Seasons Private Day Nursery

Seasons Private Day Nursery Seasons Private Day Nursery Ltd, Stratford Road, STROUD, Gloucestershire, GL5 4EL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 04/09/2012 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: Not Applicable How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 All children, including those speaking English as an additional language, make good progress from their starting points and achieve well.  Skilled practitioners facilitate children's development across all areas of learning through play, including development of good language, early literacy and writing skills.  There are warm and caring relationships between children and all staff, particularly key persons. Children's behaviour is good and they are well settled and secure.  The nursery strongly meets all requirements for children's safeguarding and welfare.  Productive relationships with parents overall develop through effective induction and frequent communication. Management successfully improves practice through accurate self-evaluation and detailed, focused, forward planning.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Children's choice regarding indoor and outdoor play is not always flexible to benefit those who learn better outside.  Strategies to engage parents in contributing to their children's learning records are not always effective to fully involve them in their children's learning.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are scheduled:  at least once in every inspection cycle. The current cycle ends on 31 July 2016  more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged as inadequate  brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage; or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection  prioritised for inspection where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe  at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Information about this inspection

The provision is also registered on the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. This report includes a judgment about compliance with the requirements of that register.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities in the three different units, each with its own garden. A shared observation of children's outdoor play was achieved with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held meetings with the manager and operations manager and talked with heads of the units and some staff, including key persons.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at some children's learning journals and at a representative range of the nursery's documentation. This included the nursery's planning and a sample of policies and staff development records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector also took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day and given in response to the nursery's parent questionnaire.

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Information about the setting

Seasons Private Day Nursery registered in 2007 and re-registered under the current management in 2012. It is one of four nurseries owned by the registered individual. It operates from the former Stroud Cricket Pavilion in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The nursery building comprises three base rooms, which are divided into activity areas, kitchen and toilets. There is an enclosed, covered, deck area to the front of the building; this leads down steps into separate gardens with grass and decking for older children and a separate garden for babies. There is an enclosed, woodland garden for toddlers. The nursery opens each weekday from 8am to 6pm for 51 weeks of the year.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Currently, there are 107 children on roll from three months to under five years of age. The nursery is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education for children aged three and four years. It currently supports a number of children who learn English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

There are 15 staff, including two cooks, employed at the nursery. Of the 13 staff working directly with children, 10 hold qualifications to at least level 3 in childcare and education, including one at level 6. There are three staff working towards a level 3 qualification.

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To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

 Improve opportunities for children to learn outdoors by arranging flexible indoor and outdoor space to benefit those who learn better outside

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To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

 Improve the opportunities for parents to contribute to their children's learning and development record in order to fully involve them in their children's learning.

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who attend

Staff have a positive impact on children's learning and development, so that children make good progress. They are well aware of children's starting points and capabilities, taking good account of the length of time children have been at the nursery and how often they attend. Staff make good use of ongoing, observational assessment. They effectively evaluate children's play to incorporate their next steps into the planning. Staff revise these goals weekly to keep themselves aware of children's current learning needs. However, some children who learn better outside, do not always have the flexibility to choose where they wish to play to maximise their learning. The educational programmes for all seven areas of learning effectively help children to reach, and sometimes exceed, expected levels of development. Babies and toddlers achieve good personal, social and emotional development. They enjoy the challenges to

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who attend

develop physically and receive plenty of stimulation from attentive staff to extend their communication and language skills. Older children gain good levels of understanding in literacy and mathematics, for example in use of initial letters and simple adding and subtracting. They have ample opportunities to gain understanding of their environment, including the adjacent building project, and to express their ideas through art and design. Where children are learning to speak English as an additional language, staff focus well on their communication and language skills so that they, too, achieve close to expected levels of progress.

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who attend

All children receive strong support to develop good attitudes and skills to learn effectively. Staff skilfully give babies and young children the space and time to explore what they are interested in so that, when older, they concentrate and persevere in their learning. The planned, next steps for pre-schoolers are particularly well focused so that children moving on to school have good social and learning skills.

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who attend

Overall, staff have good understanding of how to offer appropriate levels of challenge to take individual children forward in their learning. They frequently use open questions to help children think in further depth. Key persons know their children well and effectively use their starting points and interests to foster their learning and development. For example, children work cooperatively to construct, using logs and planks to make 'runs' for balls.

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who attend

Staff well engage and motivate children individually and in group activities. For example, they extend children's interest in story telling by varying opportunities for children to re- tell favourite stories using puppets or acting the story outdoors. Young children eagerly join staff in spontaneous singing of songs and rhymes. Older children enjoy challenges to accompany their singing with percussion instruments while following the visual, 'hand' instructions from the adult.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The nursery's care practices well support children to feel emotionally secure, and effectively help children to be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. Staff consistently implement well established procedures so that caring key persons, and their buddies, welcome and support families and share information about children. As a result, all babies and children form close bonds and secure emotional attachments to their carers. Children confidently seek staff out for reassurance when needed. They have a positive approach to new experiences, as well as organised routines that help them to feel secure and confident.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The nursery's consistent, effectively thought-out systems for caring for children result in children being happy. Children concentrate and persevere as they enjoy their activities, including those that they develop for themselves and those led by adults. Children respond well to the clear boundaries set for them. Very young children hear gentle reminders to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Older ones are particularly well mannered and their behaviour is good, as the staff share consistent expectations and set a good example themselves. Children willingly take on responsibility, for example tidying away equipment before moving indoors; they respond well to interesting challenges, such as finding 10 items to put in the storage shed. As staff constantly expect children to achieve for themselves, children gain good independence. Even young children join in the preparation of activities, for example helping to fill trays of glitter and develop their own learning situations. For

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

example, a toddler realised that they could see their face in a shiny, metal bowl; they made the connection to go to the wall mirror to see if this image matched with their reflection.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children of all ages show good interest in investigating their surroundings. From an early age, babies and toddlers explore many textures. They examine the interesting contents of 'treasure' baskets and engage in 'messy' play, for example, with corn flour mixed with water. Older children learn about growth as they weed and water plants to grow flowers and fruit. Children benefit from frequent stimulation to make positive choices about their activities. In doing so, they gain good skills to eagerly and confidently talk and play with adults and each other. The staff effectively ask their opinions, take time to listen to their ideas and support them to develop their interests. As a result, they make particularly good use of their imagination, for example, in developing role play on a 'vet' theme, with children, rather than toys, being the animals.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Staff support children's good understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle that involves physical exercise and a healthy diet well. For example, children name vegetables and learn that tomatoes are fruits. From a young age, children explore how to fasten clothing, including shoes. As a result, older children achieve good independence in hygiene and managing their personal care. Key persons prepare children particularly well for settling into the next age group in the nursery. Staff also effectively support individuals to transfer to school and invite reception teachers to visit.

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provision

Leadership and management are good because there is an accurate overview of the curriculum through monitoring of the educational programmes. This means that the nursery offers a broad range of experiences to help children progress towards the early learning goals. The basis of the teaching is a good, secure understanding of each area of learning and how children learn. The manager monitors the levels of planning and assessment in each room to make sure these are compatible, consistent and display an accurate understanding of all children's skills, abilities and progress. Staff target individual children with identified needs, such as learning to speak English as an additional language, so that they make supportive interventions and any gaps in their learning are closing.

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provision

The management and room leaders have a good understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements and these are well met throughout the provision. The nursery has well considered arrangements for protecting children, and staff have a secure understanding of procedures for responding if there was a concern about a child. Staff know and understand clear policies and procedures and implement these consistently.

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provision

The nursery strives to engage all parents and, overall, works well in partnership with them. Parents describe the settling-in procedures and the attention of key persons as 'brilliant' and 'amazing'. Their children are eager to come to nursery and to be with the staff. Key persons take time each day to keep parents well informed about their children's achievements and progress and, for babies, this is backed up with daily diaries. Parents and children enjoy looking at the interesting learning journals that are always available. The staff's positive interaction supports parents to talk about children's experiences at home. As a result, staff are aware of these, although the information is not added to learning journals to further involve parents in their children's learning. Recently introduced systems, including 'wow' vouchers, encourage parents to contribute to the children's record. Such contributions are not yet fully in place for each child to enable parents to

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provision

fully contribute their child's learning experiences at home. There are good systems and procedures in place to liaise with other settings that children currently attend. Staff recognise that partnerships make a strong contribution to meeting children's needs.

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provision

The manager benefits from effective support from the company's operational manager. She spends considerable time in the nursery rooms so that she is well aware of staff levels of working to monitor individual performance. As a result, there are good systems in place for monitoring and supporting each staff member's training and professional development. These have good impact on improving practice throughout the nursery.

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provision

Good levels of self-evaluation value and take into account the views of staff, children and their parents. As a result, since re-registration, the new management has achieved extensive renovation, refurbishment and re-ordering of the indoor and outdoor premises. Children now play with ample, attractive, good quality resources. Overall, they have good opportunities to choose indoor or outdoor play, though these are not maximised for the youngest and oldest children. Leaders have also been proactive in seeking the views of the local authority development officer, who enthused over the development of the rooms and how relaxed children are. The nursery's sustained, strong drive for improvement is clearly demonstrated by detailed action plans that focus on further supporting children's achievements. The leadership is well aware of the nursery's strengths and aspects for improvement.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are Met The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are Met

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Outstanding provision is highly effective in meeting the needs of all children exceptionally well. This ensures that children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning. Grade 2 Good Good provision is effective in delivering provision that meets the needs of all children well. This ensures children are ready for the next stage of their learning. Grade 3 Satisfactory Satisfactory provision is performing less well than expectations in one or more of the key areas. It requires improvement in order to be good. Grade 4 Inadequate Provision that is inadequate requires significant improvement and/or enforcement. The provision is failing to give children an acceptable standard of early years education and/or is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be inspected again within 12 months of the date of this inspection.

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Grade Judgement Description

Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider does not meet the requirements for registration.

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Inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and care, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY445884 Local authority Gloucestershire Inspection number 787936

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 60 Number of children on roll 107 Name of provider BBN Limited Date of previous inspection Not applicable Telephone number 01453767004

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Type of provision

set out in the guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises that are usually their own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. 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,

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Type of provision

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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