City View Pre-School and Nursery

City View Pre-School and Nursery Beauherne Cp School, City View, CANTERBURY, Kent, CT2 8PT

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 30/09/2013 17/09/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 Key persons use good settling-in procedures that help children feel secure and develop strong bonds with staff.  Staff provide easy access to an excellent, well thought out range of challenging toys and activities for all children. Children have excellent choices in their play activities.  Key persons use excellent strategies to engage parents in their children's learning and fully informed about their children's progress.  Staff offer exemplary support to children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language.  Staff use a good range of policies and procedures to safeguard children who attend the setting.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 There is room to further encourage younger children to increase their levels of engagement within activities as they do for the older children.

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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 sampled a range of documentation, including the settings safeguarding procedures, children's records and the setting's risk assessments.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector talked to various staff members, a selection of parents and the children.  The inspector observed the interaction between staff and children.  The inspector carried out a short joint observation with the manager.

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Information about the setting

City View Pre-school and Nursery is one of two provisions owned by a limited company. The setting registered in 2009. It operates from four rooms in The Canterbury Primary School in Canterbury, Kent. It is open each weekday from 8.00 am to 3.30 pm, for 38 weeks of the year. It provides extended sessions until 5.00 pm to accommodate children of working parents, for 38 weeks of the year. It also operates a breakfast and after school club for school aged children up the age of 11 years.

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Information about the setting

The setting is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 109 children aged from birth to under 11 years on roll, of whom, 72 fall within the early years age range. The nursery currently supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and some who speak English as an additional language. There are currently 23 members of staff, including the manager, of whom 21 hold a variety of appropriate early years qualifications at National Vocation Qualification level 3 or above. The manager holds Early Years Professional Status. There are two staff who have recently started qualification courses.

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

 strengthen the interesting and challenging experiences provided for younger children to further encourage their concentration skills as they play.

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who attend

The setting are outstanding in meeting the needs of the range of children who attend. Children attend the setting for a variety of different times and sessions. The children of working parents tend to stay all day. The well established key person system shows that staff are highly committed to providing for their key children's individual needs. For example, they research children's home languages on the internet and subsequently learn home words and display these in their rooms. The comprehensive information gained from parents about their children's interests and abilities are effectively used by key persons to help assess children's starting points and plan for their individual next steps given the children's ages and stages of development. Staff are exemplary in their knowledge of how young children learn and develop. This reflects in the sharply focused assessments of children's progress and includes all those involved with the children. For example, the

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who attend

comments of parents and other supporting professionals are included in the record and taken into consideration when planning activities.

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who attend

Children participate in an excellent educational programme. Children use the setting's digital cameras to take pictures of their own views of the world. They help staff build these into a large wall display to show their parents. Staff capture children's comments in writing about their photographs, thereby teaching children that their thoughts can also be written down and shared with others. On other displays the three-year-old's have made marks following discussions with staff about what they want to do when they're bigger. Many of the marks show almost correctly formed letters. In the excellent role play areas children use real utensils and equipment for play cooking. Staff provide real fruit and vegetables to use for their play. This means that children can develop their cutting and chopping techniques and then practise their skills at snack times. Through these activities children also learn about where food comes from and how it is grown.

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who attend

All children have access to interesting outdoor areas attached to their rooms. The children investigate water painting on chalk boards to see how big an arch they can make or talk about how much water fills a container. Younger children watch then copy and learn from the older ones. The four-year-olds develop water play further by investigating which stones make the biggest splashes and watch water and dry sand run through pipes, sometimes catching it in containers. The crawlers can choose to explore the outdoor area safely because the setting has ramps of soft flooring from the outside doors into the garden. They can crawl onto the low level climbing frames and investigate the wide range of sensory activities. For example, they watch the windmills and tree hangers. Babies learn to negotiate their way around obstacles to reach the place they want to be. Staff use their excellent skills to teach children to recognise each others differences. A lovely range of

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who attend

home made photograph books allow children to look at different family groups, and a wide variety of different customs and written languages. Children regularly look at these to recall previous events and other children who have left the setting to go to school. The exemplary use of children's home languages and Makaton signing by staff allow children to readily identify different types of communication.

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who attend

Children are well motivated and eager to join in with the challenging and exciting activities planned by staff in the excellent educational programme. Children are eager to offer their own suggestions for activities and frequently extend their own learning through exploration and investigation. The learning progress records clearly show that all children are making excellent progress. This includes those children with individual needs who are rapidly closing any gaps in the next stages of their learning and development. The staff use excellent procedures to engage parents in their children's learning. For example, staff provide very positive feedback about the children's achievements. In this way staff encourage parents to talk to their children about the activities they use at the setting and to provide similar activities at home. Parents receive excellent support from staff to understand their children's stages of development so that they can cater for them

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who attend

effectively. Staff inform parents of the excellent procedures they use to effectively manage the children's transitions between the different age rooms and when children move on to school. Whenever, possible staff move rooms with their key children, especially with those children moving from the baby room to the toddler area. When preparing children for their transitions to school, staff encourage lots of discussion with children about what school is like, and introduce school type routines. At this time staff concentrate on teaching children to recognise and recall letter and number shapes. They provide some excellent school role play activities and facilitate visits between children and their reception teachers. Staff prepare children with additional needs for their transitions well in advance by seeking support and guidance from the Specialist Language Advisors and working closely with them until the children move on. This means that children receive excellent continuity of

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who attend

care. The children make excellent progress in all areas of their learning.

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

The setting has a range of good procedures in place to ensure children are happy and settled. Parents report that their children are eager to attend their sessions. They are welcomed by staff who talk to them about their families and home lives in order to form secure, trusting relationships with children. Children demonstrate they feel secure in the setting as they move freely about selecting their own toys and activities. Older children demonstrate confidence as they talk to visitors about what they are doing. Children show that they feel emotionally secure through their body language and demeanours.

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

The stimulating, well resourced environment supports children's growing independence and co-operation. The older children in particular demonstrate high levels of concentration as they play. However, there is room to build on the exciting experiences already provided for the younger children to further develop their periods of engagement within those activities.

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

Children learn to take risks as they play because staff encourage them to explore activities but give gentle reminders about safety to themselves and others. For example, whilst dropping large stones from a height into the water tray children think about others already using the activity and any safety implications there may be. Staff also effectively teach children about desirable behaviour by being good role models and through the use of good posters displayed throughout the rooms. These depict examples of both positive and undesirable behaviours. Therefore, children learn to positively manage their own behaviour and demonstrate sharing and caring for others.

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

Children are competent in their self care routines, depending on their stage of development. Staff teach children to take themselves to the toilet and follow the good procedures for hand washing, especially before snack and meal times and before handling food.

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

Children are engaged in a good range of activities to promote healthy eating. For example, playing board or matching games involving different fruits and using real vegetable in the role play areas. Staff effectively cater for children's individual dietary needs as they offer information for parents about what can be included in packed lunches or other food items they send in for children to share. For example, staff advise parents that no foods containing nuts can be sent into the setting. Staff teach children about the effects of physical activity on their bodies through gentle reminders about resting and drinking lots of water when they get hot. Children help themselves to water when they are thirsty from the water coolers in each room. Therefore, children enjoy a healthy lifestyle at the setting.

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provision

The setting demonstrates a good knowledge and understanding of the learning and development and welfare requirements. They use a range of good safeguarding procedures to protect children. The safeguarding policy includes good procedures for dealing with any allegations made against staff members. All staff have an enhanced disclosure issued by the Criminal Records Bureau or the Disclosure and Barring Service. The staff maintain children's personal records well. Records are stored appropriately in locked cabinets. The manager carries out robust risk assessments for the premises and any outings the children undertake with staff. The inspection took place following a report about the timescales involved in the reporting of a concern to the Local Safeguarding Children Board officers. It was found that there was a short delay in reporting the concern constituting a minor breach of the welfare requirements. At the time of the inspection the

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provision

provider and managers had already dealt appropriately with the concern and implemented changes to the safeguarding procedures to ensure delays do not happen again. There was no direct impact on children. The provider and staff demonstrate that they take any concerns reported seriously, and have learnt valuable lessons from the incident. The resulting changes and the setting's commitment to protecting children mean that overall, children are safe in the setting.

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provision

The manager uses robust procedures to recruit and vet staff. Staff undertake a comprehensive induction programme during their trial employment period. Staff receive good support from the manager during regular one-to-one meetings when they set targets for productivity. Reviews take place during the good annual appraisal processes. The manager encourages staff in their professional development as they attend qualification courses, workshops and other short courses. All staff receive regular update training for child protection and first aid. This means that a well trained workforce care for the children. The manager also uses good procedures to monitor the children's observation and assessment records and the excellent educational programmes to ensure children are making progress in their learning. She regularly meets with supervisory staff to discuss targets for individual children. She uses a computer tracking tool with which she plots the

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provision

progress of groups of children, for example, boys and children who speak English as an additional language. This means she can readily identify that appropriate interventions are in place for individual children. This clearly meets children's individual needs.

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provision

The setting has excellent partnerships with other health and education professionals to support children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities. Staff, parents and others work extremely closely to ensure that children's disabilities do not hinder their development and progress. The manager fosters partnership working with all parents. They receive a wide range of informative information about how the setting operates. Parents discuss their children daily with their child's key person and can access their children's learning journey's easily. Parents report that they are very happy with the service offered and their children really enjoy the activities on offer too. The manager, in her setting evaluation, uses parent's written comments and views about the pre-school and nursery. She also takes account of staff views and any comments made by other interested parties, such as, her service improvement partner (SIP). Her thorough

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provision

evaluations lead to a successful improvement plan which clearly shows targeted successes and planned future improvements. For example, the manager plans to make improvements to the outdoor areas to increase the range of activities for children to explore. This shows that the setting is able to maintain continuous improvement for children.

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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 EY392223 Local authority Kent Inspection number 930587

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 72 Number of children on roll 109 Name of provider City View Pre School and Nurseries Ltd Date of previous inspection 17/09/2009 Telephone number 01227 784694

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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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