Crowthorne Village Pre-School

Crowthorne Village Pre-School Crowthorne Parish Hall, Heath Hill Road South, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG45 7BN

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/07/2013 15/02/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 3 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 make good progress in their learning and development. Staff know the children well and provide tailored support to promote individual children's confidence, learning and development.  Good partnerships with parents are established from the initial settling-in process and continue through regular communication. This promotes a shared approach to each child's care, learning and development.  The staff work well as a team and they are all aware of their roles and responsibilities. All staff are dedicated and motivated to ensure they maintain continuous improvement to benefit all the children in their care.  The staff provide a very welcoming and inclusive environment. Children with English as an additional language, special needs and disabilities make good progress due to the staff's knowledge and commitment. All children are happy, settled and secure in the pre-school.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 There are fewer opportunities for children to see words and to begin to recognise and write their name in everyday routines such as on their art work to enable them to further develop their literacy skills and writing skills.

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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 staff and children participating in activities in the inside and outside areas.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager outside in the garden.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to parents and children on the day to gather their views on the pre-school.  The inspector held discussions with individual staff working in the pre-school.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documents including children's assessments, children's details and other relevant information.

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Information about the setting

Crowthorne Village Pre-School registered in 1974. It is a registered charity managed by staff management team and supported by a parent committee. The pre-school operates from a large parish hall in Crowthorne, Berkshire. Children access an enclosed outdoor play area. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are 41 children on roll and the pre-school receives funding to provide free early education for children aged two, three and four years. Children can attend for a variety of sessions. The pre-school supports children with English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and /or disabilities.

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Information about the setting

The pre-school is open five days a week from 9.15am to 12.15pm term time only. A lunch club operates twice a week from 12.15pm to 1.15pm on Tuesday and Friday. The pre- school employs eight staff who work with the children. Of these one member of staff is qualified to level six, four members of staff are qualified to level three in childcare and education, one member of staff is currently working towards a childcare qualification and there are two unqualified members of staff.

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

 extend children's literacy skills further by providing greater opportunities for children to see and use words and to practise their early writing skills.

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who attend

Children thoroughly enjoy coming to the pre-school as they can play and learn in a welcoming, caring and stimulating indoor and outdoor environments. The quality of teaching is good as all staff are very aware of how to promote children's early learning and development while they play. Staff work well as a team and actively support all children to enhance their learning. They successfully plan a range of exciting and relevant activities and experiences for the children to enjoy and participate in. This is then adapted to plan around individual children's next steps in learning. These are primarily identified by each child's key person through regular observations and assessments and information gained from parents. As a result children make good progress towards the early learning goals and leave the pre-school as happy and independent learners with the required skills for their move to school. Staff also use the observations they have made to help them

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who attend

complete the two year progress check which they share with parents and other professionals to keep them informed of the progress their child has made. Excellent systems are in place with parents to ensure there is a shared commitment between the pre-school and home to promote children's learning and development. The home link form enables parents to record areas they would like the staff to help them with and what their child has achieved at home. Parents also record their child's 'wow' moments to enable staff to be aware of the progress they have made over the week-end or towards an identified next step on their learning. Good relationships and systems are in place with several local schools to enable children's move to school to be a smooth and positive experience. This includes teachers coming to the pre-school to meet the children. This provides a valuable opportunity for children to meet their future teachers in an

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who attend

environment where they feel comfortable.

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who attend

Children's communication and language skills are developing well. They listen to the children and engage in conversations, giving children time to think questions through and respond. Staff use a range of different communication aids to help children to be able to communicate their needs to staff as well as each other. Children independently look at and explore books. They enjoy story time with staff and readily join in with the story. Children who attend with English as an additional language are supported very well. For example, children can access books which contain words in their home language and some staff speak to them in their language. There are some labels on resources around the hall and children's names are displayed on their coat pegs and at snack time. However, there are fewer opportunities for children to see other words in the environment to show children words have meaning. At times, staff do not always enable children to

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who attend

write their own name in everyday activities. Consequently children's understanding of how words can be used in different contexts and their early writing skills are not fully enhanced.

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who attend

Children are developing an understanding of nature as they plant a range of vegetables and talk about the squirrel that keeps eating their plants. Children learn about the wider world as they celebrate festivals and learn about others in their community. Children thoroughly enjoy using a range of puppets to represent the lives of others such as, a policeman, nurse and road crossing patrol person. They readily undertake the role of the puppet for example, telling the other children the steps they should take to cross the road safety. This also helps children to be aware of safety procedures and to develop their confidence to speak to others in a fun and interactive way.

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who attend

Children enjoy playing in the enclosed outdoor area which promotes all areas of learning. For example, children readily participate in role-play situations for instance, creating an ice-cream shop. They enthusiastically make ice-creams out of sand from the nearby sandpit. The water tray helps to extend children's mathematical understanding as they pour and measure the water into various containers. Staff effectively extend their learning as they ask the children about things that float on water and what lives in water. Children willingly participate in art and craft activities where they explore paint and other natural materials. They independently choose the colour of the paint they wish to use to paint the fir cones they have found helping them to develop their decision making skills. Children who have special educational needs are supported well by staff to enable them to participate in all activities offered. Staff are calm and patient in helping them to explore

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who attend

the activities on offer. Staff effectively adapt or extend them when required to ensure the educational needs and requirements of all children are met.

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

Children have warm, close relationships with staff which helps them to feel settled, secure and confident. They readily speak to visitors sharing their views. Children comment on the friendly staff and confidently talk about favourite activities. Their behaviour is good because the staff are calm, patient and offer clear age-appropriate explanations. Older children are good role models; they share and show each other how to use some of the resources. Children listen to what they are told and follow simple instructions. For example, they line up at the door and put their sun hats on before going outside. Staff offer praise and encouragement continually helping children to feel proud of their achievements and develop their self-esteem. Children are well motivated; they confidently become independent learners as they freely select activities and toys of their choice.

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

Children play and learn in a safe environment as a result of staff completing a range of safety checks each day. Staff deploy themselves very well to ensure that children are supervised and kept safe in both the indoor and outdoor environments. All staff promote children's understanding of safety through daily routines and fun ways. For example, by the use of safety Ted who is a teddy bear who reminds children of safety issues. Children are given the opportunity to begin to complete risk assessments themselves through the use of cards and pictures. This enables children to experience challenge and be aware of the safety procedures they should follow for instance, when using scissors.

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

Children understand the importance of washing hands at appropriate times and independently go to wash their hands before snack time. Staff promote children's understanding of keeping healthy. For example, they remind and talk to the children about why they should have a drink of water when playing outside in the hot weather. Children are developing and awareness of health eating as staff provide them with a range of healthy snacks including fruit. Children have regular opportunities throughout the session to play in the fresh air and exercise to develop healthy bodies. They thoroughly enjoy playing in the garden where they use a range of equipment to help develop their physical skills. For example, children jump on the mini-trampoline and enthusiastically use tools to dig in the sand. Children are developing an understanding of their bodies as they make fans to help cools their bodies down and eagerly participate in dancing sessions where

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

they move their bodies to music in a variety of ways.

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provision

The safety and welfare of the children is promoted effectively. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the safeguarding, welfare, learning and development requirements. The staff team are appropriately qualified, experienced and knowledgeable. Most of the staff have worked together as a team for a number of years. They support each other and fully understand their individual roles and responsibilities. The secure systems in place to ensure new staff complete the required vetting. The manger has completed a local authority safe recruitment course to ensure she has the knowledge and skills to recruit suitable staff to work with the children. Regular appraisals with staff allow the manager to monitor the ongoing suitability of staff and to discuss performance, any areas for development and training needs. Children are safeguarded well as staff demonstrate a good knowledge of procedures to follow should they have concerns about a child in their

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provision

care. Staff update their safeguarding training regularly to ensure they are familiar with the current guidelines.

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provision

Positive and trusting partnerships are established with parents. The pre-school web-site and notice board informs parents of the policies and procedures in place as well as forthcoming events such as, graduation and sports day. Comments received from parents and grandparents on day of the inspection were very positive. They comment on how happy their children are in the pre-school, the excellent range of activities offered and the progress their children make.

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provision

Staff provide children with challenging, interesting, exciting activities that enable them to learn and develop as they play. Each child's key person knows them well and has an accurate understanding of children's skills, abilities and progress. Good partnerships with other professionals, other settings and childminders who collect the children ensure staff meet the needs and requirements of all the children. This also ensures the continuity of each child's care and learning.

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provision

There are good systems in place to monitor and evaluate the pre-school. These include the views of staff, parents and children. The manger and staff also effectively use daily reflective practice and staff meetings to identify areas for future improvement such as, developing a mud kitchen in the garden to further enhance the learning opportunities 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 119317 Local authority Bracknell Forest Inspection number 813577 Type of provision Sessional provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 41 Name of provider Crowthorne Village Pre-School Committee Date of previous inspection 15/02/2011 Telephone number 01344 773896

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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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