Ashby Day Nursery & Pre-schoolOfsted inspection, 11 Sept 2013

Ashby Day Nursery 28 North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, LE65 1HS

p.1

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 11/09/2013 31/10/2011

p.1

early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 1 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

p.1

This provision is outstanding

 Children make excellent progress in line with their starting points and capabilities. They are able to take part in a wealth of exciting and innovative experiences, which support their learning and development.  Observation and assessment is used effectively to precisely identify children's individual next steps of learning and to plan activities to ensure that no child gets left behind.  There are exceptionally robust procedures in place to ease and support children's transitions, both throughout the nursery when they move between rooms and when they start school.  An exceptionally effective key person system, which clearly works in practice provides children with stability and helps them to form positive relationships and gain confidence and self-esteem.  A highly effective and supportive management team, who are pro-active in identifying areas for improvement ensures that the nursery maintains an exceptionally high

p.1

This provision is outstanding

standard of care and learning for the children, who attend.

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 children in all areas of the premises and outdoors.

p.2

Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's records, planning, assessment and other required documents.  The inspector held ongoing discussions with the managers, staff and children.  The inspector sought the views of parents.

p.2

Information about the setting

Ashby Day Nursery was registered in 1996 and is one of three nurseries owned by Swingboat Nurseries. It is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch area of Derbyshire. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It operates from four base rooms and there is a fully enclosed area available for outdoor play.

p.3

Information about the setting

The nursery employs 16 members of childcare staff, all of whom hold appropriate early years qualifications. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 108 children attending, who are within the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children, who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

p.3

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

 provide children with additional opportunities to further enhance and expand their good knowledge of the world around them by making activities available for them to plant and grow in the garden.

p.3

who attend

Children thoroughly enjoy the time they spend in this friendly and wholly supportive environment. They eagerly participate in the exciting and innovative experiences that staff provide for them. This develops children's curiosity and helps to make them enthusiastic learners. Planning is pertinent to every child's individual needs and staff are skilled at adjusting activities to ensure that every child receives a balanced and suitable learning experience. Staff recognise children's individual learning needs and patterns and provide an extensive range of activities to support these. They have implemented the progress check at age two to enable them to assess children's development and act on any areas if there are concerns. This ensures that all children make excellent progress in line with their starting points and individual capabilities. Parents are fully involved in their child's learning and development. They are invited to share information about their child's learning

p.3

who attend

interests at home. Staff further encourage this participation by providing activities, such as treasure hunts for children and parents to take part in together where they look for items that are, stripy, shiny and hard. Information about activities, such as 'jolly phonics' are displayed to help parents to support their child's learning. For example, staff display the actions that children learn when learning phonetic sounds, such as turning their head as if watching a tennis match for the letter t.

p.3

who attend

Children's communication and language skills are extremely well developed. Staff have trained in and implemented the ideas and values from Every Child a Talker to ensure that all children are able to communicate effectively, either through speech or gesture, depending on their age and ability. Books are a firm favourite. Children listen intently to stories that are told to them with intonation and expression. They excitedly join in with familiar responses and eagerly act out a story using puppet props as they pretend to chase a man made of gingerbread, who is running away. Equality of opportunity is a real strength and all children are welcome in the nursery. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those, who speak English as an additional language are exceptionally well supported. Staff take time to find out about and embrace other cultures and provide activities for children, which reflect their home customs. For example, they

p.4

who attend

make and taste potato soup from Hungary and waffles and maple syrup from America. This helps children to feel totally included and ensures that they settle well.

p.4

who attend

Every room in the nursery is a hive of activity as children enthusiastically make choices within their play. Fun and laughter is an integral part of the day and sounds of extremely happy and contented children fill the building. Babies especially enjoy exploring the 'dark den'. They are supported by staff to investigate fibre optic torches and become totally engrossed and watch with fascination as objects, such as ducks flash when they are switched on. Older children take part in music and movement sessions. They listen intently to the instructions that are given to them and enthusiastically join in action songs about elephants, who have wrinkles on different parts of their bodies. They are able, with the support of staff to creep a 'beanbag snail' to different parts of their bodies, including their chin, head and shin and kick the beanbag snail into the 'garden' with their foot.

p.4

who attend

Children in the pre-school room learn the necessary skills to prepare them in readiness for school. They are able to count in everyday situations and can recognise and name different shapes. Staff further enhance children's learning in this area by taking the children on an outing to the local fair to see what shapes they can find in their local environment. Children are beginning to learn the value of money as staff give them 50 pence to buy fruit at the local shops. Pre-school children learn to write their names and are able to name the letter that their name begins with. They are beginning to learn how to tell the time. They draw clock faces, carefully copying the numbers and staff use activities and routines throughout the day to further help and support children to understand the meaning of time.

p.4

who attend

Younger children learn about animals and how to care for them. They carefully feed the giant African land snails with tomatoes and watch in fascination as they crawl across a member of staff's hand. They enjoy trips to the local pet shop where they look at bearded dragons and guinea pigs. Staff skilfully extend activities to support children's enjoyment of animals as they create swamps using water, jelly cubes and tea leaves for the children to investigate and find what animals are hiding in them.

p.4

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

A well-established and extremely effective key person system operates throughout the nursery. Every key person knows their children exceptionally well and can clearly demonstrate how they are helping them to move forward and make excellent progress. Excellent settling-in processes further support children and help to build trusting relationships with parents. This helps children to form secure emotional attachments and provides parents with a familiar person to share information with regarding their child. Staff in the baby room provide young babies with physical interaction and cuddles. This helps them to form emotional bonds and attachments. Older children are quick to seek out staff for a cuddle if they become tired or need reassurance. Children are exceptionally well supported in their transitions between rooms and parents are fully involved. They are introduced to their child's new key person and new routines are explained. Staff ensure

p.5

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

that children are familiar with the room they are moving to by taking them on visits at different times during the day to enable them to familiarise themselves with new routines gradually. For example, they visit for meal and sleep times and to take part in activities. This helps them to become familiar with other children and staff.

p.5

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

Staff build excellent relationships with the schools that children will be moving to. This promotes consistency and makes the move to school a positive experience for the children. Teachers visit the children in the nursery and where possible, staff support children on their visits to school. Staff have spoken to the schools that children are moving to and have asked where additional support is needed to enable them to settle. They have addressed the issues by providing activities to teach children to get undressed and dressed during physical education sessions and they hold a lunch box week to help children to learn how to open tubs and put straws in cartons of drink. The role play area contains school uniforms to help children to become familiar with wearing them and displays show photographs of the school buildings, teachers and classrooms. This further helps to support children with transitions.

p.5

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

Children's health is very well promoted and there are clear and consistently applied systems in place to protect them from infection. For example, nappy changing procedures are robust and clearly monitored. Children enjoy healthy meals and snacks, which are prepared on site by the nursery cook. Menus are well balanced and checked by a nutritionist to ensure that they have the correct sugar and salt content and provide children with their five portions of fruit and vegetables everyday. The cook has attended portion size training to ensure that she always provides children with an extremely balanced diet. Younger children are supported to feed themselves and staff sensitively encourage them in this learning experience. Mealtimes for older children are sociable occasions as they sit together around the table. They serve themselves to their meals, learn how to use utensils correctly and wait until everyone has finished before leaving the

p.5

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

table. This teaches them valuable life skills. Children's behaviour is exemplary. They learn golden rules and start to take responsibility for their own behaviour. Children learn good manners and consistently use 'please' and 'thank you' within their daily routines.

p.5

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

The premises is beautifully maintained and resourced to provide children with a safe, stimulating environment in which to learn and develop. Children thoroughly enjoy spending time outdoors. They access equipment, such as, tyres, tunnels and bikes to help them to develop large muscle skills and coordination. Staff are currently working closely with parents to create a 'secret garden' for the children to further enhance outdoor experiences. However, as this is in its infancy, there is scope to further improve this area to expand children's enjoyment of growing and sustainability. Children learn about their own safety as staff incorporate gentle reminders of how to use resources safely as they play. Additional safety precautions, such as the use of fluorescent jackets when on outings, further promotes children's safety at all times.

p.5

provision

Children are exceptionally well safeguarded. All staff are very aware of their roles and responsibilities in protecting the children in their care. They fully understand the signs and symptoms to be aware of and know when and from whom to seek advice. Recruitment procedures are robust. All staff are checked thoroughly before being employed to ensure that staff working with the children are suitable and of a high calibre. Appraisals and supervision meetings are used to identify any areas for improvement. Staff regularly attend training to further expand their knowledge and expertise.

p.6

provision

Partnership with parents is exceptional. Parents are wholly valued and their views are sought and respected. They are encouraged to share their expertise with the children. For example, they join in and lead exercise sessions. Parents are extremely happy with the nursery and comments received are very positive. They say that 'staff are friendly and approachable and take time to help children settle'. Parents are very pleased with the amount of information, which is shared with them about their child's learning and development. Excellent partnerships with other professionals involved with the children, such as speech and language therapists helps them to reach their development goals.

p.6

provision

The management team are clearly able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the nursery and demonstrate a firm commitment to improvement. They are pro-active in monitoring the nursery practice and implementing the changes necessary to sustain and enhance the already excellent practice. Staff and parents are actively involved in the self- evaluation process and ideas for improvement are carefully considered and acted upon. Above all, children thrive in this stimulating and learning enriched environment. The skills they learn help them to prepare them for school and life and lay firm foundations for the future.

p.6

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

p.6

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.7

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.7

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.8

Setting details

Unique reference number 223188 Local authority Leicestershire Inspection number 931159

p.8

Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 50 Number of children on roll 108 Name of provider Elaine Anne Blunt Date of previous inspection 31/10/2011 Telephone number 01530 416622

p.8

Type of provision

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.8

Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

p.8

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.8

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.8

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.9

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.9

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.10

Type of provision

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

p.10