The Cromwell Road Day Nursery and Pre-School

Footsteps Day Nursery Hove College, 44-48 Cromwell Road, HOVE, East Sussex, BN3 3ER

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 25/07/2013 24/09/2012

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 Good quality teaching supports children to make at least good progress in their learning and development.  The nursery's very strong partnerships with parents contribute to the successful outcomes for all children, including those with special educational needs and those learning English as an additional language.  Children enjoy purposeful learning through play, with their interests and developmental needs feeding into the planning and provision of activities.  Staff safeguard children's welfare, keeping them healthy and safe and effectively supporting their future skills as they move on to school.  Management are strongly driving improvement in the quality of the nursery provision with clear action plans, supporting staff with training and by monitoring performance.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 The activities provided for the youngest children are sometimes too challenging and do not fully focus on their interests and 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 compulsory part 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 children and staff's interaction with them in all areas of the nursery.  The inspector spoke to staff, children and parents during the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector discussed leadership and management with the management team and carried out a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including safeguarding and behaviour management policies and procedures, evidence of staff suitability, children's learning records and improvement plans.

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Information about the setting

Footsteps Day Nursery registered in 2009. It is privately owned and is one of two nurseries operated by the same providers. It is situated in a detached property in Hove, East Sussex. Children have access to the lower ground, ground floor and first floor of the property. Areas are organised according to children's age. There is an enclosed garden for outside play. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm all year round. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory part of the Childcare Register. There are currently 158 children aged from birth to five years on roll. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. The nursery gets funding for the provision of free early education to children aged two, three and four years. The nursery employs 27 staff, of whom 18 hold appropriate early years qualifications. Seven members of staff are in

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Information about the setting

training. One member of staff holds qualified teacher status, three hold Early Years Professional Status and the nursery also employs a chef.

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

 sharpen the focus of planning and activities to better match the needs and interests of the youngest children.

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who attend

Children are making good progress towards the early learning goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage. This prepares children well for school and the future. Children are active agents in their own learning, as they confidently explore, investigate and problem solve. The toddlers and older children show high levels of motivation, playing cooperatively and sharing ideas together.

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who attend

The quality of teaching overall is good because staff engage well with the children, offer them challenges and support their needs well. Some staff are particularly skilled at teaching and extending children's critical thinking skills so they become confident learners. The pre-school children are particularly confident, enthusiastic and driven to learn new skills, as well as showing off their current ones. For example, children delight in showing how they can recognise all of the letters that make up the words 'snakes and ladders' in their game. Others take pride as they give a tour of their rooms on the pre-school floor, carefully explaining what the toys are, and quickly noticing when things have not been put away in the correct places. Staff use open questions to stimulate discussion, while also giving children space and time to think, explore and investigate themselves. Children in the garden use number skills during a game of hide-and-seek, while others mark lines of a

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who attend

'car park' with chalk on the ground in the garden. Toddlers giggle with delight as they experiment with making marks to practise early writing skills on a white board. Babies explore their creativity as they shake and bang different musical instruments. The provision for children's communication and language and literacy skills is particularly strong. Even the youngest children enjoy listening to popular stories, while older children practise their own early reading skills.

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who attend

Staff plan a good range of activities, both inside and outdoors in the garden, supplementing these with purposeful outings around the local community. However, some of the activities planned for the babies do not always take account of their stages of development and are too challenging. For example, an activity planned to use recycled materials for modelling does not capture the babies' interest because it is too difficult for them to do. The key person system works well, enabling staff to identify children's next steps for learning and tailor activities to support these. For instance, a game blowing bubbles supports toddlers with their developing communication and language skills as they learn how to shape their mouths in different ways.

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who attend

Partnerships with parents are a key strength. Parents take an active role in supporting their children's development through home learning and by successfully working with the nursery to share information about their child's interests and needs. The excellent use of story sacks has been very beneficial in helping children's literacy. It has also enabled parents to extend their child's learning by building on the information gained from the books, for example, by researching the use of wheelchairs and flamingos on the internet. Parents receive regular updates about their children's learning and are encouraged to share information and useful tips with each other to extend learning throughout the nursery. The nursery also works closely with external agencies to promote inclusion for all children. They offer support for families with English as an additional language, for instance, by getting information translated into other languages to aid partnership

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who attend

working. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or other additional needs receive good levels of care because staff work closely with support agencies to meet the unique needs of each child.

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

Staff show a good commitment to providing warm, caring relationships with children to help them feel secure. They successfully achieve this through their key person system, so that every child is included, treated respectfully and valued. All staff are given training and support to learn how to manage any negative behaviour and to keep children safe. The behaviour of children is very good throughout the nursery because staff focus on positive reinforcement as well as giving clear boundaries and behaviour expectations. The oldest children are able to explain their 'golden rules' and how they use the egg timer to share the use of the computer or to have time away from others to think about their actions. Staff working with the toddlers, manage issues, such as sharing, very well. They make sure children each have tools such as white board markers so no one is left out and use distraction to calm and divert any minor squabble. Pre-school children confidently explain

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

to each other how snatching something might hurt someone else.

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

Children learn to keep safe through consistent guidance, such as when using scissors, and by practising situations such as emergency evacuation. When playing a 'car park' game in the garden children are quick to point out if someone is in the way when a car is driving around. Children learn to be healthy and practise good hygiene from a very young age, as they learn how to use and tissue to clean their noses. Nappy changing procedures effectively reduce risks of cross infection and keep babies comfortable and clean. In the toddler nappy changing area, a display of family photographs provides staff with invaluable opportunities to talk to the children about who they can see and support their feelings of belonging. All of the children learn to gain independence at snack and meal times because of the good teaching by staff. Babies learn how to hold a spoon and feed themselves, while the pre-school children serve themselves. This helps them learn about

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

portion size and take ownership over their own eating habits. The in-house chef provides a range of nutritious meals and snacks, which children thoroughly enjoy. This is evident as they request second helpings of food such as fruit salad for dessert after lunch. Fresh drinking water is readily accessible, while babies have their bottles of milk in line with their routines and parents' requests. The nursery is well resourced and children make full use of the toys and equipment and all areas of the nursery. The developing growing area of the garden helps children begin to learn about the natural world, while other areas outside enable children to get plenty of physical exercise and energetic play, as part of a healthy lifestyle.

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

The nursery works closely with other early years settings children attend and with local schools that children are moving in to. A display of a bus with children's images on, going on the route to different primary schools, is a useful resource to let parents know which children will be going to the same school. In turn, they are able to forge new relationships to help children with the transition to a new phase in their learning and development.

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provision

The staff all safeguard children and keep the children safe within the nursery and when out and about the community. The inspection took place following a concern raised about how the nursery manages behaviour when children are on outings. The management team took swift and effective action to investigate the concern at the time. The nursery's strategies for behaviour management were thoroughly reviewed with all staff and appropriate disciplinary action was taken with the member of staff concerned. Staff understand the possible signs that may indicate concerns about a child's welfare and the referral procedures to follow. All staff understand how to deal with any concerns about another member of staff to protect children's well-being. They routinely and confidently follow the nursery's policies and procedures to make sure the nursery runs smoothly. The staff work well together as a team, making sure children are closely supervised at all times

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provision

and have their needs and routines met. The management team understand the need to meet all requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage at all times. They make sure Ofsted and other agencies are notified of any significant events that have an impact on children's welfare and correctly follow all required reporting procedures. All mandatory documentation is in place to help safeguard children, such as registers of attendance, accident and medication records and child registration forms. Documentation such as policies and procedures are routinely reviewed, updated and improved to help staff fulfil their responsibilities towards safeguarding the welfare of children.

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provision

A strong management team leads the nursery and shows a very strong drive to further improve the outcomes for children. They critically evaluate and reflect on their practice and the educational programmes for children using systems such as room observations, supervision meetings and appraisals to identify priorities for improvement. For example, they have identified a training need about creativity for some staff, so that art and craft with the younger children is not overly adult-directed. They are keen to develop the provision of physically challenging activities and risk taking in children's play outdoors by learning new skills learnt in forest school training. The management closely monitor staff performance, identifying training needs and providing opportunities for all staff to develop their knowledge, skills and level of qualification. The nursery also drives improvement by completing the local authority's quality assurance scheme and has won an award for its

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provision

healthy eating, which clearly benefits the children's health and well-being.

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provision

The nursery has many good systems to seek the views of parents, including those of new parents after they have been using the nursery for six weeks. Equality questionnaires helps management find out how well the nursery promotes inclusion. For example, the views of parents lead to the introduction of Spanish lessons for the children, so they develop an understanding of another language. Parents comment how informal events such as barbecues provide them with the opportunity to chat informally to each other and their key person, which helps strengthen relationships. Parents also positively comment how happy they are with the nursery provision.

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provision

Recruitment, vetting and induction procedures within the nursery are robust. As part of their driving improvement plans, the management have recently updated staffing procedures to make sure staff keep them aware of any issues that may affect their ongoing suitability to work with children. This helps ensure only suitable adults work with the children and unvetted people do not have unsupervised access to children.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory 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 EY395529 Local authority Brighton & Hove Inspection number 925976 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 65 Number of children on roll 158 Name of provider Footsteps Childcare Limited Date of previous inspection 24/09/2012 Telephone number 01273 779034

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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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