Home Childcarer in West Sussex

Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number EY269598 Inspection date 25/07/2011 Inspector Christopher MacKinnon

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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 has been registered since 2004. She lives in Hove, East Sussex, with her three children who are all aged over 11 years. The childminder also works with an assistant. The whole of the ground floor is used for childminding, with a fully enclosed patio area available for outdoor activities. The childminder has a level 3 childcare qualification, and is a member of the Brighton and Hove childminding network.

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Description of the childminding

The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. A maximum of six children under eight years may attend, with no more than three in the early years age range. When working with an assistant, she may care for up to nine children under eight years, with no more than six in the early years age group. The childminder currently has 17 children on roll, and 10 are in the early years age 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

The childminder is a trained and experienced child carer, and is highly organised in her support for children's development. A highly stimulating indoor play environment is presented, with confidently planned and engaging activities provided that ensure children make excellent progress within their learning. The outdoor area is well used and has been identified as an area for further development. The childminder's approach to observation and assessment is thorough and highly detailed, and parents and other carers are consistently well included in the play programme. A full range of self-evaluation and appraisal systems are in place to promote continuous improvement and action plans build upon the childminder's already excellent provision.

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further?

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

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further?

 developing further the range of play and learning opportunities provided in the outdoor play area.

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the early years provision

The childminder successfully applies her experience and level 3 childcare training, to provide a highly organised and well presented childminding programme. The childminder is an accredited member of the local area childminding network, and is This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 able to receive funding for nursery education. She also frequently works with an assistant, and a wide range of well prepared guidance documents and a thorough administrative system is in place, which helps her to effectively manage a highly successful and outstanding childminding provision. The systems used to safeguard the welfare of the children are highly consistent within the setting. The childminder regularly updates her child protection training, and keeps clear and detailed policy material and records, to maintain children's security and to support their welfare.

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the early years provision

A confidently considered range of development initiatives are currently in place within the childminder's practice, to support continuous improvement. She has recently reviewed and enhanced her range of behaviour management strategies, as part of promoting children's social learning, and plans are also in place to continue the widening of outdoor play and learning. To successfully support self- evaluation, the childminder has completed a self-evaluation document and prepared her own detailed development plan. The childminder's self appraisal benefits greatly from her involvement in an ongoing quality assurance scheme, which is managed by her local early years service. The childminder also receives periodic visits from her childminding network coordinator to ensure the required standards for accreditation are being maintained.

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the early years provision

The childminder provides a highly organised and well prepared play environment that provides children with a wide range of resources, and also successfully supports free-flow activities, outside to the patio play area. An extensive range of shelves with labelled baskets, provide many good opportunities for children to choose and select from a full and highly diverse range of resources. Specific focused activities are also successfully provided, where a planned set of resources are presented to support individual children's further learning. The play environment also has a highly organised range of visual learning displays, with the promotion of numbers and letters, children's healthy eating and consideration of others all well encouraged. Overall, the childminder's presentation of resources is highly organised to help children explore and discover, and is outstanding in the way children can be adaptive and create their own child led play. The childminder's

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the early years provision

provision of outdoor play materials and resources is also excellently organised, with many activities such as art crafts, messy play, and role play games all highly organised in the childminder's patio play space. The promotion of outdoor learning is an ongoing area for development for the childminder as she has identified the need to offer more tactile, sensory and growing elements.

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the early years provision

Inclusion and diversity are excellently promoted within the setting. The childminder provides a consistently high level of close support for individual children, and through highly organised tracking, and the promotion of children's next steps in learning, success is achieved in helping children make progress across their learning gaps. The childminder has a wide range of activities and materials in place to support diversity. Her latest addition is an excellent range of diverse role play puppets. The childminder also uses activities such as music making, foods and other cultural celebrations to ensure children become aware of people's differences, and diversity is well integrated into her play programme.

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the early years provision

The childminder is highly confident and fully aware of the need to establish consistent links with other carers, and settings. She currently has children who This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 attend local day care provisions and keeps close contact with their key workers, and effectively shares information on their progress, through the use of highly organised 'setting to setting' linking books. The childminder also has excellent and highly organised systems in place to promote and maintain successful partnerships with parents. An excellently organised parents' pack is provided for parents, and new parents have extensive 'all about me' profiles which they complete about their children when commencing care. The childminder also makes excellent use of 'home interest' sheets, which are directly used to inform individual children's planned learning, and parents also have regular questionnaires, which the

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the early years provision

childminder uses regularly to appraise her practice, and to judge the effectiveness of particular aspects of her play and learning programme.

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and outcomes for children

The childminder makes excellent use of planning to promote learning, and successfully promotes individual children's enjoying and achievement. She has a highly detailed and thorough long term plan, that fully includes all aspects of early years curriculum, and also contains elements of her own practice, she wishes to develop and explore. The childminder makes excellent use of a fully detailed weekly play environment plan, which has a highly beneficial impact on the quality of children's learning. For example, it includes a full range of activities to ensure children's learning is presented across all the required areas. It also contains well structured focused learning activities for children, taken from the consistent monitoring of their play, which successfully promotes their 'ways forward' with learning. A highly organised and thorough system of assessment is in place, which is a key feature of this outstanding provision. Day to day observations are made,

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and outcomes for children

and then gathered to make fuller assessments of children's progress, every month. This information is included in individual children's learning journey folders; where progress reports and photographs are successfully combined to provide detailed evidence of achievement to include and inform parents.

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and outcomes for children

Excellent and close support is provided for children's learning, through the highly consistent quality of the childminder's teaching ability, and confidence with promoting learning. She makes excellent use of questions to extend children's thinking, and combines this with a detailed knowledge of each child's learning stage and method of learning. She also demonstrates a highly consistent knowledge of all of the six learning areas, and shows this fully, during the highly successful group play projects that she organises. For example, she provides well planned cookery projects and challenging art and craft sessions that fully reflect her confidence and awareness of the need to promote children's learning over a range of ages.

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and outcomes for children

The childminder provides children with a highly welcoming and child centred environment, which successfully helps them to feel safe and able to play within her home. New children have the benefit of carefully organised settling in procedures, to ensure they integrate well, and the childminder also makes use of questionnaires and comments gathered from children, to inform the planning of This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 play themes and future learning initiatives. The childminder shows a high level of experience in her promotion of children's personal and social development. She successfully emphasises sharing and turn taking, and effectively helps children to be aware of the needs of others. The childminder continually updates her practice in this area, and through recent input from outside advisors, has formulated a highly positive approach that is based on providing praise and encouragement, and

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and outcomes for children

A well considered and highly organised approach is taken to maintaining children's healthy growth and development. The childminder engages children in planned activities to encourage healthy eating, such as stories and role play that involve learning about different types of foods. Children also take part in the preparation of foods and snacks. For example, children enjoy making fruit salad as a play project, where they get involved with cutting, counting pieces and sharing out portions to ensure equal size. The childminder also provides a wide range of activities to promote children's physical development. Many indoor active games take place, such as improvised 'hide and seek' games and a television based games system is also used for interactive sports and games, particularly for the older children, who are of school age. Opportunities are also provided for expressive play, such as dancing and moving to music. Children also enjoy many

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and outcomes for children

active and challenging games in the outdoor patio area, and are able to develop their physical confidence during the frequent organised visits that are made to local play centres, for more adventurous physical play.

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and outcomes for children

The promotion of children's skills for future learning is highly confident, children engage in a high level of well supported speech and language activities, with many good questions asked during story times. Children also do a lot of talking together in a group, at snack-time. The children name parts of their faces, and explore new words to learn how language is used to convey meaning. Children's problem solving and numerical use are excellently supported. Many of the activities provided successfully explore numbers and measuring, and children learn about sizes and about time passing. A wide range of puzzles and jigsaws are provided and children enjoy learning to match pieces and fit them together. Children's creativity is nurtured. A series of engaging art craft projects are planned and the current example is 'bubble painting'; where children blow into paint and water, to explore shapes and patterns. Children also have a lot of fun during the

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and outcomes for children

spontaneous games they are encouraged to create, including stories with puppets, and imaginative role play. Children's knowledge and understanding of the world is also consistently included within the play programme. Children are encouraged to learn where things come from, and talk about the journeys they make. Children also make regular organised learning trips to farms and the local Sea Life centre; and travel on buses, as part of experiencing the wider world. 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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