Busy Bees Day Nursery at Newbury

Just Learning Nursery Monks Lane, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 7TD

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 24/01/2013 07/10/2009

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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

 Children make limited progress because the staff lack sufficient understanding of effective teaching and learning.  Systems for observation, planning and assessment are weak, which means activities lack challenge to interest children and do not encourage progression in their learning.  Documentation is not accurately maintained and systems for self-evaluation are not effective.  There is a lack of an effective performance management system in place for staff.  The key person system is not well embedded in the nursery and there are several weaknesses in children's wellbeing.  Partnerships with parents, other early years settings and external agencies are not strong enough to ensure continuity and progression in children's care and learning.

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It has the following strengths

 Staff are kind, warm and caring, which enables most children to feel settled.  The garden is spacious, with a selection of outdoor equipment to encourage children's physical development.

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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 made several short and long observations of activities in all five rooms of the nursery and areas of the garden.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with the manager, area manager and regional manager and several members of staff, including the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's learning journeys, a sample of planning documentation, and a selection of children's records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of recruitment, suitability and qualifications of staff working with children. Head office audits were viewed prior to the inspection in order to determine the suitability of written policies and procedures.  The inspector also took account of the views of one parent spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

Just Learning Nursery was registered in 2002 and was acquired by Busy Bees Nurseries in 2012. It is one of a chain of nurseries operated by Busy Bees Nurseries. The nursery occupies purpose-designed premises within the grounds of Newbury College, on the southern outskirts of Newbury in Berkshire. The accommodation comprises of ten playrooms for the children, who are grouped according to age. Further facilities include a multi-purpose area, office, kitchen, laundry, staff room and accessible toilets. There are large, fully enclosed outdoor play areas.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Childcare Register and voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 117 children on roll. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for children aged three and four.

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Information about the setting

The nursery supports children a number of children who speak English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens each weekday throughout the year between 7.30am and 6pm, with the exception of bank holidays. Children attend for a variety of sessions. The nursery draws children from a wide geographical area including many whose parents attend Newbury College. There are 18 staff members working with the children; of these 13 have relevant qualifications at level 3 and five are at level 2. The nursery supports a number of staff who are working towards recognised qualifications. The nursery supports a number of childcare students from Newbury College. The nursery receives support from the local authority.

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must:

 implement a system to monitor, coach, mentor and support staff to ensure underperformance is tackled and training needs are identified and addressed in order to improve staff's knowledge and understanding of effective teaching and learning  observe and assess each child's progress in all seven areas of learning taking into account their age and stage of development, and use this information to plan for their interests and learning styles, in order to shape learning experiences for each child  take reasonable steps to provide opportunities for children whose home language is not English, to develop and use their home language in play and learning  develop systems to consider whether a child may have a special educational need or disability which requires specialist support  fresh drinking water must be accessible at all times  develop the effectiveness of the key person system to support all children's

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must:

emotional wellbeing and welfare  enable a regular two-way flow of information with parents and or carers, external agencies and between providers, if a child is attending more than one setting, to provide continuity in children's care and learning and identify and meet their individual needs  foster a culture of continuous improvement by ensuring that planned actions to overcome weaknesses are effective and take account of the views of parents  keep a daily record of the names of the children being cared for on the premises, their hours of attendance and the names of each child's key person

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

 improve risk assessments to include any potential hazards associated with temporary equipment

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

 improve consistency of behaviour management throughout the nursery to enable children's understanding of boundaries.

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who attend

Children's learning and development is not supported effectively because staff lack sufficient understanding of the seven areas of learning and demonstrate a poor understanding of their responsibility to promote good learning outcomes. This combined with the lack of a secure and fully embedded observation and assessment system, means that staff have not tracked or monitored children's progress for some time. A recent change in ownership has brought about the introduction of a new assessment system, which means that some information is now gathered by staff to determine starting points for all children in the nursery. However, although this information has recently been collated by staff, is not always gathered consistently to build a good picture of children's progress towards the early learning goals.

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who attend

Progress folders have been created for each child in the nursery, but staff have yet to keep a summary of children's achievements. The information that has been obtained has not been used to identify or plan effectively for children's next steps in their learning. Some information has been sought from some parents on children's prior learning experiences but has not been used to inform assessments or planning.

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who attend

Support for children who have additional needs is poor. The lack of assessment in the nursery means that staff have not accurately identified those children who require additional help in their learning. Children who are at an early stage of speaking English or who are bilingual, are not well supported. In most rooms in the nursery, staff are unaware of the language children speak at home because they have not used the information they gathered when the child first started. This means that staff do not link children's home language to what they are learning in the nursery, by using key words or visual clues to help them become confident communicators. Weak planning and poor adult support means children's understanding and use of English is not being developed quickly enough and they make less progress than their peers. As a direct consequence, gaps are widening between the progress of these groups and show little sign of closing. In addition,

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who attend

arrangements for monitoring the progress of two-year-olds, are not well established, and this results in some children not being sufficiently supported to make the best possible progress.

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who attend

Staff's understanding of how children discover and learn through play is weak and has a significant impact on how children progress. It is currently too variable to provide a consistently good range of experiences across all areas of learning and is not secure enough to meet children's needs. While staff mostly demonstrate a caring approach to supporting children, they are not confident in asking open questions to help children explore or to prompt children's thinking. Staff are not secure in the learning outcomes for each child and so are unable to build on these during these routine play opportunities. Children have opportunities to work with staff during a weekly 'focus time' session. These newly established one to one sessions are not fully effective as staff have yet to identify children's next steps and therefore activities are not sufficiently focussed on what children need to learn.

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who attend

Overall, planning is weak and the educational programme fails to adequately cover all areas of learning or inspire and challenge children in their play. There is no systematic approach to planning activities to meet children's learning needs and interests, although children do have access to a varied range of play opportunities. As a result, practice is weak and does not fully support children to acquire the skills and attitudes to prepare them for their next stage in learning and school.

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who attend

Younger children have space to crawl around and they practise pulling themselves up onto the furniture. They show some interest when they explore the treasure baskets and bang household items together, experimenting with sound. Toddlers have access to some activities that capture their interest. They experiment with paint, water and snow in their messy play room, and have some opportunities to construct with bricks, read books with staff and take part in singing time before lunch. Older children enjoy weekly French lessons and benefit from the free flow system into the garden which engages and support their learning. Pre-school children make a family of snow people in the snow and show their increasing awareness of families as they add a small snow baby to the group. They are inquisitive learners and demonstrate their increasing imagination as they try and work out what might be hidden in a visitor's colourful bag.

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who attend

Parents speak positively about the welcoming staff, who always friendly and approachable should they need information about their child. Daily diaries, which are filled in for younger children in the nursery, keep parents informed of important information from the day, for example sleep times and nappy changes. Notice boards and formal parents meetings keep parents informed of what activities their child has been offered and give them a more general idea of how children are progressing in their learning. However, systems to encourage parental involvement in children's learning are basic. Information is not consistently gathered from parents about children's developmental abilities when they first start, to enhance staff's identification of children's starting points or to inform tracking and monitoring of children's progress. As staff fail to keep accurate records or make frequent enough observations on children parents lack access to good quality information

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who attend

about children's development. There are limited systems in place for parents to become involved in children's learning at home. Views of parents and carers are not routinely gathered. Older children state that they enjoy coming to nursery. They are confident to share their views and ideas. They talk about what they like doing at their nursery and state that they enjoy being outside in the snow or drawing pictures at the mark making table, which they proudly show to visitors.

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

Although parents are informed of their child's key person when their child first attends the role of the key person is currently ineffective as a number of staff changes have occurred over the last months. This has meant that younger children have not had a consistent key person to care for them, and as a result, they have been unable to form strong attachments with staff and each other. While staffing is more consistent now and the key person system is slowly becoming more established, staff's understanding of how to implement this effectively has not been monitored and still remains insecure. However, children and their parents are warmly welcomed when they arrive at the nursery.

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

Children are offered a selection of healthy and nourishing meals and snacks, which are prepared daily by the onsite cook. Mealtimes are a social occasion, where children and staff talk about their day and activities they have been involved in. Older children tuck into their lunches, asking for more of their favourite choices, such as garlic bread, and use a cutlery with increasingly control. Babies and younger children have their dietary needs met as staff prepare bottles and puree meals according to their needs. Staff are suitably qualified to prepare and serve food, with adequate hygiene procedures in place to promote children's health. A robust system to ensure that children who have special dietary needs or preferences is in place and is effectively managed by staff. Children are offered drinks with their meals and individual named water bottles are available in each room. The nursery has implemented a system to promote regular drinking throughout the

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

day, at drinking stations in each room. However as a result of ineffective monitoring of this new initiative, water bottles are not accessible to all children and staff are not vigilant enough in providing the youngest children with drinks at regular intervals in the day.

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

Children's independence is suitably fostered as staff offer some opportunities for children to manage their own self-care skills, such as hand washing or nose blowing, although this is less embedded in the toddler rooms. Staff follow hygienic nappy changing procedures. An effective policy and procedure on administering medication is in place and suitably implemented.

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

Children's physical development is supported by the varied range of outdoor equipment provided and a well-resourced area is provided for outdoor play. Children move with skill and coordination as they confidently balance on climbing equipment and enjoy demonstrating their agility to each other. Free flow play, between the main rooms and outdoor areas is actively encouraged in some rooms and children enjoy their time outside in the fresh air. However, this is not the case across the nursery. While older children are provided with good opportunities to access their outdoor area, toddlers access the outdoor play spaces less frequently. There are limited opportunities for babies to go outside and they remain in their base rooms for much of the day. A suitable selection of resources and activities are available throughout the nursery, although this is variable from room to room. For example, one toddler room lacks an up-to-date selection of books, which means

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

that children access books with strong gender stereotypes. Suitable resources are available for sleep times and quiet times as the nursery have invested heavily in new equipment such as cots and floor mats.

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

Children's safety is adequately promoted. Most staff demonstrate a suitable understanding of how to assess and minimise risks to children's safety and suitable written risk assessments are in place. Generic daily safety checklists help staff identify key issues in their rooms. However, in some rooms in the nursery, staff are less proactive in identifying additional risks to children's safety when temporary equipment is placed in the room. For example, trailing wires from a fan heater. Some routines have been established to help children learn to recognise and take responsibility for their own personal safety. For example, children older children are careful not to run in the rooms in case they slip. The temperature in all rooms is routinely monitored and rooms remain at a comfortable temperature. The nursery has had a short term problem with maintaining suitable temperatures in some rooms, but this issue has now been resolved.

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

Staff throughout the nursery use clear and mostly consistent strategies to promote children's understanding of acceptable behaviour. Pre-school children behave well and show kindness to each other and visitors to the nursery. Children are well mannered, respectful of each other and taking it in turns to share their skills. Behaviour is managed less well in the toddler room, as children who have become bored after lunch choose to run around the room. Staff try and manage this through explanations, but are not consistent when detailing the risks to children, who appear bored with the selection of resources and activities on offer.

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provision

There are inadequate procedures to monitor the effectiveness of the educational provision and drive forward further improvements. Systems to monitor and evaluate the success of the educational provision are not effective and this is the key weakness in the nursery. This means that weaknesses in the quality of teaching have not been identified or tackled by managers or senior staff. Recent changes to staff responsibilities have led to limited opportunities for staff supervision. The failure to provide ongoing support and to mentor staff effectively means that staff are not secure in their roles. Professional development of staff is not fully supported by an effective programme which is able to identify or tackle weaknesses in teaching. This in turn has led to groups of children underachieving in their learning and children not making expected levels of progress overall giving their starting points. Staff do have some opportunities to attend training events which are identified in

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provision

their annual appraisals and a number of staff are currently working towards a recognised qualification. A suitable number of staff have first aid qualifications and staff ratios are maintained.

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provision

Safeguarding responsibilities are adequately met. The staff have a sufficient understanding of current child protection procedures and are aware of the reporting procedure to follow if they have a concern about a child. The child protection policy meet requirements and the manager has attended child protection training in order to ensure that her team have an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding issues. A mobile phone and camera policy has been strictly enforced and both visitors and students are monitored at all times in order to promote children's safety. There is an appropriate system of selection, recruitment and induction in place to assess the suitability of staff and students. Required policies, permissions and information about children's care needs are in place, although a record of attendance has not been maintained in some rooms and lacks the time of departure for some children, for a number of days.

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provision

The senior management team acknowledge that some recent changes have led to a period of instability in the nursery. They recognise that self-evaluation has not been sharp enough to identify the key areas which need most improvement, but show a determination to put things right. Recommendations from the last inspection have not been met as staff have failed to build on their assessment systems in order to more effectively track children's progress. Actions plans have been drawn up by the area manager and the manager of the nursery and staff have begun to work closely together to tackle key weaknesses. These plans adequately identify some of the issues in the nursery, although to date, they have not been rigorous enough to identify the areas that require immediate and urgent action. The nursery demonstrates a satisfactory capacity for improvement.

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provision

Partnerships with other settings and professionals have not been securely established. This means that information that has been provided by parents and other professionals has not been securely embedded into practice to support children with recognised additional needs.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 keep records of the following and retain them for a period of two years: a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (Records to be kept) (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  keep records of the following and retain them for a period of two years: a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (Records to be kept) (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)

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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 EY233534 Local authority West Berkshire (Newbury) Inspection number 900567 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 104 Number of children on roll 117 Name of provider Just Learning Ltd Date of previous inspection 07/10/2009 Telephone number 01635 524832

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Setting details

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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