Mama Bear's Day Nursery

Mama Bear's Day Nursery 4 Midvale Road, Paignton, Devon, TQ4 5BD

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 25/07/2013 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: Not Applicable 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

 Management and staff constantly work to refine their practice in order to enhance outcomes for children. Parents' and children's views are substantially taken into account during evaluation and there is exceptional capacity for continuous improvement.  Highly effective key person systems enables all children to feel extremely valued and secure.  Children's needs are extremely well met through excellently planned, interesting and challenging experiences with inspirational planning and assessment processes.  All children make rapid progress in their learning and development in relation to their starting points. Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who speak English as an additional language is inspiring.  Parents are exceptionally well informed about their children's progress and have independent daily access to their children's learning records. Excellent arrangements

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This provision is outstanding

are in place to enable parents to engage with their children's learning and to inform them about early education.  Children are exceptionally well motivated, happy and eager to learn. They show high levels of independence and an exceptional readiness to move on to the next step in their learning.

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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 activities throughout all age groups and in the garden.  The inspector interviewed the manager, area manager and owner.  The inspector took part in a join observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector reviewed a range of documents and policies, including children's observation and assessment records.  The inspector took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

Mama Bear's Day nursery registered in 2012. It is one of a group of 18 privately owned nurseries located in the south west of England. The nursery operates from a three storey building in Paignton, Devon. Children have access to fully enclosed outdoor play areas. The nursery is open each weekday from 7.30am to 7pm, for 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are 16 members of staff, of these 11 hold a Level 3 qualifications and one member of staff holds a Level 6 qualification. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for children aged two, three and four. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who speak English as an additional language.

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

 reviewing the organisation of small group work so that minor interruptions are minimised to enable all children to fully take part during activities.

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who attend

Children are given an excellent range of opportunities to play and explore in all areas of learning. Staff are highly skilled and know the children extremely well and provide a wealth of exciting activities and play experiences tailored to their individual needs and interests. Consequently, children make rapid progress in all areas of their learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are exceptionally well supported so that they too make rapid progress in relation to their starting points. Children who speak English as an additional language are also supported extremely well. Staff use a wide range of techniques to engage them and their parents in the setting. These include the use of sign language cards, parents coming into the setting to teach children about different languages and cultures, and the use of a 'talking pen' to translate to overcome any communication barriers.

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who attend

Activities are motivating and develop children's self-esteem and confidence very effectively. Mark making and number recognition are integral to play and form an outstanding basis for encouraging children's interests in the printed word, writing and mathematical ideas. For example, pre-school children have chosen to 'pen letters' to Prince George after showing an interest in the royal birth. This enables children to use their early writing skills purposefully. Younger children use water and chalk to make marks and shapes outside, counting them as they create these, and the babies explore finger painting. Children successfully develop personal and social skills. For example, they share and take turns instinctively. All staff's practice demonstrates an expert understanding of how children learn. Children's interests have been used to create 'interactive displays' with resource bags that children can access at any time. Babies particularly enjoy being able to

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who attend

select the animal puppet bag and listen to stories while holding their puppet, and squeal with excitement.

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who attend

All staff interact with children purposefully and sensitively to build on what they already know and can do. Because all key adults know their children's capabilities extremely well they can weave their next steps into the planning and daily routines. As a result, each child's learning is fully challenged and extended. A key strength of the provision is the rigorous approach to planning, observation and assessment, including the high quality monitoring of this. Planning draws on staff observations, which are incidental and focused, children's interests, and information from parents. As a result, children's next steps in learning are identified exceptionally well. Planning is very well-organised between staff and is divided into plans based on interests, themes and enhancements of continuously available activities as a result of observations of children. Assessment is highly precise and tracks children's progress from entry to the setting through each term they attend.

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who attend

Because of this staff identify children's strengths and areas where more support is needed, ensuring interventions are timely and any gaps in learning are quickly addressed. Consequently, children make rapid improvements in learning due to precise assessment informing individual planning. Parents are also engaged in their children's learning and contribute to planning. They continue their children's learning at home through borrowing resources provided by the setting as part of their interactive displays. Children make impressive strides in their learning and development, developing excellent skills for their future learning and move to school.

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

Staff show a superb knowledge of children's interests, as a result of observation and talking to them. Staff also seek information from parents each term to inform their care and support for children. Children are extremely confident and self-assured as a result of the highly skilled key person practice and procedures. Children chat confidently to adults and work very well with other children in activities. They settle quickly and those that are new and unsettled are supported very well. Children's behaviour is impeccable overall. Occasionally, during small group activities some children become overexcited in their enthusiasm to take part. As a result, staff have to take time to calm these children before continuing with the activity. This reduces the flow of the activity for those children who are fully engaged. Children use good manners and develop positive friendships with each other, playing harmoniously with their friends.

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

Resources are easily accessible to children across all areas indoors and outdoors, which are all labelled with photos so children know what they are. As a result, children have ample opportunity to develop independent skills and make choices about what they want to do. Children in the toddler and preschool rooms have free access to outdoor areas at all times, which has a very positive impact on developing their physical skills and allows them to make choices and initiate play. Children confidently decide what to do and interact particularly well with one another as they take part in joint activities, such as playing superheroes and tasting water with fruit in. They use a wide variety of technology competently, including remote control toys and scales.

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

Managers and key persons work extensively to ensure that children and families are very well prepared for changes as they start the nursery, prepare to leave and change rooms. For example, in the pre-school room children prepare for the move to school by having a role play area with uniforms for them to wear and registers for them to use. School teachers are invited to visit the nursery to meet the children and their parents.

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

Snack and lunch times are enjoyable social occasions when staff encourage good hygiene routines, good manners and lots of conversation. Children pour their own drinks and serve food, which promotes their independent skills effectively. They have an excellent understanding of the need to keep fit and healthy. Children's care needs are exceptionally well catered for, and children are contented because they have plenty to eat and drink, and are clean and comfortable. Children are healthy and energetic and spend a large part of their day outdoors. They develop excellent physical skills through ride on toys, running, climbing and using child-size equipment. Children learn to manage their risks appropriately, such as riding the trucks down the slopes safely.

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provision

The management team has an excellent understanding of the welfare and safeguarding, and learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are exceptionally successful in inspiring the staff team. The management have extremely high expectations and set very high standards in professional development. Belief in the nursery's success runs throughout the whole staff team. Staff are highly experienced, well qualified, enthusiastic and their morale is excellent. They work very effectively as a team and the manager regularly reviews their performance to ensure their continued suitability and individual professional development. Staff are fully involved in monitoring and analysing the provision and use feedback from parents and children effectively to help them in this process. The importance of continual professional development is thoroughly embedded. As a result, the highly qualified childcare team is able to enhance all aspects of

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provision

learning for children. The nursery has rigorous systems for self-evaluation, with plans for continuous improvement high on the agenda. Ongoing self-evaluation is extensive and there are systems in place for staff, children and parents to contribute to enhancing the exceptional provision. As a result of this rigorous approach, the setting delivers outstanding learning and care for all children.

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provision

Excellent systems to promote children's learning and development are in place. Planning is reviewed by the nursery manager, and is closely monitored to ensure that it is highly effective and promotes children's progress fully. Activities are evaluated by the key person, which supports them to accurately identify children's individual next steps in learning. Key persons use the information gained from observations and assessments extremely well to ensure each child has their own individualised learning programme in place. Regular summaries are completed for all children, and progress checks are undertaken for two-year-old children. These are shared with parents along with children's identified next steps in learning to extensively promote consistency and continuity in promoting children's outcomes.

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provision

Meticulous attention to safeguarding means that children are protected from harm and feel extremely safe. All staff are trained in child protection and demonstrate an excellent awareness of safeguarding issues. Consequently, they are confident in implementing child protection procedures. Children are also safeguarded by the highly robust recruitment and vetting procedures, which help to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

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provision

The principles of equality of opportunity underpin all practice in the setting to secure the best possible outcomes for all children, whatever their needs. Special care is taken to provide bilingual documents for families who speak English an additional language, so that they are kept well informed. Staff and parents enjoy a close working relationship. Parents are kept very well informed about all aspects of their children's achievements, well-being and development. For example, they receive daily written and verbal information about their children and have daily access to children's learning records. Both parents and the children are actively encouraged to contribute to the learning journey record. This ensures that parents and children are fully included. Staff are available to chat to parents on a daily basis and regular meetings with their child's key person are offered. Parents' are consulted about all aspects of the provision regularly and the actions in response to their

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provision

feedback are displayed to demonstrate the exceptional commitment to partnership with parents. Staff also enjoy highly effective working relationships with other services and early years providers. They have well-established channels of communications with outside agencies, and this ensures a shared approach to children's care and learning.

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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 EY457215 Local authority Torbay Inspection number 896509 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 90 Name of provider Mama Bear's Day Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01803 520 620

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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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