Childminder in Bath and North East Somerset

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 11/03/2013 11/11/2008

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 3 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

 The childminder has an in depth knowledge of how children learn through play, and the quality of teaching is excellent. As a result, children of all ages and abilities make extremely good progress relative to their starting points.  Partnership working with parents and other professionals involved with children is well established. This results in immensely effective processes of sharing information and joint planning to support individual progress.  Children develop strong attachments to the childminder, they thrive in the affectionate and nurturing environment provided. As a result, they are highly confident, curious, and keen to explore and learn.  The childminder achieves and maintains the highest standards. This is because her processes of monitoring her practice are insightful and extremely well focused on promoting high quality outcomes for children.  The childminder's excellent understanding and implementation of the safeguarding and

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This provision is outstanding

welfare requirements promotes children's health, safety and wellbeing very well.

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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 observed the childminder's interactions with children.  The inspector held discussions with the childminder and with children.  The inspector sampled documents relating to safeguarding, and children's learning.  The inspector reviewed the effectiveness of the childminder's self evaluation.

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Information about the setting

The childminder registered in 2007. She lives in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, with her husband and daughter. The family have a pet dog, a cat, and guinea pigs. The childminder mainly uses the ground floor of her home to provide childcare, with children having access to the upstairs bathroom.

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Information about the setting

The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register, and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She is currently caring for six children, four of which are in the early years age group.

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

 further extend older children's experience and expand their imaginations through the use of music and dance.

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who attend

The childminder uses her immensely thorough understanding of how children learn through play to provide stimulating activities that promote learning in all areas. The excellent quality of the teaching and learning experiences enjoyed by children results in children of all ages making extremely good progress, relative to their starting points. The childminder focuses very well on children's individual interests and learning styles to engage them. For example, some children love to use the computer. They particularly enjoy using programmes that develop their confidence in using numbers and shapes, and they competently use the mouse, load their games, and print off their work. Children who are less interested in technology learn to use the computer confidently because the childminder shows them how to find things that interest them. For example, when children want to draw pictures of a favourite cartoon character, they look these up on websites

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who attend

with the childminder and print off a picture for reference as they draw.

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who attend

The childminder supports children's developing communication skills extremely effectively. For example, they play games where children think of as many words as possible that rhyme, or that have the same initial sounds, encouraging them to use and develop their vocabulary. Children who do not yet have the language to express what they want to do make good use of a picture book of toys and activities to make their own independent choices. Interactions with babies are excellent. The childminder uses her voice well to engage their attention and encourage them to focus on her. Babies happily babble and chatter away, and the childminder responds to them, talking, smiling and ensuring lots of eye contact. Overall, activities that encourage children to be creative and to use their imaginations are very good. They thoroughly enjoy painting, mixing colours and exploring the effects they make with their hands and brushes. Children bring their own ideas to

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who attend

projects such as making Mother's Day cards and they are proud of their unique results. Children enjoy music, singing songs and performing the actions that go with them. However, older children could be further encouraged to express their own ideas and imaginations through music and dance. This is a minor weakness which has little impact on children's overall progress.

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who attend

The childminder's systems of monitoring children's progress are excellent. She makes astute and perceptive observations of children. This enables her to make precise assessments of each child's current stages of development and to plan for their next stage in learning. This is very well evidenced in the detailed learning records kept for each child that identify how they have arrived at their current stages of development. She actively involves parents in their children's learning from the very beginning, using the comprehensive information she gains from them to establish their child's individual starting points. She holds regular reviews of progress with parents and discusses their children's next steps in learning so they remain consistently involved. The childminder has an extremely good understanding of the requirements for an assessment of children's progress between the ages of two and three. Parents are fully involved in this, helping to

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who attend

identify aims and objectives to promote future development. The childminder fully focuses on promoting communication and language skills, and children's physical, personal, social, and emotional development. This results in children being keen to learn and ready to move on to the next stage, including school.

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

The childminder supports children's well-being exceptionally well as she provides an affectionate and nurturing environment As a result, they are very confident and show high levels of self esteem, quickly forming secure attachments with the childminder. For example, children who have been attending her setting for a short time are very much 'at home'. They show they have become very fond of the childminder, spontaneously giving her hugs, they hold out their arms to her and include her in play. The childminder has an excellent understanding of children's individual needs and therefore, she is able to fully anticipate and promptly meet their requirements. For example, the childminder knows babies' individual signals that show they are beginning to tire. She is immediately responsive, providing a cuddle and a bottle and knowing just when the child is ready to settle to sleep. As a result, babies are happy and content and secure that their needs will

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

be met. The childminder has high expectations of children, encouraging them to be kind and caring of each other. The childminder's excellent interactions with children supports them very well as they learn to express their feelings and emotions appropriately. She listens extremely well when children become upset, and talks gently to them to help them resolve their problems calmly. Children are actively encouraged to help with everyday routines in order to develop a sense of responsibility, such as tidying toys away, and preparing snack together. They enthusiastically help to look after the childminder's family's pets, developing understanding that animals need to be taken care of and treated with respect. Activities such as helping to feed the guinea pigs, fully promotes children's understanding of hygiene because they know they must wash their hands after handling animals.

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

The childminder promotes a healthy lifestyle with children extremely well. She supports their physical development most effectively. Children enjoy a good variety of activities that encourage them to move, co-ordinate and control their bodies. For example, daily visits to parks, playgrounds and woodlands allow children to run, climb, balance, and jump. Daily routines are organised to ensure children benefit from good levels of regular exercise, for instance, walking to school and to local facilities. Children enjoy a very well organised learning environment where they have access to an extensive range of resources to choose from as they play. For example, babies and very young children have space to roll, stretch and move their bodies. They thoroughly enjoy using mirrors and treasure baskets with a variety of objects that they can investigate with their senses. They pull their socks off and explore their toes, and laugh delightedly when the childminder tickles their feet.

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

The childminder makes particularly good use of outdoors to extend and enhance children's learning. For example, heavy rainfall and recent snow resulted in children conducting experiments with pipes and water, and monitoring how long it takes ice to melt at different temperatures. Children learn to conduct themselves safely, making their own simple risk assessments. For example, they thoroughly enjoy riding the childminder's horses and energetically help groom these afterwards. They understand they must take care where they put their feet when doing this so they are safe from the horses' hooves.

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provision

The childminder demonstrates an extremely good knowledge of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Systems to monitor the effectiveness with which the childminder implements these are rigorous. As a result the childminder consistently supports children's welfare very well. The childminder's very good safeguarding knowledge and her thorough implementation of health and safety procedures help to protect children from harm.

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provision

The childminder demonstrates a strong commitment to continuous improvement in order to achieve and maintain the highest standards of practice. For example, she develops her skills and knowledge through training, makes very good use of professional journals and the internet to keep informed about best practice issues. Systems of self evaluation, including the monitoring of the effectiveness of the educational programme, are excellent, and result in improvements that benefit children's learning. For example, an evaluation of children's use of toys and equipment showed that boys were not using role play resources. Her discussions with children revealed that dressing up clothes were not interesting to the boys. They felt that these were predominantly 'girly', and they were keen to have large puppets to use in imaginary play. She has developed these resources in line with children's suggestions. Boys now thoroughly enjoy being super-heroes, pirates and firemen as they

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provision

play, and all children love the large puppets which they use to act out stories and imaginary scenarios.

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provision

The childminder has focused extremely effectively on engaging parents in their children's learning and development. As a result, parents are actively involved and there is a well established process of sharing information. Parents routinely inform the childminder of their children's learning at home, and they share ideas for how this can develop this further. The childminder provides parents with a written summary of children's progress every six to eight weeks. She involves them in identifying key learning objectives for their children, and how they can support these at home. Where applicable, the childminder has taken care to ensure parents understand the relevance of the two-year-old progress checks and have been fully involved in these assessments of their children.

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provision

The childminder demonstrates an extremely good understanding of the importance of partnership working in providing a consistent approach to promoting children's learning. She has strong and well established relationships with other providers of the Early Years Foundation Stage attended by children. For example, local pre-schools, nurseries, and schools, and communication between them is excellent. The effectiveness of this partnership working is particularly well reflected in respect of children who need additional support with some aspects of their learning. The childminder is able to demonstrate how each setting complements the other in meeting children's individual needs, and how planning together also provides consistency in supporting parents.

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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 EY363693 Local authority Bath & NE Somerset Inspection number 815490 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 6

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Telephone number

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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