Little Peeps Nursery Ltd

Little Peeps Nursery Ltd The Bungalow, Townsend Road, Tiptree, COLCHESTER, Essex, CO5 0ND

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 29/10/2013 01/04/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision is satisfactory

 Staff prioritise supporting the children to settle well, build close attachments and to feel confident and secure in transitions from home, within the nursery and in their eventual move on to school.  The new manager is passionate about her role and is working hard to put new initiatives in place to improve the practice further. She inspires the new staff team to move forward in their professional development to benefit the children.  The staff develop strong partnerships, especially with other agencies working with the children. As a result, children's learning is supported through a consistent approach.

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It is not yet good because

 The progress checks at age two do not provide the parents with a clear and evaluative summary of their child's development or highlight areas where children are progressing well or progress is less than expected. Therefore, they are less valuable to parents in supporting learning at home.  Activities and routines are not always planned effectively to take into account the children's age and stage of development and do not always provide children with sufficient challenge to enable them to make the best progress possible.  Staff do not apply consistent, effective strategies to involve children in finding solutions to problems and to support them to manage their behaviour and test out ideas.

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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 three playrooms and the outdoor learning environment.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held meetings with the manager of the nursery, spoke to staff and interacted with the children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's assessment records, planning documentation, evidence of suitability of staff working within the nursery and a range of other documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector also took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day of the inspection and discussed information included in the self-evaluation documents.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Little Peeps Nursery was registered in 2005 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is one of two settings privately owned by Little Peeps Nursery Limited. It operates from a bungalow within the school grounds of Baynards County Primary School in Tiptree, Essex. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, 8am until 6pm all year round. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 30 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 children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs six members of childcare staff. Of these, four hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3. The two unqualified staff are currently working towards a level 3 qualification.

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must:

 ensure that progress checks at age two are evaluative and provide parents and carers with clear information about their child's strengths and any areas where their child's progress is less than expected. Discuss with parents how the findings can be used to support the children's learning at home

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must:

 ensure that activities are planned appropriately and consider the individual needs, interests and stage of development of each child, and that more able children are suitably challenged to enable them to make the best possible progress.

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

 review daily routines to ensure that they flow with the children's needs and are appropriate for their age and stage of development

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

 apply effective strategies and clear guidance consistently to support children to manage their own behaviour. For example, by role modelling appropriate behaviour and involving children in finding their own solutions to their frustrations and problems.

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who attend

Children are making suitable progress in their learning and development because staff get to know them well and generally plan activities to support their development. Many of the children show enthusiasm for learning and are keen to take part in the activities. The older children are eager to tell staff what they know at circle time. For example, some know the order of the days of the week, which month it is and recognise the numbers to make the date. The staff support children in readiness for school and encourage them to independently put on boots and coats and to write their own names for self-registration cards. The children enjoy finding the bean bags in the garden and some can identify the letter on the bean bag, especially if it is a letter from their own name. Younger children help the staff to stack the stacking cups inside each other as they begin to get an idea of size and decide which one fits first.

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who attend

A lot of thought has gone into the designing of the areas in the garden. For example, the water play is inventive and provides children of all ages with a variety of ways to arrange guttering or pipes to pour water down. They enjoy pouring it from a watering can and watching it flow into the tray. They also use the water to paint the toy cars, using a brush and a container from the water tray as they make patterns with the water.

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who attend

Children explore a range of materials in treasure baskets as they engage all their senses. They listen to the sounds of the crinkly paper, smell the lavender bags and feel the soft material. They investigate natural resources, such as large pebbles, shells and fir cones and talk about the textures. Babies explore their environment moving around the room accessing the toys and equipment. They crawl through a small doorway in an activity centre and happily press the button to ring the doorbell before crawling through. They pull themselves up to standing and are provided with a range of resources to support them to take their first steps. They enjoy rolling a musical ball to their key person and delight in the sounds it makes as it rolls.

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who attend

The quality of the teaching in the nursery is satisfactory. Staff record observations of children's play. These are assessed to identify the next steps in each child's learning and development. The next steps are fed into the planning in order to ensure children make progress. However, some planned activities do not always provide enough challenge for the more able children. For example, they sometimes cover areas that the child already has a good understanding of, such as comparisons of size, using words like 'bigger' and 'smaller than'. Staff sometimes use closed questions or over direct the children, which does not encourage them to think for themselves and work out their own problems. For example, they tell them that they have not got enough plates at lunchtime and that they need one more, rather than letting them work it out for themselves. Planning for the two- year-old children is not always appropriate to their stage of development as staff

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who attend

concentrate heavily on colour and shape recognition before some children have sufficient language or understanding.

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who attend

The staff carry out progress checks on the children at age two. The checks contain observations of each child's play and cover all the areas of learning. However, they are not evaluative and do not provide the parents with a summary of their child's development. In addition, strengths or areas where the child's progress is less than expected are not consistently identified. Staff share the checks with the parents, however, they do not discuss with them how these can be used to support learning at home to help the children make the best progress.

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who attend

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. The staff work closely with the parents and other agencies involved with the children to ensure a consistent approach. The staff know and use some sign language at meal and snack times. They have worked hard to increase their resources and provide visual time tables, song boxes and story boards to further aid communication in all children. Staff and parents share information daily about the children during discussions when they drop their children off and pick them up. Diaries are used by staff in the baby room to record food intake, nappy changing and a small account of what the baby has been playing with that day. These provide parents with the opportunity to share information as they contribute their own comments. Parents are able to see their child's developmental records at any time. Plans are in place to provide additional opportunities for parents to review their

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who attend

child's developmental records with their key person on a regular basis to enable them to be more involved in their child's learning in the nursery.

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

Staff support the children to form secure emotional attachments with their key person, the staff and their peers. The settling-in process ensures that children have time to become familiar with the nursery and the staff with their parents before they start. The key person takes time to get to know each child and their family to enable them to plan activities around the child's interests right from the start. Photographs of each child's family are shared, discussed and displayed providing the children with a strong sense of belonging. Care routines are discussed and followed to further ensure that transitions from home to the nursery are as smooth as possible. Babies' home routines for sleeping, eating and playing are respected and followed and sleeping babies are checked at regular intervals to ensure they are safe.

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

Staff support the children to make seamless transitions as they move up into the next room and eventually into school. Children spend time in other areas of the nursery so are already familiar with all areas and staff. The key person introduces the child and parent to their new key person who finds out about their interests and abilities to build on them. Before the children move on to school they have opportunities to dress-up in their new uniforms and to share photographs of their new school with the staff. Teachers are encouraged to visit the children in the nursery and to share the developmental records to help them to get to know them well and to plan effectively for them.

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

On the whole, children understand what is expected of them and behave well. The nursery has a behaviour policy and they have recently introduced positive strategies to assist staff to support children's behaviour effectively. However, staff do not always use the strategies or involve the children in working out how to solve their own frustrations and problems. Staff talk to children about their feelings at circle time, giving them words for feelings as they use the pictures of happy, sad and angry faces. However, at other times, children are sometimes inappropriately labelled as 'silly' and their feelings dismissed.

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

Children learn to keep themselves safe as they clear up toys from the floor to prevent others falling over them and sit down to eat and drink. They take part in regular fire drills and are made aware that the pirate ship climbing frame will be slippery if they paint water onto it and get it wet. They learn about healthy eating as they are encouraged to eat five portions of fruit or vegetables each day. Children get involved in planting vegetables and enjoy harvesting, cooking and eating the potatoes. Hygiene routines are robust and children learn how to look after their teeth as they take part in teeth cleaning routines during the afternoon.

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provision

The new staff group work as a close and supportive team under the guidance and leadership of the new manager. She inspires staff to take responsibility for their own rooms and to further build on their skills and knowledge. The manager is motivated and has a clear action plan in place for improvement. For example, she plans to carry out regular supervision with all the staff to support their professional development. She has already put into place a new system for planning and assessment to clearly show the links to all the areas of learning and ensure that individual children are planned for. She has plans to work more closely with parents and to carry out regular reviews of children's progress and introduce parents' evenings. Staff are involved in the self-evaluation process and they value feedback from parents to help shape the provision.

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provision

Staff have a suitable knowledge and understanding of how children learn and generally support them to make progress. However, routines do not always flow with the children's needs. For example, sometimes the younger children are expected to join the older children for stories or singing while staff get lunch ready or clean up after lunch. Although children enjoy singing and music in their own rooms, unrealistic expectations to sit still in the large group are imposed. Older children who are not sufficiently challenged at this time become bored and start to fidget and play around with their friends. Staff do not accurately review their own expectations but instead sit between the two friends to split them up so they can continue with the singing activity.

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provision

The manager has a secure understanding of her responsibilities in meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Children are protected from abuse and neglect because the staff are secure in their knowledge and understanding of child protection issues. They have attended the appropriate training courses and a clear set of policies and procedures support their practice. The premises are safe and secure, children cannot leave them unattended and unauthorised adults cannot gain access. Recommendations from their previous inspection have been addressed and thorough risk assessments are in place to ensure the premises are safe. Recruitment and induction procedures are robust to ensure that children are cared for by suitable adults. Parents are very happy with the care and education that the nursery provides for their children. They speak highly of the staff, find them friendly and approachable and are

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provision

pleased with the progress their children are making. Monthly newsletters, posters and daily discussions ensure that they are well informed about events within the nursery. The nursery is developing strong partnerships with the local schools, children's centre and people from the local community. They work closely with the local authority and the Pre- School Learning Alliance to ensure that they are up to date with requirements and have opportunities to share good practice ideas.

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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 EY318856 Local authority Essex Inspection number 873211

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 15 Number of children on roll 30 Name of provider Little Peeps Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 01/04/2011 Telephone number 01621 810033

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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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