St Paul's Playscheme

St Paul's Playscheme St Paul's School, Hunton Bridge, LANGLEYBURY, Hertfordshire, WD4 8RL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 11/04/2013 11/04/2012

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: Met 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

 Children are very happy and settled at the play scheme. They benefit from enthusiastic and experienced staff who understand how children learn through play and plan to meet their needs exceptionally well. Staff build on the children's existing skills providing exciting and challenging activities which are based on the children's interests.  Children are confident and chatty, they show a strong sense of self-esteem as they are supported extremely well by staff who are involved in all aspects their play. Children engage in discussion with staff about how to set up games, taking into account the needs of other children playing nearby.  Children are cared for in a safe and extremely well-managed environment. They are learning to make decisions about their own safety when engaged in adventurous play. Staff are excellent role models; they know when to help children and how to promote their independence through everyday routines and 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 spoke to the children and watched them play in the classroom and the outside play areas.  The inspector watched children take part in the circus-skills activity session.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to staff about the children's care, development and the daily routines.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held the feedback meeting with the registered provider and the named person responsible for play provision across the Three Rivers Council district.

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Information about the setting

St Paul's Playscheme is one of three schemes, operating across the Watford area, and is run by Three Rivers District Council Leisure Department. The schemes for families in the Abbots Langley area are run at either St Paul's School or nearby Devine Saviour School. St Paul's Playscheme was registered in 2007 and is on the Early Years Register and on both the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. It is managed by the leisure development manager and the play development officer for the council. The council provides schemes for both under eights and over eights at this site. They use two classrooms with adjoining cloakrooms and the kitchen as well as the main hall and extensive school grounds. Children come from the immediate and surrounding areas and attend for a variety of sessions.

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Information about the setting

The play scheme is open Monday to Friday, during the Easter and summer school holidays, from 8.30 am until 4pm. There are currently 42 children on roll attending the under eights scheme, of these six are in the early years age group.

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Information about the setting

The scheme employs six staff who work with the children, all have appropriate early years qualifications at level 3 or are qualified teachers or sports coaches.

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

 enhance links with other early years services in order to further support children's welfare and developing skills.

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who attend

Children thrive in this extremely well-managed setting. They benefit from a highly motivated and experienced staff team who plan a broad range of exceptionally well- organised and well-resourced activities for children of all ages. These are based on the children's interests and provide children with many excellent opportunities to extend and develop their recently acquired skills. Information on children's next steps and developing skills is also obtained from parents and staff keep them well informed about children's learning. Planning is based on the guidance document, Development matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage, covering all areas of learning and providing a broad educational programme for the school-aged children who attend. The planned activities outlined on the 'daily activity sheets' are based on children's comments of what they have enjoyed from previous schemes. They include new experiences which extend their understanding

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who attend

of other cultures, expressive arts and the wider world. The police and fire services are invited to bring their vehicles and share their experiences; outside companies provide children with unusual opportunities, such as circus skills, street dance, cheerleading, ultimate Frisbee, rocket ball and African drumming.

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who attend

Children are very keen to take part in all the activities provided. The circus theme is very popular and has been developed over several years. For example, the craft activities through the week build on the children's recently acquired skills as they make paper plate masks and decorate balloons and hats. The quiet area is made into a tent with drapes and signage to reflect the circus theme. Children become engrossed and take great delight in making clown hats. The resources are simple but very effective and work well. A vast range of collage and scrap materials as well as red pom-poms for noses are readily available for children to create and use in their designs. Staff are excellent role models and are fully involved in all aspects of the activity. Some of the children and staff keep their hats on for most of the session. They are confident and have a good sense of fun and a high level of self-esteem.

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who attend

Children are excited as they take part in the circus-skills session. They listen intently to the instructions to enable them to balance feathers, spin plates and use stilts. The session is exceptionally well managed with staff moving around the hall to model the actions and help the children in the challenging activities provided. All aspects of the children's physical skills are challenged. They use different parts of their body and move carefully to balance long feathers on their hands and soon start to experiment and use the tips of their fingers, backs of their hands and their chins and noses. Their hand-and-eye coordination is refined as they are precise in holding, balancing and spinning plates on long sticks. Children are willing to have a go, to keep trying and are beginning to achieve what they set out to do with excellent support from staff.

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who attend

The outside play area provides many different and exciting opportunities for children to explore and further develop their physical skills. They have use of hard surfaces for ball games, playing fields, a sensory garden and adventure play structures. Staff encourage the children to extend their imaginative play as they run around and use the climb on structures to re-enact scenes from Peter Pan. The scheme provides an extensive range of sporting equipment to ensure children take part in a varied range of physical experiences.

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who attend

Children are chatty and full of fun. They are confident in accessing resources to adapt and extend their play ideas. Staff are fully involved and support the children in all aspects of their play. This builds the children's confidence which enables them to go on to enjoy new experiences at other settings.

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

Children are very happy and settled at the play scheme. Staff get to know the children well as the key person system is effective in identifying and meeting the needs of the youngest children and those who need additional support. Observations on the children's personal needs are based on the information gained from parents when they register children on the scheme. All staff are highly skilled and sensitive in helping children form friendships when they are new to the setting. A buddy system ensures they are supported by the other children and begin to feel valued and part of the team.

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

Children are well behaved; simple rules and routines are discussed during circle time at the beginning of the sessions so children know what behaviour is acceptable. Children are reminded by staff to take care and to be aware of how their action affects others playing nearby especially when playing outside. Staff are deployed around the room to support children in making decisions about where and when to set up construction games. They ensure there is space for them to extend the train tracks and to spread out their play. Children show high levels of self-control and a growing confidence in social situations in both small and large group activities.

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

The classroom used provides a bright and vibrant environment. Children are used to a school setting so are confident in asking to use the cloakrooms and manage hand-washing routines well. Children learn about a healthy lifestyle through the themes, topics and everyday routines. Children bring packed lunches; snack and lunch times are calm and social events. Staff are encouraged to set good examples by sitting with the children and having healthy lunches themselves. The scheme provides a guide to healthy lunchboxes for every parent when they book, which also contributes to the partnership with parents.

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

The scheme meets the welfare needs of children to an exceptionally high standard. The information gained as they register on the scheme is used to ensure those who need additional support remain the responsibility of their key person. The observations and links with parents ensure staff respond to the children's changing needs and routines. A white board is used to display a time line of the activities and routines with pictorial cards. This supports children's early reading skills and those who speak English as an additional language or need support in their language and communication skills.

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

Children are gaining in confidence, they may choose to sit out of activities with staff until they are secure in understanding what is expected of them or move onto an activity of their own choice. Staff ratios are high to ensure all children are supported in whatever they decide to do. The ethos of the scheme to support children's independence and their social and emotional development ensures children are gaining the confidence and self- esteem to take part in new and challenging experiences.

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provision

The highly committed management and staff team provide an outstanding play scheme which recognises and meets the needs of the children who attend. Most of the very experienced staff have worked for the council play schemes for many years. This enables them to build on both their own and the children's interest and skills. The council leisure department manages several play schemes and a play rangers service for children in the locality. They are involved in the production of the play strategy to ensure ongoing training for staff and good quality play for all children across the district.

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provision

The scheme provides a very safe and secure environment for children to play and be cared for. The play development officer and leisure development manager are designated as safeguarding persons, having attended advanced safeguarding training. They are always available for staff to discuss any concerns they may have about children in their care. Robust recruitment, induction, qualifications and the quality of staff ensure children are cared for by suitable adults. Staff are vigilant in carrying out risk assessments for the areas used by the children. Safety of the children at collection times is managed very well; parents are asked for passwords and named persons who may collect their children with prior arrangements in place. Staff manage security on site extremely well; visitors are recorded in a diary and mobile phones are kept in a safe place during their visit. Staff liaise with the school caretaker to ensure the site is safe and any risks to children are

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provision

Staff have developed strong relationships with parents as some of the older children have attended for many years. Parents are given comprehensive information about the scheme both as they make the bookings and on arrival on site. The council website provides parents with up-to-date information so they are fully informed about all aspects of the management and day-to-day running of the scheme. There is a rigorous evaluation process in place taking into account feedback from staff at induction and the weekly meetings. There are a variety of ways that parents can share their views about the scheme. Comments from parents both verbally and on formal comment cards are collated by the management team to improve future schemes. The activities and resources are reviewed consistently throughout the running of the scheme to plan effectively to extend and promote the children's developing skills. There are good links with other early years

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provision

settings within the council play services. Children may be referred to other play schemes both within the council and with other providers to ensure their individual needs can be met in full if the site is not suitable for them. Senior staff in the council leisure department continue to develop links with other support services and external agencies to promote children's learning, care and well-being.

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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 EY346119 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 817625

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 5 - 8 Total number of places 32 Number of children on roll 42 Name of provider Three Rivers District Council Date of previous inspection 11/04/2012 Telephone number 01923 727151

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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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