Fairfield Primary School

Flying Start Day Nursery (Moorlands) Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique reference number 122552 Inspection date 14/07/2011 Inspector Amanda Tyson

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Setting address The Marld, Ashtead, Surrey, KT21 1RW

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Telephone number 01372 279935 Email Flyingstartdaynursery@hotmail.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

Children only attend this setting before and/or after the school day and/or during the school holidays. The judgements in this report reflect the quality of early years provision offered to children during those periods.

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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

Flying Start (Moorlands) is one of two privately-owned day nurseries in Ashtead, Surrey. It has been registered since 1999. The nursery is accommodated within a large Victorian house on three levels consisting of four group rooms; a baby unit, which has integral nappy changing and milk preparation facilities, infants, toddlers and preschool. There is a secure area for outdoor play. The nursery is open from Monday to Friday, throughout the year, from 8am to 6pm. It serves parents from the surrounding area.

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Description of the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register to care for a maximum of 58 children. There are currently 86 children on roll. The nursery welcomes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language.

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Description of the setting

The setting gets funding for the provision of free early education. A team of 15 permanent and seven bank staff are employed to work with the children. The manager is supernumery and there is a full time cook. Four members of staff hold relevant Level 2 qualifications, and 11 are qualified to Level 3. One member of staff is qualified to Level 4, and one is starting the early years foundation degree in September 2011. Furthermore, one member of staff has a BA Honours as well as Early Years Professional Status.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Overall the quality of the provision is good.

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The overall effectiveness of the early years provision

Children are happy and settled in this warm and welcoming environment. Their welfare, well-being, and development is, overall, successfully safeguarded and supported. The environment is well resourced and generally well organised to provide children with access to all areas of learning and to meet children's individual needs. As a result, children are making good progress in their learning, particularly in literacy, numeracy and information communication technology skills. The team works closely with parents and other agencies involved with children to support individual welfare and learning needs. Self-evaluation is mostly effective in identifying and targeting priorities for improvement to ensure continuous development.

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further?

To further improve the early years provision the registered person should:

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further?

 increase the time that children have for outdoor play; consider involving children in learning which takes them into the local community, such as walking to the shops, visiting the library, and park This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006  develop the programme and resources for encouraging children to explore and experiment using their senses  strengthen the procedures for monitoring and evaluating effective practice to ensure that gaps in provision are promptly identified.

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the early years provision

Children are cared for by a team of consistent, well qualified, fully vetted and committed staff. They work well together as a team, sharing tasks and responsibilities throughout the day to ensure appropriate levels of supervision and care and learning support. Record keeping is meticulous, and risk assessments are rigorously carried out to minimise accidents. Fire evacuation is regularly practised. There are clear, well understood, and implemented, procedures in place for the protection of children and for responding to any complaints.

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the early years provision

Play and learning resources are of good quality, in plentiful supply and presented within clearly defined areas. However, too many of the technological toys, in all rooms, are missing batteries and opportunities for babies to freely access sand, water and messy play are not always provided. Although the garden is well on the way to becoming a key area of strength, the time that children have outside is generally restricted to 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. Whilst the restraints enforced by local planning rules are out of their control, supplementary options, such as making use of the local park, have not been given enough consideration. Good use has been made of training opportunities since the last inspection. Staff meetings are used very well to disseminate early years concepts and national strategies, such as 'Letters and Sounds'. Equality and diversity is promoted well and embedded in the setting's policies and procedures.

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the early years provision

This is best demonstrated by the focus given to ensuring that the educational programme is conducive to the learning styles often preferred by boys, and through the effectiveness of the key-worker system which ensures that children's individual needs are well understood and provided for.

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the early years provision

Parents are provided with a very good level of information to explain the setting's policies and procedures, and the themes and principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Parents are very much involved in planning for and supporting children's learning and development. For example, they record details of children's special weekend experiences and/or achievements and support this with photographs and children's drawings. Children share this with their friends during circle time and staff use the information well to inform and guide their planning. Parents say that the setting 'lives up to its name' because children 'really do get off to a flying start'. They exemplify this with descriptions of children's use of phonic's, developing writing skills, and their computer competence. The setting has well established relationships with a number of schools that children transfer to and information to support children's transition is effectively shared.

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the early years provision

Staff make good use of their weekly room meetings to reflect on practice, planning and outcomes for each child. Management work closely with local authority early years advisors to monitor their overall effectiveness. However, they spend little This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 time observing practice first hand which means that gaps in practice are sometimes missed. Nonetheless, overall, actions are well chosen to improve outcomes for children. The educational programme for promoting literacy and the setting's involvement of parents in children's learning has been significantly strengthened since the last inspection. The re-development of the outdoor play area, which was an ambitious vision, has virtually been fully realised. Current priorities include creating a digging and growing area outside and improving planning for the six areas of learning outdoors. The setting's capacity to maintain

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and outcomes for children

High priority is given to ensuring that children are provided with a nutritionally well-balanced daily diet. Meals are home-cooked and sourced from local butchers and grocers. Babies benefit from the special weaning menu which introduces them to carefully considered new tastes and special dietary needs are very well catered for. Staff eat with the children. Conversation, independence, and table etiquette are encouraged and well promoted. After lunch younger children sleep peacefully and comfortably in either a static cot or on a sleep mattress. Relationships between children and staff are trusting and affectionate and they are emotionally secure. Children thoroughly enjoy outdoor play. They demonstrate good coordination and awareness of safety as they skilfully pedal their bikes around the track in the garden, stopping at one of the two zebra markings to let their pedestrian friends cross from the grass island to the other side. Children practise

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and outcomes for children

balancing on stepping stones, and excitedly take part in parachute games which encourages turn taking and teamwork. Visiting sports and dance teachers further extend children's physical proficiency and encourage interest in physical activity. The wooden play ship provides for children to take themselves off to far away places and is often transformed into a train or a bus as well. However, no sooner have they become totally absorbed in exciting play, it is time to go inside to enable the next group to come out. Opportunities though, to take children to feed the ducks and to use challenging climbing apparatus in the nearby park are not exploited. With an absence of regular outings children also miss out on learning about their immediate world through real experiences, albeit this is achieved in other ways, for example through cooking and gardening activities.

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and outcomes for children

Children's development and progress towards the early learning goals is very well tracked and supported through the use of observational assessment. The programme for literacy is exceptionally well delivered. Staff are skilled story-tellers and this keeps children, from the youngest to the eldest, enthralled. The setting is well equipped with a wide range of books. Toddlers wait with excited anticipation, often shouting out their guess as to what will happen next before the page is turned. Two year olds learn to recognise sound similarities and differences, such as between 'sh' and 'ch', and preschoolers use terms such as 'curly' and 'kicking' to describe the difference between a 'C' and a 'K'. Mark making opportunities for younger children are good. Pre-schoolers, both boys and girls, write their own names clearly and recognise the names of their friends. Many children enjoy This inspection was carried out under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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and outcomes for children

learning French which is delivered by a visiting teacher. Children who speak English as an additional language, as well as younger children, are helped to understand the routine of the day by the delightful pictorial timetables, which are real photographs of the children, displayed in every room.

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and outcomes for children

Numeracy skills are equally well supported and developed. Younger children's awareness of number is encouraged through singing and by the time children are near the end of their preschool year they count reliably, work out simple calculations and use number language routinely. Babies knowingly activate mechanical and technological toys to create actions and sounds. Older children demonstrate high levels of computer competence as they navigate the mouse to collect ballet shoes which are carefully dropped onto the correct pair of feet. However, other technological resources, which offer superb potential for play and learning, are ignored by children because with no batteries they do not work. Children's awareness of diversity is raised through planned and spontaneous activities and discussions, and as they access resources which depict positive images of ethnicity, gender and disability. For example, a child's experience of

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and outcomes for children

attending a Japanese wedding is discussed and role play is presented as a Japanese restaurant. Staff have created sensory areas for younger children by making, and securing to the wall, different textured fabrics, but provision for sensory play overall is not yet fully developed. 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 2 The effectiveness with which the setting promotes equality and diversity The effectiveness of safeguarding 2 The effectiveness of the setting’s self-evaluation, including the steps taken to promote improvement The effectiveness of partnerships 2 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 2

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Stage

The extent to which children achieve and enjoy their learning 2 The extent to which children feel safe 2 The extent to which children adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which children make a positive contribution 2 The extent to which children develop skills for the future 2

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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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