Foxcubs Day Nursery

Foxcubs Day Nursery Ltd Chapel House, Old Reddings Road, The Reddings, CHELTENHAM, Gloucestershire, GL51 6SA

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 09/07/2013 15/10/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Staff fail to promote all children's learning and development effectively. Observations and assessments are not accurate enough to build on children's progress.  Planning is not effective in matching activities to children's needs. As a result, not all children are suitably challenged and their progress is not as good as it should be given their starting points.  Staff are not always suitably deployed to support children in their care, learning and play.  The management team fails to monitor staff practice within the nursery successfully. Although they have some well-targeted plans for future improvement they are not aware of the significant weaknesses in the support for children's learning.

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It has the following strengths

 Staff show genuine care and concern for the children in their care. Children settle well and show confidence in the company of their carers.  Staff have a warm, friendly rapport with parents and they share some useful information to help them to meet children's individual care needs.

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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 made observations of children's play in each of the age groups.  The inspector observed staff interaction with children and their parents.  Views from some parents were gathered.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with members of the management team, including the proprietor and new nursery manager.

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Inspection activities

 A sample of documentation was examined, including planning, two-year-old assessments and children's learning records.  A joint observation was completed by an additional inspector.

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Information about the setting

Foxcubs Day Nursery originally registered in 2000. They registered again following a change in ownership to company status in 2009. The nursery is situated in a detached house in the Reddings area of Cheltenham, on the outskirts of the town centre. It is open all-year-round, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm. It serves the local community and those from outside the immediate area. Children are cared for within age related groups and each group has its own base room. There is a sensory room, library, art rooms, toilet and sleep facilities. There is a garden divided into areas; an area for babies with play equipment suited to their age and stage of development, a hard surfaced area with a wooden boat and fort, a small play space used freely by the pre-school group, and a forest school area.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is registered on the Early Years Childcare Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 87 children on roll and they are all in the early years age group. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education to children aged three and four years. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are 17 staff members working directly with the children and an additional administrative person is employed. The staff team comprises of nine staff who hold appropriate childcare qualifications at either level 2 or level 3. Three staff hold qualifications at level 4.

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must:

 implement appropriate arrangements for the supervision of staff, to monitor their practice and provide support, coaching and training to improve outcomes for children and foster a culture of continuous improvement

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must:

 ensure that staff regularly observe children to understand their level of achievement, interests and learning styles; make sure that information gathered is evaluated and used to plan activities and experiences that build on what children already know and can do; tailor activities to offer sufficient challenge for all children

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must:

 make sure staff are appropriately deployed, particularly over the lunchtime period, to ensure good levels of support for children's care, learning and play.

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who attend

Children do not all receive appropriate support and challenge to promote their learning and development adequately. This is because staff practice is inconsistent across the nursery. The deployment of staff is not always well considered and planned activities do not build effectively on what children already know and can do. As a result, some children do not make sufficient progress in their learning.

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who attend

The system for observation and ongoing assessment fails to accurately identify where each child is in their learning. Key persons carry out some observations and evaluate them and, as a result, some staff can describe children's next steps. However, planning does not include the learning intentions of activities and these are not differentiated for individual children. Staff rely on the written information to plan group time activities. This means that they do not always know how to support children's further learning. Consequently, they fail to effectively extend children's learning and fail to monitor children's progress across each of the seven areas of learning.

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who attend

The weaknesses in planning are particularly evident in the pre-school group. Activities for older and more able children lack challenge. As a result, these children quickly lose interest, their behaviour deteriorates and they show a lack of motivation in their learning. The inability to engage children in worthwhile play activity is further compounded by the poor organisation over the lunchtime period. While staff take their lunch breaks, children choose what to play with. The period of free-choice, with no planning of activities extends for up to two and a half hours and during this time children receive little guidance. There is a lot of movement of staff and they are often engaged in routine activities such as tidying up the dining area, preparing it for creative activities. While staff are distracted some children create their own mischievous entertainment. Unseen by staff, children remove used paper towels from the waste bin, soak them with water, squeeze out the

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who attend

water over the floor of the toilet area and sprinkle their friends. This causes a potential hazard as the floor is wet. Other children are seen to wander around without joining in any activity. They show little respect for toys and equipment as they walk over floor puzzle pieces, other play items discarded on the floor and romp around on the child-sized sofas. Some children talk confidently about the numbers they see on the tracing cards and demonstrate their ability to count. However, staff do not seize the opportunity to extend children's learning because when they ask the child 'what number comes before seven?', the child is unable to answer and the adult does not consider ways to help the child's understanding of this mathematical concept.

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who attend

Children join in physical play with some enthusiasm and are very keen to get outside to play in the garden. Planned group activities offer some focus on learning and making sure that children have the necessary skills to help them as they move on to school. For example, children practise early writing, use scissors, follow instructions and take turns.

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who attend

Babies enjoy exploring the small playrooms that are attractively decorated. They crawl through tunnels, investigate activity toys and enjoy the playful interaction from staff. They have opportunities to engage in creative play, such as painting, chalking and sand play. Staff respond to babies' babbles and talk and sing with them to promote their language development.

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who attend

The two- to three-year-olds in the Foxcubs group, play generally well alongside one another. They are able to select toys from the low-level storage boxes and initiate their own play. They have some enjoyable play experiences, such as exploring foam, water and painting and they like to help the staff, for example, as they label paintings. In this way children learn that print carries meaning. There are plenty of wall displays to engage children's interest and staff talk to the children, extending their vocabulary and helping them to gain confident skills in communication. Babies and young children are achieving appropriately in the prime areas of learning and this prepares them for the next stage in their learning.

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who attend

Parents are warmly welcomed into the setting and friendly conversations take place when parents deliver and collect their children. Although information is shared about children's care, information about their learning is not shared adequately with all parents. Parents are not encouraged to provide information about their children's stage of development when they first start to give staff an introduction for children's learning records. This lack of information does not help staff to build on what children already know and can do from the earliest opportunity. Parents share children's achievements and 'wow vouchers' to record such information are regularly distributed to parents and then displayed in the children's playrooms valuing their achievements. However, parents are not encouraged to be actively involved in their children's learning, for example, by contributing to their child's learning journals. Parents of two-year-olds receive a written summary of their children's

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who attend

progress, as required. Individual education plans are drawn up with parents and any outside professionals involved in the care of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. These are used to ensure that children are included and able to take part in all activities offered. Partnerships with childminders and other settings children attend are sound and appropriate links with local schools help children as they prepare to move on to school.

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

The key person system works well for most children; they develop trusting relationships with the staff who show them affection and provide them with reassurance as needed. Staff work closely with parents to make sure that children's medical and dietary needs are met. Staff caring for babies make sure that they meet children's physical needs. They change nappies promptly to avoid babies' discomfort, respond to signs of tiredness and follow feeding routines that fit with babies' home routines and parents' preferences. When it is time for children to move on to older age groups within the nursery they spend time visiting the new room. Because the children often see each other as they play in the garden, they are familiar with children and staff in their new groups. This helps them to settle quickly. Children are reminded of the behaviour expectations in the setting and children behave well most of the time unless they become bored or when staff are not vigilant in

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

supervising them. For example, the poor deployment of staff over the lunchtime period means that sometimes individual members of staff are left with high numbers of children. At these or other times, children's behaviour deteriorates and their individual needs are not met.

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

Children are able to play outdoors daily. There is a policy of restricting the length of outdoor play during warmer weather and avoiding the period of midday until three in the afternoon. This protects children's good health. Babies and children show developing skills in their physical agility. Babies pull themselves to stand and use available support to gain confidence in their early walking. Older children run around, avoiding obstacles and climb competently. The forest school area that has been developed since the last inspection offers children to explore natural resources.

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

Children eat well, enjoying the meals and snacks offered. Children readily explain why their meal is different from their friends, showing awareness of food intolerance and the affect it has on their bodies. Children follow appropriate hygiene routines, gaining some awareness of why this is important.

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provision

The provider and the rest of her management team have failed to identify the significant weaknesses in the provision for children's learning and development. They do not monitor staff practice effectively to ensure that all staff are supporting and extending children's learning. They are aware that improvement is needed in their systems of observation, assessment and planning. This was highlighted by their local advisory teacher in April but suggested improvement measures have not been implemented to date. Insufficient consideration is given to staff deployment and the impact on the quality of children's care and children's learning particularly over the lunchtime period. The provider and manager accept that they have not done enough to secure continuous improvement. Because staff, children and parents appear to be very happy, the weaknesses have gone unnoticed. The management team has some well-targeted plans for future improvement but these have

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provision

The staff are a friendly team who clearly enjoy working with the children. They are all trained in child protection and know what to do if they have concerns about a child in their care. The designated child protection officer and health and safety officer demonstrates a clear understanding of her roles and responsibilities. Procedures for the safe management of the provision are mostly implemented. For example, great care is taken to ensure children's welfare is safeguarded when administering any medication to children and making sure that children with allergies are suitably protected. Most visitors are asked to sign in the visitors' book and risk assessment is used to identify and minimise potential safety risks, helping to maintain a safe play environment. The majority of the staff have completed first aid training and all staff have attended child protection training. However, the poor deployment of staff, at times, compromises children's safety and well-being.

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provision

The provider implements appropriate recruitment and vetting procedures. Staff have regular team meetings and discuss parents' views that are gathered by using questionnaires regularly. Staff have opportunities to do training to increase their skills and knowledge. However, the provider has not considered the benefits of peer reviews, regular observations of practice and ways of using coaching to aid staff skills development. This has led to the weaknesses in practice and staff deployment not being identified and addressed.

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provision

The nursery environment is welcoming, with some attractive displays. Resources are plentiful although they are not always attractively displayed, for example, the books in each room. Staff remove their shoes upstairs to help minimise the risk of cross infection for babies. However, visitors are not asked to follow this practice so this reduces the effectiveness of such a procedure.

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provision

Partnerships with parents and others involved in children's care are sound. Partnership working helps to promote continuity of care and results in positive outcomes for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, staff are able to meet those children's individual needs.

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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 EY389263 Local authority Gloucestershire Inspection number 822401 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 52 Number of children on roll 87 Name of provider Foxcubs Day Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 15/10/2009 Telephone number 01452 857 449

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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

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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