Windermere Day Nursery

Windermere Day Nursery Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number 260738 Inspection date 23/05/2011 Inspector Susan Marriott

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Setting address Haweswater Road, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN16 8XB

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Telephone number 01536 520075 Email windermere.nursery@childbase.com Type of setting Childcare on non-domestic premises 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

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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 setting

Windermere Day Nursery opened in 2001. It is one of over 40 nurseries in the Childbase Nursery chain, which operates in London, the Home Counties and the Midlands. The nursery operates from a two-storey purpose-built building adjacent to the Kettering General Hospital. The nursery is divided into five separate areas according to the age of the children. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play areas.

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Description of the setting

The nursery is open each weekday from 7am to 7pm all year round except for closures on Bank Holidays. The nursery is registered to care for a maximum of 88 children. There are currently 156 children from three months to under five years on roll. Of these, 57 children receive funding for nursery education. Children attend for a variety of sessions and come from a wide catchment area. The nursery makes provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language.

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Description of the setting

There are 39 members of staff, of whom, 23 hold relevant early years qualifications. A qualified cook and one assistant are also employed to provide freshly prepared and cooked meals and snacks for the children and staff. The manager and the deputy are supernumery and there is also an administrative assistant. The setting receives support from the advisors from the company management team.

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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 enthusiastic staff team work hard to meet the diverse and individual needs of all children and families using the nursery and have successfully captured the true essence and spirit of the Early Years Foundation Stage. This nursery is an exceptionally safe, secure and stimulating place to be and children's individual needs are fully met within the fully inclusive approach to care and education. Children make outstanding progress in their learning and development and enjoy themselves in the process. Passionate, strong leadership and honest self- evaluation, secures the nursery's excellent capacity for continuous improvement.

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further?

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

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further?

 enhancing the quality of outdoor play for the pre-school children. This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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the early years provision

Children's care, learning and welfare is substantially enhanced by the clear vision of Childbase Nurseries Ltd. and the highly effective way in which the setting is led and managed on a daily basis. Managers and staff have a very strong belief in their 'house values' based on 'seek, observe, understand, nurture, decide' and use this to guide their practice. Security measures are superb and ensure the safety of children and staff. Visitors are always asked to produce identification and their presence is suitably recorded. Thoroughly detailed risk assessments are carried out visually on a daily basis and written assessments are devised for every area of the setting and for every type of outing. Regular practice of fire drills secures the safety of children and staff. Extremely effective links with the parents and carers, together with other professionals involved in the care and education of the children, enables the staff to tailor activities to the individual needs of children in

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the early years provision

their care. All required documentation is readily accessible and effectively underpins the exceptionally safe and efficient management of the provision. Current safeguarding requirements are robustly met and a list of all disclosure numbers of staff checks is to hand and includes the dates on which they were obtained. The nursery is fully inclusive and meets the needs of all children, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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the early years provision

The manager is passionately committed to her role and receives enthusiastic support from her loyal staff team. The staff actively engage in the inspection process because they care about the children, are proud of what they do and their achievements to date. Continuing staff development is vitally important in this vibrant setting and the resultant enhancement of staff skills and knowledge contribute substantially towards the rapid progress the children make. Staff demonstrate an exceptionally high level of knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage, thereby securing excellent learning and development outcomes for children. The nursery has exceptionally low staff turnover, keeping acquired skills and knowledge in-house for the benefit of the children. The management team discuss and consult with the staff on a daily basis and together they devise strategies to support particular children and identify

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the early years provision

The nursery makes outstanding use of the space available and ensures that the six areas of learning are reflected equally outside and as well as indoors. The organisation of the daily routine ensures that staff are always available to give daily feedback to parents and carers about children's activities and progress. Bulletin boards outside each room provide a written summary of the activities enjoyed by the children on that day. Parents and carers value this personal care and attention, which is effectively supplemented by parent's consultation meetings. Activities are evaluated daily and observational notes are recorded in an extremely manageable format to enable each key worker to track children's progress and identify the next steps in their learning. Exceptionally effective planning systems ensure that the next steps are collated and fed back into the subsequent week's plan. Consequently, the nursery has developed exceptionally reflective practice to

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the early years provision

monitor the quality of provision for children, demonstrating the nursery's This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 outstanding capacity for continuous improvement.

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the early years provision

The nursery makes every effort to work in partnership with parents and carers. Parents are actively encouraged to share their skills, knowledge and culture with the children. The nursery extends partnership working to other professionals outside the setting to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities when appropriate. The nursery is fully inclusive and meets the needs of all children, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who have English as an additional language. Effective policies and procedures are consistently implemented and the monitoring of these policies is thorough and methodical to promote equality and eliminate discrimination. The nursery is continuously extending resources and artefacts to incorporate a wide range of cultures, religions, disabilities and ethnic backgrounds and challenges any prejudicial attitudes by staff, parents or children.

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and outcomes for children

Children are extremely well-supported in their learning within this delightful nursery. The manager and staff provide a superior learning environment which significantly promotes children's progression towards the early learning goals. The nursery is exceptionally well-presented, light, bright and child-friendly with an extremely high standard of display and presentation which demonstrates pride in the nursery and in children's achievements. High quality planning is in place which takes good account of children's interests, ensuring that each child receives an enjoyable and challenging experience across the areas of learning. Staff evaluate activities effectively and give very good priority to promoting children's progress. They support children's learning with gentle questioning and develop learning appropriately. Babies are carefully nurtured and cared for in a superb indoor and outdoor learning environment and staff ensure that babies spend some time

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and outcomes for children

outdoors each day. Staff sit on the floor with the babies and gently engage them in stimulating activities matched to their age and stage of development.

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and outcomes for children

The sessions have a flexible structure that the children know and can feel comfortable with and always involve time when they can choose to play inside or out. The location of the pre-school on the first floor, means that children's free- flow access to outdoor play is not possible. Staff have given this issue very careful thought and children can choose to place their name card on the garden board, whenever they wish to play outside. Daily planned activities outdoors are supplemented by outdoor play, morning and afternoon, in all weathers. This ensures that children have plenty of fresh air and exercise, supported by the lively staff who clearly enjoy being outdoors with the children. Children love the 'secret area' and the tent hidden behind the shrubbery. However, staff have already identified that there is further scope to enhance the outdoor area learning opportunities for the children.

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and outcomes for children

Play and exploration is planned and purposeful, with a balance of adult-led and child-led activities that result in children being independent, self-motivated learners. Staff take good account of the children's interests from an early age. For This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 example, they report that Ladybird children developed a liking for a purple toy penguin during water play. Staff provided purple paint and encouraged the children to paint a picture of the penguin. The final display of children's work demonstrates that staff clearly value the learning process and do not place emphasis upon the finished product. A display of work in Bumblebees shows children preparing to celebrate the Royal Wedding by making their own versions of crowns in patriotic colours.

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and outcomes for children

Children form good relationships with adults and peers. They work as part of a group, taking turns and sharing fairly. Children develop their social skills as they sit in their key person groups to eat lunch with a suitably increasing degree of independence. For example, children in Bumblebees 2 are encouraged to help themselves to portions of food, in preparation for the expectation in Butterflies. Throughout the nursery, children are encouraged, praised and rewarded for positive behaviour and achievement. For example, in Butterflies, each member of staff is able to nominate one child who has worked well during the morning. These four children are allowed to sit at the 'top table' on the raised area at lunch time. This reinforces children's self-esteem and creates positive dispositions and attitudes towards learning. Children are well-behaved because staff set consistent, clear boundaries for expected behaviour.

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and outcomes for children

Throughout the nursery children are learning to communicate through speaking, listening, reading and writing in a text rich environment. Displays are of a high standard and value children's work. Photographs and helpful captions illustrate the learning process for parents and visitors. Younger children have ample opportunities to make marks with chalks, water and paint in preparation for writing, and older children link sounds to letters and begin to use their phonic knowledge to write simple words. Children show an interest in stories and books from an early age and songs and rhymes form an important part of the daily routine. Children's knowledge of volume and measurement is promoted through water play with containers and calculation skills develop as children count and add one more or take one less. Mathematical language is extended as they go 'through the tunnel'.

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and outcomes for children

Children find out about and identify some features of living things, objects and events they observe. For example, they excitedly prepare to 'go digging for worms' to make their own wormery. However, the recent dry weather means that the children do not find any worms. They discover woodlice and a beetle instead, and staff calmly adapt their plans to ensure that children can study their 'finds' through bug catchers before setting them free in the garden. Ladybird children use all their senses as they explore a water tray with floating segments of oranges and lemons. Babies explore a sand pit with added straw, felt strips and feathers. Physical skills are actively promoted as children ride wheeled toys and jump in puddles. There are opportunities to slide, climb, kick balls, run, throw and catch balls and hoops with friends and balance bean bags. Children's creativity is promoted very well indoors and outdoors as they role play and explore an extensive range of media

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and outcomes for children

The nursery aims to give the children a wide variety of learning experiences which will encourage them to develop their own confidence and self-esteem, enabling This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 them to develop friendships and encouraging them to make their own choices in what they want to do. Throughout their play and learning staff encourage all the children to respect others around them and to understand that everyone has different needs and feelings, helping them to understand when something may have gone wrong and why and how they can help to make it better. Staff maintain lively levels of interaction with children of all ages and effectively meet their daily care needs with dedication. Children learn to stay safe because they are reminded to take care as they come down the stairs, and to hold onto the handrail in case they slip. Children are encouraged to adopt healthy habits such as washing hands,

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and outcomes for children

blowing noses, and putting tissues in the bin. This is managed by gentle and supportive encouragement, increasing the child's independence and highlighting why these things are important. Children develop good skills for the future, become independent learners, develop collaborative skills, problem-solving abilities, creativity and creative thinking because they are happy, relaxed, supported and challenged by this stimulating, age-appropriate environment. 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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