St Patrick's

St Patrick's Montessori Nursery School 91 Cornwall Rd, London, SE1 8TH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 22/02/2013 27/09/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 Children's good health and well-being is supported well by staff who provide children with healthy, balanced and nutritious food at snack and mealtimes.  Staff use observations and assessment well to plan for children's next steps in their learning, so they make good progress in relation to their starting points.  Staff provide a good programme for children's physical development and children enjoy being outdoors.  A well-established key person system helps children to form secure attachments. This means that staff are able to address children's individual care needs well and children are ready to learn.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not make all resources readily available, so every child can extend their play as they wish to as easily as possible. Some table top activities are not easy for younger ones to reach.  Assessment systems do not include space in children's records for parents' comments about what their children do at home, so all staff can access this information, if necessary.

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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 observed activities in the playrooms and the outdoor play area.  The inspector undertook a joint observation with the manager.  The inspector had discussions with parents, staff and children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including children's records, stipulated safeguarding procedures and evidence of staff qualifications and policies.

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Information about the setting

St Patrick's Montessori Nursery School opened in 1994 and registered with Ofsted in 2001. It is registered on the Early Years Register. It operates from converted Victorian building in the Waterloo area of London. It is owned by Radius Educational Services Ltd There is a enclosed area available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs 28 members of staff. Of these, 19 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3, including one with Qualified Teacher Status. The nursery incorporates Montessori teaching alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage. The nursery opens Monday to Friday all year round. Sessions are from 8am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 84 children attending who are in the early year's age range. The nursery provides funded early education for three- and four-year- old children. It supports a number of children who learn English as an additional language and children with special needs and/or disabilities.

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

 make additional resources readily available to all children so they can choose what they wish to reflect their thinking and extend their play, using their imaginations as well as possible

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

 enhance the assessment system, so parents' comments on their children's learning at home is readily available to all staff, if needed.

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who attend

The nursery environment offers a broad range of activities, which support all children well in their learning. Staff observe children at play carefully and record each child's achievements in their 'learning journals'. Staff assess children's progress regularly, to ensure that they are able to plan appropriate next steps in children's learning and development. This system helps children make good progress in relation to their starting points on entry. Staff spend time with parents and their children when they first start, which enables staff to find out about children's routines at home, and current learning and development levels. This means that staff settle children in easily, so they are ready to learn through play.

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who attend

Information sharing continues daily through verbal feedback and computerised information sheets, which key workers update daily. The staff produce well thought out learning journals for every child, which they share regularly with parents. Opportunities to encourage comments within these journals from parents are being missed. This means that parents are unable to contribute their observations and thoughts to children's learning journals, so the record is complete and can be read and used by other members of staff when necessary; for example, if key carers are absent.

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who attend

Staff have good systems in place to assess children between the ages of two and three years, which enables early identification of any concerns in a child's learning or development. Key workers work closely together with parents and teachers to support children's movement between age groups and as they prepare to start school. This good partnership enables children to prepare well for starting the next stage in their learning.

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who attend

Staff support children's language and communication well throughout all age groups. Good information sharing between key persons and parents enables them to learn words in children's home languages. This system allows all babies to hear familiar words when they need reassurance or feel uncertain. Staff use dual language books and words around the nursery to further support children who learn English as an additional language. Children in the pre-school room are well supported to develop good speaking skills, as staff repeat back to them what they say correctly, which helps children to form sentences and use a wider range of vocabulary. Staff use good questioning techniques that encourage older children to think their ideas through and make connections between different parts of their experiences as they play.

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who attend

The staff use some aspects of the Montessori approach in their teaching. This enables children in the pre-school room to practice life skills such as pouring and transferring objects between bowls. Such practice helps develop children's hand skills well. Children in the schoolroom, who are older, spend longer using the Montessori resources, investigating numbers, space and shapes, and using the traditional wooden resources to practice counting. These are easily accessible from the low-level shelves. However, although children have a wide range of resources put out for them to play with, they are unable to select resources independently as other toys are stored in big cupboards. This system means that children are sometime unable to have the resources they wish to extend their play. While staff respond to children's requests for resources, the system does not support children learning English as an additional language, as they might not have developed

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who attend

enough spoken English to be able to do so.

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who attend

Children enjoy daily physical exercise in the outdoor play area, they develop their physical skills as they climb on the wooden climbing frame, and enjoy running around. Opportunities for indoor physical exercise are provided as staff support younger children to climb up and down a wooden step set. Staff show their appreciation of children's efforts by clapping and praising every step they manage, and encourage them to learn to walk down stairs using alternate feet to develop their balance.

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who attend

Staff provides a range of 'messy play' activities for all the age ranges daily. Children try to play in a tray of water and bubbles, but as the tray is on a table, it is too high for some children to take part. Staff put the tray on the floor, and soon children are laughing and enjoying the bubbles in the water. Some bubbles land on the member of staff's hair, some children creep up behind her and pop the bubbles with their hands. The children put the bubbles on their hands, and then clap, enjoying watching the bubbles fly everywhere. The babies enjoy playing in a tray of dried oats; they investigate the feel and textures using their hands. Children in all age groups enjoy listening to stories; they snuggle up to staff to share a story in the book areas. Staff enhance this by providing puppets relevant to children's favourite stories, which allow children to act out the story as it is told. Children

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who attend

in the schoolroom have a wooden den, to sit and peruse books away from the daily bustle of the nursery. Children talk about their favourite books and how much they enjoy being up in the den. This approach helps children to develop a love of books ready for their move to school.

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

Children's well-being is nurtured through effective provision for personal, social emotional development. The key person system helps children to develop feelings of security, and provides a special person to give support when needed. Parents comment positively about being able to stay with their children to support them as they settle into their new surroundings, which ensures that children of all ages separate from their parents happily. Babies and young children respond to their key person with smiles and put their arms up for cuddles. They are rewarded with warm, consistent and loving care from their special person. Children behave well. They respond to staff politely because staff model the use of good manners. This enables children to communicate positively and share with one another.

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

Effective staffing ratios ensure that there are always more than the minimum staffing requirements, which means that children's individual needs are met. Staff join in with children's games, providing support as required. Children show an interest in drawing, so a member of staff immediately responds by providing some large drawing paper and place it on the floor so all children can participate. She encourages children to recognise the colours of the pens they are using and then as they start drawing faces, she encourages them to think about where their eyes, nose and mouth should go on their pictures. As more children want to join in, she gets more paper and pens, which ensures all children who want to join in, are able to.

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

Staff provide children with safe spaces for play. They teach children how to protect themselves in the event of an emergency, as they practice regular fire drills. Children develop a good understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles as they enjoy freshly cooked, balanced and nutritious snacks and meals, which are prepared using fresh ingredients on the premises. Babies have organic pureed food, and plenty of finger foods, which encourages them to feed themselves. Effective hygiene routines and daily access to the enclosed outdoor play area, help children to develop a good understanding of the importance of physical exercise. Staff teach children how to wash their hands thoroughly and children know why they must do this.

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

The nursery staff have links with the local schools, which enable the teachers to come in to nursery and meet the children prior to the transfer. This helps children's move into school to be managed well. The staff have developed links with local authority early years advisors, which enable staff to use a range of training programmes to support their professional development. This good link also provides support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities should the staff need advice or guidance.

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provision

The provider ensures that the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory Framework to the Early Years Foundation Stage are implemented well. There is clear understanding of when to contact the regulator, Ofsted. The management team monitor the implementation of safeguarding policies within the nursery, making sure staff know who to report to should they have any concerns about children's welfare. They act quickly in the event of any incidents and check carefully whether procedures need updating or changing because of concise action plans. Recruitment procedures for new staff are robust, which ensures that all staff undergo the necessary checks to be working with children. Staff are well qualified and understand their individual roles and responsibilities. All staff have attended child protection training, which means that they are aware of the procedures to follow should they have a concern about a child. The secure entrance

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provision

buzzer system is an effective security measure, as are the keypad entry system into areas where children are. These systems ensure that only known adults are able to go into the nursery. Clear risk assessment and daily checks are in place to ensure that the nursery is safe for the children who attend. All required documentation is in place and managed well to support children's well-being and maintain confidentiality. Staff promote the good health of children well. All recommendations set at the last inspection have been addressed.

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provision

The management team understand their responsibilities for implementing the learning and development requirements, which they do well. Children receive good support and enjoy interesting activities. Staff have regular appraisals and team meetings, which help the management to identify additional training needs to maintain continuous improvement well. The management team has plan to renew their self-evaluation plan; however, they have identified useful areas for future development to promote the continuous improvement of the nursery. For example, improving the communication board outside the schoolroom, to make it more appealing to parents to encourage more to read it. Staff have recently enjoyed an inset-training day, held to encourage them to be more creative in their provision for the programme for the expressive arts, focusing on 'messy play'. Staff enjoyed playing with chocolate gloop and jelly, which has resulted in more exciting

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provision

activities for children. This shows how the management are able to respond to the identified needs of the staff and improve outcomes for children.

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provision

Partnerships with parents are positive and support children's learning and development well overall. Parents receive a good range of information about the nursery and their children's learning. Staff share information through a range of media including emails, conversations and the daily communication sheets, which keeps parents involved and up to date. Wider partnerships work effectively to support children's care learning and development.

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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 144712 Local authority Lambeth Inspection number 901066 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 66 Number of children on roll 84 Name of provider Radius Educational Services Limited Date of previous inspection 27/09/2011 Telephone number 0207-928-5557

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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

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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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