Little Pumpkins Nursery Ltd

Little Pumpkins Nursery 88 Woodyates Road, London, SE12 9JH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 24/04/2013 08/01/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 Staff are very calm, confident and caring. As a result, children are exceptionally well supported at all times.  Children are very enthusiastic and keen to learn. They make excellent progress as staff plan and provide a range of exciting activities that reflect all areas of learning in both the inside and outside play areas.  High regard is given to self-evaluation and consistent monitoring of the quality of the nursery. This means that staff are dedicated and show an exceptional capacity to improve.  Excellent partnerships with outside agencies ensure children's individual needs are met highly effectively.

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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 part 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 all three group rooms.  The inspector had discussions with parents, staff and children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector undertook joint observations with staff and sampled children's assessment files.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including children's records, safeguarding procedures and parental consent forms.

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Information about the setting

Little Pumpkins Nursery was registered in 2006 and operates from a converted semi- detached house in the Lee area of the London Borough of Lewisham. The premises comprise three group rooms, children's bathroom facilities, kitchen, office, staff room and adult bathroom facilities. All children have access to a secure, enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm for 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register There are currently 37 children on roll in the early years age range. Staff support children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. The team comprises of 18 staff, including the provider, a cook, a cleaner, three students and 12 staff who work directly with the children, 11 of whom hold childcare qualifications.

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

 extend the range of natural resources for children to explore during inside play, including treasure baskets to excite and encourage babies' interests.

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who attend

Children are making excellent progress in their learning and development. Staff make thorough and consistent assessments of children's progress. This means that children's progress is very successfully monitored over time, from when they began at the nursery as babies to pre-school age children. As a result, staff know the children in their key groups very well. They use their assessments to accurately identify children's interests and learning needs and plan activities that are specifically tailored to meet their needs. This highly effective cycle of observation, assessment and planning is clearly embedded in staff practice. In addition, parents contribute to their children's assessment records by adding their observations of children's progress at home. Staff also work in excellent partnership with parents while completing children's two-year progress checks and annual progress reports for all children. As a result, children benefit from this fully shared approach and

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who attend

continuity in promoting their learning effectively.

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who attend

Staff have an excellent understanding of children's learning and development. They successfully plan indoor and outside activities that reflect all areas of learning. This means that children have outstanding opportunities to use a stimulating and broad range of resources at all times. Children are fully motivated and follow their own interests during play. Babies have plenty of clear space to practise their crawling and walking skills. They enjoy using a variety of wheeled toys, developing their physical control. Their language and communication skills are successfully enhanced as staff sing lots songs and rhymes, which children thoroughly enjoy as they clap and join in with the actions. Babies and younger children explore and find out how things work as they use a broad range of resources in the sensory room. Children learn about nature and living things as they water the plants in the garden area and talk about how they need water to make them grow.

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who attend

They also grow cress in the group rooms and take care of the fish. Children show a keen interest in nature and quickly find the magnifiers to look closely at the bee in the garden and count its legs. However, they have fewer opportunities to explore treasure baskets and handle a variety of natural objects during indoor play. Children are happy and purposefully engaged in play. Older children show strong leadership skills as they initiate their own games and discuss the rules of the game. Younger children re-enact real life experiences as they use real food boxes and containers in the home corner.

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who attend

Children are developing excellent literacy skills. Older children draw representational drawings of people and animals. They clearly write their names on their pictures and recognise letters and numbers while using the computer. In addition, they are supported well by staff in linking letters and sounds. All children enjoy stories as staff are confident and read enthusiastically which captures children's interest. Staff ask lots of questions about the story and older children anticipate the story line. Staff show high regard to promoting inclusion for all children. They offer excellent levels of support to children who have additional needs. This means that all children can join in with the activities and mealtimes together. Staff make every effort to support children who are learning English as an additional language. They encourage children and parents to share information, familiar words, songs and books written in children's home languages. This helps all

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who attend

children and parents to feel involved and valued while effectively promoting children's communication skills. Children learn about cultures and beliefs highly effectively through stimulating activities and events relating to a wide variety of religious and cultural festivals.

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who attend

Children's mathematical skills are successfully enhanced as staff count with children during everyday routines and talk about shapes and size during play. Children also sing songs that involve counting and play games such as 'What's the time Mr Wolf' and 'Hide and seek', where they take turns to count. Children enjoy a broad variety of activities that enable them to express themselves through art and design while using paints, collage and modelling materials. They also enjoy music sessions with staff and with a visiting teacher.

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

Children have excellent relationships with each other and with staff. They are relaxed and thoroughly enjoy their time at the nursery. Babies and children who have additional needs are supported exceptionally well by staff who offer lots of cuddles and close supervision. This enables children to play and explore with confidence as they know that adults are close by. The key person system is actively implemented by staff; as a result, children's individual needs are met effectively. All children are very well behaved as staff set clear boundaries and routines. This helps children to understand the expectations of their behaviour. For example, toddlers know to go down the stairs slowly and in groups of two at a time. Older children help with the daily routines such as setting the table for meal times. Children line up and walk sensibly to the outside play area. Children are kind to each other. They have strong personal, social and emotional skills. For example, they

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

share and take turns during play, and older children are kind and considerate towards younger children. Staff make excellent use of space by providing well-organised toys and resources. This enables children to choose resources and follow their own interests during play. Staff gently remind children about safety aspects such as sitting appropriately during mealtimes. Children participate in regular evacuation drills so that they know what to do in an emergency. They also go on trips in the local environment and learn about road safety with staff.

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

Children learn about healthy lifestyles as they have excellent opportunities to join in activities and outings that promote exercise and physical development. For example, they enjoy playing sports and games with the visiting sports teacher. They enthusiastically use the outside play area and show confidence as they use the large climbing apparatus. They skilfully use a range of wheeled toys and balls, developing their physical control. In addition, they go on outings to the local parks and play areas, enabling them to explore a broad range of outdoor play equipment. Children enjoy a healthy diet of meals freshly prepared on the premises. They adopt healthy eating habits as they enjoy lots of fresh fruit and vegetables at meal and snack times. Children make choices of foods that they like to eat and younger children are supported well in developing their independent feeding skills. Children's individual dietary needs and mealtime routines are fully

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

respected. Children benefit from relaxed mealtimes where staff sit with children in small groups and help them develop their social skills as they discuss the events of the day. Staff maintain very high standards of hygiene during nappy-changing and mealtime routines. Children who have additional needs are supported exceptionally well as staff are well trained and confident in meeting their individual care needs. Older children are developing good self-care skills, which help prepare them for when they move on to school. Younger children spend time with their key person, visiting their new group room so that they are settled well as they progress through the nursery.

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provision

Highly effective systems of leadership and management ensure that children's welfare is promoted very successfully. Staff have completed comprehensive training so that they know what to do if any safeguarding issues arise. They successfully implement a full range of policies and procedures aimed at promoting children's health, safety and wellbeing. Accurate records are maintained of children, staff and any visitors to the premises. The suitability of all staff to work with children is monitored highly effectively through appropriate checks and ongoing systems of appraisal. Staff have excellent opportunities to extend their knowledge of childcare and education as they attend in-house training days at the nursery as well as a variety of courses run by the local authority. This means that they keep up to date with new initiatives, such as completing progress checks for two- year-olds. Excellent partnerships have been established with other agencies. This ensures

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provision

a consolidated approach to the care of children who have identified special educational needs and/or disabilities. All professionals who work with the children share relevant information on an ongoing basis so that children's care and progress are monitored effectively.

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provision

Staff show the highest regard to promoting children's safety. They conduct very thorough risk assessments relating to the premises, activities and outings. In addition, staff complete daily health and safety checks. This enables them to quickly and effectively identify and minimise hazards. Children benefit from an excellent range of resources, equipment and suitable, comfortable furniture in all group rooms, the sensory room and outside play area. The learning environment is particularly welcoming, with displays of children's creative work and photos of them participating in a broad range of activities. Excellent systems are in place to monitor the educational programme and children's progress records. The manager spends time with staff in the group rooms to observe their practice and assure the quality of their service. Staff work cooperatively together. They comprehensively evaluate activities and attend regular meetings to share information.

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provision

Staff very successfully use excellent methods of self-evaluation as a tool to continuously promote high quality. They devise detailed action plans and set measurable targets for improvement. For example, they make exciting changes that develop the learning environment, which effectively enhance children's progress.

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provision

Partnerships with parents are highly effective. Staff share full information about all events of the day when children are collected. This includes daily diaries for babies with records of their care and activities. Parents contribute fully to their children's progress records on an ongoing basis and are offered progress reports. Additional information is offered through emails, newsletters and social events so that parents are fully involved in the life of the nursery and their children's learning. Parents' views are gathered through questionnaires and their comments are added to their children's assessments. Parents spoken to during the inspection stated that their children are very happy at the nursery and have good relationships with staff. Parents report that staff make them feel comfortable and safe at the nursery. Parents enjoy being able to contribute to their children's assessment records and share information with staff about things that interest

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provision

their children at home. Parents feel that the assessments of their children's progress are accurate and that they can always chat with staff about any aspects of their children's development. Parents report that they receive lots of information about the nursery events and that they feel that the nursery is 'fantastic'.

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The Childcare Register

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 EY316353 Local authority Lewisham Inspection number 909370

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 41 Number of children on roll 37 Name of provider Little Pumpkins Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 08/01/2010 Telephone number 0208 851 2400

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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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