Kids Planet Monkseaton

Children's Choice Nursery Norham Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, NE26 3NR

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/11/2012 20/04/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 1 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 The overall quality of teaching is outstanding. Staff work together as a cohesive team to rapidly develop children's communication and social skills. They are consistent in the methods they use, and provide motivating and exciting challenges that help children learn extremely well.  Assessment information is used extremely well to tailor activities to children's individual needs and to check that all groups make consistently rapid gains in their learning. Observations of children's needs and interests are used very effectively to plan enjoyable activities that increase their knowledge, skills and understanding exceptionally well.  All children receive highly effective individualised support from extremely skilled early years practitioners, who have a thorough knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff understand the principles of learning through play and this approach to children's learning is highly valued.

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This provision is outstanding

 Behaviour is extremely good. The nursery has a happy family ethos and relationships are harmonious. The children feel very safe and secure. They clearly enjoy learning and rapidly develop in confidence because they are cared for so well.  The determination and drive of the manager and nursery owner, ably supported by their senior leadership team, has been central to improving children's achievement. Development plans are based on a thorough and accurate understanding of the nursery's performance and the manager is adept at drawing upon the strengths of every individual staff member to excellent effect.

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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 play areas and completed a joint observation with the manager in the toddler group.  The inspector held a meeting with the manager and proprietor.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's assessment records, the planning for each age group, children's daily diaries and children's news books.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of practitioners working with the children, policies and procedures for the setting and the online self-evaluation form.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day of the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Children's Choice Nursery is one of two provisions that are privately owned. It was registered in 2000 and operates from a single storey, purposely adapted, open plan building with all facilities and access on ground floor level. It is situated in the residential area of Monkseaton in Whitley Bay. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm for 51 weeks of the year. All children share access to secure, enclosed outdoor play areas.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 118 children on roll all of whom are in the early years age range. Children come from a wide catchment area and attend a variety of sessions each week depending on the individual requirements of each family. The nursery employs 22 staff, who work with the children, all of whom hold early years qualifications. The proprietor also has Early Years Professional Status.

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

 review the routines in the baby room to ensure that even greater emphasis is on children's free, spontaneous and natural flowing play.

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who attend

From the moment they arrive, the children are happy, busy and interested in learning. Spontaneous laughter can be heard throughout the day and the atmosphere is lively and filled with a sense of purpose. Children are animated and enthusiastic as they make choices about their activities, which are extremely well prepared and attractively set out. Children are valued and adults help them to feel good about themselves by offering positive support, praise and encouragement. The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding and is always interesting, challenging and, most importantly, great fun. Staff have an excellent understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and how children learn. Their approach to planning is based on careful and sensitive listening, observations and reflection, thus enabling them to give the utmost priority to child initiated, spontaneous play that enables children to excel in all areas of learning. Children follow

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who attend

their own interests and staff build on this, allowing each child to take the lead role in their learning.

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who attend

Staff seek detailed and relevant information from parents when children start at the setting. They do this through discussions, settling in visits and through written information. This means they have an excellent understanding of children's likes, needs and routines. Staff effectively mirror children's routines at home in the setting and this promotes continuity of care. In addition, children are able to bring any comfort items, such as their special blanket for sleep or reassurance which provides a sense of security for them. This, alongside a very effective key person system contributes to excellent relationships between the children and staff. Staff regularly exchange information with parents to ensure that all children attending the nursery have their learning and care tailored to meet their individual needs. Across the nursery worthy and successful strategies are implemented such as, home diaries, news books, library books and story

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who attend

bags that are used to support parents in guiding their children's development at home. Children who are in their last year at the nursery can also take home their 'homework' folder which contains ideas to help support children's early writing, letter and word recognition, sounds and phonics. In addition, children also take home Honey the Bear and return him with his diary to share their home adventures with the rest of the children. Formal and informal meetings are used to review children's development and progress with parents and 'graduation' events celebrate children's success at attending nursery.

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who attend

In the pre-school room teaching is inspiring and challenging so that all children continually make excellent progress within an exciting learning environment. Staff are highly skilled at asking questions that encourage children to think and talk, as a result children's interest is sustained and their skills and understanding are developed extremely well. Within this group the children count competently and are beginning to recognise familiar numbers, such as those that represent their age. Children spend time sorting and matching items by colour, shape or size. The environment is rich in numbers and children can be heard to spontaneously count items for fun as part of their free play. During these opportunities staff extend the children's early calculation skills by asking questions, such as 'how many more do we need?' or 'do we have enough?' Children work happily alongside each other and together, sharing resources and taking turns. They are active learners who relish

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who attend

finding out things for themselves, and many delight in sharing what they learn with adults and other children. An excellent example was of a child who showed the inspector how to turn the computer on and explained that she would show me how to write my name.

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who attend

All children are supported and nurtured in this warm and caring setting. Babies enjoy and benefit from attentive care, provided by staff who show a genuine commitment to their care, development and well-being. Staff have a true understanding of the key person system and this translates extremely well into their practice. They demonstrate this through their detailed knowledge of each child, which ensures the children's needs are met very well. Through daily care routines of nappy changing, bed-times, mealtimes and play-times, each key person builds a special relationship with the children therefore ensuring that they feel totally secure, valued and confident. Within the baby room the staff recognise the importance of having a flexible routine and activities that mirror the children's interest. However, there is scope to develop this flexibility even more so children's interests are incorporated further and their natural instinct to explore is not

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who attend

interrupted. Early communication skills are well-supported through high quality adult-child interactions. Staff constantly talk to young children explaining what they are doing, which encourages children to link words and action. Gains in communication, language skills for all children are especially noteworthy, and are the result of a relentless focus on listening and speaking by all staff whenever they interact with children and through the thorough early screening and assessments that are carried out.

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who attend

Through a wide range of activities, such as babies making marks in the sand and older children making lists in various situations, such as role play and writing their name, children are acquiring the skills they need to support their literacy development. This includes supporting children who show an early interest in reading for example, older children learn about sounds and letters. Children of all ages have access to a wide range of resources and staff plan activities to support their individual learning needs. In addition, by inviting other professionals into the setting and using the skills of some of the staff, children regularly engage in dance, yoga and massage sessions. Children enjoy taking part in physical activities. For example, babies have the space and freedom to roll and crawl. In addition, staff are able to effectively support young children's drive to stand and walk as they spend excellent one-to-one time with individual children. Outdoor play is energetic

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who attend

and promotes physical development very well for all children. Children have various options for physical play which could be in the sensory garden, the large outdoor play area or dance studio. Here they can climb, dig in the sand, ride wheeled toys, fill and empty containers of water, grow vegetables, watch and feed birds and explore mini-beasts.

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

Children play in an extremely well organised environment where excellent adult support makes children feel secure and confident. This allows children to learn and develop extremely well and easily meet their full potential. Children develop a secure sense of belonging and confidently take on responsibilities within the nursery, such as helping to serve meals and clearing away equipment. During the inspection the buzz throughout the nursery was the 'Children in Need' bakeathon. Even the very young children get involved in making cakes and decorating biscuits to raise money. This combined with the range of cultural festivals that both children and parents are involved in helps to develop children's awareness of the world around them.

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

Staff consistently praise and encourage children and have high, realistic expectations of them all, resulting in behaviour which is excellent. For instance, children understand the rules and what is expected of them such as using 'kind hands' and 'kind feet'. Children are rewarded by becoming the 'helper' for the day, whereby, they help to set the table or hand out the plates at meal times. Staff fully understand that groups of children learn in different ways and therefore different strategies have to be adopted. For example, with older boys they have found that by using physical contact such as touching their shoulder and by giving simple instructions this has significantly improved boys overall behaviour. Children develop a strong sense of belonging to the setting and become very familiar with routines and expectations. Babies and toddlers enjoy secure relationships with trusted adults, who listen to them and are attentive to their needs. Children's contributions to

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

discussions are valued highly and staff skilfully question and positively build on children's comments to guide their thinking and deepen their understanding of their own feelings and of the world around them. Plenty of time is given to children to organise their thoughts and to respond. During an enjoyable activity where children played with the special needs and empathy dolls, they thought about why one doll needed to wear glasses and why another needed to use the wheel chair.

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

Children develop an extremely good understanding of keeping themselves safe and how to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Health and safety are integral practices within the nursery and come into all aspects of the daily routine. They clearly understand why they have to wash their hands after playing in the garden and before meals and why it is important to brush their teeth. Excellent use is made of the dietary information collected from parents before a child starts the nursery. Food allergies are clearly understood by all involved in cooking, food preparation or serving of food. Staff are extremely vigilant about children's safety. They ensure this by the highly effective implementation of daily risk assessments and by constantly reviewing the procedures and improving routines within the nursery. The nursery has an effective fire evacuation procedure and children regularly participate in emergency evacuation drills.

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provision

Children are exceptionally well protected because staff have a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities regarding child protection issues. Extensive and ongoing training in this area ensures staff remain up to date with current procedures and changes. This combined with effective recording systems for medication administration, accidents and allergies, which are all meticulously kept and monitored, further ensures children are extremely well protected. Robust systems are in place to ensure the suitability of staff, including appropriate vetting checks, induction programmes and ongoing systems of supervision and appraisal. Regular team meetings are used to build confidence, monitor new systems of working and cascade training to all staff. Staff are extremely motivated and committed in all aspects of their professional development. This is driven by the proprietor and the nursery manager's commitment to empowering all staff to develop their

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provision

skills, qualifications and knowledge. The manager ensures that staff are very competent in delivering the learning and development requirements for the Early Years Foundation Stage and effectively monitors and reviews the quality of teaching through regular meetings and a 'hands on approach'.

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provision

The partnership with parents and carers is outstanding. Parents receive regular newsletters outlining themes and events. They meet regularly with their child's key person to discuss progress. Children are able to continue their learning at home through effective systems, such as, borrowing story sacks and resources that provide ideas to extend children's learning outside of the nursery environment. Parents have ample opportunity to express their views and opinions through daily discussions with staff and at the regular parents' meetings and social events. Parents' views are highly valued by the staff and in order to promote this further the nursery have created a 'Buddy Scheme'. Parents are invited to volunteer to be a nursery buddy, a role in which their main duties include, sharing opinions about policy changes, reading the nursery's self-evaluation and action plans each year and adding their comments. They are also asked to support new and

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provision

existing parents who may be experiencing difficulties at nursery. This system is very effective and enables the setting to gain constructive feedback from parents. Parents take advantage of the extremely informative noticeboards which display very relevant and valuable information. For example, this term the focus is on health and provides a wealth of detail about portion sizes, menu planning and the nutritional value of food. Parents who have children in the baby and toddler rooms benefit greatly from the excellent range of information that is provided by staff. This is achieved through the use of highly detailed daily diaries which are routinely filled out by both parents and staff. This provides an extremely effective way of sharing information and the children's care is enhanced by this arrangement, as both the key person and parents have a comprehensive record of incidents and experiences the child has been involved in. Parents are extremely

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provision

complimentary about the nursery, describing the friendly caring staff, and the fantastic work they do. They give particularly positive feedback about the way in which staff have supported their children's individual needs, such as developing strategies to manage their behaviour and developing their communication skills.

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provision

Transition arrangements are effective. For those children that are moving onto local schools the reception teachers are invited to visit the setting to meet the children. Staff have also considered how they can support children who are moving onto schools further afield. For example, they have taken photographs of the specific schools, the staff and the environment which they use to prompt discussion and increase familiarity. A rigorous cycle of monitoring and evaluation means that the management team and staff are always striving to improve the quality and impact of the care and activities provided. The professional development programme and ongoing performance management are key features that contribute to the children's outstanding achievement and the nursery's sustained capacity 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 310206 Local authority North Tyneside Inspection number 891859

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 82 Number of children on roll 118 Name of provider Children's Choice Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 20/04/2009 Telephone number 0191 2517699

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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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, 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. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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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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