Townsend Montessori Nurseries @ Margate

Townsend Montessori @ Margate Tempest House, 10 Cowper Road, MARGATE, Kent, CT9 1SX

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/03/2013 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: Not Applicable 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

 The leadership and management team are well developed and implement secure processes to promote children's safety and learning and development opportunities.  The nursery is bright and welcoming, with a good range of resources, providing an effective learning environment for children.  An effective key person system promotes good relationships between practitioners and the children.  Partnership with parents is highly promoted to meet children's individual needs.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 children access the outdoor area on a daily basis, but staff do not fully plan or provide for the non-mobile children to support their developing physical skills  staff encourage children to link some letters and sounds when reading books, but labels for words and numbers are limited within the 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

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Information about this inspection

 scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged 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 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  scheduled 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 spent the majority of the inspection observing the children and practitioners.  The inspector sampled documentation, policies and procedures.  The inspector carried out several short joint observations with the manager.  The inspector obtained parental views through discussion.

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Information about the setting

Townsend Montessori @ Margate registered in 2012. It is one of seven nurseries run by Townsend Montessori Nurseries Ltd. It operates from a self-contained building in Margate, Kent. Children use three play rooms, with pre-school aged children cared for on the first floor. Access to the first floor is via a set of stairs. The children also have access to an enclosed outside area.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery is open each weekday from 7.30am to 6.30pm all year round. There are currently 46 children on roll in the early years age range. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for children aged two, three and four years. There are systems in place to support children learning English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs nine practitioners including the manager and a qualified teacher who attends once a week. Eight practitioners hold appropriate early years qualifications to at least National Vocational Qualification level 2.

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

 improve resources and physical experiences for babies and toddlers, such as bouncing, rolling, rocking and splashing, both indoors and outside

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

 improve labelling and signs within the nursery to help children understand what a word is, by using names and labels, by pointing out words in the environment and in books, in addition to number labels for children to use in practical ways, such as number plates for bicycles.

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who attend

Children play in a well-resourced environment that is bright and welcoming. Children play in a playroom based on their age, enabling practitioners to plan for their individual needs using suitable resources. The practitioners plan activities based around children's interests and different themes to provide them with interesting activities, including different celebrations and festivals. Practitioners have an effective knowledge of child development and their quality of teaching is good. Consequently they provide activities that extend children's learning in all seven areas. For example, children aged three to four years enjoy opportunities to act out familiar roles from home in the role-play area, such as cooking the dinner and making cups of tea. Younger children enjoy playing with real food boxes and putting them in and on the toy cupboards, learning to recognise familiar foods. All children enjoy activities to promote fine muscle physical skills as they draw and paint using brushes

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who attend

and make marks with crayons. Older children thread beads, showing good hand and eye coordination, whereas younger children push the beads along the wire frame. Children enjoy daily opportunities to develop large physical skills. This is generally outside, where children enjoying bouncing on the trampoline or climbing on the wooden structure and sliding down the slide. However, on some occasions, staff do not plan or provide opportunities for physical play for non-mobile children. This has an impact on how they learn to move their bodies in different ways.

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who attend

Practitioners show an awareness of promoting communication and language and talk to the children all the time. They ask open-ended questions the majority of time and engage all children in conversation, whether at meal times or during child-initiated play. Opportunities to sing songs, use puppets and talk about events from home further support children's use of language, and extend their vocabulary. Cosy book corners are available in each room, with a good range of books, to promote children's literacy skills. Practitioners introduce letters and sounds when they talk about the day of the week or the title of the book. However, opportunities for children to see written words, labels or numbers in the environment, to develop their literacy skills are limited.

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who attend

Children recognise familiar numbers, such as their birthdays and use their fingers to reflect the number. They develop mathematical skills in their play, such as counting the steps on the climbing frame or the discs on the large counter game outside. They access the Montessori equipment that provides children with good opportunities to support their learning of shape, space and measure. Resources reflecting diversity and inclusion are well used and accessible throughout the nursery. Puzzles, books, puppets and small world families reflect disabilities and different cultures, enabling children to learn about others in community and the world around them. A member of staff is responsible for promoting this area and individual activities further support inclusion, enabling all children to feel valued and respected. Parents all feel that individual signs in their home language are a welcoming gesture.

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who attend

Practitioners carry out regular observations of the children at play. The key person compiles their key children's 'unique story' records using a summary checklist to monitor their progress across areas of learning. The key person also uses the information to support future planning to enable them to meet children's individual needs. The practitioners carry out progress checks for children who are aged between two and three years, in addition to the 'unique story record. They share this with parents to provide further information for outside agencies as part of their partnership working. This also helps promote children's all round development and a healthy lifestyle.

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who attend

The nursery highly promotes good partnerships with parents. Practitioners have implemented good systems to enable parents to share information, right from the initial visit. They use contact books, e-mails, telephone calls and daily verbal communication to share information about the child's day and to support consistency of care. Parents receive regular newsletters, have access to useful information put on notice boards and attend parents' social evenings to have the opportunity to see their child's key person. This close partnership working benefits the care, learning and development of all children. Consequently, children make good progress in their learning and development towards the early learning goals.

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

There is an effective key person system in place to help ensure children settle into nursery and feel safe and secure. Relationships between practitioners and children are developing well, enabling children to seek reassurance if upset or anxious. Practitioners support children well to make friends, as part of their personal and social development. Children learn about taking turns and sharing the toys and resources with support from the practitioners. As a result, children behave well, demonstrating their understanding of the rules in place. Practitioners offer lots of praise and explain what this is for. For example, children are told 'good tidying up', 'well done for putting the toys away' and 'thank you for helping'. Consequently, children gain an understanding of acceptable behaviour and develop high levels of confidence and self-esteem.

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

Children reflect a feeling of security as they confidently move around the nursery. They become confident to make choices from the accessible resources and the planned activities. Children show good self-care skills as they wash their hands in preparation for snack time and pour their own drinks. Practitioners encourage younger children to feed themselves, for example by using their fingers to develop their personal independence. As children move up through the nursery they learn to use a spoon and fork and then knife and fork, reflecting their developing skills. Older children put on their coats and shoes for outside play and are supported in learning which the correct foot is. These independence skills and personal care routines support children in their readiness for school.

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

Children gain a good understanding about living a healthy lifestyle. They make choices from the healthy snacks on offer, usually fresh fruit and choose from milk or water to drink. Meal times are social occasions with children sitting together to eat cooked meals or packed lunches from home. Practitioners are all aware of children's dietary needs to promote their safety and well-being. Good hygiene routines, such as washing hands before eating and cleaning tables appropriately before children eat, support children's health and welfare. Daily exercise outside to get fresh air and exercise benefits the health of all children.

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

Children demonstrate a good understanding of keeping themselves safe. For example, they use the handrail when walking up and down the stairs, remembering which colour rail they must hold on to. They use tools sensibly, such as scissors, and are able to explain why you must walk when carrying them. Practitioners remind children about keeping safe, for example, when going outside they must walk down the concrete slope and not jump off the side. Procedures to keep children safe at the nursery are robust and secure. For example, strangers cannot enter the premises unless staff let them in the front door and they have to sign in the visitors' book to record their presence. Staff implement good fire safety procedures and children understand the importance of practising this process to learn about their own safety in an emergency.

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

There is a good range of well-made wooden resources and furniture for the children to use, made specifically for their height. Practitioners organise the resources exceptionally well around the rooms,providing easy access for children to make choices and help themselves. The excellent range of resources reflects all areas of learning and children are able to sit quietly in the cosy, covered book corner or play cooperatively with others in the role-play area.

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provision

The nursery prioritises safeguarding to protect the children's welfare. All practitioners attend training and the manager is the designated person for child protection. As a result, they effectively implement the comprehensive safeguarding policy within the nursery. All practitioners understand the procedures to follow if they have any concerns about a child's welfare and contact details for outside agencies are easily accessible. These measures all contribute to the protection of children in the nursery.

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provision

The leadership and management of the setting are extremely strong and effective. The robust recruitment procedures help ensure practitioners' suitability and promote children's safety. These procedures, together with annual appraisals and regular supervision, help the manager to monitor the ongoing suitability of practitioners to work with the children. Focussed guidance from the head office provides the practitioners with excellent support systems for all aspects of the daily running of the nursery. Consequently, systems to support children's learning and development, together with partnerships with parents are good. The manager has implemented systems to monitor the provision, both in individual rooms and as a whole. Regular staff meetings, to enable all practitioners to volunteer suggestions or voice any concerns, support this monitoring. As a result, self-evaluation is highly effective in identifying weakness within the provision. Consequently, good plans are

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provision

in place to drive continuous improvement in the outcomes for children within the nursery.

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provision

The manager has a good understanding of her role and responsibilities in meeting the learning and development requirements. The nursery has the support of a qualified teacher to support this process and provide guidance for the practitioners in supporting individual children. They constantly review and update systems to monitor children's development in order to drive improvement in their practice and the learning outcomes for each child. All practitioners have had training on delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage in order to provide good quality teaching. As a result, children experience a good range of activities to support all areas of learning.

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provision

The nursery successfully embeds procedures in its practice to support children learning English as an additional language or with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Practitioners work closely with parents and outside agencies to provide support and individual educational programmes to enable all children to develop and flourish within the nursery setting.

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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 action. 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 EY450900 Local authority Kent Inspection number 881120 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 72 Number of children on roll 46 Name of provider Townsend Montessori Nurseries Ltd Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01832 600 444

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Setting details

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: 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, which are usually the childminder’s 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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