Westgate Whirlybirds

Westgate Whirlybirds and Pre- School Brooklands Close, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3JX

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 18/09/2013 09/06/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Ofsted has not been notified of several changes to the individuals on the committee, who make up the registered provider. Consequently, a legal requirement is not met and children's welfare is potentially compromised.  The arrangements for checking the suitability of students and volunteers are not robust enough to demonstrate that all people, who have regular contact with the children are suitable to do so.  The two-way exchange of information with parents is weak. Consequently, children's interests, starting points and next steps in learning are not fully understood or planned for by their key person and other staff.  Procedures to monitor and appraise staff are not effective. As a result, weaknesses in the quality of teaching are not addressed to meet children's needs.  Children are not always provided with consistent guidance and sensible rules to reinforce their understanding of how to move safely around the pre-school and with

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It has the following strengths

 The outdoor learning environment is resourced well to promote opportunities for children to develop their physical skills in lifting, pedalling, climbing and balancing.

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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 the playroom and the outdoor learning environment.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day of the inspection and engaged in discussions with the children, staff and a member of the management committee.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's learning journey records, planning documentation and some written policy documents.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a meeting with the manager and checked evidence of staff's suitability and qualifications.  The inspector conducted a joint observation of children's activities with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Westgate Whirlybirds and Pre-School was registered in 1980 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in a mobile classroom within the grounds of Westgate County Primary School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The pre-school is managed by a voluntary management committee. It serves the local area and is accessible to all children. Children have access to one playroom and there are two enclosed garden spaces available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The pre-school employs eight members of childcare staff. Of these, seven staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2 and above. The pre-school opens Monday to Friday during school term times. Sessions are from 9am until 3.30pm on Monday to Thursday and 9am to 12.30pm on Friday. A breakfast and after school club is also offered during school term times, with sessions from 8am until 9am and 3.30pm until 6pm. A holiday club operates from 8am until 6pm during the school holidays. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 40 children attending, who are in the early years age group. The setting provides funded early education for three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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must:

 develop knowledge and understanding of when and how to notify Ofsted of a change in the name or address of the registered provider

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must:

 obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check for all people, who work directly with children, with particular reference to volunteers and students

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must:

 inform all parents of the name of their child's key person and engage them in sharing information about their child's individual needs, interests and starting points in learning. Use this information and ongoing observations and assessments to ensure children's learning is precisely tailored to meet their individual needs from the beginning

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must:

 monitor and appraise staff's practice to ensure they have a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities and can provide children with consistently good quality learning experiences.

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

 increase the use of carefully framed open-ended questions to extend children's learning and encourage them to think more critically in their play

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

 improve children's awareness of how to move around and store resources safely by reinforcing sensible safety rules and providing consistently clear explanations about managing risk.

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who attend

There are significant weaknesses in the staff's understanding of how to support and plan for children's learning and development. Consequently, children's individual learning needs are not fully met. On starting at the pre-school, settling-in visits take place to encourage the children and parents to get to know the environment and staff. More recently, parents are encouraged to complete an 'all about me' booklet, which gathers basic information about their child's likes, dislikes and interests. However, this information is not gathered from all parents and therefore, it is not used to accurately assess children's starting points and plan for their future learning. Staff regularly observe children, in order to grasp a general awareness of their ongoing progress. Many of their observations are collated in a learning journey record for each child. These assessments vary greatly in quality and do not always include sufficient up-to-date information about children's achievements,

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who attend

interests or their learning at home. This means that children are not always offered suitably challenging and enjoyable experiences that build on what they already know and can do. For example, when children lose interest in a card game, staff assess that this is too easy for them but fail to offer a more challenging alternative. In addition, staff lack understanding of how to adapt their interactions during snack time to support the specific needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Consequently, gaps in their communication and language development are not supported.

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who attend

Children move around the pre-school freely, making choices from a suitable range of toys and games. Their enjoyment of outdoor play is fostered by a particularly well-resourced and inviting outdoor learning environment. Here, children refine their physical skills as they climb on the soft play apparatus and pedal tricycles. Younger children become particularly interested in exploring a wide range of malleable materials, including sand, paint, soapy water and gravy. Older children listen well to stories in groups and are supported to develop new vocabulary through the staff's suitable repetition of new words. For example, they learn to articulate the word 'panther' when listening to a story about jungle animals. Children are sometimes prompted to learn to write their names on their finished artwork and younger children practise making marks using pens on the dry wipe boards. They begin to recognise words in printed labels as they refer to these on toy

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who attend

boxes and when finding their name card at snack time. These activities support children in developing suitable literacy skills in readiness for school. Staff interact with children reasonably well during different activities, consolidating their learning by encouraging them to count objects and to recognise the colours of different toys. However, not all staff use open-ended questioning to best effect, which means that children are not always fully supported to think things through, develop new ideas and work out how to solve problems. For example, children are not asked carefully framed questions to prompt them to take the lead in designing and making road signs to use in their role play.

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who attend

Staff build generally positive relationships with the parents and share some information with them during discussions on a day-to-day basis. However, children's learning is not maximised because parents are not actively encouraged to share information about their children's ongoing achievements at home.

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

Children's well-being is not adequately promoted. The key person system is not embedded to fully support the effective two-way exchange of information with parents. This is particularly weak when a child first joins the pre-school. For example, some parents are unaware of their child's key person and are not supported to share sufficient information about their child's starting points in learning. Consequently, staff are not always aware of how to engage younger children when they become unsettled during their first sessions and are slow to develop an adequate understanding of their individual needs. Over time, children establish a positive emotional attachment to their key person and other staff, which helps them to feel secure and settled. Staff prepare older children well for their transition into the school. Well-established arrangements with the host school ensure that children have fairly regular opportunities to make use of the school's facilities, including

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

access to the playground for outdoor play. This enables them to become familiar with the school environment and supports their confidence when encountering new surroundings.

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

Overall, children's behaviour is appropriate to their stages of development. The management offers suitable support to staff and volunteers in relation to supporting children's behaviour, ensuring positive techniques are consistently used. For example, children respond well to the staff's consistent use of praise during activities, which boosts their self-esteem. Staff are less purposeful in providing clear guidance and teaching children sensible rules about safety. In particular, there are often missed opportunities to remind children of the dangers of running while indoors and to explain about the safe storage and handling of toys. As a result, children repeatedly bump into each other and the furniture and often trip over resources that are left on the floor and in doorways. Towards the end of each session, children are encouraged to develop a stronger sense of responsibility. They wait for the traffic light timer to elapse before helping to tidy away the

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

resources. Staff join in and model helpful behaviour to set a positive example to the children. There are some suitable opportunities for children to manage tasks independently, which prepares them suitably for the next stage in their learning. For example, they help to chop the melon into pieces and to pour drinks during snack time.

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

Children are encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The toilets and hand washing facilities are easily accessible from the main playroom, enabling children to learn to manage positive personal hygiene tasks with a decreasing amount of support. Consequently, the risk of spread of infection is minimised within the pre-school. Outdoor play is available to the children during most of the session, ensuring they have suitable spaces and equipment to support daily exercise and access to the fresh air. Children's health is supported further as the staff encourage them to make healthy choices at snack times and talk to them about eating healthy fruit and vegetables as part of their role play scenarios.

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provision

The management and staff do not demonstrate a sufficient understanding of their individual roles and responsibilities in meeting the legal requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. There is lack of clarity amongst the management committee and staff in relation to who has responsibility for some aspects of the provision. Consequently, a number of the legal requirements are not met and children's welfare is not adequately safeguarded. In particular, Ofsted have not been notified of several changes to the committee, who make up the registered provider. Appropriate steps are taken to check and confirm the suitability of all staff before they are permitted to work with the children. Although, there are suitable arrangements to ensure that people, who are not vetted, are not left unsupervised with the children, the registered provider has failed to obtain the required Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure for

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provision

some volunteers and students. Consequently, their suitability to be in regular contact with children is not assured and children's safety is potentially compromised. This also means that a requirement of the Childcare Register is not met. The management and staff have a more secure understanding of the action they must take if they are concerned about a child's welfare. The pre-school's policy for safeguarding children is reviewed regularly and implemented effectively to ensure children are suitably protected from abuse and neglect. The policy includes a clear procedure for referring any concerns to the relevant child protection agencies and informs the management's secure practice in dealing with any allegations against staff, volunteers or students. Daily risk assessments of the areas accessed by the children are suitably robust. Any new hazards are addressed appropriately to ensure children continue to play in a safe and secure

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provision

environment. For example, loose decking in the outdoor area is covered to fully minimise any risk of a child tripping over and sustaining an injury.

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provision

Although, appraisals are carried out with the staff on an annual basis, staff do not receive timely feedback from these and the information gathered is not used to set clear targets to continue their professional development. There are limited opportunities for the management to evaluate staff's interactions with children or to monitor the quality of the assessments and planning for individual children. This means that significant weaknesses in practice are not identified and staff are not provided with sufficient coaching, in order to improve the quality of their teaching. Consequently, children are not supported well enough to ensure they make the best possible progress in their learning and development. Some limited self-evaluation is carried out by the staff, often during reflective discussions at the end of each session. This informs the development of some suitable targets to improve the provision for children. For example, staff have secure plans to develop the

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provision

resources in the book area to make it more inviting and to promote children's stronger enjoyment of books and early reading.

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provision

Parents are provided with some information about the pre-school. Some parents take up the opportunity to read their child's learning journey record and to discuss their child's progress at termly parents' meetings. There is some partnership working with outside agencies, such as speech and language therapists, although, there is sometimes a delay in obtaining information from some professionals as staff are not fully proactive in gathering this from parents. The pre-school has formed links with the host school, which helps to support the exchange of information when it is time for children to move on to school. In particular, teachers from the school are welcomed into the pre-school to observe the children and summaries of each child's development are passed on. As a result, children are supported to experience a smooth transition.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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

 obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check for all people, who are in regular contact with children in order to ensure their suitability to work with children (compulsory part of the Childcare Register).  obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check for all people, who are in regular contact with children in order to ensure their suitability to work with children (voluntary part of the Childcare Register).

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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 251714 Local authority Suffolk Inspection number 933267

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 40 Name of provider Westgate Whirlybirds Committee Date of previous inspection 09/06/2011 Telephone number 01284 754014

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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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