Joeys Pre-School

Joeys Pre-School Furnace Community Centre, Ashburnham Road, CRAWLEY, West Sussex, RH10 6QZ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/01/2013 16/07/2012

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Arrangements for evaluating the safety of the nursery are ineffective. Risk assessments are not thorough and staff are not vigilant enough to ensure the environment and activities are safe for children. This impacts on children's safety and well-being.  Educational programmes do not cover all seven areas of learning and not all staff understand the learning and development requirements. Additionally, observations and assessments are not consistent or accurate enough to build on children's progress.  Planning is not effective in matching activities to all children's needs. Activities lack challenge meaning children become disengaged with their learning.  The outside learning environment does not cover all seven areas of learning. This limits progress for those children who learn best through active play and being outdoors.  A lack of signs, symbols and positive images across the pre-school and an unappealing

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This provision is inadequate

book area children rarely use impact on children's literacy development.  Staff do not encourage parents enough to provide a healthy lunch box for their children. As a result children are not learning about a healthy diet.

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It has the following strengths

 Children form emotional attachments to their key person and are happy and settled.  Several systems keep parents informed of their child's development and support learning at home.

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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 undertook observations of the children.  The inspector sampled relevant documents, including children's records.  The inspector spoke to several parents.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Joeys Pre-school is one of two settings owned by the registered provider. It recently re- registered in different premises and operates from a community building in Crawley, West Sussex. Children have use of a large hall and a smaller room, as well as an enclosed outside play area. The pre-school is open from 9am to 3pm on Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 9am to 12 noon during school term time. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register. A maximum of 28 children in the early years age group may attend at any one time. There are currently 33 children on roll. The pre-school is in receipt of funding to provide early education to children aged two, three and four years. The pre- school supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. All staff hold relevant National Vocational Qualifications at level 3.

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must:

 Improve the educational programme for understanding the world by providing an environment rich in signs, symbols and positive images to take into account children's different interests, understanding, home backgrounds and cultures.  Ensure there are clear procedures in place for assessing any risks to children's safety, with particular regard to the indoor soft play area and the deployment of staff in this area.  Develop the use of observations and assessment so that children's next steps in learning can be identified and planned for.  Develop the educational programme across all seven areas of learning and development by providing challenging activities indoors and outside, which encourage children to explore, think about problems and arouses their curiosity so they show deep signs of involvement.

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

 Encourage parents to provide their children with healthy lunch boxes in order to promote children's understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet

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

 Create an attractive and comfortable book area where children and adults can enjoy books together and where children will be encouraged to learn how to care and look after books.

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who attend

Children arrive happy and confidently at the pre-school and settle quickly. This is because staff develop positive and caring relationships with all children and implement an effective key person system. As a result, children feel valued and this helps promote their self- esteem. Initial discussions with parents and completion of an 'All about me' form helps staff find out about children's interests and developmental starting points. However, children's on-going learning and development is inconsistently monitored. This means that planning, observation and assessment systems do not set clear goals for individual children across all areas of learning. This weakness means staff do not plan or provide stimulating, challenging activities or resources to encourage children to explore and think critically. The balance of adult-led and child-initiated play is not sufficient. Staff plan some adult-led activities each week but for children who attend on a full-time basis the activities

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who attend

are repeated and children become bored and disinterested. As a result, children lack challenge as activities do not meet their learning abilities resulting in slow progress towards the early learning goals.

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who attend

Activities and resources are initially selected by staff but they lack challenge which means children become bored and disengaged with their learning. Staff do not always make the most of chances in everyday situations to engage children in conversation and support communication and language development. Children speak to staff as they play, however, staff do not always interact spontaneously with the children to extend their communication and language skills. For example, at snack and meal times staff are not suitable deployed or tend to watch over children as they eat rather use this as an opportunity to extend learning. As a result children are making limited progress across all areas of development.

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who attend

Children enjoy visits to local areas such as the local library. This helps children's learning experiences and allows them to develop an interest in the wider environment and natural world. Children also have daily opportunities to benefit from outside play which helps promote their physical development. However, outdoor play does not offer children the opportunity to extend their learning in other areas, as staff do not plan and utilise the outside area as another learning environment.

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who attend

Children have the opportunity to use some creative materials to explore and make pictures and collages; however, some activities are adult directed and prevent children from using their imagination and expressing their own ideas. For example children made pictures of 'The Three Little Pigs' using worksheets and materials chosen by staff, rather than allowing children to think about the resources and processes they might need to create their individual pictures.

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who attend

Parents are encouraged to be involved in their children's learning. Through daily discussions, communication books, newsletters and termly one to one meetings, information is shared about what children are doing at home and in the setting. Recently the manager has provided parents with slips of paper to record children's 'Wow' moments at home and to share them with the pre-school. This helps support children's development. At present staff are aware of the two-year-old progress check, but unsure of how to implement it.

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

An effective key person system means that children are settled and happy at the pre- school. Staff are familiar with their key children and understand the importance of finding out children's interests and care needs prior to them starting. Children and parents are warmly greeted, making them feel valued and supported. Staff are caring but at times are not deployed well as the soft play area was often unsupervised meaning safety is compromised. There are also missed opportunities for children to learn about how to keep themselves safe as staff do not explain about taking turns when on the soft play shapes. This results in too many children climbing onto them and accidents occurring. Accident procedures are followed correctly but systems to risk assess the provision are not robust.

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

Staff do not make use of daily routines, activities and free play to extend and progress children's learning and development. Resources and activities available to the children do not arouse their curiosity and allow them to think critically, problem solve and explore. They are also not changed frequently enough. Limited use of effective questioning and interacting from staff results in children becoming disinterested and boisterous. During snack and meal times staff miss opportunities to engage and talk with children, resulting in missed opportunities for children's learning to be extended across all areas.

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

Children with special educational needs or in need of early intervention to promote learning are given satisfactory support, as staff work in partnership with outside agencies. Staff are aware of actions set by other professionals, but lack the knowledge of how to plan activities to fully benefit the children's needs. Some activities help children to enjoy celebrations and festivals, which help to promote their awareness of different cultures and customs. There are some resources which promote positive images and although the book area is well stocked, it is poorly presented and is used very infrequently by the children. Additionally there are limited images on display of people's differences, such as race, gender and disability, to reinforce children's awareness and actively promote inclusion.

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

Children are provided with healthy snacks and parents are asked to provide a packed lunch for those children who stay for the full day. Although information about a healthy diet is distributed to parents, this is not reflected in the lunch boxes children have. Staff do not reinforce or monitor this. As a result, children are not learning about healthy diets and how to keep themselves healthy.

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

Children are developing some appropriate independence skills as staff are beginning to label equipment so that children are able to identify some resources. Also, children enjoy going outside on a daily basis which promotes a healthy lifestyle. The manager invites teachers from the local schools to visit the children at the pre-school to begin supporting their transition to future learning. Additionally, when children go on outings to local places they pass a few schools and staff point these out to the children, talking about when they will be going to school. Children are encouraged to put on their own coats and shoes and tidy toys and resources away, in preparation for school routines and further developing their independence. However, staff do not fully implement and reinforce this. Consequently, children are not always encouraged to put things away once they have finished, resulting in coats and toys being left on the floor causing a trip hazard, as well as

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

not encouraging children to show respect for things and the environment.

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provision

The manager has a clear understanding of her roles and responsibilities regarding safeguarding children. She ensures all staff are aware of their role and responsibilities through training and policies and procedures. The manager makes sure all staff are vetted and suitable to work with children, as there is a clear recruitment procedure in place. However, risk assessment procedures are not adequate as areas of the pre-school have not been assessed, resulting in too many accidents occurring. At present, the manager is reviewing all policies and procedures. This is because she is new to the pre-school and they require up-dating to meet new requirements, such as including the procedures regarding the use of cameras and mobile phones.

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provision

Although most staff have attended training in the revised Early Years Foundation Stage, their knowledge of the learning and development requirements has not been fully consolidated and reflected in the delivery of the educational programmes. As a result, staff do not plan stimulating and appropriate activities so children can make the best possible progress given their ages, abilities and starting points. The manager does recognise the importance of working in partnership with parents and other agencies to provide consistency of care and learning, with daily communication books and discussion, newsletters and by inviting parents to contribute observations to their child's progress records. The manager does arrange opportunities for staff appraisals and supervision and staff express a keenness to attend training to develop their knowledge. However, the manager has not effectively evaluated the quality of the pre-school, taking into account

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provision

the views of staff, children and parents. Additionally, weaknesses are not identified so that an improvement plan can be put in place and followed through. This includes recommendations made at the previous inspection which have only been partially addressed, for example, there remains a lack of signs, symbols and positive images across the pre-school to support children's understanding of the world.

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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 EY440736 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 900510

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 5 Total number of places 28 Number of children on roll 33 Name of provider Joeys-Preschool Limited Date of previous inspection 16/07/2012 Telephone number 07826692264

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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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