developing well in their knowledge of numbers and colours as this is a part of every day activities, younger children regularly talk

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and outcomes for children

about the number two, the childminder explains this is from routines such as putting on shoes as they prepare to go out. Resources such as shape sorters and stacking beakers encourage young children's abilities in shape and space and the This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 childminder expertly uses these to challenge the children further, for example, as she encourages them to add on one more. Babies are inquisitive learners and keen to attempt activities that the older children are completing, the childminder ensures this is possible as she promotes an inclusive environment ensuring all children can make a positive contribution. Through her own commitment to continually improving her service the childminder has started to introduce some more technological equipment to develop children's concepts of information technology. Following a return visit from the childminder's grown up daughter the

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and outcomes for children

children started to talk about her again, the childminder set up a video link via her computer to enable the children to communicate with her daughter. All the children really enjoyed this opportunity which is soon to be developed further with other children in other childminding settings. The children's behaviour within the setting is exemplary. They play a full and active role in their learning, are highly stimulated, focused on what they are doing and are effectively challenged for their individual capabilities. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Annex A: record of inspection judgements

The key inspection judgements and what they mean

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Annex A: record of inspection judgements

Grade 1 is Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Grade 2 is Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Grade 3 is Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Grade 4 is Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough

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children in the Early Years Foundation Stage?

The capacity of the provision to maintain continuous improvement

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Early Years Foundation Stage

The effectiveness of leadership and management in embedding ambition and driving improvement The effectiveness with which the setting deploys resources 1 The effectiveness with which the setting promotes equality and diversity The effectiveness of safeguarding 1 The effectiveness of the setting’s self-evaluation, including the steps taken to promote improvement The effectiveness of partnerships 1 The effectiveness of the setting’s engagement with parents and carers

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Stage

The quality of the provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage 1

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Stage

The extent to which children achieve and enjoy their learning 1 The extent to which children feel safe 1 The extent to which children adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which children make a positive contribution 1 The extent to which children develop skills for the future 1

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Stage

procedures set out in the guidance available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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Annex B: the Childcare Register

The provider confirms that the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are: Met

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Annex B: the Childcare Register

The provider confirms that the requirements of the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are: Met

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