Tiddlywinks Day Nursery

Tiddlywinks Day Nursery 160 Victoria Avenue, Blackley, MANCHESTER, Lancashire, M9 0RN

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 28/01/2013 08/02/2011

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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

 Children, parents and staff are highly valued in this caring and inclusive nursery. Children are supremely confident as they build extremely strong relationships with their key persons who are highly sensitive and responsive to their individual needs.  Excellent partnerships with a wide range of other agencies support staff and families in providing high quality support to all children. This enables them to make rapid progress in their development from their individual starting points.  Providers and managers are dedicated and provide exceptionally strong leadership. Highly effective self-evaluation gives careful consideration to every aspect of the provision. Therefore, areas identified for development are sharply focused and ensure that the nursery continues to provide excellent quality services to children and families.  Children eagerly explore the vast range of high quality toys and activities available to

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This provision is outstanding

them in the highly stimulating nursery environment.

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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 younger children's room, the foundation years room and the outdoor play area.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a meeting with the manager, deputy manager, area manager and provider.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to members of the staff team about the progress of their key children and their understanding of the nursery's policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's observation and assessment records, planning documentation, evidence of suitability of practitioners working within the setting and a range of other documentation.

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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

Tiddlywinks Day Nursery is one of three nurseries owned and operated by Tiddlywinks Day Nursery Limited. It was registered in 2007 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It operates from three rooms within Higher Blackley Children's Centre in the Blackley area of Manchester. There is a fully enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens Monday to Friday all year round. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. The out of school club opens from 7.30am to 9am and 3.15pm to 6pm term time and 7.30am to 6pm during school holidays. There are currently 25 children attending the out of school club, six of whom are in the early years age range. There are currently 72 children attending the nursery, all of whom are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The nursery employs 18 members of childcare staff. Of these, 16 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3, including one with Early Years Professional Status.

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

 continue to explore different ways for the two-way sharing of information with parents about their children's progress at home and at nursery, for example, through the use of emails and texting.

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who attend

Staff have an expert knowledge of how children learn and of the Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance. They use this, together with their excellent understanding of the needs, abilities and interests of children they care for to provide them with rich, varied and imaginative experiences. Therefore, children are highly engaged in their play and are supported by highly skilled staff who challenge and extend their learning throughout the day.

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who attend

Staff forge strong relationships with parents and observe children closely as they settle in order to gather an accurate picture of children's skills, abilities and interests when they begin at nursery. Robust systems are then in place to continue to observe and monitor children's progress towards the early learning goals. Staff and parents devise achievable, yet challenging next steps for children's learning and work together to support children in reaching these. Assessments are precise and robust and ensure that gaps in learning are quickly identified and that additional support is sought when needed. Therefore, all children make rapid progress in their learning and development from their individual starting points.

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who attend

A number of innovative ways have been introduced to engage all parents in their children's learning and ensure that they regularly share information regarding children's progress. Some of these have been more successful than others. The nursery has identified, as part of the local authority quality assurance scheme, that further ways could be introduced, such as use of emails and texting. Parents are invited to regular 'stay and play' groups. These are held at the nursery at different times and on different days to provide opportunities for parents or grandparents to attend and share in their children's learning and experiences at nursery. Children and staff take turns to take home 'Kiki' the bear and use the nursery camera and notebook to record their experiences. Parents give high praise for the nursery and the staff. They describe how they have worked with their child's key person to develop positive strategies for managing their behaviour at home and

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who attend

how they have used the story sacks to enhance children's learning.

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who attend

Staff are highly skilled at promoting children's communication and language skills. Therefore, children quickly become exceedingly confident and capable in communicating their needs, likes and ideas to staff and each other. Staff are quick to respond to the non- verbal communications of babies and young children and recognise their desires and emotions. They naturally and routinely promote very young children's language as they describe their actions and name the objects they are playing with. For example, a young child affectionately cuddles a teddy and demonstrates his imaginative skills as he puts it in a baby bouncer and covers it with a blanket. Staff say to the child 'Are you putting teddy to bed?'

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who attend

Older children spend a short time on a daily basis engaging in small group activities to promote their listening skills and their understanding of linking sounds to letters. These are very well planned and children enthusiastically identify the letter of week and rush to find objects in the room that begin with that letter. They excitedly share their findings with each other and staff. Children benefit from being in a language rich environment where a variety of books, magazines, labels and writing materials are attractively presented in various areas of the room. This encourages them to practise and develop their literacy and writing skills for a variety of purposes and displays show examples of their quickly developing writing skills. A recent reorganisation of the foundation years room has increased opportunities for children to explore a wider range of creative art resources. They take full advantage of these opportunities and take great pride in their collages and

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who attend

Staff seize opportunities to challenge children's learning and encourage them to be creative in their thinking. As children build using wooden blocks staff ask how they can make the base stronger so they can make their tower secure. They compare the size of their hands when deciding who can safely retrieve a toy that is hidden in the tower and imagine that they have built a zoo for the toy animals. As children play in the sand staff develop their mathematical understanding as they talk about full, empty and half full and ask them to estimate how many more spades of sand it will take to fill the bucket. They recognise that children learn most effectively when they follow their interests, and therefore, encourage a child who is playing with cars to count and calculate how many they have. A group of children relish mixing their own play dough. They independently go to the low-level sink to fill their jugs with water and eagerly go to find a spoon for a friend

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who attend

who has chosen to join the activity. They giggle and shriek with delight as they watch the mixture stick to their own and staffs' hands and observe the changes as they add more flour or more water. This demonstrates how magical and exciting learning is for children at the nursery.

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who attend

Children have rich and varied opportunities to learn about the natural world, their local community and the wider world. The previous week children had been talking about how the birds find it difficult to find food when it snows. The provider bought a new bird feeder and children eagerly found a place to hang it in the outdoor play area. A parent, together with a group of volunteers from her local place of work have funded and worked alongside staff and children to create a vegetable garden to enable children to plant, grow, observe and eat their own fruit and vegetables. Small groups of children go on trips to local shops, parks and the library. Children's understanding of their own and others' cultures, beliefs and lifestyles is promoted well through an extensive range of toys, resources, books and posters that reflect positive images of diversity. Children are currently looking forward to a visit to China Town as part of their activities in recognition of Chinese New Year.

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who attend

Various initiatives are in place to support children in their transition to school. Staff and parents work together to help children develop skills, such as communication and language and independence and self-help skills. Staff make contact with all schools that children move on to and arrange visits to schools or for teachers to visit the nursery. They use photographs and dress 'Kiki' the bear in a school uniform to encourage conversations about school. Parents report that their older children settled very well into school and they had all the skills to support their transition.

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

Children are extremely confident and secure in the vibrant and stimulating nursery environment. They enthusiastically explore and make choices from the inspiring range of high quality resources and well-planned activities that are easily accessible to them both in and outdoors. They develop a particularly strong sense of self and a high self-esteem as they are cared for by sensitive and caring staff who are highly skilled in identifying and respecting children's individual needs and feelings. Staff take time to gently comfort a child when they become upset when it is time come indoors for lunch. They respect the child's right to express their emotions while they explain that it is time for lunch and they quickly cheers up and washes their hands for lunch. Children are supported well in developing their social skills. They are quickly learning how to take turns and consider the needs of others. Babies enjoy each other's company. They watch each other closely as

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

they play in small groups exploring bottles filled with coloured water or dried pasta. Staff are deployed well and spend time skilfully supporting children in their play while allowing them to play on their own. This nurtures children's desire to explore and experiment with different resources and enables them to practise their skills. After making a collage picture with a member of staff a younger child is fascinated as she explores the glue. She puts it onto a glue spreader and watches intently as it drips onto her paper.

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

Babies and children of all ages build extremely strong bonds with their key person and secondary key person. The key person takes particular responsibility for taking care of their key children's personal hygiene and health needs, tracking their progress and establishing strong relationships with their parents. They take great care to work with parents to support their children through their transitions from home to nursery, from the younger children's room to the foundation stage room and from nursery to school.

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

Children have many opportunities to make choices and actively contribute their thoughts and ideas as part of the nursery's self-evaluation process. Children in the foundation years room have recently been involved in reviewing some of the nurseries policies. For example, they have talked about what they feel is important regarding behaviour in the nursery and have discussed how they can stay safe and healthy during hot, sunny weather. This empowers children, encourages them to think and question and effectively develops their understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy, behave well and play cooperatively. They are involved in carrying out daily risk assessments and staff point out possible hazards, such as patches of ice when they go outdoors to play.

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

A wide range of initiatives are in place that further promote healthy lifestyles. Staff work closely with other professionals to develop their skills and take on specific roles and responsibilities within the nursery. A member of staff who is designated as the dental health champion has close links with the dental health team and works with parents and children to promote good dental health. The breastfeeding champion supports parents in continuing to breastfeed when their children start attending nursery. They are able to come into nursery during the day and have a specific room available in the children's centre where they can breastfeed. Children enjoy an excellent selection of healthy, freshly prepared, well-balanced meals and snacks and develop high levels of independence in their personal hygiene skills. Staff recognise the importance of fresh air and exercise in promoting healthy lifestyles and are aware that some children learn better in an outdoor

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

environment. Therefore, they ensure that children have regular opportunities for outdoor play throughout the day. Children have many opportunities to develop strong physical skills. They run, jump and ride bikes and scooters and skilfully avoid objects. Having been informed by a parent that their child had started to walk at home, staff sensitively encourage the child to develop these skills at nursery. They take great pleasure as they observe her taking her first tentative steps and she rapidly grows in confidence. Excellent communication with parents and other professionals ensure that all those involved in caring for children have an in-depth understanding of their individual health needs. Therefore, they receive optimum support and care.

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provision

Leadership and management of the nursery is superb and integral to the continued exceptionally high quality provision for children and their families. The providers are dynamic leaders who are fully committed to providing the best possible early years experiences to children they care for. They work very closely with area and nursery managers within their three settings, establishing highly effective networks that develop staff expertise and support developments within the nursery. They have close links with the children's centre manager and local authority and have been involved in creating and implementing quality assurance schemes. They keep fully up-to-date with national and local early years initiatives and embrace opportunities to take part in projects to enhance staff skills and provision for children. These have included 'Every Child a Talker' and 'Language Friendly Environments'. They have enabled staff to develop their expertise in

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provision

promoting children's language and communication at all stages and to ensure that children are referred to other agencies for additional support as necessary.

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provision

Self-evaluation is meticulous and ensures that the quality of all areas of the provision are reflected upon routinely and systematically. The views of the full range of people who are involved with the nursery are sought regularly. This includes children, parents, staff, local authority development workers and other agencies including health professionals and local colleges. Therefore, actions plans are based on an excellent and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the nursery's strengths and areas for development.

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provision

Managers quickly identify weaknesses in the educational provision, gaps in individual children's learning or in the progress of specific groups of children. This is achieved through highly effective systems that track children's progress across all areas of learning. Managers spend time working alongside staff, observing practice and assessing how well the environment meets the needs of children. They have a clear knowledge of the areas of weakness in children's learning at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage through strong links with local schools. The quality of the observation, assessment and planning is routinely monitored to ensure that the high standard continues and to identify any gaps in staff skills or understanding. These robust and secure procedures allow the nursery to be highly focused in identifying areas for development.

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provision

A high priority is given to empowering all staff and they state that they feel highly valued and motivated. They demonstrate a strong commitment, pride and enjoyment in their work. They enjoy the additional roles they are given within the nursery and feel a strong sense of involvement in decision making. They are given excellent levels of support by the management team who have introduced an extensive range of ways to identify their strengths and areas for development in order to promote their professional development. These include manager and peer observations, role modelling, supervision and appraisals. Regular training is provided in response to needs identified during the self-evaluation process.

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provision

All staff give a high priority to ensuring that children are safeguarded. They receive regular, comprehensive training to update their knowledge of the signs and symptoms of abuse and the actions they must take to ensure that children are protected from abuse or neglect. They have a clear understanding of the whistle blowing policy and of their responsibilities for reporting concerns to the appropriate manager or agency. Managers have worked effectively with parents and other agencies to ensure that children are safeguarded. A comprehensive range of policies and procedures are regularly reviewed with staff, parents and children to ensure that children's safety and welfare is promoted exceedingly well.

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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 EY345251 Local authority Manchester Inspection number 849385

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 68 Number of children on roll 97 Name of provider Tiddlywinks Day Nursery Limited Date of previous inspection 08/02/2011 Telephone number 0161 7954689

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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: 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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