Bright Horizons Chigwell Valley Meadows Day Nursery and Preschool

Chigwell Day Nursery C/o David Lloyd Leisure Club, Roding Lane, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Essex, IG9 6BJ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/09/2013 28/07/2011

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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

 Children receive exceptionally high levels of care and attention from dedicated and knowledgeable staff due to the high staff to child ratios and successfully implemented staff deployment.  All staff are highly skilled and sensitive in helping children form secure emotional attachments and provide an exceptionally strong base for children's developing independence and exploration.  The effective planning and assessment procedures and stimulating environment ensure that children are offered a wide variety of activities and resources that engage them and build on their individual interests. Children are afforded excellent opportunities to develop their physical skills by engaging in exceptional sporting activities.  Partnerships with parents are exceedingly strong and parents make an extremely important contribution to the provision of effective learning experiences for children.  Children are confident, interested and very eager to learn. They are articulate, have

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This provision is outstanding

excellent social skills and use language and their imagination well to organise their ideas and develop their play.

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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 observed activities in all rooms of the nursery and the garden.  The inspector spoke with the managers, staff and children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of parents' views by speaking to them and reading parents' comments.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at policies and procedures, risk assessments, children's development records, reflective accounts and all relevant documentation.

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Information about the setting

Chigwell Day Nursery is one of 79 nurseries run by Asquith Nurseries Ltd. The nursery opened in 1998 and is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It operates from five rooms within the David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Chigwell, Essex. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery employs 26 members of childcare staff. Of these, 16 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3 or above. The nursery also employs two chefs.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens each weekday from 7.30am until 5.30pm for 51 weeks of the year. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 54 children attending, who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for three- and four-year-old children. It supports a small number of children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 encourage children to consider portion size as they serve themselves, so that they learn to fully consider the needs of others, to avoid disappointment and confusion at mealtimes.

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who attend

Children's learning and development is extremely well supported through staff's excellent knowledge of how children learn. This ensures that children's progress in all areas of learning is exceptionally well promoted. The confident and enthusiastic staff team work exceeding well together, support each other and have a secure understanding of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The quality of teaching is robust throughout the nursery. Assessments of children's starting points on entry to the nursery are shared with parents to ensure children make excellent progress from the beginning. Parents are encouraged to add examples of children's achievements at home to a 'parent tree', which staff use to inform planning for individual children's progress and identify the next steps in their learning. Parents also contribute 'home learning stories' giving details of children's experiences and special interests outside of the nursery. Staff

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who attend

expertly utilise these experiences and interests to build exciting and interesting themes, indoors and outdoors, to stimulate children's imagination and extend their learning. For example, a pirates theme for pre-school children builds on the delights of a birthday party treat. Children search for buried treasure and they make hats and boats. Children are enthralled as staff read stories about adventures at sea, which stimulate their curiosity and spark their imagination. They uncover a shiny object in the sand and shout 'I found treasure'. They examine these through magnifying glasses and are fascinated to see how different it looks, first bigger, then smaller. They count the objects they find, developing skills in mathematics.

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who attend

Children are enthusiastic and well motivated, eager to participate and consistently demonstrate the characteristics of effective learning. For example, younger children concentrate hard as they paint balloons covered in paper to represent the world. Staff use careful questioning to encourage children's thinking skills. Staff ask what colours of paint they might need to paint the world. Children make choices and decisions. They learn to explore and investigate. They ask for yellow to paint a sun and discover that by painting over blue they have made the colour green. Staff congratulate their talent and applaud their achievements, boosting children's self-esteem. Outstanding progress is achieved by all children because staff use their understanding of individual children's needs, gained through close observation, to provide stimulating and imaginative resources to enhance their learning and development.

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who attend

An excellent balance of child-initiated and adult-led activities provide children with plenty of challenge and encourages their natural curiosity to learn. Children's independence and confidence continually develop through making informed choices with regard to their play. For example, children explore the natural properties of soil as they dig in the garden. They examine how it feels and how its consistency changes when they add water. Staff provide seeds for them to plant and discuss how they grow into plants. Staff explain that the pine cones they find also have seeds that can grow into trees. Children's communication and language skills develop as staff introduce new words to extend their vocabulary. Their physical development is supported as they use their large and small muscles to dig and to plant. Children enjoy a wide range of sporting activities in the adjacent leisure facilities. Experienced coaches help children learn skills for life as they play tennis and swim.

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who attend

Children thoroughly enjoy their swimming lessons as they splash and kick in the water, which strengthens their muscles and develops their confidence.

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

The highly effective key person system ensures that every child forms secure emotional attachments. Children exhibit high levels of self-assurance and confidence. They learn to share and cooperate with each other. For example, at snack time children take turns in peeling an orange, they willingly pass it to each other so each child has a turn. Children are asked why it is important to share with our friends and they say 'sharing is caring'. Children play happily together and behaviour is exceptionally good. All children settle well because staff are very well known to them from previous home visits. Staff have an excellent understanding of children's individual likes, needs and care routines. Older children develop superb self-care skills as they independently address their own care and personal hygiene needs. For example, they understand how to use the toilet independently and wash their hands. They know how to wipe their nose and throw away

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

the tissue hygienically. Babies thrive on the individual attention they receive and enjoy cuddles and comfort in familiar and attractive surroundings. Attentive staff sing to them as they play with musical instruments together.

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

Children enjoy freshly prepared, well-balanced and nutritious meals and snacks and relish the independence of learning to feed themselves. They learn to set their own places at the table, which teaches them skills for the future. Staff are careful to ensure that children with allergies or dietary preferences receive appropriate and safe food by providing colour coded placemats bearing their name, photograph and details of their requirements. Children are encouraged to serve their own food and they eat with enthusiasm and enjoyment. Sometimes, however, they are too eager and serve themselves too much, leaving little for their friends. Children learn about their food, where it comes from and how it is grown. They learn which parts of a fruit they can eat and how it smells and tastes, developing their sensory experiences.

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

Children have plenty of opportunity to play outside in the fresh air. Staff are enthusiastic and caring as they support them to ride tricycles and to take well supervised and measured risks as they develop their skills on the climbing frame. Children develop a very secure understanding of how to stay safe as they are gently reminded by caring staff to use their 'walking feet'. Children are safe in the nursery. Fire evacuation procedures are practised regularly with children, so they know what to do in an emergency. Robust and clear risk assessment procedures are followed every morning to ensure the setting is safe and children are protected from any potential dangers. Transitions between rooms are smooth because key persons spend time settling children into their new room environment before handing over to a new key person. Children are extremely well prepared for their transition to school. For example, staff from the local schools visit children and bring

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

school uniforms. The nursery smart board is used to show images of local schools to enable children to understand the school environment, which helps them to be extremely well prepared for school. A mobile library attends the nursery every two weeks and children learn how to behave in a quiet environment and use their soft voices.

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provision

The setting has extremely robust systems in place to ensure that children are very well safeguarded. Staff regularly update their safeguarding knowledge through appropriate training and are fully aware of the nurseries policies and procedures. A strong whistle blowing procedure exists, where staff can raise concerns anonymously if they wish. Staff recruitment is rigorous in ensuring that newly appointed staff hold appropriate qualifications and follow a thorough induction programme, which leads them through their first six months of employment. All staff are subject to the appropriate background checks, which ensures that all adults working with children are suitable to do so. Staff management is of a very high standard as all staff receive regular individual support and supervision. As a result, all staff share a strong drive for excellence. The management team monitor the educational programmes and planning for children's development by

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provision

regular weekly observations of practice and tracking of children's progress. Observations are increased to twice weekly should staff have a particular concern regarding a child's development. Peer-to-peer observations are undertaken by staff to support each other's practice and to maintain high levels of consistency across the nursery. There is a strong self-evaluation process to which parents, staff and children actively participate. Clear and concise focused improvement plans ensure that self-reflection and the continued development of the nursery remains a high priority.

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provision

Partnerships with parents are exceptionally strong and parents feel very included and welcome in the setting. Parents are actively involved in their child's learning as their views, comments and ideas are sought through a variety of ways. Parents know they can come into the nursery at any time and discuss their children's progress and view their learning journals. Parents settling-in children whose first language is not English are asked to supply a few key words in their language, so staff can more effectively communicate with children. Extremely effective partnerships with other external agencies and other professionals are secured to support identification of any concerns that staff may have regarding a child in their care. Care plans are in place for children needing medication and care plan boxes are on the shelves of the rooms clearly labelled with the child's name and photograph. Care plan boxes are also duplicated in the fire evacuation bag in case there

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provision

should be an emergency and a child's medication is needed.

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provision

Staff are passionate about their roles and ensure that the areas they are responsible for are extremely well planned and resourced invitingly to encourage all children to take part. Each room leader develops a reflective practice journal to ensure their area of the nursery excels to the best ability of staff. Highly successful staff deployment, along with high adult to child ratios ensures all children are supported in their play and their learning is extended and assured. All staff receive ongoing training, which is logged and monitored to ensure they are all up to date with current practice. The management and staff work very closely with local schools to support children to become familiar with teachers and the new environment before they move into school.

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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 EY287949 Local authority Essex Inspection number 919294

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 49 Number of children on roll 54 Name of provider Asquith Court Nurseries Limited Date of previous inspection 28/07/2011 Telephone number 0208 501 1085

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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.

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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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