Choochoos Day Nursery Canterbury

Choochoos Day Nursery Canterbury 50 Mill Lane, Harbledown, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8NE

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 25/06/2013 19/01/2011

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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

 Children make consistently strong progress in their learning as a result of the excellent key person approach and robust assessment and planning.  Children make superb use of the inspiring outdoor areas to develop their physical skills, observe the natural world and benefit from the fresh air.  Meal times are wonderfully sociable events. All children, including those in the baby room, take an active role in serving themselves and help to clear the tables.  Children receive excellent support to learn how to keep themselves and others safe.  Highly effective self-evaluation accurately identifies the strengths of the provision as well as areas for further development.  Excellent arrangements to work with parents and other providers ensure that children's needs are all identified and met consistently.

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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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Inspection activities

 The inspector viewed all areas used in the nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with the provider, manager, staff team, parents and children at appropriate times during the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed a range of activities including all age groups both indoors and in the outdoor play spaces.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector scrutinised a selection of documentation including registers of attendance, progress records, feedback from parents and written policies.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Choochoos Nursery in Canterbury registered in 2010. It is one of two nurseries owned by the same provider and operates from a building in Harbledown, on the outskirts of Canterbury. The nursery is set out over two floors. The baby room on the first floor is accessible via a staircase All children have use of fully enclosed outdoor play areas.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm all year round. There are currently 143 children from birth to the end of the early years age group on roll. Children attend on either a full or part-time basis. The nursery is able to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who speak English as an additional language.

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Information about the setting

There are 25 members of staff employed to work with the children including the manager. Of these 24 hold relevant early years qualifications. There is also a cook and an administrator. The nursery receives funding to provide free early years education for children aged two, three and four years.

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

 enhance further the arrangements to positively reflect languages other than English, to include all of those spoken in the homes of children attending.

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who attend

Children make exceptionally good progress in their learning as a result of the outstanding teaching and support they receive. They are extremely enthusiastic and independent learners. Throughout the nursery children develop the confidence to make choices and decisions and to express their views. Staff are highly skilled at knowing when to step in to add direction to children's play and when to stand back and let them learn through exploration and discovery. As a result, children gain valuable knowledge and understanding through first hand experiences and a lot of trial and error. The nursery is a hive of activity with children building towers, painting, doing puzzles, reading books and engaging in highly imaginative role play with their friends. They also feed the animals, plant and tend vegetable patches and offer to help staff with a broad range of domestic tasks. Outstanding planning and assessment arrangements are in place. Fully effective

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who attend

arrangements are in place to complete the required progress checks for children aged two years. Staff undertake sensitive observations of children as they play. Parents receive very precise and regular information about their child's progress. They are fully involved in their child's learning and keenly contribute observations from home. Staff have high aspirations for all children and offer challenge which very specifically reflects each child's abilities. This results in some remarkably high levels of independence and achievement. For example, some children in the under twos room are able to identify several different colours and to sort stacking bricks by size. The same children are also developing excellent coordination, for example they confidently serve themselves fruit crumble from a serving dish. Clear and appropriate strategies are in place to support children's communication and language

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who attend

development. Staff working with the babies clearly name objects to expend their vocabularies. They play with sounds, encouraging children to join in with making animal noises and singing songs. Staff working with the older children use open-ended questions very effectively to encourage children to think and remember to give them time to formulate their responses. As a result, children engage in animated conversation as they play. They demonstrate wonderful vocabularies, confidently using words such as 'gigantic' and 'enormous'.

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who attend

There is an excellent commitment to creating links with children's homes and promoting their emotional wellbeing. Staff fully recognise the benefits to children of seeing and hearing languages other than English. For example, children regularly engage in activities to learn Spanish and French. There are many dual language books and written words to allow them to see other languages in print. While there is a clear intention to ensure that these resources reflect all of the languages spoken in children's homes, the nursery is not fully successful in this aim as some languages are under-represented compared to others.

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who attend

All children have extremely frequent opportunities to engage in physical play. Staff take babies out for walk in buggies each day. They also take them out to their own enclosed outdoor play space several times each day. Older children are able to move freely between the inside and outside areas. They make superb use of the fixed equipment and other resources to climb, balance, peddle and steer. Children also use bats and balls and are becoming extremely coordinated.

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who attend

Staff monitor the rate at which children are progressing very closely. This enables them to swiftly identify any achievement gaps and plan to address these. The management team oversees this process and uses the information to build a picture of the success of educational programmes across the whole nursery. This attention to detail and genuine commitment to meeting children's very individual needs significantly improves the quality of teaching. For example, the manager used a recent audit to detect that children's progress in their understanding of the world is slightly less rapid than other areas of learning. To address this, staff are increasing the focus on exploring the natural world. Children very enthusiastically join a member of staff in an activity to sift through leaves, twigs, earth and stones to find mini beasts. Great excitement ensues as a child discovers a caterpillar and children gently examine this with fascination.

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who attend

The nursery environment is fully inclusive and staff have great success in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. One member of staff takes lead responsibility for coordinating individual educational plans to meet individual children's needs. She also liaises with other professionals and is available to offer advice and guidance to each child's key person.

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

Children thrive in the stimulating and nurturing nursery environment. Children form extremely strong, trusting bonds with their key person and greet them with genuine affection. Each key person liaises regularly with the parents of their key children. These highly effective arrangements ensure that staff are fully aware of each child's evolving needs and any other factors that may be affecting them at any given time. Routines are purposefully flexible to ensure that each staff member is able to respond personally to the needs of their key children, for example to change their nappy. This very successfully promotes children's emotional wellbeing and sense of belonging. Children of all ages are motivated, relaxed and extremely sociable, reflecting the admirable role modelling of staff.

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

Staff offer children extremely good support to learn how to keep themselves and others safe. This is done through simple advice such as telling them to blow on food which is steaming as it is hot. Children also work with staff to complete daily health and safety checks of the premises. The outdoor areas are designed and organised exceptionally well, inspiring children to engage in a very broad range of activities. There are some very adventurous areas for children to explore, allowing them to begin to take some risks in carefully managed situations. The outstanding range of toys and resources significantly increases children enjoyment as well as expanding their learning. They independently select items and transport them around the nursery to support their play.

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

All working practices and teaching focus heavily on ensuring that children are safe and healthy. Children enjoy nutritious snacks and meals and are well aware of the importance of healthy eating. The provider seeks support from professionals such as nutritionists and health visitors. This supports them to produce balanced menus and to ensure that arrangements for preparing babies' bottles comply with current guidance. Meals are prepared on site and the cook follows appropriate food hygiene procedures. Drinks are set out for children to reach at all times. Children take a very active role in serving meals and clearing away tables. This helps them to learn about important hygiene routines such as the need to wash their hands before eating. Children are also becoming very independent in their toileting and self-care.

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

Staff prepare children exceptionally well for their move to school. The qualified teacher in the pre-school room plans specifically to ensure that each child receives individualised support to reach their full potential. Staff work effectively with parents and staff from the local schools to manage the move for each child.

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provision

Strong leadership, efficient team working and excellent communication results in a service which very effectively meets the needs of children and their families. All staff are fully aware of their responsibilities and promote children's learning and development. The tremendous focus on self-evaluation results in very accurate identification of the strengths of the nursery and the areas for further development. Staffing ratios are entirely appropriate and robust arrangements are in place to ensure that all staff are fully checked to ensure their suitability to care for children. Staff complete an induction programme when they first start to ensure they understand all policies and procedures. Ongoing supervision meetings and peer-to-peer observations help to monitor staff performance and ensure consistency.

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provision

Excellent arrangements are in place to protect children. One member of staff takes lead responsibility for safeguarding children. She has attended training for this role and demonstrates a thorough understanding of the procedure to follow should concerns arise about any child. Parents and staff are able to refer to a prominent display outlining safeguarding procedures and the specific responsibilities of the nursery. The nursery holds a 'Sun Safety' award and staff have written consent from parents to apply sun cream. Children all wear hats when playing out in the sun and staff support this by also wearing sun hats. Rigorous risk assessments help staff to identify any potential hazard and daily health and safety checks take place.

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provision

Parents spoken to during the inspection are extremely vocal in the praise of the nursery. They speak of their admiration of the staff team, frequently referring to them as 'fantastic' or 'amazing'. They say that their children are making tremendous progress and say that they recommend the nursery to all their friends. Parents receive very good encouragement to become involved in the life of the nursery. They attend a range of events and, where appropriate, are invited to attend in-house training alongside staff. The very friendly exchanges that take place between staff and parents help their children to feel settled and create strong links between the nursery and children's homes. Similarly effective arrangements are in place to work in partnership with other early years practitioners where care of children is shared. This ensures that children receive care which is cohesive and fully coordinated.

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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 EY414930 Local authority Kent Inspection number 924475

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 6 Total number of places 80 Number of children on roll 143 Name of provider Karla Margharita Tabony Date of previous inspection 19/01/2011 Telephone number 07929 579310

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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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