Giant Leap Childcare and Learning Centre

Giant Leap Childcare and Learning Centre Coal Clough House, Coal Clough Lane, BURNLEY, Lancashire, BB11 4NJ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 09/08/2013 28/01/2013

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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

 Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this highly welcoming nursery. Practitioners have an excellent understanding of how children learn, this enables them to explore, make their own discoveries, solve problems and learn skills for life to ensure they are ready for the next stages in their learning.  Practitioners know all children attending exceptionally well and offer them an extensive range of stimulating activities and experiences linked directly to their interests and developmental needs.  The excellent focus on learning in the outdoor environment facilitates children's success and enjoyment.  There are very successful systems in place to evaluate and reflect upon practice and set challenging targets for future improvement. Close monitoring of the educational programmes is evident to maintain the high level of achievement for all children.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 The music area and the walkway to the messy play are very near the cosy book area. This disturbs children, who choose to relax or look at books quietly.  Some children carry dummies as they play, this means that there is a chance of infection if they are left on the floor and put back in children's mouth.

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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 nursery playrooms and the outside learning areas.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to children, practitioners, the manager and the provider during the inspection.  The inspector looked at children's assessment records and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at a sample of other records and policies relating to children's welfare, health and safety.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector discussed the provider's self-evaluation form and other monitoring and evaluation procedures, including development plans.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day of the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Giant Leap Childcare and Learning Centre was registered in 2012 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in a converted detached property in the Burnley area of Lancashire. It is privately owned with the provider taking an active role and is managed by an employed manager. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It operates from three main rooms with associated facilities and a fitness room upstairs. There are two fully enclosed areas available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs 19 members of childcare staff. Of these, all hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2 and above, including one member of staff with Early Years Professional Status and three members of staff with Qualified Teacher Status.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 111 children attending, who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children, who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 review the hygiene practices regarding children, who use dummies, so that all children are suitably protected from possible infection

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

 review the layout of the baby room to allow all children to have their needs met for rest and relaxation.

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who attend

Children are highly interested in learning and are very confident. They are very successfully supported by staff, who have an excellent understanding of how children learn through play. As a result, children are making outstanding progress across all areas of learning during their time at the nursery. Teaching techniques are strong across the nursery and systems to assess children's starting points on entry and transition arrangements are exceptionally secure. This has an extremely positive impact on the progress children make.

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who attend

Planning, observation and assessments systems have been reviewed. They show a highly focussed and precise approach to planning by staff, which is based on children's interests, ideas and developmental needs. Planning evolves each day and reflects observations of individual children during activities and their planned next steps in learning. Staff listen with genuine interest to children and show them that they value their contributions and suggestions. Staff are committed, dedicated and enthusiastic in their roles; they clearly enjoy working with children and their families.

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who attend

Parents have many opportunities to contribute to children's learning at nursery and at home through the 'news from home' forms and parent workshops, such as those regarding speech and communication and the upcoming workshop about the importance of play. These give parents an excellent insight into how children learn and helps them to use this knowledge to enhance their experiences at home.

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who attend

A highly inclusive approach to children's learning is evident and they make choices and decisions about their play and learning throughout the day. Children are given time to think and respond to questions in their own time. Staff rapidly promote the prime areas of learning for the youngest children, so that they quickly develop their communication and language skills. Babies have close contact with staff, who sit at their level and interact with them exceptionally well, responding very positively to their babbling sounds and first words. Older children in the nursery speak with confidence and they happily share their views with staff and their peers, because highly positive relationships are in place.

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who attend

Children are skilfully guided by staff to think critically and solve problems as they play. Children's mathematical skills are fostered very effectively, as they learn about shapes, numbers, colour and size through play. Children learn about shape and space as they measure and pour water from various containers. Children's understanding of the world is fostered very effectively. Younger children explore and investigate a range of electronic resources, which encourages their curiosity and thinking skills. Older children build on this by using computers and an interactive white board, so that they understand about the use of information and communication technology in their lives. This shows that children are fully supported in developing the characteristics of effective early learners. Children learn about diversity in a meaningful way and they develop an understanding of other cultures as staff and parents share words and experiences from their own country with them.

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who attend

Positive image resources and photographs help children to understand about similarities and differences in society and help them to understand about the needs of others.

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who attend

Extensive opportunities are available for children to develop their creative skills and use their imagination. They use a wide variety of resources and use their senses exploring different materials and textures. For example, children love to paint, explore the contents of their treasure baskets and play in water, observing objects that float and sink. All children have excellent opportunities to play and learn in the outdoor environment, with free access from inside to outside available for the majority of children. The outdoor play space is a real strength of the nursery. All children use the outdoor play spaces with confidence and great enthusiasm. Children love to explore the properties of sand, water and soil, using a range of equipment to sustain their interest, such as pots, sieves and a variety of containers in the mud kitchen. They like digging in the soil and mixing sand and water together to make 'chocolate cake'. Children use a wide range of resources to

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who attend

stimulate and support their learning. For example, children can practise their early mark- making skills with paint and use chalks to write prices for their 'cakes' on the blackboards. They make models with building blocks and dens with milk crates, pedal bikes and ride on scooters. Children explore and investigate a range of natural resources both indoors and outside, such as hay, plants and soil. Staff make sure all aspects of children's learning are fully incorporated in the outdoor play space and the provision is excellent. A forest school and outdoor classroom on site are currently under construction, which will even further extend children's excellent opportunities to learn through first-hand experience of the world.

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who attend

The very well-resourced learning environment, excellent organisation of planning and staffs' secure knowledge of children's next steps in their learning helps to ensure that every opportunity is made to support and extend children's learning across all areas. Staff are highly skilful in the way in which they use adult-led and child-initiated activities to question and challenge children's thinking. For example, during an activity around investigating different bugs, staff introduce colour and number as they describe and encourage children to build a home insects would like. As a result, children mix sand, soil and water and discuss and consider whether the insects would like to live there. Interaction between staff and every child is exceptionally strong. For example, children investigating bugs in the soil quickly expand their vocabulary as adults introduce words to describe what they are seeing, such as stripes and wings. Children are very well prepared

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who attend

for the next stages in their learning, which very successfully supports in their transition into school.

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

Staff work very closely with parents, gently settling children in and ensuring each child's transition from home into the nursery is a smooth and positive experience. Each child is treated individually and 'tester days' are flexible to take account of all children's needs. Children are all allocated a key person to support them and form a strong partnership with parents. Parents have discussions with their child's key person on a daily basis and they are very confident in the staffs' knowledge of their individual children. This helps staff to understand and meet children's individual needs effectively. Staff are caring and attentive towards babies and get to know them well as individuals. Consequently, children's well- being is enhanced as they form very strong, comforting bonds with their key person.

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

The inspection was brought forward after concerns were raised about supervision of children. A notice to improve was issued by Ofsted with specific regard to young children's sleeping patterns and safe practice for children who need comforters at sleep time. The inspection finds that children's need to sleep is well catered for and parents' wishes regarding the use of comforters are respected. A revised sleep policy promotes children's safety as they are constantly monitored and see a friendly face when they awake. This procedure was clearly evident at inspection and children sleep safely and securely. In the baby room, the layout of the room means that children, who choose to relax with a book, or just have a quiet time, can be easily disturbed. This is because the book area is beside the thoroughfare to the messy play and very close to the musical area.

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

Older children clearly feel safe and self-assured with staff, who support children very well as they try something new. For example, children, who are reluctant to look for or hold real insects found in the 'bug hotel' are gently coaxed into trying this new experience through the use of toy bugs. This allows them to build their confidence by trying out something new in a controlled and staged way before moving on to expand their learning with real insects. The nursery is well resourced and offers children a very good range of play and learning experiences, indoors and outdoors. Resources are readily accessible. This teaches children to be confident in their ability to make decisions by enabling them to make their own choices and selections, which heightens their sense of belonging and independence. Children have many opportunities to take part in additional activities, such as soccer groups and weekly dance lessons in the upstairs fitness room. They visit the

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

local park and the library for story time. This means that children gain confidence in the world they live in and develop a comprehensive set of life skills.

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

Staff are good role models of behaviour and treat children with kindness and respect. This is helped by a calm approach and clear reminders to enforce reasonable boundaries. Children are very well behaved as staff use positive strategies to help children learn right from wrong and manage minor behaviour issues. Children are honing their social skills as they help each other to set up resources for their role play. For example, they work together to carry the doll's cot across the room to put 'baby' to bed.

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

Meals are varied, healthy and nutritious, encouraging children to make positive food choices. They are learning to care for themselves and develop their independence as even very young children serve their own food and control their own portion sizes. Overall, children learn very good hygiene habits through regular routines and reminders, for example, washing their hands after toileting and before eating. Children, who use dummies generally have them only for sleeping and at other times, they are stored in clean boxes. However, the good health of a small number of children is sometimes compromised as they have dummies while playing and occasionally, these are put on the floor where other children can step on them. This means that some children may be at risk of cross infection.

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

Children learn how to keep themselves safe as they learn to manage risks, such as climbing to the top of the climbing tree and ringing the bell to mark their achievement, supported by reassuring staff. A healthy lifestyle is given high priority as children have daily opportunities for fresh air, daylight and exercise in the outdoor area. This has been recently developed and gives children interesting and challenging opportunities across all areas of learning. For example, they ride cars, avoiding other children and obstacles as they develop a good spatial awareness and learn to balance on the wobbly bridge. This combined with trips to the local park means that children are gaining very good physical skills and understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. This all contributes to children being well prepared for their future transitions to school socially, emotionally and physically.

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provision

Arrangements for safeguarding children are effective and staff have a secure knowledge of what to do should they have any concerns about a child. This contributes well to maintaining children's safety and protects their well-being. The inspection was brought forward after a notice to improve was issued by Ofsted about the deployment of staff and the supervision of children. The inspection found that the recent introduction of a closed circuit television system has contributed well to the security of the building and the monitoring of practice. Effective staff deployment and safety practices have also been implemented to help keep children safe. For example, toddlers and pre-school children make their own choices to play indoors or outdoors and staff follow their lead, deploying themselves effectively to ensure children are safe and well supervised. Ratios of adults to children are maintained at all times. Key documentation is well organised and maintained,

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provision

in order to underpin children's welfare and safety. For example, the mobile telephone policy is fully understood and implemented by staff and child record forms contain all necessary details and emergency contacts to children are only collected by authorised people.

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provision

Robust recruitment and vetting procedures ensure that everyone working with the children are suitable to do so. The management monitor the ongoing suitability of all staff effectively through regular meetings and appraisals. These procedures promote children's safety and the quality of provision well. Staff work well as a team. They are knowledgeable and enthusiastic, demonstrating a good level of commitment to further training.

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provision

Transitions for children moving on from nursery to school are eased as the nursery is building relationships with local schools. Partnerships with other agencies, such as portage, speech and language therapists and early years teachers and well developed and used well to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Parents have high levels of regard for the service provided and feel the nursery values their opinions highly. The current forming of a parents' committee is further expanding ways for them to become involved in the setting and have input into future developments.

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provision

The staff team are highly qualified and totally committed to the continuous evaluation and improvement of their practice. All of the staff team actively contribute their views and opinions and they monitor and evaluate the provision very well. The nursery has made very strong and consistent progress since opening and development plans suggest a commitment to ensuring this continues. Staff use their planning extremely well to consider ways to support and extend children's current learning and development. The manager collects and evaluates information on children's development and planning within the nursery to ensure that they offer a full range of learning opportunities across all the areas of learning and all children make excellent progress.

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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 EY445496 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 925941

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 107 Number of children on roll 111 Name of provider Giant Leap Childcare and Learning Centre Limited Date of previous inspection 28/01/2013 Telephone number 01282425893

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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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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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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