Bright Little Stars Nursery

Bright Little Stars Nursery 1 Dove Close, Bunns Lane, Mill Hill, London, NW7 2AQ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/07/2013 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: Not Applicable 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

 Children experience secure and warm relationships with their key person and they are extremely happy and settled.  Children are developing good independence skills as they move confidently between the indoors and outdoors.  Older children listen and concentrate well as they persevere in adult-led activities and confidently share their knowledge and ideas.  Staff establish valuable partnerships with parents and parents are very happy with all aspects of the nursery provision.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Younger children's nappy changing routines are not used as opportunities to promote children's learning.  Staff professionally trained in specialist areas aren't used effectively to support all children who would benefit from this skilled input.

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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 observed children's play and staff interaction, both indoors and outside in the garden.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector and manager undertook a joint observation of an adult-led letter sounds activity.  The inspector talked with staff and held meetings with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector examined documentation including a representative sample of children's records, safeguarding policies and procedures and staff suitability records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day of the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Bright Little Stars Nursery opened in January 2013. It is a privately run provision. The nursery operates from purpose built accommodation and is situated in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. Children have access to four playrooms, of which, three are on the ground floor and one is on the first floor. All children have access to a garden area. There are bathroom facilities easily accessible for all of the rooms. The nursery serves the local and wider community and is open all year round, closing for one week during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The setting is open Monday to Friday, from 8am until 6pm. Children attend on a full or part-time basis.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. The nursery provides funded early education for three and four-year-olds. There are currently 52 children aged between nine months and five years on roll. The nursery currently supports a number of children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are 13 members of permanent staff working with the children alongside a full-time chef and an administrator. The manager holds Early Years Professional Status and the majority of all other staff hold relevant early years qualifications.

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

 use nappy changing routines to encourage young children's learning for example, by providing toys and materials for them to hold and explore

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

 strengthen the deployment of staff and partnership working in the nursery by using staff's valuable skills, for example, in speech and language and baby signing, to support all children.

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who attend

Staff skilfully plan an exciting and interesting range of play experiences around the children's interests. For example, a recent project on the solar system was initiated when a child showed an interest in a pretend telescope. Children were introduced to the stars and planets and created three dimensional planets in papier mache to hang from the ceiling. This developed into creating a large role play area where children could hide inside and shine torches to explore the concepts of dark and light. Staff ensure that all children explore a good balance of both adult-led and child-initiated play. Even very young children confidently move freely between the indoors and outdoors. They are excited to fill their watering cans from the outside tap so that they can water the plants in the garden. There are good opportunities for all children to learn about their natural world as they explore mini-beasts and help take care of Jingles, the nursery rabbit. These experiences help

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who attend

children to understand their environment and to recognise the needs of others. Children have excellent opportunities be active and to engage in physical challenges to develop their physical skills and their awareness of the importance of keeping their bodies fit and healthy. Children confidently ride cars and trikes outdoors. They have good opportunities to climb, crawl and balance using good quality play equipment.

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who attend

Children are very happy and content in this calm and purposeful environment. They enthusiastically interact with the staff who are very skilled. For example, children are excited to play letter sound games and find the odd one out on their interactive television. They are able to recognise letters of the alphabet and are beginning to read three letter words. Staff give children lots of praise and recognition, which motivates them to persevere. Children confidently talk about what they are doing and develop good number and early reading skills. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language or with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are making good progress across all areas of learning given their starting points. This is because staff make regular observations of children's achievements and use these to plan for children's individual next steps in their learning. Parents are fully involved in the planning process as they share observations

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who attend

from home, which staff effectively link into planning to focus around children's interests. Babies love to share the photographs of their families with their key person. This supports babies' sense of belonging and encourages them to talk as they point to the pictures and say 'Mum' and 'Dad'. Older children are developing many valuable skills that will support their learning when they move onto school. For example, they are able to concentrate and listen to instructions, share resources and play cooperatively. Children develop positive relationships with both the staff and their peers, which supports a good attitude to learning. Discussions with parents demonstrate that they value the quality of experiences offered to their children. They feel well-informed about their children's progression and compliment the staff, who many say are the real strength in the nursery.

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

Children are very content as they enjoy the warm cuddles and positive interactions from their key person. Babies follow their key person into the garden and want to play with the sand and water with them. Key staff sit with non-mobile babies to help them explore bubbles and items of different textures in treasure baskets. Staff follow the babies home routines so that there is continuity of care between home and the nursery. Babies enjoy being held when they are bottle fed, which helps to support their well-being and sense of security. All children benefit from having opportunities to rest and sleep peacefully in the sleep rooms. This means that children are not disturbed by their peers who want to play. Children are developing many important self-care skills. For example, older children are delighted to help serve their own food at lunch time. They talk about how vegetables help to make you grow big and strong. Children visit the bathrooms independently where there

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

are helpful visual reminders of the need to flush the toilets and to wash hands. However, staff do not use all opportunities in the daily routine to encourage children's learning. For example, there are no mobiles, mirrors, toys or books in the toddlers' nappy changing area for children to hold and staff to talk about.

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

Children are polite and cooperative because staff are excellent role models. Staff take time to listen to children, to praise them and to motivate them in their play and consequently behaviour is very good. Children are cared for in a secure and stimulating environment both inside and outside in the garden areas. Resources are well organised to encourage children to develop their own play. Children learn about taking risks and develop an awareness of personal safety. Staff discuss with them road safety rules on outings and how to use equipment, such as climbing bars in the garden, safely. Older children understand the importance of eating healthy foods and taking exercise as they engage in projects focused around these themes. They know which foods are good for their bodies and which foods should be avoided. Children enjoy the healthy meals and snacks provided at nursery and always have access to drinking water in case they are thirsty. Children

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

learn about personal hygiene and the importance of washing their hands before eating. Staff discuss the importance of good hygiene practices when children help to take care of the pet rabbit.

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

Children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning, for example, staff ensure that children have short visits to their new room and get to know their new key person. Discussions with parents demonstrate that they value the effort staff put into making their children's experiences positive. Parents' comments include, 'The nursery is very friendly.''The staff are wonderful.''They handle the move into different rooms really well.''My child's key person moved up with them to their new room which was amazing'. The nursery manager has started to form partnerships with local schools so that children's move to school can also be a positive experience.

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provision

The manager and her staff team have implemented many good quality practices. Consequently children enjoy their time at nursery where they are developing many valuable skills. There is a good overview of the curriculum as the nursery manager has the support of a well-qualified staff team who are experienced and knowledgeable about how to promote children's learning through play. The manager continually monitors the quality of the provision through regular team meetings and individual staff supervision meetings. Staff are encouraged to reflect on their professional knowledge and to discuss ways they may be able to further develop their skills to promote better outcomes for children. The manager monitors and supports staff planning and assessment procedures, to help ensure that there is consistency across the provision. Although staff work successfully with outside professionals to meet children's additional needs, management has not fully

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provision

considered how best to use the specific skills of some of the staff. For example, staff who are trained speech and language therapists have not been deployed to work with children who have been identified as requiring this specialist support. Each child's key person works in partnership with parents to use home languages in the nursery, while also supporting children's English speaking skills. Some staff are trained to deliver a baby signing course. However, they have not passed on this knowledge to staff working with the youngest children or with children who are learning English as an additional language.

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provision

The manager has a secure knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. There are robust recruitment and vetting procedures in place to support the appointment of qualified staff who are suitable to work with children. All new staff receive induction training, which includes completing an on-line safeguarding children training module. All staff are involved in identifying risks in the nursery environment and are responsible for minimising these or bringing them to the attention of the manager. Consequently the nursery was observed to be safe and secure. Staff focus on safeguarding children's well-being and they are aware of procedures to initiate should they have child protection concerns. Staff maintain precise records of accidents that children incur at the nursery and ensure that parents are always informed on the same day.

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provision

The manager demonstrates high aspirations for the nursery. She has developed informative self-evaluation practices, with the input of her staff, parents and children. She is a reflective practitioner. For example, she has recently implemented new planning and assessment systems, in partnership with staff, for a more consistent approach. There is now a greater focus on children's interests, and discussions with staff demonstrate that the changes are working well. The manager sets clear targets to drive improvement. For example, she is currently looking at ways to develop all of the garden areas further to improve the children's experiences outside. She is also looking at developing a library system for families so that they can borrow books around topics and themes to support children's learning at home. The manager works closely with local authority advisors to gain their expertise and parents are fully encouraged to be involved in their children's

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provision

learning. A parent forum is evolving and parents have their own designated room. Many parents spend time in the nursery during settling in sessions so they can observe their children on the web cameras to see how they are managing without them. Discussions with parents demonstrate that they really value having this opportunity to observe their children and to know that they are safe and well cared for. Parents say that staff provide very good care and learning opportunities for children in an amazing environment where there is great space and good quality resources.

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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 EY451870 Local authority Barnet Inspection number 899495 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 86 Number of children on roll 52 Name of provider Bright Little Stars Ltd Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 02071004662

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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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