Young, Maria Clare

Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number EY418893 Inspection date 18/04/2011 Inspector Heidi Abernethy

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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 first registered in 2010. She lives with her husband and son aged 16 months. They live in a bungalow in Fareham, Hampshire. The premises are easily accessible and the children have access to all areas of the premises. There is a fully enclosed garden for outside play and the family has a pet dog.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder is registered to care for a maximum of five children under eight years. Of these, only two children may be in the early years age group. The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She is currently caring for one child in the early years age group on a part time basis. The childminder is also registered for overnight care for one child.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder is a member of the National Childminding Association and she attends the local parent/toddler group.

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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

Children are receiving an excellent standard of care and education. The high quality interaction and exemplary organisation of routines help young children to gain an exceptionally strong sense of security. This is a fully inclusive childminding setting where all children are acknowledged and fully supported to enable them to reach their full potential. Extremely robust partnerships between parents and other early years settings ensure children's individual needs are exceptionally well met and parents involvement in their children's learning is mostly excellent. Highly effective steps are taken by the childminder to evaluate her provision for the children's welfare, learning and development. She has an extremely clear knowledge of what she needs to do in order to secure further improvements and continually improve the outcomes for 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?

 enhance systems to incorporate parents' comments into children's individual records to ensure they contribute to and are fully involved with their child's learning on a regular basis. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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the early years provision

The childminder has an extremely comprehensive awareness of safeguarding issues and procedures and is very well knowledgeable about how to safeguard the welfare of the children within her care. Extremely detailed policies and procedures are implemented consistently and robustly to ensure any concerns are prioritised and dealt with effectively. These are shared with parents at the outset to provide them with a very good knowledge and understanding about the childminder's professional responsibility and her childminding provision. High quality risk assessments are used to promote children's safety when in the home, garden and when out and about. The childminder has many years of previous experience working as a children's nurse ensuring she is very well knowledgeable about how to care for children should they require medical attention. She meticulously records all accidents within her accident log and is very proactive in reviewing these in

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the early years provision

The childminder is highly effective in ensuring all children are well integrated within her setting. She has an extensive range of resources depicting equality and diversity in society and the wider world. The range includes cultural musical instruments, dressing up clothes, toy wheelchairs and a wide variety of ethnic dolls. Furniture, equipment and resources are of high quality and suitable for the ages of children to support their learning and development. The childminder recognises children's individual interests and effectively utilises the information obtained from past childcare settings to provide children with resources and activities they are interested in. Children clearly benefit and thrive as a result of the setting they are in and thoroughly enjoy the independence of moving between the rooms and the outside area. They have lots of freedom to move around the very well organised environment and are able to independently select resources

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the early years provision

which are extremely accessible and highly welcoming to them. The childminder is extremely forward thinking when planning the organisation of the environment such as providing sand play in an area where children are shaded from the sun.

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the early years provision

The childminder has high aspirations for quality through ongoing improvement and has very clear and achievable plans and ideas in place to secure future improvements. The professionalism and commitment of the childminder ensures children are receiving an environment that enables them to feel secure and to flourish.

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the early years provision

The childminder has an exceptional knowledge about each child's backgrounds and individual needs and works extremely well with parents and other providers to meet these needs. Children are very well prepared for the transition between home and the childminder and/or the childminder and other early year's settings. This is achieved exceptionally well through excellent verbal and written communication, well-planned settling in visits and by accompanying children on initial visits to pre-school.

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the early years provision

Partnerships with parents and carers are very good and the childminder has achieved a highly positive relationship with all parents. Parents are heavily involved This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 in decision-making on key matters such as sharing their knowledge about their children. They are extremely well informed about their children's achievements, well-being and development and are very knowledgeable about the learning journeys being completed by the childminder. However, although they are able to access these on a regular basis they do not currently contribute their comments into these records to ensure they are fully involved with contributing to and planning their children's individual next steps.

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and outcomes for children

The childminder has an extremely good knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage and early learning goals. She demonstrates a very clear understanding about how children learn and progress. Assessment through high quality observations is rigorous and the information gained, is used very effectively to guide future planning. The childminder utilises the information she obtains both from parents and from her observations extremely well to help children become settled within her environment. For example, the childminder purchases a train track and plans a day out where children can ride on a real train because she has prior information that the children have a fascination for trains.

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and outcomes for children

Young toddlers have extensive opportunities to develop their understanding of number and colour. They have great fun participating with familiar number songs and the childminder incidentally incorporates counting into their everyday activities. The childminder rewards children's achievements with huge amounts of praise and encouragement which in turn greatly fosters children's self esteem and confidence.

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and outcomes for children

The childminder organises the environment extremely well to ensure children have access to a wide variety of mark making activities. They have an amazing time as they explore the sand using an extensive range of tools and their hands and love to make marks in flour and water mixed together. Young children have high quality opportunities to obtain a love of books, reading and looking at pictures. They have access to many excellent resources such as wonderful story sacks where they are able to listen to stories read by the childminder but interact alongside with visual props and aids. This enables children to become wholly involved with the experience of the stories through an extremely fun and exciting way.

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and outcomes for children

Young toddlers are beginning to develop excellent early skills and are exploring their surroundings with great interest becoming active and inquisitive learners. Low level mirrors enable children to learn about themselves and others and they become very excited as they successfully point to their eyes, ears and nose. They love to be actively involved with planting seeds and have a wonderful time as they water the plants whilst at the same time obtaining a basic understanding that plants need water to grow. Children gain an excellent understanding about the world around them through wonderful resources such as natural fir cones and different textured materials. In addition, they use many of their senses within the childminder's garden as they watch the colourful windmills spin and the attractive This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 hanging mobiles twist and turn in the trees.

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and outcomes for children

Young toddlers are very content and settled because their individual health, physical and dietary needs are met to an exceptional standard. Good health and well-being are highly fostered by the childminder who encourages the children to become wholly involved in self-care skills. For example, young toddlers love to brush their teeth after having breakfast and the childminder talks to them about the importance of doing so. They become very excited as they hear familiar music and action songs and move and bend their bodies to the music.

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and outcomes for children

Young children are extremely happy and are very content to leave the childminder's side to explore the safe environment. They begin to take risks under the very close supervision of the childminder. For example, they learn to sit on their bottoms at the garden step and carefully lower their whole bodies to the lower level. Young toddlers are very confident to indicate when they need help or want something such as pointing to the satsumas to indicate they are hungry and would like some snack. The childminder supports children's learning extremely well as she gently reminds them why safety rules are in place such as why it is important to not throw the stones in the garden or the sand in the sand pit. This equips children with a very good understanding of how to manage their own and other people's safety. Young toddlers are beginning to foster a very good awareness of right and wrong and the childminder skilfully supports this

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and outcomes for children

understanding by using appropriate strategies for the children's level of understanding. For example, she positions herself at the children's level, maintains eye contact and demonstrates through basic, clear language and visual cues what is and is not appropriate. 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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