Clever Cloggs Day Nursery

Clever Cloggs Day Nursery 26 Honey Road, Little Canfield, Takeley, Essex, CM6 1FF

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 18/09/2012 22/06/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 2 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision is satisfactory

 Staff demonstrate secure knowledge of safeguarding issues and understand their responsibilities with regards to protecting the children in their care.  The garden area provides good opportunities for children to explore nature and the natural world. They learn to care for pets, such as rabbits, guinea pigs and a pet duck, which was reared from an egg.  Parents are complimentary of the nursery and feel that their children are making sound progress and enjoy their time there. They feel that they informed about their children's development through regular meetings and reports. Younger children's parents are informed about their day through the completion of a daily diary.

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It is not yet good because

 The key person system is not effectively embedded across all age groups. Recent changes to staff deployment, results in some staff not demonstrating a secure knowledge of the children in their key person group.  Children who speak English as an additional language are not always effectively provided with opportunities to develop and use their home language in play and learning.  Systems to review and monitor the delivery of the educational programmes, are not always rigorous.

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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 held meetings with the manager and key staff who care for the children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed care practices in all rooms occupied by children and held discussions with practitioners in each of the rooms.

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Inspection activities

 Documentation relating to children and staff was viewed, as was proof of relevant qualifications and vetting information.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with a number of parents collecting and dropping off children at midday.  A joint observation was carried out with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Clever Cloggs Day Nursery is operated by a private company and was registered in 2010. It operates from a large purpose built building situated in Takeley, Essex. All children share access to an enclosed outdoor play area. There is suitable disabled access and facilities within the building.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered by Ofsted on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 101 children aged from birth to eight years on roll. Children aged three and four years receive funding for early years education and the nursery serves the local community and surrounding areas, with children attending for a variety of sessions. The nursery supports children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who have English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is open throughout the year, from 7am until 7pm Monday to Friday. There are a total of 16 staff, including the manager and deputy. Fourteen of the staff are qualified, eleven of whom are qualified to National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 3 and above.

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must:

 develop the key person system so that is effective across all areas of the setting to support children in becoming familiar with the setting and building successful relationships with their parents and carers.  improve opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning by, for example, translating key words into individual children's home languages and displaying these around the setting, to enrich children's means of communication.

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

 review the systems for monitoring the delivery of the educational programmes and children's progress, developing these processes so that they are always used to support children in moving towards the next steps in their learning.

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who attend

Teaching techniques are generally sound and in some areas staff are more skilled than in other areas. For example, practitioners who support the older early years children are enthusiastic and confident practitioners who extend children's thinking and learning. Active participation in an exciting range of planned and freely chosen play experiences enables children to explore learning across all seven areas. The enabling environment promotes children's choices and further enhances their independence skills. Some children are beginning to show interest in early writing and evidence of this is presented on wall displays around the room as well as on children's individual pieces of work. They have good opportunities to access mark-making materials indoors and outdoors, which helps to promote their early writing. Children in the pre-school room learn to link sounds and letters by relating the first letter of their name to letters of the

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who attend

alphabet. Practitioners support children by showing an interest when children attempt to write their own names, by helping them to decide which letters come next.

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who attend

Children enjoy looking at books and participating in stories. A natural under-cover area in the garden provides an exciting space for stories and discussion. It has wooden log seats positioned around the edge creating a natural circle for adults and children to sit in, chat and share their thoughts.

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who attend

Children are encouraged to initiate their own play and learning in the garden area. They have a good amount of resources available to them and use these in various ways to enhance their interests and ideas. For example, plastic guttering is positioned around the external fence, providing opportunities for children to watch water flow down them. These are often adapted by children to provide spaces for small balls to roll down, cars and other small construction toys.

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who attend

Planning is used in all rooms and therefore children are being provided with a suitable balance of adult-led activities as well as opportunities to make choices and decisions over their play. Key persons use their observations of the children's achievements and capabilities to input ideas and suggestions for activities for the following week. Every child has a written learning journey where practitioners record observations and present examples of their creative work. They assess children's progress using the Development Matters document. However, evidence gathered in relation to children's development varies in quality and it is not always clear how this is used to help children to progress towards their next steps. Systems for monitoring and reviewing the delivery of the educational programmes are not currently fully robust, which results in occasional inconsistencies in evidence gathered to help children move onto their next steps.

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

The key worker system generally works well. In some rooms, however, there have been changes to the way that staff are deployed. This has resulted in some disruption to the key worker system where groups are relatively new and details about children are less known. This potentially impacts on children's care and learning. Babies' natural curiosity and excitement to explore is promoted through the range of planned activities, as well as through well-equipped baby rooms. For example, younger babies enjoy exploring a floor tray full of flour. They touch it, handle it, taste it and enable it to fall between their fingers. Practitioners support this learning by talking to them about how it feels, its colour and texture. When large numbers of babies are being cared for on the same day, an additional baby room is used so that the less mobile babies can explore safely, while practicing their early skills. Older children develop a secure sense of belonging. They behave in ways, which show

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

that they feel safe. They approach practitioners for assistance and to share their ideas for activities. For example, spontaneous creative activities grow from children's interests in robots. They ask to use the junk modelling materials available to them to create their robots. Effective practitioners facilitate these ideas and provide children with the materials, support and language to fulfil their interests and to extend the learning outcomes they achieve from this activity.

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

Children across the nursery are developing self-care skills. For example, most children pour their own drinks and serve their own meals from the large serving plates and dishes. They capably use knives and forks to eat their meals and wash their hands before and after eating. Meals and snacks are generally healthy and well-balanced. Parents are informed about the children's menus and have some input into these, contributing to ideas for meals, which they know their children will enjoy. Children develop an understanding about keeping safe indoors and outdoors. They know how to walk up and down stairs carefully, understand about using 'kind hands' when touching their friends and negotiate space well to prevent accidents.

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

The exciting 'pet's corner' situated in one corner of the large garden enables children to learn about caring for animals and how animals grow. The pet duck that wanders confidently around this area, sharing her home with rabbits and guinea pigs, was reared from an egg at the nursery. Children learned about the need to keep the egg warm in an incubator and observed the duck as it grew and developed. They have an exciting 'bug hotel', which practitioners have built in a recently developed natural area of the garden. This enables children to watch and explore a wide range of bugs and insects, using magnifying glasses and reference books to name them.

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

The nursery caters for the needs of a number of children whose families speak languages other than English at home. Some effort is made to liaise with these parents regarding their children's home languages. However, there are fewer opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning.

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provision

The management team have a suitable understanding about their reponsibilities in meeting the Early Years Foundation Stage requirements. Effective systems are in place for recruitment, induction and performance management, ensuring that qualified and experienced staff are in place. A clear practitioner appraisal system enables management to monitor the performance of practitioners and to draw upon their strengths and interests. The formal and informal appraisal processes enable a two way discussion between practitioners and management about further training and development needs. A number of staff are keen to extend their knowledge and expertise by completing further training and development.

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provision

All staff demonstrate secure knowledge about safeguarding children and understand their role in protecting them. They regularly update their knowledge through on-line and face to face training. Staff meetings are used to test practitioners' knowledge and to inform them of any changes to systems or procedures. They have a clear mobile phone policy, which requires all mobile phones to be left in the manager's office at the beginning of the working day. Practitioners create an environment which is welcoming and safe. Security is very effective in supporting children's safety. The biometric door system means that only specific staff in the setting can open the door to meet and greet parents, children and visitors. This contributes to the effective monitoring of adults within the building.

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provision

Successful partnership working with parents and carers enables them to play an active role in their children's learning, development, safeguarding and welfare needs. Parents, spoken to at the time of the inspection, express their confidence in the nursery. They talk about their satisfaction with the way the nursery is promoting their children's learning and how approachable practitioners and management are. The parents of children with identified medical needs feel they are well supported and that practitioners follow the medical advice shared by them and other professionals dealing with their children's illness proficiently. Where appropriate and relevant, staff work alongside other providers and agencies to support children's learning and care.

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provision

Some systems are in place to accurately identify priorities for improvement within the provision through the self-evaluation process. For example, identification of the need to delegate some of the management responsibilities, to assistant managers and deputies, has resulted in two new lead practitioners being employed. Plans are in place to enable the new management team to more effectively review and monitor all aspects of the nursery.

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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 EY409684 Local authority Essex Inspection number 882908

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 145 Number of children on roll 101 Name of provider Clever Cloggs Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 22/06/2011 Telephone number 01279 871 687 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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