Busy Bees Day Nursery at Hempstead

Hempstead Day Nursery 197 Hempstead Road, Hempstead, GILLINGHAM, Kent, ME7 3QG

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 21/05/2013 09/06/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 1 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision is satisfactory

 The caring staff team are committed to their roles in the care of children.  Practitioners are knowledgeable about children's likes and things of importance to them.

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It is not yet good because

 Staff are not always deployed suitably to ensure that children's needs are fully supported at all times.  There are currently no opportunities for older children to use and develop their home languages.  Activities and staff input are not challenging children fully.  The nursery does not work in partnership with other settings that children attend in order to further build on children's learning and development.

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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 four rooms and the outside areas.  The inspector had discussions with parents, staff and children.  The inspector undertook a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including children's records, planning documents and other documentation relating to the management of the nursery.

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Information about the setting

Hempstead Day Nursery registered in 2010. It is one of nine facilities owned and operated by Kinder Nurseries Ltd. It operates from a group of purpose built buildings in the grounds of Hempstead Infant School in Gillingham. The buildings comprise three large rooms in the main building and three medium sized rooms in the bungalow. There are separate kitchen and toilet facilities. Children have access to secure outdoor play areas. There is a ramp to access the main building and a small step to the bungalow. It serves families from the local community and surrounding area.

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Information about the setting

The provision is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 182 children on roll who all fall within the early years age range. The nursery opens five days a week from 7am until 6pm for 51 weeks of the year. Children attend for a variety of sessions.

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Information about the setting

The nursery currently supports a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. There are 30 members of staff who work with the children, of these 26 have a recognised early years qualification to at least National Vocational level 2 or above. Six members of staff are participating in further qualifications.

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must:

 deploy staff to ensure children's needs are met at all times

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must:

 provide opportunities for children to use and develop their own languages.

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

 improve planning to provide more suitably challenging activities

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

 share information with other settings in order to build on meeting children's needs and improve their progress.

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who attend

Children make choices about what they play with, helping themselves to easily accessible toys and resources. Babies enjoy exploring their reflections in mirrors and are keen to share toys with others. They enjoy finding photographs of their families among toys but cannot always see them as many of the photographs are above their eye level. Children are encouraged to share things of interest with others and have sharing boxes, which are full of personal things to encourage this. Children enjoy talking about things of importance to them and knowing their key children's interests enables staff to join in those conversations. Children develop new and descriptive words, for example when playing with water. However, some staff do not always chat to children during such activities as snack time and do not take the opportunity to build on children's language development. There are welcoming words displayed in a range of languages at the entrance but this is

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who attend

less obvious within the nursery. Children with English as an additional language do not always have the support to use their home languages, which helps integrate them into nursery life. For example, there was no labelling seen with dual language. Books are easily accessible and staff make reading areas comfortable and welcoming. There are opportunities for children to develop their pre-writing and writing skills in and outdoors. For example, when children are outside they chalk on the floor and on boards. Older children use a clipboard as their parents do, to sign in and out. Children explore the outside areas, running, climbing and on ride on toys. They enjoy dancing and making shapes with their bodies while participating in action rhymes. When looking at mini beasts in the garden children are encouraged to think about the different sizes of them. Children play with mathematical toys and resources such as abacus and construction but with

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who attend

limited adult support to help them build their knowledge on shapes and number. Children enthusiastically talk about their pet snails and help to care for a rabbit and guinea pig. This helps them to understand caring for others. They play games that encourage them to discuss how things make them feel, using pictures to illustrate feelings. Children enjoy weekly visits to the local forest, exploring the environment around them. However, not all staff use unplanned opportunities to build on children's interests. For example, staff move children away from looking at a slug with no explanation for this. The computer in the pre- school room is currently not working but other programmable toys are available. Artwork is individual to the child creating it and displayed prominently, helping children feel that what they have created is valued. Children explore a range of textures. They use their imaginations when playing, rolling paper to be telescopes, for example. Children enjoy

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who attend

When children start at the nursery, their key person make observations that help establish children's starting points and what they like to play with. When children show an interest in specific play staff build on this by offering further activities. For instance, an interest in pirates results in children digging for treasure in the sand pit and designing and making pirate hats. Key persons make regular observations, which they use to plan activities to build on what children are learning. Staff record observations of children in the child's learning journal. However, the journals are not always easily accessible or current. Assessments are undertaken once a term but it is difficult to establish the progress children are making and where they require further support, making it difficult to meet and plan for individual learning.

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who attend

Staff have an understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and are aware of how children learn. However, they do not deploy themselves appropriately or effectively to ensure that they challenge and extend children's learning while they play. For example, several staff carry out different care practices at the same time leaving insufficient staff to meet the learning needs of the children.

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who attend

The nursery involve parents in children's learning and send the journals home termly for them to look at and share with family members. The staff hold twice yearly parent evenings. Parents and carers are encouraged to share things of interest and developmental achievements verbally and on forms that they fill in. However, some parents report that when they request to look at their children's learning journals these are not readily available. Other parents report that they do not always feel that they work in partnership to support behaviour management. However, parents and carers report that the settling-in process works well as they work closely with key persons to ensure that children are supported during this time.

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

Care practices such as nappy changing and cleaning are a high priority. Key persons ensure that they change their children's nappies in order to help children feel secure. However, babies struggle to share the adults with others, wishing for individual cuddles and attention. Staff's attention to meeting the care needs of children such as the preparation of snacks means that they are not always deployed to fully support children. Children enjoy free-flow play between indoors and outdoors which encourages them to make choices. However, staff are not quick enough to ensure sufficient staff as children move between areas, and therefore not fully able to support learning and development. Staff support children to play safely and give appropriate guidance. Children show signs of feeling safe but not always secure.

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

The majority of children are helped to understand the importance of fresh air and regular exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. They have regular opportunities to play outside daily, visit the school playing fields occasionally and when older participate in a Forest School. However, babies do not always benefit from daily access to outdoor play despite having their own outside area, which can be accessed whenever they wish. Drinking water is always accessible and children are encouraged to help themselves, supporting them to understand why and when they may be thirsty. However, cups in the toddler room are not always available and children struggle to stretch to reach them when they are. Meals are healthy and nutritious and children report that they enjoy their lunches very much, enjoying a range of taste and flavours. However, staff do not deploy themselves appropriately at lunch time to enable them to fully support children and to make it a

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

satisfactory experience. Older children serve their own lunches and fill up water jugs for the whole table. However, this promotion of independence is missed at snack time when staff prepare snacks and pour all drinks. Staff meet the individual sleep patterns for babies but older children usually rest at the same time. However, if children are feeling tired there are places where they can relax and rest.

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

Toys and resources offer children a range of experiences and they make choices about what they play with. Pre-schoolers participate in daily adult led group sessions where key persons focus on specific areas of learning. However, the majority of play is child led which requires further support from adults to ensure children make progress. Children have easy access to role play areas but a lack of modelling in how to play with the resources results in them not always being used for imaginative play.

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

Procedures for children moving through the nursery ensure that this happens successfully and provides positive outcomes for children. Before moving into the next age group, children make visits to the rooms and parents are included in the process. Staff share important information to ensure the individual needs of each child is met as they move through the nursery. When children leave for school, developmental progress is shared, resulting in learning being continuous.

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provision

Staff are aware of and regularly access the policies and procedures of the setting to ensure a smooth running of the group. The majority of the staff recently received safeguarding training and have a sound understanding of the possible signs of child abuse. Regular risk assessments help minimise risks to children when they are at nursery or on outings in the local area.

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provision

Staff are keen to provide a service that continuously evolves to improve outcomes for children. Staff in each room evaluate activities on offer and makes changes where necessary. For example, staff in the toddler room observed that a cosy area was not being utilised by children so they moved the book area near to it and created a cosy area for children to enjoy books in. Views and opinions of parents and carers are sought and valued. The management team use parent questionnaires to gather parents' ideas, which they then act on. For example, when questionnaires highlighted that some parents and carers did not feel included in their children's learning journey a more user-friendly system was introduced. This now allows parents, children and staff to celebrate achievements together.

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provision

All staff undergo a suitability checking process to ensure their suitability to work with children. They complete an induction programme and this with the use of appraisals and staff monitoring helps the manager to support staff improve their practice and offer appropriate training. Although staff participate in training in order to improve outcomes for children, is not always cascading to practice. For example staff do not always use their knowledge to challenge children to develop further.

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provision

Parents and carers are welcomed warmly to the nursery and helpful information is available in the entrance hall. When parents and carers are unable to collect their children daily diaries are used for two-way communication, helping parents to feel part of their child's time at nursery. There are many social occasions, such as tea parties, which help parents get to know the staff and the people who care for their children. Well-established partnerships with other professionals that support children ensure that appropriate strategies are in place to help children integrate and make progress. However, the nursery does not liaise with other early years settings that children attend in order to work together to promote positive outcomes for children.

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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 EY408447 Local authority Medway Towns Inspection number 917964 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 140 Number of children on roll 182 Name of provider Kinder Nurseries Ltd Date of previous inspection 09/06/2010 Telephone number 01634 261156

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Setting details

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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