Treetops Alton Manor

Alton Manor Private Day Nursery Gregory's Way, BELPER, Derbyshire, DE56 0HS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 01/05/2013 20/06/2011

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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

 Staff interaction is very good and supports children well in developing relationships with others. As a result, children settle quickly into the nursery.  Staff provide children with a wide range of interesting and stimulating activities to help them make good progress.  The management team monitors the nursery effectively and supports the staff team's professional development, which in turn, benefits all children.  Staff are friendly and very approachable, they have good relationships with parents and regularly exchange information with them about their children's progress. This helps to effectively promote children's development and learning over time.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Children's play is sometimes interrupted by the inflexible timing of snack time. As a result, they are not always given sufficient time to pursue their learning or return to their previous activities to complete them to their satisfaction.  Lunch time for the older children is sometimes disorganised. As a result, some children display elements of unsociable behaviour because they become bored while lining up for lengthy times to serve their food. Furthermore, staff do not make the most of opportunities to effectively promote children's self-help skills by allowing them to lay the tables or pour their own drinks.

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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 held discussions with the area manager, manager and deputy manager and spoke to the staff, children and parents.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed free play both inside and out, focused activities and mealtimes.  The inspector held a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's assessment records, learning journeys and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of staff working with the children, the provider's documentation, action plan and policies and procedures.

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Information about the setting

Alton Manor Private Day Nursery opened in 1992 and is on the Early Years Register and on both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is run by Treetops Nurseries Limited and operates from a detached purpose-built property in Belper, in Derbyshire. The nursery is open each weekday from 7.30am to 6pm all year round, except bank holidays. All children share access to an enclosed outdoor play area. There are currently 155 children on roll, all of whom are within the early years age range. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and receives educational funding for two-, three- and four-year-old children.

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Information about the setting

There are 16 members of staff, who work directly with the children. Of these, two hold an early years qualification to level 2, eight hold level 3 and one has a degree in Early Childhood Studies.

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

 review snack time routines, so that children's play is not interrupted and they are able to pursue and revisit activities to complete them to their satisfaction

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

 develop the organisation of the older early years children's lunch time to enable them to increase their self-help skills. In addition, find ways of enabling children to serve their own food and reduce the time they have to 'line up' to ensure all children's behaviour remains positive.

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who attend

Children are happy and learn well in this vibrant and lively nursery. Staff have a very good understanding of the learning and development requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. They provide a variety of stimulating and challenging activities and opportunities to encourage children to learn effectively through play. Staff gather comprehensive information from children's 'All about me' booklets about their likes and dislikes. They use the settling-in periods to gain further knowledge; as they hold purposeful conversations with parents about their children and make detailed observation on children as they play. In addition, the key person produces an initial assessment of the child's capabilities. This information along with the observations form the children's 'starting points'. These help staff to settle children quickly because they are able to provide opportunities that interest the children from the start. Key persons

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who attend

continue to observe the children while they play. They effectively use the observations to identify children's next steps in their learning and inform future planning. Assessments are robust enough to enable staff to complete the progress check at age two summary successfully. Furthermore, staff track children's achievements against the Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage to ensure that any gaps in children's learning is quickly identified and appropriate action taken to close the gaps effectively. As a result, children are making good progress towards the early learning goals in all areas of learning. Staff adapt their interactions and provide targeted support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities; to help support to reach their potential. This is done as inclusively as possible and staff communicate well with parents and other involved professionals to provide consistency and cohesion.

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who attend

Parents are actively involved in their children's learning and comments from parents spoken to, all state that they are 'extremely happy' with the progress their children are making. They are able to see their children's 'learning journey' records, which contain, observations, photographic evidence of their achievements and children's work regularly on request. Furthermore, parents have opportunities to discuss their children's progress in more detail at parent's evenings. Here, both parents and the key person discuss the children's next steps in their learning and agree ways of the children achieving these.

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who attend

Staff interact positively with children and are fully committed to their learning; they talk and play with children skilfully and efficiently. The quality of teaching is good and staff support and encourage children to learn. Children are active and really enjoy their learning. They concentrate and listen to instructions and independently choose their play. They are fully engaged and show curiosity. However, children's play is sometimes interrupted when they have to stop and tidy up before having their snack. As a result, the children are not always given sufficient time to pursue their learning without interruption, to complete or return to their activities to their satisfaction.

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who attend

Staff foster children's language well. Babies listen and enjoy singing popular songs and understand single words, such as, 'where's bear'. They enjoy babbling as they create personal words to begin to develop their language skills. Staff in the baby room create a wonderful learning environment, which captures children's interests. For example, children sit and play musical instruments, passing them from one hand to another and make different noises. They concentrate and make sounds tapping and banging the shakers and repeat their play. They are well-motivated and enjoying their learning as they giggle and laugh when staff move the shakers fast. This activity also provides babies with opportunities to develop their prime areas of learning effectively, as they make connections with their movements and share the musical instruments with their friends.

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who attend

Young children are very active outside as they learn to jump, climb, balance and skilfully ride tricycles. They learn to throw and catch balls and are kicking them confidently to each other, demonstrating good social skills as they learn to take turns and share the toys effectively. These opportunities help children to effectively develop their physical skills. Children are using tools, such as, rakes, sieves and cars to make patterns in the sand. Staff expand on this and encourage children to try and make spirals with their fingers in the sand and refer their fingers going round and round. They are promoting mathematical language as they emphasise the shapes in the sand and count how many jugs fill the container as they play in the water. Staff are interacting well to promote learning, they are engaging children and motivating them through their interests and play.

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who attend

The programme for 'Understanding the World' is promoted well in the nursery. Staff expand this area of learning and engage children in learning about the natural world. For example, they are fully motivated and engaged in learning about how flowers grow. They pretend to grow flowers in the 'mud kitchen'. Here staff talk to children effectively about how the flowers grow and what they need. Children respond accurately and staff suggest they grow real flowers. The children are very excited about this and the conversation is buzzing with suggestions, such as, 'We will need pots to put them in' 'We will have to water them all the time.' 'Where will we put them?'. Children's information communication and technology is good. Babies and young children use cause and effect toys, such as, press button toys and programmable equipment and older early years children use computers effectively. Children have opportunities to visit the library and have trips to the

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who attend

park. These outings help the children to develop confidence and independence in situations away from the provision. As a result, this helps to prepare children for their next big step in their life, which is normally starting school.

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who attend

Children develop an appreciation of books and sit independently in the comfortable book area and talk about what is happening in the pictures. Staff sit and read books on request and use actions, props and puppets to help children concentrate and listen to the stories being read. Children are writing their names and older early years children are beginning to also accurately write and recognise letters of the alphabet.

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

Children enjoy attending this welcoming, friendly nursery. They are happy and content and show that they feel safe and secure because they happily separate from their parents. Staff greet children warmly on arrival. They confidently select their chosen activity, become engaged in their play and chat happily to their friends. This supports children in developing trusting relationships. Staff take good account of children's individual needs. Each child has the support of an allocated key person who has a clear awareness of his, or her, individual care and learning needs. Staff support children's transition from room to room well by arranging for children to spend time with their key person in their new rooms. This approach is further adapted as staff support children's transition to school, which ensures continuity of care and learning for all children. Children are confident, friendly, well-mannered and motivated. They are well-behaved most of the time because

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

staff have a positive attitude to behaviour management. Consequently, children know the simple rules and what the boundaries are. Children learn to play cooperatively from an early age as staff encourage them to share and take turns. Children are accommodated in a clean, comfortable environment that is secure and well- maintained. Staff put a lot of effort into the presentation of their rooms, resulting in interesting, attractive and child-friendly surroundings. For instance, there are wonderful cosy areas in the all rooms, and beautifully presented areas for children to investigate and use their curiosity. These stimulate children and help them gain a good sense of belonging as they see many examples of their artwork and photographs displayed. There is a wide range of play resources in each of the rooms within the nursery, to support children's all- round development. These are easily accessible and help children to gain independence as

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

they choose with what and where they play; this encourages children to help themselves and follow their own interests. Children are provided with an inclusive environment and learn about valuing each other's differences and the nursery promotes equality and diversity.

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

Children play in a calm, relaxed and well-organised learning environment. However, in contrast lunch time for the older early years children is sometimes disorganised. Children are expected to line up for lengthy periods of time to wash their hands and to fetch their food. They serve their own food one at a time. Consequently, the children in the line become very noisy, fidgety, and some show elements of unsociable behaviour, such as, pushing each other. Staff are available and do stop this behaviour, but through boredom children find other things to occupy themselves. As a result, staff are constantly asking the children to 'Stop doing that'. In addition, children are not fully developing their self-help skills because the staff lay the tables and pour the children's drinks.

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

Staff are very safety conscious and takes positive steps to identify hazards and minimise risks to ensure the nursery is secure and safe both inside and out. Children are learning about keeping themselves safe. They participate in the fire drill, which helps them to be aware of keeping themselves safe in an emergency. Staff talk to children about safe actions and behaviours, such as not throwing sand or toys in case they hurt each other. They have visits from the fire brigade and police, which help children to learn about the dangers of playing with matches and how to use the zebra crossing safely.

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

Staff promote healthy lifestyles by reinforcing good hygiene practice and healthy eating. Children enjoy healthy home-made food, such as, fish cakes, vegetables and mashed potatoes. They eat heartily and make comments about getting big and strong. This shows their understanding that food directly affects their bodies. To further the children's awareness of healthy lifestyles by being active they have access to fresh air daily as they enjoy the outside environment.

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provision

Staff have a secure knowledge and understanding of the learning and development requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and plan effectively for each child's progress. They promote learning well through play effectively. The manager monitors the educational programmes, set by staff to ensure that children's next steps are included and worked towards. Staff carry out precise assessments of children's skills and abilities and demonstrate an accurate understanding of how best to encourage further progress. They monitor children's learning efficiently. As a result, children are developing well in all seven areas of learning and progressing well within the expected development bands of the Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities with regard to the safeguarding and welfare requirements. All staff are thoroughly aware of the

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provision

procedures for dealing with child protection concerns. They ensure access to the premises is secure and that visitors sign in when inside the nursery. There are robust procedures for recruiting staff and a thorough induction process. This ensures that all staff working with the children are suitable to do so and competent to fulfil their roles. A comprehensive range of policies and procedures are in place. Documentation and records are complete these help to ensure children's health and safety needs are efficiently well-met. All staff take responsibility and use risk assessments to help ensure children's health and safety in each room, as well as outside.

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provision

Self-evaluation is a strength of the provision and the manager and her team have identified areas of improvement. All recommendations have been completed since the last inspection, including reviewing lunch time routines, however, this is still not fully effective in promoting children's self-help skills. The nursery has a challenging improvement plan. This has evolved through careful monitoring and analysis of procedures, discussions with parents about how the nursery operates and received suggestions for improvement from parents and staff. This shows that the manager and staff are able to continuously improve the nursery and improve the care and learning for the children. Annual appraisals and regular supervision sessions enable the manager and staff to discuss areas for further improvement and how these will be achieved. Staff training is identified to enable staff to develop professionally to enhance their knowledge and skills. This also ensures that staff

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provision

support children's learning and development effectively. The nursery is committed to ongoing improvement. Staff feel valued and they create a happy environment where children thrive.

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provision

Staff have strong relationships with parents. On their child's entry to the nursery, they are provided with the opportunity to see all the comprehensive policies and procedures that cover all relevant legislation. Parents receive quality newsletters and can review detailed noticeboards to gain further information about the nursery. They comment on how happy they are with the nursery. To help all children, good links have been established with outside agencies, such as the local authority and other agencies. This also ensures that children's specific needs are assessed and that appropriate support is given over time.

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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 EY227321 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 910450

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 90 Number of children on roll 155 Name of provider Treetops Nurseries Limited Date of previous inspection 20/06/2011 Telephone number 01773 829242

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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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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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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