Childminder in Southampton

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 06/08/2013 17/06/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 2 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 The childminder creates wonderful, visual and hands-on resources to capture children's interests and to extend their learning of shapes, colours, numbers and letter sounds.  Excellent observation, tracking and assessment systems are exceptionally well used by the childminder to ensure all children are highly challenged to reach their full potential.  The childminder has attended extensive training courses and has completed her level 3 qualification in early years since the last inspection. This extends her expertise and understanding greatly improving the overall outcomes for the children.  The childminder follows the children's lead exceptionally well and skilfully extends their learning and development across the areas of learning through their chosen interests.

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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 took account of the views of parents and carers from written documentation and from verbal communications.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities within the childminder's home and the outside learning environment.  The inspector looked at children's assessment records and planning documentation.

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Information about the setting

The childminder registered in 1990. She lives with her two adult children. They live in a house in Southampton, Hampshire. The ground floor of the premises is used for childminding activities but children use the master bedroom for sleeping. There is a fully enclosed garden available for outside play. The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and on both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The childminder has nine children on roll, of which, four are in the early years age range. The childminder is an accredited childminder. The family have three dogs, two cats, three rabbits, four birds and keep fish.

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

 enhance the communications with other early years providers to provide further consistency with children's care, learning and development needs.

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who attend

Children are extremely well motivated and very eager to participate with the extensive range of activities and resources provided by the childminder. The childminder knows the children exceptionally well and provides them with a wide range of activities linked to their current interests. She expertly uses this knowledge to follow what the children play with but at the same time extends their learning. For example, she recognises the children are showing a great interest in the sand and water play and maximises the opportunity to encourage the children to explore what happens when water is added to the dry sand. Children talk about how the sand has become 'wet and sticky'. This further develops children's understanding of the effects achieved when they combine different things together and enhances their investigative and prediction skills. These excellent learning experiences prepare children very well for their next stages in learning and for school.

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who attend

The childminder uses her excellent knowledge of the children's next steps to further develop and enhance their early reading and writing skills. For example. she recognises children are learning letter sounds and how to form these. The childminder provides children with wonderful, hands-on resources to enable them to identify letter sounds and learn how to sound them out and write them. Children thoroughly enjoy using the visual magnetic letters and independently sound out many letters of their names. The childminder very closely supports children with identifying the sounds and offers lots of praise and encouragement for their excellent achievements. These excellent and fun learning experiences enable children to develop to their full potential and prepares them exceptionally well for school.

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who attend

Children have a fabulous time digging in the soil tray looking for bugs and insects. The childminder skilfully extends the children's learning by asking open questions about the names of the bugs, where they live and what they like to eat. In addition, she asks children if the bugs are small or big and how many legs they can identify on the spider. The childminder provides children with lots of space and time to think about what is being asked and to respond. Children successfully identify that the spider is small and, with the close support of the childminder, count eight legs. Lots of praise is rewarded for children's excellent answers in turn greatly promoting children's self esteem and confidence.

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who attend

Children thoroughly enjoy participating with cooking activities. They are wholly involved as they weigh out the ingredients and the childminder skilfully uses these opportunities to extend the children's learning further, such as introducing an early understanding of the written number by encouraging children to pour the ingredients to a specific number on the weighing scales. These excellent hands-on experiences help children to develop an excellent understanding about weight and quantities.

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who attend

The childminder has an excellent understanding of child development in the early years having extended her knowledge greatly since her last inspection. She has an extremely good knowledge of each child's individual care, learning and development needs ensuring she is able to fully support them in reaching their full potential. The childminder has detailed assessment systems in place and works very well alongside parents. Parents are invited to meet with the childminder on a regular basis and are highly encouraged to contribute their own comments into the children's individual learning records. The childminder has an excellent understanding of the requirements for the progress check for two year olds and has completed these for the children currently in her care. Parents are wholly involved with this process and contribute their comments. This ensures parents are extremely well informed and are able to continue and support learning at home.

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

Children have formed excellent emotional attachments with the childminder and other children. They are extremely confident in asking the childminder for support and communicate effectively together to work as a team. For example, children confidently talk to each other about what they are doing with the sand and kindly help each other to find the resources they need to make their 'mud pies'. Children behave exceptionally well. They demonstrate high levels of self-control informing their friends, 'It's your turn to use the spoon, there you go'. This demonstrates children's excellent empathy for their friends and their growing understanding of being kind and sharing with their peers. The childminder offers lots of praise and encouragement for their excellent behaviour and team work skills. This greatly enhances children's self esteem and confidence preparing them exceptionally well for their next stages in learning.

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

Children visit the bathroom facilities independently developing their self-care skills in readiness for going to school. The childminder supervises from afar to ensure children remain safe and to offer support when required. Children develop an excellent understanding of how to manage risks as the childminder talks with them giving clear reasons of what may happen if they are not careful. For example she talks to children about being careful when handling the round stones because they will hurt their feet if they drop them. Children respond very well, placing the stones back down gently into the tray of soil. The excellent use of safety rules is extremely effective in supporting children's growing understanding of how to behave in order to keep themselves and those around them safe.

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

Children show high levels of respect for their environment and respond to the childminder's instructions well. They very eagerly help the childminder to tidy away resources prior to setting up the next activity. Children have a wonderful time in the garden planting and growing herbs, potatoes and sunflowers. They thoroughly enjoy helping the childminder to nurture the plants and demonstrate high levels of independence as they use watering cans to feed them some water. The childminder uses lots of opportunities to talk to children about different food types and how certain foods are good for them. For example, children have a lovely time playing with the toy fruit and vegetables. The childminder skilfully asks open questions about the names and colours of the fruit enabling children the space and time to respond. Learning is further extended as she talks to the children about how these foods are good for helping their bodies and

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

muscles to grow stronger. This helps children to obtain an excellent understanding of the foods that are good for them as part of a healthy and balanced diet.

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

The childminder provides children with a highly stimulating environment both in and outdoors. Children thoroughly enjoy the freedom as they independently move between the inside and outside areas choosing from an extensive range of resources promoting all areas of learning. The childminder has been highly reflective and successfully addressed past recommendations from previous inspections, such as providing children with a greater range of diverse and multicultural resources to play and interact with.

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provision

The childminder has an excellent understanding of her responsibility to ensure her provision meets the safeguarding and welfare and learning and development requirements. She implements the framework highly successfully to ensure children receive high quality care and learning experiences.

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provision

She has an extremely secure knowledge of safeguarding children procedures and attends regular, up-to-date training. This ensures the childminder is continually abreast of current guidance and legislation and children are kept extremely well protected and free from harm. She has highly robust risk assessments for her home and outings to ensure hazards are promptly identified and children are kept extremely safe. For example, the childminder is highly vigilant in ensuring children are never left unsupervised with the family pets to ensure they are always kept safe. The childminder has good quality action plans to ensure she is very knowledgeable about procedures to follow in the event of an emergency or unexpected event. This ensures the safety of the children is highly maintained at all times.

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provision

The childminder conducts a high-quality self evaluation of her provision and practice on a regular basis, continually updating where improvements have been made and identifying future areas for development. She has created wonderful photo boards with the children who thoroughly enjoy helping to stick the photos of the things they have been doing onto these boards. The childminder uses this visual resource exceptionally well to enable children to point at and decide what activities they would like to play with that day. This enables children to be fully involved with the setting and to make choices about what is on offer for them to participate with. The childminder has enhanced her expertise and professional development greatly since the last inspection. She has attended a wide range of early years training events and has successfully obtained a level 3 early years qualification. She is keen to continually attend regular early years training days to ensure

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provision

she is constantly improving her understanding and practice. The childminder is very proactive and has attended a childminding expedition to obtain further ideas of excellent practice to incorporate within her provision. For example she now provides the children with a wider range of sensory activities to explore such as making marks in shaving foam and jelly play.

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provision

The childminder works very closely with parents to ensure children are fully supported in achieving their full potential. She communicates with parents verbally on a daily basis and parents are able to meet with the childminder at anytime. Parents speak extremely highly of the childminding provision stating 'my children are very happy here and the childminder is excellent in meeting their care and learning needs'. Parents see the wonderful photo boards the children and childminder have created providing them with an excellent knowledge of what their children have been doing. The childminder has displayed a detailed notice board to ensure parents are kept extremely up-to-date with important information and current legislation. The childminder has an extremely good understanding of her requirement to work in partnership with other early years providers. She has started to establish these links for the children who have recently started at other settings.

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provision

However, these communications are not yet fully embedded to ensure children's care, learning and development needs are always fully shared and consistency fully achieved.

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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 131460 Local authority Southampton Inspection number 910185 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 9

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Telephone number

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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