Excel Child Care Services Ltd

Excel Childcare Services Ltd 96 Forest Hill Road, London, SE22 0RS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 06/03/2013 07/11/2008

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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

 The management team monitors the provision thoroughly, drawing up accurate plans and working hard to make improvements happen.  Staff get to know all children very well. As a result, children and staff form trusting relationships and children feel secure.  Children behave extremely well and play positively together. They have active imaginations and express themselves creatively.  Staff have a clear understanding of how children learn. This means that they arrange exciting learning experiences to support children's progress.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 staff occasionally have an inconsistent approach to supporting children's developing language and communication skills.  The outside area does not consistently offer a range of resources to support literacy and mathematical activities.

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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 interactions between practitioners and children in the indoor and outdoor area.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out joint observations with the manager of the provision in the indoor and outdoor area.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at a variety of records including policies, risk assessments and accident records.  The inspector spoke to staff, parents and children throughout the inspection.  The inspector held meetings with the manager of the nursery.

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Information about the setting

Excel Childcare has been registered since 2002, the registered provider also owns another nursery of the same name within the same borough. It is situated in Forest Hill, which is within the London borough of Southwark. It operates from ground and first floors of a refurbished commercial building with an adjacent enclosed area to the rear of the property for outside play. Children currently use two playrooms, there is also an additional portable building to the rear, which is not currently in use. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm throughout the year, only closing for bank holidays. The children's hours of attendance vary to suit the working hours of their parents, this includes breakfast and after school provision for children attending local primary schools. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register as well as both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Currently there are 28 children on roll within the early years age

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Information about the setting

range. The nursery has eight members of staff, including the manager, seven of whom hold early years qualifications. The nursery has support and training from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership.

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Information about the setting

The nursery supports children who are learning English as an additional language. The nursery receives funding for free early education for children age three and four years.

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

 provide a wider range of resources in the outdoor area to further support children's literacy and mathematical development

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

 support children's spoken language further, by ensuring that all staff consistently model language using correct grammar.

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who attend

Staff have good systems in place to find out about children's interests and developmental starting points when they join the nursery. Staff understand their role in the assessment of younger children and complete the progress check at age two, which they share with parents.

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who attend

Staff monitor children's ongoing progress well, using observations and precise assessments. This good practice means that staff understand children's needs and plan challenging activities to support them in gaining skills to prepare for school.

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who attend

Staff support children's language development throughout all age groups. They sing to babies and use repeated language to help them learn new sounds and words. They value older children's ideas, which motivates children to think further, such as how they are going to travel to places during their imaginative play. Children respond to questions by thinking of different possibilities and feel motivated to share their ideas and thoughts. Most staff model clear spoken language, although occasionally they miss opportunities to model the correct use of grammar. Staff support children learning English as an additional language by learning a few key words and displaying signs and posters to place value on home languages. This support helps children to develop confidence in learning to speak English and results in children using both English and their home language in their play and to communicate.

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who attend

Children benefit from activities and opportunities to share experiences and knowledge from different parts of their lives with each other. They chat about their home life during meal times. Staff teach children about caring for pets as they feed the goldfish. Children grow food in the garden during the spring and summer. Staff teach children about the wider world by planning special events, including a variety of religious and cultural festivals. These positive learning experiences extend children's knowledge and understanding about the world around them.

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who attend

Children develop many skills to help them prepare for their future learning. For example, staff plan for a wide range of mathematical activities such as making puzzles, playing problem solving games and singing counting songs. They encourage children to use mathematical thinking throughout their play. For example, they encourage children to count crates as they build structures for walking over. However, staff do not provide many labels, signs or writing resources in the outdoor area. This means that children who learn best through active play and being outdoors are not always able to practice their writing skills or use numbers as a point of reference when they are deeply involved in outdoor play. However, Staff display many motivating signs, word and pictures to develop children's interest in print, letters and words inside the nursery building. Children show a great deal of interest in books. Some choose and browse through books independently

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who attend

and staff support their language and literacy skills by reading stories and asking children interesting questions to develop their creative thinking further. The toys and resources available throughout the nursery are within easy reach so that babies can crawl and help themselves to toys from the treasure baskets. Older children can choose from a wide variety of equipment and toys available to them. These quality resources and the positive interactions with staff provide children in all age groups with opportunities to explore and investigate as they play.

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

Parents and children receive a warm welcome when they arrive at the nursery. Each child is allocated a member of staff, who helps them to settle in. This effective key person system enables all children to feel secure and develop trusting relationships. Staff monitor children's progress and maintain good records to support children's well- being.

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

All children receive support as they move on to different rooms and age groups. Staff work in partnership with parents to arrange the best settling in plan and, as a result, children soon feel settled and secure. Staff also offer a great deal of support when children move on to school. When older children return for after school care, staff make the most of the opportunity to teach younger children that they too will move on to school one day. This encouragement enables children to feel positive and confident about the next stage in their education.

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

Staff are very attentive to babies needs and support them through gentle communication and encouragement. They give babies lots of opportunity and space to explore and investigate their surroundings, but are on hand to give cuddles and reassurance when needed. This good support fosters babies emerging physical skills as they learn to crawl and walk around the soft cosy and well-resourced baby-room. Furthermore, babies show their delight as they laugh and gurgle when explore the interesting contents of 'treasure' baskets.

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

Staff support children's understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle that involves physical exercise and a healthy diet well. Toddlers are very enthusiastic as they play and explore the many exciting activities on offer. Staff are particularly focused on helping children to become independent and supporting them with the skills to do so. For example, they teach them how to pour their own drinks and feed themselves during mealtimes and how to manage their own clothing. As a result, children manage their own personal care, develop confidence and become independent.

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

Staff use gentle and positive strategies such as songs and rhymes to gain children's attention and calm the rooms down when children become a little noisy or excited. Their encouraging attitude has a very positive affect on the children, who are very well behaved. As a result of this good support, children become confident and enthusiastic about their time at the nursery. They confidently greet visitors, introduce themselves and talk about what they like doing at the nursery.

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provision

The nursery manager runs the provision efficiently and benefits from positive support from the registered provider. Together, they implement good systems for monitoring and supporting each staff member's training and professional development. Consequently, staff feel supported and motivated to develop their professional practice.

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provision

Management are fully aware of their responsibility in meeting welfare and safeguarding requirements. They implement good induction procedures so that all staff know and understand the clear and up-to-date policies and put these into practice consistently. Staff have a good understanding of procedures for responding if there was a concern about a child's well being. They have clear systems in place to manage accidents; they keep written records of accidents, injuries and first aid treatment. They inform parents of any accident or injury sustained by children as required. The manager ensures that there is a member of staff with up-to-date paediatric first aid training on the premises at all times, and staff know to liaise with other agencies to summon emergency help when necessary. The manager carries out robust risk assessments of the premises and staff check daily to make sure all areas used by the children are safe. Any areas found to be unsuitable for

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provision

the children are not used. This means that children are able to play in safe and suitable premises that meet their needs.

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provision

Management and the staff team work closely together to reflect on the quality of the provision. Parents play an active role by completing questionnaires and providing regular feedback. The nursery staff have carefully considered and addressed all recommendations from previous inspections. They have worked particularly hard to strengthen the system for monitoring children's progress and ensuring that all staff know how to promote and support children's learning. As a result of this hard work, staff have a secure understanding of how children learn and consequently plan challenging activities to support their learning further. This improvement demonstrates how the setting assesses their strengths and makes plans for improvement that bring about improved outcomes for children.

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provision

The nursery manager monitors the effectiveness of the educational programmes by checking the quality of planning and assessment in each room. This helps to ensure that staff have a clear understanding of all children's skills, abilities and progress. The manager works closely with the team to support individual children with identified needs, such as those learning to speak English as an additional language. This means that they are able to offer tailored support to enable children to progress and catch up.

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provision

The nursery team have developed good partnerships with other professionals and agencies. Staff know how to seek support for children when needed and implement recommended strategies into planning. This process effectively helps to support partnership working and continuity for children and their families.

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provision

Staff have developed good partnerships with parents. They provide regular newsletters to remind parents of important days and inform them of activities and how they can get involved in their children's learning. Staff exchange information with parents verbally on a daily basis and share written information to let parents know about their babies' routines. These positive strategies support continuity in children's care and learning.

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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 EY229507 Local authority Southwark Inspection number 906044 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 35 Number of children on roll 28 Name of provider Excel Child care Services Ltd Date of previous inspection 07/11/2008 Telephone number 0208 299 6387

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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

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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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