The Blackheath Day Nursery

The Blackheath Day Nursery The Rectory Field, Charlton Road, Blackheath, London, SE3 8SR

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 12/12/2012 07/09/2011

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early years provision

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

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This provision is outstanding

 An extensive range of innovative, stimulating activities are available in the different group rooms for the children to explore and enjoy.  The nursery engages exceptionally well with parent/carers and it is evident that from the start staff clearly value the important role parents play in their child's ongoing learning and development.  Children are making excellent progress in relation to their initial starting points. This is directly due to the extensive opportunities available to them across the nursery.  Leadership and Management is excellent Systems for monitoring staff ensure that children continue to progress exceptionally well supported by professional, hard working staff.

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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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Inspection activities

 The Inspector met with the Manager, Deputy and Registered Person and spoke with many of the staff team in the different group rooms. Meetings took place with the Managers to discuss leadership and management issues and the complaint relating to the Complaint Driven Inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The Inspector looked at children's assessment records and discussed with different members of the staff team how they are using these to support children's individual learning and development.

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Inspection activities

 The Inspector looked at the setting's comprehensive self evaluation form and other evidence of how the nursery is evaluating the provision such as through parent questionnaires.

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Inspection activities

 The Inspector observed staff caring for children in the different group rooms and in the outdoor environment .

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Inspection activities

 The Inspector checked a few key pieces of documentation such as child records, developmental profiles, attendance records and planning documents.

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Information about the setting

The Blackheath Day Nursery registered under the current provider since 2007. The nursery is one of three provisions run by Bridge Lane Nursery Ltd. It is located in the club house of a sports ground in Blackheath, in the London borough of Greenwich. The nursery is open 51 weeks a year, Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6pm. Children have access to several base rooms and a large outdoor play area. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently 107 children on roll and the nursery receives funding for early education for children aged three and four years. Children with disabilities and/or learning difficulties and children who speak English as an additional language are fully supported. There are 35 members of staff work with the children, most of whom hold appropriate childcare qualifications.

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

 Strengthen further the systems for reflective practice, for example, by updating the self-evaluation form more frequently to demonstrate the setting's extremely strong drive for improvement.

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who attend

The nursery management and staff have fully embraced the revisions to the Early Years Foundation Stage. They use Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage exceptionally well in their practice to fully support children's progress. For example, staff are highly competent in assessing where children are within their age bands and use the additional sections regarding positive relationships and enabling environments to support and extend children's development further. The excellent planning systems ensure that children's unique needs are being met extremely well. There is an excellent balance of child initiated and adult-led activities to support children's ongoing progress and development. Children have access to an exceptional range of innovative, stimulating resources and activities that help them to make excellent progress in all areas of their development. The nursery has been well thought out and the low-level furniture and resources ensures that

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who attend

all children have access to a highly stimulating environment which maximises their opportunities for independent learning. For example, resources are stored at low level in labelled storage baskets and trays enabling excellent self-choice. This enhances children's decision-making skills from an early age. When children require help or support staff are on hand to motivate and engage them through praise and encouragement. During a nativity play practice children enthusiastically play their roles and are confident and demonstrate great pride as they say their lines and sing the songs and incorporate all the actions

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who attend

The three prime areas of learning are exceptionally well supported by the nursery and on many occasions, children are exceeding their age bands. Communication and language is given high priority by the highly skilled staff team. For example, babies emerging language skills are exceptionally well promoted as staff talk to them and involve them in making sounds. Babies gaze at staff as they talk, watching the way their mouths move. Staff understand that providing eye contact and giving babies time to respond is integral to their early language development. Staff extend older children's language and communication skills through excellent interaction during play activities. For example, when playing with the puzzles staff introduce letters of the alphabet, sounds and numbers. They promote children's physical development extremely well in both the indoor and outdoor environments. The baby room has been thoughtfully designed with low-level

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who attend

furniture and resources to encourage children to independently pull themselves up to stand. Activities are cleverly set out on low-level tables enabling even non-walkers to participate in these as they support themselves against the low-level tables. Staff provide opportunities throughout the nursery at age related stages for children to handle and manipulate different tools and resources.

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who attend

The specific areas of learning are introduced as children begin to move through the group rooms. In the baby and toddler rooms, staff provide extensive sensory and physical experiences to enhance children's explorative and sensory skills. The staff team support children to make marks in different ways using paint, sand, cornflour and water mix, and shaving foam.

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who attend

Children's literacy skills are developing exceptionally well. Staff provide children with opportunities to recognise their names during different parts of the day. For example, children in some of the older group rooms participate in a self-registration system and are able to recognise their names on the registration board as they arrive in the group room. Children's interest in early writing is exceptionally well supported throughout the nursery with opportunities for children to explore an extensive range of different resources, from pens to creative media.

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

Children benefit from the extremely close, nurturing relationships that they have formed with their key person, staff in their group room and throughout the nursery as a whole. Babies enjoy healthy and secure attachments with their group room staff, which contribute towards them feeling very safe and emotionally content. Staff support children to develop high levels of confidence and a positive self-esteem through their continual praise of children's achievements. For example, a child independently identifies the letter K as 'kicking K'. Staff highly praise the child's efforts and are clearly delighted at this new skill. Excellent settling in procedures helps each child to form strong emotional attachments with their key person and group room staff. The highly effective key person system ensures children's feelings of belonging and security are extremely well supported.

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

Children are very happy and content in the bright, stimulating environment and behave very well. Staff support sharing and turn taking skills from an early age and encourage the children to develop very positive relationships with each other. When two of the children from baby room are settling into Bubbles room, they cheekily peer into baby room and are delighted when they see their friends. In the Big Stars pre-school room children have their own display board where they can display their own creations and are really proud of their efforts. Staff are extremely passionate about ensuring that children's art and craft creations are their own work. The art and craft displays created by staff with borders and captions emphasise the children's own individualised creations. Staff challenge the more able children to help them to write the captions and to think about how to create a display. Children are clearly proud of their contributions such as their independently

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

written captions and their ideas to use paper plates to depict the children in the display.

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

Children thrive from being cared for in an environment where a high standard of hygiene practice is practised and maintained. The staff team encourages all children to develop independent hygiene routines from an early age. Children develop valuable healthy eating habits as staff encourage them to try different foods and constantly talk to them during meal times about foods that are good for them. Meals and snacks at the nursery are very well balanced and nutritious and reflect cultural diversity of the nursery.

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

The nursery prepares children exceptionally well for transitions between group rooms and to primary school. Staff show an excellent awareness of the importance of attachments in relationships and fully promote these through their highly effective transitions within the setting.

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

The nursery demonstrates an extremely positive approach towards inclusion. The whole of the staff team works extremely closely in partnership with parents to fully meet the individual needs of children attending the setting. Throughout the nursery resources and displays depict positive images of diversity including those of culture, language, gender and disability.

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provision

Robust and rigorous procedures are in operation for safeguarding children. Staff implement the Local Safeguarding Children Board procedures extremely well. Extensive policies are in operation and now include the use of mobile phones and cameras within the nursery setting. This demonstrates that all staff clearly understand their responsibilities in meeting the welfare and safeguarding requirements and also highlights their capacity for improvement. Staff supervise children extremely well across all areas of the nursery. All staff demonstrate a very clear understanding and confidence about their responsibilities for safeguarding including procedures regarding new staff. For example, new staff do not change nappies or cater for personal care needs until their Criminal Record Bureau check (CRB) has been sent through as clear.

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provision

Documentation is maintained to a very high standard and all records required for the safe and efficient management of the setting are in place and available for inspection.

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provision

Staff and management demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the welfare and learning requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They have embraced the recent revisions across all areas of the nursery. They are highly confident in their approach towards these changes. There is a lovely, happy feel to the nursery as a whole and this is largely due to the welcoming, friendly and caring staff team.

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provision

Management and staff demonstrate a significant capacity for improvement and continually reflect on the practice of the service it provides through regular staff meetings. The management team shows a strong commitment to developing their practice through further training and staff professional development. Individual appraisals and supervisions are effectively used to highlight and address professional training needs. From discussion, it is evident that the management team are fully aware of the setting's strengths and areas for further development. Action plans are implemented following the identification of areas to develop and these are put in operation quickly and effectively to ensure prompt improvement. Six monthly parent questionnaires are used to effect change, and enable parental contribution to the evaluation of the setting. However, the current self-evaluation plan has not been updated and does not reflect current practice.

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provision

The setting reviews the learning environment and resources in each room to ensure that they continue to provide appropriate challenge and interest to all children. Observations are undertaken by staff on the different areas within the setting to see how children are using them. They make alterations or add additional resources to enhance children's enjoyment and learning further as and when required.

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provision

The nursery has highly effective systems in place to develop close partnerships with parent/carers to fully meet the individual needs of the children attending the setting. Staff share information with parent/carers on a daily basis at drop off and collection times and share a written daily sheet regarding care needs and any anecdotes from the day. Parents are extremely positive in their feedback about the nursery and praise how well the staff team meet their children's individual requirements. For example, one child was given the role of a star in the nativity play. They really wanted to be a sheep so staff wrote a sheep into the nativity script. The child now proudly discusses their role and their 'special' sheep costume! Observations has recently been amended and improved. Planning is linked effectively to Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage. This enables staff to support each child to make significant progress in all areas of learning at a level appropriate to

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provision

their starting points. Profile books are in place for each child and show children's development through dated photos. Each child also has their own individual learning journey which staff make individual using photographs of the child and of special people in their home environment.

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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 EY361480 Local authority Greenwich Inspection number 890524

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 100 Number of children on roll 107 Name of provider Bridge Lane Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 07/09/2011 Telephone number 0208 3052526

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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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