Little Learners Nursery

Little Learners Nursery Congreave Lines, Royal Artillery Barracks, Repository Road, LONDON, SE18 4BB

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 07/03/2013 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

 Children establish close bonds with their key person and they settle happily with the support of the kind and caring staff.  Highly positive relationships with parents contribute to strong levels of engagement with the nursery and their children's learning.  All children are supported to make good progress in relation to their starting points and capabilities at entry.  Partnership and liaison with outside agencies contributes positively to children's well- being, learning and development.  Staff plan a good range of indoor and outdoor activities which build on children's current interest and abilities.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not provide the appropriate resources to build on individual children's reading capability or to secure their increasing talent of numbers.  Staff do not always use consistent and clear explanations to help younger children cooperate with boundaries and develop an understanding of why they are there.

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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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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed children and staff interaction during free play and planned indoor and outdoor activities.  The inspector and deputy undertook joint observations.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector discussed leadership and management of the nursery with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector scrutinised documentation, including a representative sample of children's records, development plans and staff suitability records.  The inspector spoke to parents during the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Little Learners Nursery first opened in 1996 and registered with Ofsted at its current location in 2012. The nursery is owned by the British Army and run by a management committee. It is based in a single-storey purpose built premises in the Royal Artillery Barracks, within the London Borough of Greenwich. Children are accommodated in three main group rooms, with access to a fully enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and is open from 9am to 3pm each weekday, during term time. The nursery serves Army families and some civilian families in the local area. There are 65 children age from two to under five years on roll. The nursery receives funding to provide free early education for children aged three and four years. Children may attend all day, or either a morning or afternoon session, with optional lunch provided by their parents. A total of seven staff work with the children, of whom four hold relevant

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Information about the setting

National Vocational Qualifications at level 3 and two at hold similar qualifications at level 2. The manager holds Early Years Professional Status (EYPS).

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

 consider ways to strengthen the learning environment further; for example, by securing children's understanding of numbers by asking what comes after or before each number and providing number resources to show number patterns; and by building on children's individual reading capability by adding to their first hand experience of the world through the use of books, other texts and information

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

 help younger children to cooperate with boundaries by giving clear explanations so they develop an understanding of why these are in place.

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who attend

Staff have a good understanding of each child's learning needs. Parents are involved in their child's initial assessment and staff use this information well to establish starting points. Regular observations of what the children can do and what they enjoy are used to inform the flexible planning and the educational programme. Staff record progress for each child and parents receive six weekly updates of their child's achievements and contribute to their child's next steps in learning. Stretching challenges are set for children, including those with additional needs. Staff use their knowledge of individual children's interests and learning needs to ensure that they all benefit from the learning opportunities. Picture boards and cards help children understand the changes in routine and enable those with communication difficulties to make choices and select activities. Children are confident, engaged and develop enthusiasm for learning because staff have

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who attend

high aspirations for all children and are willing to try new approaches. For instance, staff place additional resources such as cars in the sand or alongside arts and craft activities, reflecting the interest of boys. This encourages and supports the inventive ways that children can explore different materials and apply or mix media that represents their own ideas. Children enjoy make believe play. Outdoors children act out familiar 'fairy tales' pretending that the climbing frame is the castle and enjoy indoor role play in the home corner. Staff provide various activities, topics and themes to promote children's understanding of the world. Children learn that they have similarities and differences that connect them to and distinguish them from others. They play with small-world models such as the house and a range of play people depicting different ability, age, culture and gender. In addition, children take part in a variety of different festivals and specials

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who attend

events, such as Remembrance Day, Diwali and cultural awareness day, where they are able to sample traditional foods, dress, music and instruments. Children show a keen interest in living things. They plant and care for herbs, such as basil and rosemary, and observe their growth in the indoor greenhouse.

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who attend

Children enjoy working together to complete puzzles. Staff support younger children by drawing their attention to the different animal patterns and colours in pictures to help them match the pieces. The children count the number of animals on each puzzle and staff help the children to organise the puzzles in order from one to five by asking what number comes next. Several children use their fingers counting aloud to support their thinking and work out a solution. Staff also draw children's attention to the written number of animals in the picture. This helps the children to learn about number order and begin to recognise numerals. Individual older children enjoy playing with number lines that represent the date for each day from one to 31. They demonstrate the ability to select and place the correct numerals in order and count these backwards. However, staff do not sufficiently challenge these children to use their understanding of numbers to say which

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who attend

number is one more or one less than a given number. In addition, the resources do not help children who show an increasing ability in their understanding of numbers to recognise a combination of two written numerals beyond 31.

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who attend

Children are supported well in their communication and language development. Staff use visual aids, story time, singing sessions and focus one to one support to extend children's vocabulary and promote listening, understanding and concentration skills. Children listen attentively to stories, enjoy singing sessions and play musical instruments, creating loud and soft sounds. They join in with repetitive phrases that support vocabulary and language structure. Older children listen to stories using a compact disc player. This helps them to focus their attention and listen carefully to different speech sounds and voices. Staff provide a good range of resources for children to build secure foundations for early writing. Children make marks and patterns in the sand, draw, paint and label their own work. Older and more able children can write their name with letters correctly formed. Children have individual picture name labels for their coats and self-registration. Many

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who attend

children recognise their own name. Individual children use their phonic knowledge to segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together reading aloud. For example, they read and order the days of the week from Monday to Friday and know that Saturday and Sunday make up part of the week. However, these are not readily available in the learning environment for children to consolidate and further advance their natural curiosity and understanding.

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

Children are valued as unique individuals. Staff have a good knowledge and understanding of each child's welfare needs, including those arising from home background, health and learning difficulties. The settling-in process is seen as a critical period for getting to know the child and family. This helps parents and their children to feel valued and develop a secure sense of belonging as they form strong bonds with staff. For the most part, interactions between staff and children are good and children collaborate well with their friends. Where minor disagreements occur, staff encourage children to become aware of the consequences of their actions, talk about the feelings of others and help children to cope with their own feelings. However, not all staff help younger children to gain an awareness of their own safety and understanding why certain boundaries are important. For example, staff do not always give clear and consistent messages to the children of the

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

reasons why they must not run inside, stand up while eating or rock on two legs when sitting on a chair.

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

The learning environment is inclusive and significantly supports children to become independent learners and develop confidence. Children benefit from free flow indoor and outdoor play. They get plenty of fresh air and develop their physical skills through manoeuvring wheeled toys, balancing on blocks and using the climbing equipment. Each playroom has a self-service cafe area. Children can help themselves to a snack of cereal, fruits and crackers with milk or water. Parents provide healthy choices for children who stay for lunch and staff talk to children about foods that are good for them. Children develop good personal hygiene routines and self-care skills. They learn the importance of washing their hands before eating, after potting plants and using the toilet. This promotes children's understanding of healthy lifestyles.

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

The key person system supports children's smooth transitions from home into the nursery, between rooms in the nursery and preparation for their move to school. Regular communication with parents and strong links with the local primary school help develop strong partnerships and consistency in children's care and learning. Staff request information from parents about care routines, interests and capabilities to ensure that children's individual needs are known and respected from the outset. Parents and children get to know the staff and other children during the settling-in period. Children who are ready to move onto the pre-school room within the nursery do so gradually through short visits with the key person. Many of the children move on to the same school within the area. Staff provide parents with a summary report of children's progress towards the early learning goals to share with the school. The class teacher from the local school visits the

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

children at the nursery to talk to them about starting school.

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provision

Robust recruitment and vetting procedures help to ensure that staff working with children are suitable to do so. Effective monitoring of staff performance help to ensure that the nursery is consistently managed by a well-qualified and experienced staff team. There is a well-established programme for training and professional development arising from the assessment of staff needs. Two staff are currently working towards the early years foundation degree and another is working towards a professional childcare qualification at level 3. One staff is undergoing training to become a forest school leader and another has attended training on supporting boys in the learning environment. This help staff to reflect, monitor and improve the quality of care and education they offer to all children.

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provision

Since the reallocation of the nursery to new premises, the manager has developed new induction processes, which include a tour of the premises, emergency evacuation practices and a review of the policies and procedures. Staff demonstrate a firm understanding of the safeguarding policy and procedures and understand their responsibilities to safeguard children. All staff have completed safeguarding training and the designated lead practitioner responsible for safeguarding children attends six weekly meetings at the Local Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB) and cascades the information. This supports staff in their role and ensures that they have the latest and most relevant information available to safeguard children's welfare and know what do to if they have concerns about a child in their care. Good security procedures are applied to control access to the premises, the use of mobile phones and cameras. Staff carry out daily health and safety checks of the

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provision

premises before the children arrive. This helps them to identify potential risks and hazards, and put in place thorough control measures to ensure the premises and equipment is safe for children to explore. There are adequate staff that hold an appropriate paediatric first aid certificate. This means that staff can quickly act in the child's best interest if there is an accident.

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provision

Staff have fostered highly positive relationships with parents and there are very effective channels to share information. Parents received plenty of information about the curriculum, routines and activities during the settling-in period and continuously via daily feedback, emails and newsletters. Parents contribute to their child's initial assessments to help form the basis of care and learning to meet the children's unique needs. The nursery helps parents to support their children's learning in different ways. Staff inform parents of their child's progress and achievements at six weekly meetings. Parents are involved in supporting their child's learning through continuing activities at home, contributing to special events, fundraising and raising awareness of different charities. Parents and their children are part of the nursery book scheme. Parents accompanying their children on trips to the library and places such as Kings Troop to see 'horse guards'. Parents comment

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provision

very highly about the nursery and staff team whom they state are 'very friendly and supportive'. Parents stated that their child has settled very well, made friends and that they are very pleased with their child's individual care, learning and development.

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provision

There are effective arrangements for the monitoring of children's progress, information sharing and partnership working with other professionals. The manager and staff team focus on helping all children to make good progress in their learning and development, and promoting their welfare. Staff work well together to ensure that all groups of children, including those identified as being in need of additional support, have the opportunity to achieve as well as they can. Where interventions are needed, staff share information and records with colleagues, parents and specialist agencies to ensure that each child gets the best possible support he or she needs.

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provision

The manager has implemented well-focused improvement plans through engagement with staff, children, parents and carers. They have secured improvements. For example, the nursery has developed the use of outdoor area by introducing designated staff roles and responsibilities so that children can have free flow indoor and outdoor play. They are confident about what the nursery needs to do to improve further. Plans for the future have been acted on, such as the purchasing of computer equipment for children in the playrooms and training for all staff on the use of fire safety equipment.

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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 EY448775 Local authority Greenwich Inspection number 883930 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 65 Name of provider Victoria House (Woolwich) Pre-School Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 020 8781 4387

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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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