Shareshill Pre-School

Shareshill Pre-School Shareshill Village Hall, Elms lane, Shareshill, Walsall, Staffordshire, WV10 7JX

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 19/03/2013 15/06/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Action has not been taken to minimise risk in relation to the low lock on the main door and staff are not effectively deployed at all times to ensure that children are adequately supervised at all times to secure their safety and welfare.  The educational programmes do not adequately cover all areas of learning in enough depth or breadth and staff do not consistently use information about children's stage of development to provide a challenging and enjoyable experience, resulting in children not consistently engaging in activities and showing poor levels of interest.  Strategies used to manage children's behaviour are inconsistent and therefore, children's behaviour hinders learning and on occasions, puts themselves and others at risk.  Parents and carers are not kept adequately informed about their children's achievements and progress and receive poor information about the setting, activities and roles and responsibilities of staff.

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This provision is inadequate

 Management and accountability arrangements, roles and responsibilities are unclear and challenge set is weak. There are ineffective systems for staff appraisals, monitoring and supervision of staff and self-evaluation to target areas for improvement.

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It has the following strengths

 Staff have a secure understanding of their role and responsibilities in relation to child protection issues, such as reporting abuse and neglect.

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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 activities in the playroom and outdoor area.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a meeting with the registered person, who is also the manager of the setting and carried out a joint observation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's assessment records, planning documentation, evidence of suitability of practitioners working within the setting and a range of other documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector also took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

Shareshill Pre-School opened in 1970. It operates from the village hall in Shareshill in Staffordshire and serves the local and wider community. The setting is registered by Ofsted on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Children can attend for a variety of sessions. There is an outdoor play area for the children.

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Information about the setting

The setting is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 12noon and 12noon to 3pm Tuesday and Thursday, during term time only. Currently, there are 31 children on roll, of whom all are in the early years age group. The setting is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early years education for children aged three- and four-years-old.

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Information about the setting

There are three members of staff working with the children, of whom all hold a qualification at level 3 in early years. The setting receives support from the local authority and they are members of the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA).

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must:

 ensure children are unable to leave the premises unsupervised

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must:

 ensure staff are deployed effectively to ensure children are adequately supervised to secure their safety

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must:

 ensure management and accountability arrangements, including roles and responsibilities are clear, in particular, in relation to nominating a named deputy, who can take charge in the absence of the manager

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must:

 ensure the educational programmes have depth and breadth across all seven areas of learning and are implemented through planned, purposeful play and a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities

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must:

 improve the programme for children's personal, social and emotional development by helping children manage their feelings and behaviour and understand appropriate behaviour in groups and respect for others

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must:

 improve the programme for physical development by increasing the opportunities for children to be physically active and energetic both indoors and outside to increase their well-being and readiness for learning

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must:

 ensure all staff adequately use available information to understand children's level of achievement, interests and learning styles to shape learning experiences to build on all their progress, in particular, the more able children

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must:

 ensure appropriate arrangements are in place for regular appraisals, supervision of staff, including support and coaching to increase staff's knowledge and skills

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must:

 ensure parents and carers are provided with information about the range and types of activities, food and drinks provided for children, the name of their child's key person and are kept up to date about their children's development and achievements.

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must:

 ensure staff consistently manage the children's behaviour to ensure they are kept safe and well

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

 ensure well-focused development plans are in place to secure improvement for children.

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who attend

Children make inadequate progress within the Early Years Foundation Stage because staff are unclear about the revised learning and development requirements. Consequently, learning and development and assessment requirements have not been met. The educational programmes do not cover all seven areas in sufficient depth and breadth or incorporate planned, purposeful play and a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities, to extend children's learning. Consequently, children often lack enthusiasm for learning and show poor levels of interest in what is made available. This results in boys, in particular, often running around the room and crawling and playing under furniture. In contrast, when staff carry out adult-led activities, which have a clearer purpose and capture children's interests, they show better levels of involvement. However, adult-led activities and purposeful play is not included often enough throughout the session to sustain

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who attend

children's interests. Staff do not consistently use observation and assessment to recognise children's progress, understand their needs and plan tailored activities. Consequently, all children, in particular the more able children, are not supported sufficiently to help build on what they know. In the absence of recording children's initial starting points of development and accurate, continuous assessment it is impossible to measure exactly how much progress they make.

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who attend

Children's personal, social and emotional development is fostered appropriately in some aspects. For example, overall, children are happy, confident and enjoy their time at the setting. Children are familiar with the routine and respond well to changes, such as helping to tidying up and getting ready for their snack. Many of the children are developing friendship groups and seek out their friends to play. However, children do not show sustained levels of interest in their play and in what is available and this limits their learning and on occasions, leads to disruptive behaviour and disputes with their peers.

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who attend

Staff do not plan enough opportunities for children to be physically active and energetic, both indoors and outside, to meet their needs. For example, many of the children are clearly energetic and often run around the room due to the large space available, which on occasions, can be dangerous to the children and others. A free-flow system is not adopted for children to access the outdoor area throughout the session due to the logistics of the outdoor area. However, staff fail to incorporate physical play opportunities daily throughout the session or take the lead in allowing more opportunities for energetic play outdoors, including at the start of the session. This does not help increase children's well- being and readiness for learning.

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who attend

Children begin to show an interest in stories and books, in particular, when staff engage them and read to them. Children begin to recognise their names as they self-register on arrival and staff encourage more able children to link sounds and letters. This is well received by children during their play. However, staff do not consistently engage children and place enough emphasis on increasing their communication, language and vocabulary during their play and activities. This is often due to the lack of planning and the unclear learning intention of activities. Children enjoy opportunities to use a variety of writing materials, such as, pencils, crayons, chalk and paper and colouring books daily.

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who attend

Staff make available resources, such as, the role play area, small world resources, construction toys and mathematical games and resources. However, children show little interest in them as they are not stimulating enough or open-ended, so they can be used, moved and combined in a variety of ways to capture their imagination. Children begin to learn about people, places and their environment as they take regular walks in the local community and celebrate a variety of religious festivals.

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who attend

Parents and carers are not kept adequately informed about their children's achievements. For example, staff carry out and record regular observations of what the children do in their developmental profiles. However, the majority of parents and carers spoken to on the day of the inspection are not aware of this and would like more information about their children's development and achievements. This means that children's learning is not supported at home.

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

The assigned key person system is not well embedded, for example, all parents and carers are not aware their child has an assigned key person and what their role is. Children have positive relationships with staff, show a sense of belonging and go to staff when they need help and reassurance. There is a clear written behaviour management policy in place, which is understood and implemented by the staff team in relation to acceptable sanctions used. Although, staff use positive strategies to manage children's behaviour, such as explaining why their behaviour is not acceptable, they are not consistently reminded about rules in place for their safety. Consequently, children often run around the room as they go to and from the toilet and as they line up to go outdoors and on occasions, throw toys. This behaviour hinders children's learning and on occasions, puts themselves and others at risk. In addition, when disputes happen amongst the children,

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

some are often quick to lash out and staff do not place enough emphasis on helping them to manage their feelings and behaviour and understand appropriate behaviour in groups and respect for others.

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

Staff and child ratios are maintained at all times. However, staff are not effectively deployed at all times to ensure children are adequately supervised. For example, although, staff are in sight or hearing of the children during the preparation of snack this, on occasions, leaves one staff member caring for the children while one is preparing the snack and the other busy cleaning tables and helping. Consequently, due to the large area children are not adequately supervised at these times to secure their safety and welfare.

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

Children are provided with a healthy snack consisting of toast, fruit, milk, water and juice and staff encourage them to eat their healthy options first from their lunchbox. They have daily opportunities for fresh air as they use the outdoor area. Appropriate hygiene practices are in place, such as hand washing and staff use disposable gloves and aprons when changing nappies to prevent the spread of infection. First aid requirements are met.

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

Staff know the children's personalities, likes and dislikes but fail to consistently take into account their developmental starting points and their next steps in learning. Consequently, children are not well prepared for school or their next stage of learning. There are appropriate systems in place with the main feeder school to help children settle, such as regular visits during the year and the term before they start school.

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provision

This inspection took place following concerns received in relation to staff deployment, lack of supervision, risk assessment, behaviour management, the quality of activities, staff interaction, the recoding of children's development and sharing of information with parents and carers. This concern prompted a full inspection, the inspection found that the provider has failed to meet the safeguarding and welfare, learning and development and assessment requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Consequently, children's well-being, safety and welfare are seriously compromised and all of them are not well prepared for school or their next stage of learning.

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provision

The leadership and management team consists of the committee and the manager, who is also involved in the care of the children and leads a team of two staff. Since the last inspection the deputy, in February 2012, stepped down from this position, resulting in the setting not having a named deputy to take charge in the absence of the manager. Consequently, when the manager is absent the two staff jointly take change but there is not clear accountability, roles and responsibilities defined. This compromises the smooth running of the setting and contingency plans to cover absences, such as staff sickness and children's safety and welfare.

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provision

The manager acknowledges that since the last inspection, the leadership team has not played an active role in monitoring practice and providing direction and challenge to the setting, as a result, numerous specific legal requirements are not being met. Ineffective staff appraisals, monitoring and supervision of staff to target areas for improvement and the monitoring of the educational programmes, results in inadequate outcomes for children in their learning and development, well-being and safety.

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provision

Since the last inspection, poor progress has been made. For example, a risk assessment is in place identifying potential risks, such as hot drinks, which are kept out of reach of children, including a daily check, which is carried out of the environment. However, staff have failed to identify that the lock on the main door can be reached by some of the children attending and therefore, they can leave the premises unsupervised. This seriously compromises children's safety. In addition, the previous recommendation in relation to involving parents and carers in evaluating the service offered is weak. This is because the manager and staff themselves are not focused adequately on improving the service offered through well-focused improvement plans. Consequently, any actions taken have been ineffective in securing improvement. All staff have a secure understanding of their role and responsibilities in relation to child

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provision

protection issues, such as reporting abuse and neglect. Identity checks and vetting processes have been completed on all staff and committee members to ensure that they are suitable to work with children. All the required policies are in place and accident and incident records are up to date.

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provision

Parents and carers are not kept adequately informed about the setting, such as, the types of activities and experiences on offer, the food and drinks provided for children and the name and role of their child's assigned key person. Partnerships with the main feeder school, childminders, who use the setting and other settings, which children may attend, continue to develop.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 ensure that children receiving childcare are kept safe from harm (Welfare of the children being cared for)  ensure that a child is unable to leave the premises without a person who is caring for children on those premises becoming aware of the child leaving (Suitability and Safety of Premises and Equipment)  ensure that children's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (How the childcare provision is organised)  make available to parents information about the activities the children will undertake (Providing information to parents)  take action as specified in the compulsory section of the report (Providing information to parents, How the childcare provision is organised, Suitability and Safety of Premises and 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 218220 Local authority Staffordshire Inspection number 904579

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 24 Number of children on roll 31 Name of provider Shareshill Playgroup Date of previous inspection 15/06/2010 Telephone number 07739 960663

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Type of provision

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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