Stepping Stones Day Nursery and Nursery School

Stepping Stones Day Nursery and Nursery School 5 Edington Square, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 5YT

p.1

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/09/2013 05/03/2013

p.1

early years provision

This inspection: 3 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

p.1

This provision is satisfactory

 Children make sound progress in their learning and development. Staff undertake regular observations and monitor their progress suitably to identify their learning needs.  Children enjoy playing in the outdoor area, where they can build on their physical skills by climbing, pedalling and balancing.  Children form positive relationships with each other and the staff. They are happy and settled at the nursery.  Parents are happy with the provision and report that children are happy to attend. They have found the staff to be helpful and welcoming.

p.1

It is not yet good because

 Staff deployment is not always effective to ensure they consistently meet children's needs.  The record of children's attendance is not completed accurately, which in the event of an emergency, puts visiting children at potential risk.  Children are not fully aware of all toys and resources available in order to make choices and decisions in selecting toys, activities and resources.

p.1

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

p.2

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.

p.2

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.

p.2

Inspection activities

 The inspector observed the play environments, the children at play and the staff's interaction with them.  The inspector discussed practice with the manager and staff.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager.

p.2

Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled records and documentation, including children's progress records.

p.2

Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to a number of parents to gain their feedback about the nursery.

p.2

Information about the setting

Stepping Stones Day Nursery and Nursery School has operated under the current owner since 2003. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It operates from purpose-built premises over two floors, situated in a residential area of Deer Park in Witney. The nursery has two large base rooms on the ground floor, with a kitchen, toilet and nappy changing facilities. There are two base rooms upstairs, with a sleep room, nappy changing room, milk kitchen and staff room. A separate terrapin building with two small rooms is used for children in the later years age group who attend after school and during school holidays. All children share access to an enclosed garden with hard standing, grass and bark surfaces and a planting and growing area. There are currently 95 children on roll in the early years age group. The nursery provides out of school care and there are currently nine children aged

p.3

Information about the setting

from five to eight years of age and four children aged over eight years on roll. The nursery accepts funding for early education for children aged two, three-and-four years of age. The nursery is open each week day from 7.30am to 6pm all year round, excluding bank holidays. Sessions are from 9am to 1pm, from 1pm to 5pm and from 1.30pm to 5.30pm. The nursery currently supports children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. Children attend from Witney and surrounding areas. The nursery employs 13 staff to work directly with the children. These staff are supported by the owner/manager, the assistant manager and an office manager. All staff hold appropriate childcare qualifications to level 2, 3 and 4. The owner/manager holds Qualified Teacher Status and the assistant manager holds an Early Years Professional qualification.

p.3

must:

 improve staff deployment to ensure that staffing arrangements meet the needs of the children at all times, with particular regard to the supervision of new, temporary and less experienced staff

p.4

must:

 keep a daily record of the names of the children being cared for on the premises, their hours of attendance.

p.4

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

 increase opportunities for all children to make choices and decisions when accessing toys and resources by using pictures, real objects and signs alongside words in the learning environment.

p.4

who attend

Overall, children are happy and contented at this nursery. They have a good range of activities that help them make suitable progress in all areas of learning. The staff have a secure understanding of the learning and development requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff undertake regular observations and assessment on the children. The findings are used to aid their planning and support each child's individual needs.

p.4

who attend

Children's communication and language is well supported throughout the nursery by the staff. Children enjoy listening to stories, where they have opportunities to re-enact animals from the books, which skilfully supports their imagination skills. Children's speaking and vocalisation skills are supported well by staff, as they communicate frequently with the children, asking them questions around their play and singing interactively with them.

p.4

who attend

All children enjoy regular opportunities to be active. Younger babies have fun exploring water in their base room and have a happy time exploring balls from the ball pit. This supports their fine muscles as they develop the skills to fill containers. Older children benefit from the free-flow play between the inside and outside play environment. Their physical development is well supported as they have a good range of stimulating and challenging activities, which meets their individual ages and stages of development. Children access toys and resources from low-level boxes, which the staff regularly rotates taking into consideration the individual needs of the children. However, children are not fully aware of all the toys available as pictorial labels or written words are not in place to aid them in making choices and decisions. Throughout the nursery the children enjoy a wide range of creative materials to enable

p.4

who attend

them to explore and be creative. For example, they discover the properties of gloop, enjoy painting, explore sand and soil and make marks in shaving foam. Staff use opportunities such as these to develop children's awareness of print carrying meaning and patterns, which suitability support children's early literacy and mathematic skills.

p.5

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

Children are happy at the nursery and have clearly built trusting relationships with their key person. Overall, the key person system is well-embedded throughout the nursery, which helps children to feel secure in the nursery environment. The staff support and ease the transition to nursery well, offering a good amount of visits to ensure all children are settled. Children develop friendships with each other throughout the nursery. This is due to the relaxing play environment, which enables children of all ages to interact with their peers in the garden. Overall, the nursery is welcoming with a wide range of displays and information for the families and children attending.

p.5

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

Staff support the children well emotionally and offer an environment where they their care needs are suitability met. Children behave well throughout the day and benefit from the warm praise and encouragement they receive from staff. This supports children's good levels of self-esteem. Children are developing a suitable understanding of how to play safely. Younger children are given suitable explanations on how to hold a bat safely and older children take care to avoid hurting one another while riding on bicycles in the garden. The nursery offers a secure environment, with a familiar routine. This helps children to feel assured and safe. Appropriate procedures are in place for the administration of medication and the recording of accidents to help safeguard children's welfare.

p.5

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

The premises are clean and well furnished with child friendly furniture and equipment. Children access a variety of age-appropriate resources and enjoy play in a good-sized garden. Children enjoy spending time outside in the garden. They have a good range of activities to develop their learning and development overall. For example, they develop their moving and handling skills as they explore the climbing frames and stepping logs. Staff develop children's creativity outside, as children have opportunities to explore with paints, shaving foam and other sensory materials outside.

p.5

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

Suitable procedures are in place to help children learn about the importance of healthy lifestyles. Children enjoy planting and growing their own vegetables and fruits in the garden and benefit from healthy meals and snacks. Children sit at the table to eat their snacks and lunch with staff. This enables staff to promote children self-help skills, develop good table manners and promote social skills. Older children pour their own drinks and collect their dinner from the serving table, which supports their independence and promotes their readiness for school. Children have access to fresh drinking water throughout the day and babies' formulated milk is available, in accordance to their needs and routines. Children are encouraged to manage their personal needs and hygiene routines. For example, younger children are given cloths and wipes to develop their coordination in wiping their hands. Older children have access to the bathroom facilities,

p.5

provision

Children play in a safe, secure environment where staff complete daily safety checks and regularly review risk assessments. Risk assessments are undertaken prior to children being taken out of the premises, to local play fields. This ensures that the adult to child ratio is consistently met and safety procedures are considered, to safeguard the children.

p.6

provision

All staff have undertaken safeguarding training and this is regularly re-visited at monthly staff meeting. This as a result enables them to be confident in procedures to follow if they have any concerns. All required policies and procedures to promote good practice are in place. These include safeguarding, complaints and outing procedures. The nursery team have a suitable level of qualified staff. However, the deployment of the staff is not always consistent to meet the needs of the children overall. For example, covering staff for the baby unit are not always available within the rooms, due to them overseeing managerial roles. This means that children are not fully supervised appropriately for a short space of time. The nursery has all required documentation in place, including consents, registration forms, and policies and procedures. However, some of the required documentation is not always fully completed. For example, children who are undertaking visits to the nursery

p.6

provision

without their parents are not recorded in the register. In the event of an emergency, this puts children at potential risk, as staff are not aware of all children's presence. This means the nursery is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirement for the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and the associated requirement for the Childcare Register in relation to this aspect of documentation. Nonetheless, the nursery undertakes regular fire evacuations that enable staff and children to know what to do in an emergency. All staff undertake paediatric first aid training and there are effective procedures in place for recording accidents and the administration of medication. These positive steps help to safeguard children and promote their welfare and well-being.

p.6

provision

The nursery have a secure vetting, induction and appraisal systems in place. Staff are suitably qualified, and regularly attend in-house training. This aids and supports their skills and knowledge, combined with supportive supervision and coaching. The nursery's leadership and management team work well together. They demonstrate that they understand their responsibilities in meeting the learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They have fully addressed the previous actions and recommendation from the last inspection and have put together an improvement plan to enhance the overall provision. As a result, this shows that the self-evaluation procedures have a positive impact on overall quality of care provided for children.

p.6

provision

Well-established partnerships with parents are in place. At the inspection, parents spoke highly of the 'good quality staff,' and another explained that 'she would take her children anywhere else'. A suitable range of information is available to parents. This includes notice boards, policy packs and a home book borrowing scheme. Parents receive consistent feedback about their children's progress through discussions and are welcome to view their child's learning record at any time. The nursery staff work closely with other professionals involved in children's care, for example, additional carers, other agencies and schools. This support enables the staff to meet the children's individual needs and promote continuity of care overall.

p.6

The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

p.7

actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

p.7

To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 keep daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (compulsory part of the Childcare Register).  keep daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (voluntary part of the Childcare Register).

p.7

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.

p.8

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.

p.8

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.

p.9

Setting details

Unique reference number EY258333 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 930816 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 75 Number of children on roll 95 Name of provider Jane Mary Kelly Date of previous inspection 05/03/2013 Telephone number 01993 708822

p.9

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.

p.9

Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

p.9

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.

p.9

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.

p.9

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.

p.10

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,

p.10

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’.

p.11

Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.11