Brightlands Day Nursery

Brightlands Day Nursery 107 St. Georges Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3ED

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/04/2013 02/11/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 2 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 Children enjoy their time at the nursery and form positive relationships with staff, so are ready to learn.  Staff plan a broad variety of play experiences and activities that interest children and support their good progress effectively.  The nursery staff provides a welcoming and inviting environment for all children and their families, so all are valued and their individual needs are met.  Effective partnerships and communication are in place with parents, so children's starting points are established on entry and staff can plan activities that reflect children's changing interests.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not always promote children's mathematical understanding as well as possible during unplanned experiences, such as child initiated activities and the daily routines.  Staff do not always extend conversations at meal times with the younger children or promote their self-care skills to help them become suitably independent quickly.

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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 viewed the premises and facilities.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector asked the owner and staff questions about their roles and responsibilities.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector viewed children's play and activities indoors and outside, and chatted to children about their experiences at nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to a small number of parents to gain their feedback about the nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled the nursery's paperwork including children's records of progress.

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Information about the setting

Brightlands Day Nursery opened in 1997 and registered with Ofsted in 2001. It is privately owned. It operates from a converted detached Victorian house close to Cheltenham town centre in Gloucestershire. Children are cared for in several rooms mainly on the lower ground and ground floors of the premises. The house is accessed by steps. There is a semi-circular drive for delivering and collecting children. There are different enclosed outdoor areas with grassed, paved and safety surfaces for children's play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is open from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm all year round, excluding Bank Holidays. Children attend for a variety of sessions including mornings, afternoons and all day. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently 70 children on roll in the early years age group. The nursery receives funding for free nursery education for three- and four-year-olds. The nursery supports children with special education needs and/or disabilities and children learning English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

The owner works as the manager of the setting and employs 14 staff to work with the children. Of the these, 10 staff, including the owner, hold appropriate early years qualifications. There is one member of staff with Qualified Teacher Status and the owner is working towards gaining Early Years Professional Status.

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

 extend children's understanding of early mathematics, such as by making increased use of mathematical language during children's play and the daily routines

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

 extend staff involvement with younger children at meal times to both promote a range of conversations and the further development of their personal care skills, such as trusting them to clean their hands independently.

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who attend

Staff speak to parents about their children's individual needs on entry to the nursery. Clear records are completed about children's starting points. As a result, staff plan interesting activities relating to children's needs and interests that support children's good progress. Staff undertake ongoing observations of children's achievements. They use these well to identify children's interests and next stages of learning. Staff share good information with parents about their children's progress through parents' evenings and day-to-day discussions. Parents are actively encouraged to share information about their children's ongoing learning at home, such as completing 'wow vouchers'. The nursery displays these along with their own contributions. This values and celebrates children's success at home and in the nursery and helps staff understand what children's new interests are. The nursery provides good summaries of children's progress to parents, including the two-

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who attend

year-old progress checks. Staff identify children's progress and areas to work towards in the future. This supports a consistent approach between parents and the nursery.

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who attend

Children enjoy a broad range of play based activities. Overall, staff demonstrate a strong understanding of how activities promote children's development in the seven areas of learning. Staff involve themselves generally well in children's self-chosen activities. In the water tray children talk about filling up the different sized containers with the watering cans but here staff do not always make the most these discussions, for example, to talk about capacity and so extend the use of mathematical language during play. Staff do not always seize chances to encourage children to count either, such as during the daily routines, to encourage children's awareness of the practical application of number, for example, when they hand out plates.

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who attend

Children are confident and happily approach adults to talk with them and ask questions. This confidence demonstrates that children are curious and interested too, as well as motivated to learn independently. Staff do not always extend conversations fully with the younger children at meal times, although they do talk about the food that children are eating well. Children enjoy books and join in with familiar stories with sounds, words and phrases. Children concentrate and listen well while books are read. The older and more confident children happily offer their views and own experiences at these times. Staff ask good questions while they read books to children. These support children's thinking skills and understanding. In the pre-school room, children are encouraged to write numbers for a purpose, such as writing and displaying the number of children present. The self- registration system positively encourages children to recognise their names and learn to

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who attend

write their name. This prepares children well for their future learning.

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who attend

Children move rooms in the nursery through building up time in the new room with the staff. The outdoor area provides an effective area for children to meet and interact with different aged children and staff from other rooms. Staff provide a report to the new room about children's development and individual needs. The nursery staff support children who speak English as an additional language well. They gain key words in children's home languages. Staff value children's home languages by encouraging children to use these. The nursery provides books in home languages, and displays greetings and information about the different backgrounds of children. Designated staff have specific roles and training as special needs co-ordinator. This role supports the other staff and enables them to meet all children's individual needs effectively.

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

Children settle well and are confident and happy. Good relationships exist between the staff and children. Children form positive friendships with each other. Staff promote friendships and support children in getting to know each other, for example, by saying children's names individually during group times. Staff gain information about babies' home routines and comforters. This knowledge enables them to provide babies with a familiar routine and comforters from home, so they feel safe and secure.

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

Staff remind children about the 'rules' and boundaries for using large climbing equipment, so they learn to use it safely. Children behave in a positive manner. They help tidy up and put away resources and listen well to staff instructions. Games played with staff help children to understand the concept of taking turns and sharing when in a small group. Staff praise children warmly, which promotes children in developing strong self-esteem.

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

The nursery offers a welcoming and well resourced environment. Children's artwork and photographs of activities are on display. Staff add children's comments to these, to personalise them and act as prompts for conversations. This values children as individuals and provides parents with interesting information about their children's learning experiences. Children make their own choices of what they want to do. Staff accommodate children's requests positively; for example, they help children find resources for their chosen activity. The outdoor area provides children with a variety of activities to use as they wish, including early writing making experiences with paintbrushes and water; ball games and role-play.

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

Staff and children follow good hygiene routines that minimise the spread of infection, such as hand washing carefully. Staff do not fully encourage toddlers to begin to develop such self-care skills to promote their independence well from an early age, such as by allowing them to try to clean their own hands. The older children develop good personal care skills, such as putting on their own coats.

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

Children grow vegetables and fruits that they then eat as part of meals. This helps children to develop a good understanding of where food comes from and supports their understanding of caring for plants. Cooking activities widen children's tastes as they cook foods from different cultures. Babies develop their physical skills as the staff encourage less mobile babies to have 'tummy time' to encourage future crawling skills. Staff help babies to develop their walking skills, for example, by holding their hands and giving plenty of positive encouragement.

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provision

The owner/manager effectively manages the nursery and demonstrates a strong commitment to improving its quality. The owner/manager has employed a 'training and improvement' manager to concentrate on developing staff practice and to support the continuous professional development of staff. Staff are encouraged to undertake further training; regular staff meetings provide in-house training to promote good practice. Staff work well together and clearly enjoy their work with the children.

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provision

Staff, parents and children all contribute to the nursery's good self-evaluation process. Action plans target improvements well and are reviewed regularly. Both the owner and the training manager work 'hands on' in the nursery. They undertake observations of staff practice and the children's play and learning experiences. This action enables them to effectively monitor and evaluate the quality of the children's learning experiences and identify staff training.

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provision

The owner/manager implements the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff demonstrate an effective understanding of their responsibilities to promote the safeguarding of children. They understand the procedures to follow in the event of concerns about children's welfare arising or other staff practice. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of managing visitors to the nursery, such as checking their identification and asking why they are visiting before letting them in. This caution promotes the safety of the children, even on the rare occasion when the fingerprint entry/exit system does not operate, so the premises remain secure.

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provision

Thorough risk assessments take place for the premises and outings. The owner/manager takes prompt action to address any issues arising, such as the security of the building and any maintenance issues. For example, when a leak suddenly occurred due to abnormal weather conditions, the management and staff acted to maintain children's good health with children using suitable areas of the nursery. The owner cleaned and treated the subsequent damp area, doing so over a holiday period so there was no threat to children's health then either. The owner promptly seeks the advice and services of professionals to ensure the premises remain suitable for children's use. A sign placed on the door reminds parents to ensure the door closes securely after them. The owner reminds parents to ensure their children's pushchairs do not accidently prevent the external doors from closing.

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provision

Strong partnerships with parents result in effective communication. This liaison supports consistency in meeting children's needs. Parents spoken to at the inspection, spoke highly of the staff and the experiences their children receive at the nursery. The owner/manager and staff demonstrate a good understanding of forming partnerships with other professionals and early years settings to support children's individual needs.

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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 101614 Local authority Gloucestershire Inspection number 912744 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 50 Number of children on roll 70 Name of provider Alison May Cupper Date of previous inspection 02/11/2009 Telephone number 01242 230938

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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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