Little Feet

Little Feet Training Centre, Callywhite Lane, Dronfield, SHEFFIELD, S18 2XS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 23/10/2013 18/12/2012

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 3 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 are central to how the nursery operates because practitioners reflect their likes in planning and they skilfully re-shape tasks to reflect their choices. Therefore, children are happy, confident, engaged, motivated and enthusiastic learners.  Practitioners have good relationships with children and through a 'unique child' booklet, they gather detailed information about their emotional needs. This promotes effective transitions and continuity for children so that they feel safe and settled.  Support for practitioners' professional development and monitoring of the quality of teaching and practice are effective through peer observations and a 'learning walk'.  Practitioners' commitment to promoting improvement is strong. Detailed action plans demonstrate their achievements, goals, aspirations and striving towards promoting a programme of continual improvement.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Children's access to resources and activities in the dining/activity room are not always highly stimulating, rich, varied and imaginative as they are when they are playing in other areas of the nursery.  Opportunities for older children to make independent choices at lunchtime and young babies' access to outdoors occasionally are not always given the highest priority to enhance and maximise their health and self-care skills.

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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 toured the premises and observed children of all ages playing indoors and outdoors.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector completed a joint observation, she spoke with the manager, practitioners and registered person at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's learning records, planning documents, self- evaluation, evidence of suitability of practitioners and a range of other documentation, policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents through discussions and documentation.

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Information about the setting

Little Feet was registered in 2012 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in Dronfield, Sheffield and is managed by Little Feet Childcare Limited. The nursery serves the local and wider community and is accessible to all children. It operates from a single-storey building and children are cared for in three rooms, they also have access to a dining/activity room, sensory room and community room. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs 10 members of childcare staff, of these; seven hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3 or above and three are currently working towards a qualification.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, 51 weeks of the year, except for bank holidays. Sessions are from 7am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 52 children on roll and of these; all children 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:

 develop the dining/activity room to provide a highly stimulating environment with child-accessible resources so that children have access to rich, varied and imaginative experiences to promote their learning when using this room after lunch and at the beginning and end of the day

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

 enhance further opportunities to support older children to manage their own personal needs and high levels of self-control and growing independence at lunchtime and increase young babies experiences to access outdoors so that highest priority is given to children's health and self-care skills.

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who attend

Practitioners have a secure understanding of how young children learn and develop. Therefore, the quality of teaching is good and this means they support children in making at least good progress in their learning. This gives children a good start in life and supports them in acquiring the skills to promote their future learning, such as starting school. Practitioners interact well with children and they are actively involved in their play. They skilfully use open-ended questions, model being a thinker and encourage children to try new activities. This results in children wanting to engage in play and it encourages them to think for themselves, supporting them in being active learners. Practitioners make effective use of observations and assessment to ensure they have a secure understanding of individual children's abilities, likes and needs across all areas of learning. They effectively use their observations to plan a wide range of experiences to support children's

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who attend

next steps. In addition, because they accurately monitor and track children's progress, they quickly identify any concerns. This ensures they put in place intervention strategies to ensure all children receive the additional help they need.

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who attend

Overall, children access a stimulating and welcoming learning environment, where they independently access a broad selection of resources across all areas of learning. This includes having access to a sensory room, which babies and younger children particularly enjoy. When using the room, they enjoy relaxing to the calm music, exploring the different textures, watching the lights shimmer in the dark and seeing the bubbles rise up and down the clear tube. However, the nursery has recently started to use a former cafe as a dining area and activity room. Children use this room after lunch and at the beginning and end of the day. Although practitioners provide a varied section of resources in this area, experiences for children are not always as stimulating and rich in variety, as they encounter at other times of the day. Therefore, when using this area, practitioners are not always maximising on all opportunities to support children to excel in their learning.

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who attend

Regardless of this, when planning for children's individual learning, practitioners place children's choices, likes and interests at the centre of everything that they do. They regularly asks parents about children's interests at home and during play they skilfully re- shape tasks to take account of children's choices. For example, when older children are engaging in a rhythm and sounds activity, practitioners take the lead from children in deciding how the activity unfolds. As a result, children display high levels of enthusiasm and they confidently suggest ideas to how they can use their sticks to make noises. During the activity, practitioners use a wide range of vocabulary and they encourage children to think about different words to describe the sounds. Consequently, children use language, such as, 'scratchy', 'scrape', 'bumpy', 'tap' and 'elephant stomps'. When engaging with the younger children, practitioners are very mindful of promoting their language. They involve

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who attend

children in everyday conversations; they repeat words and respond to babies babbles with enthusiasm. In addition, a good selection of print around the nursery and outdoors supports children in understanding that print has a purpose and meaning. These activities effectively promote children's development in their literacy, language and communication skills.

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who attend

Practitioners introduce children to number and other mathematical concepts in many ways. Young children learn about number through fun songs, they count everyday objects and in different situations, such as counting steps when they go into the dining room. Older children learn about weight and measure as they weigh their conkers. In addition, because practitioners encourage children to talk about the problems they encounter, they support children to find solutions and work things out for themselves. For example, when rolling their conkers down tubes, through talk, children work out they need to lift the tube higher to ensure their conkers roll down to the end. These activities effectively promote children's development in mathematics. Children are imaginative and creative learners and this fosters their development in expressive arts and design. Children engage imaginatively in role play and they enjoy expressing their own ideas and thoughts through their artwork

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who attend

and music. For example, when playing outdoors, children thoroughly enjoy playing in the 'mud kitchen', using the mud, berries and leaves to make dinners and other concoctions. The children are learning well about the world in which they live. Posters, activities and resources help children to learn about different cultural events and festivals so that they form positive impressions towards all people who live in society. Forest school is a prominent feature of the nursery and older children go on weekly visits to the woods to engage in forest school activities. In addition, practitioners replicate forest school principles in the nursery to ensure younger children experience nature and the natural world. For example, when playing outdoors they look under logs where they find worms, they dig in the mud and the 'living wall' provides opportunities for them to see close up spiders and their webs. In addition, babies enjoy playing with resources that require them

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who attend

to twist, turn, press and lift to make them work. This means from an early age they learn about simple technology. These activities, effectively promote children's development in understanding of the world.

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who attend

Practitioners have good relationships with parents. They ensure parents receive good information about the provision and education through their detailed policies, procedures and notice boards. For example, practitioners provide activity ideas that parents can do at home to promote children's language based on 'Every Child a Talker' principles. Practitioners regularly share with parents, children's progress, their next steps and what they can do to support this at home. During these discussions they ascertain from parents what children enjoy at home, their current interests and progression. Therefore, parents know about their child's learning and this effective partnership working promotes continuity for children and it supports children's readiness for school.

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

Practitioners gather detailed information from parents and carers when children first start at the nursery. They do this in a variety of ways, such as, seeking written information, discussions and settling-in-visits. Practitioners use a 'unique child' booklet to seek information around children's personal, social and emotional needs, such as, their likes, routines and how they react when they are happy, sad, tired or excited. As a result, practitioners have a good understanding of children's individual needs. This means when settling-in children and securing the transition from home, practitioners work closely with parents so children receive continuity in their care. In addition, through diaries, care sheets or records of nappy changes, parents are able to access information about their child's sleep, feeding and toileting routines. All children work closely with their key person and this means they build up strong bonds, attachments and secure relationships with

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

them. Therefore, children are happy; they feel safe and settled at the nursery. In addition, effective transition arrangements are in place as children move around the nursery and to other settings. For example, key persons ensure they share good information about children's needs and learning with new carers. This effectively supports children's progress in their personal, social and emotional development.

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

Practitioners provide a welcoming environment for children and their families. Parents and carers are welcome at the nursery at any time. Practitioners display children's work and photographs around the nursery so that they have a sense of belonging. Practitioners manage children's behaviour well, they are positive role models and they provide consistent routines so that children learn about boundaries, right and wrong. They effectively use praise to celebrate children's achievements and children respond well to this. For example, babies and younger children smile with excitement when practitioners praise them and older children are frequently told their ideas and suggestions are good. Therefore, children have high self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities. As a result of practitioners' implementing effective behaviour management policies, such as, using no raised voices, remaining calm, providing clear explanations and positive praise, children

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

behave well for their ages. Through play, children learn about the importance of being kind, sharing and taking turns. This encourages children to have cooperative and harmonious relationships with their peers.

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

Through play, routines and discussions, overall, children are developing a good understanding of safety, health and hygiene. For example, children take part in fire evacuation practices so they know what to do in an emergency. In addition, through visual aids, such as signs in the outdoor environment, children talk about road safety, such as speed limits, stop signs and other dangers that they may encounter when out and about. Practitioners implement a good range of policies and procedures that contribute to promoting children's health. Through cleaning routines and management of illness, they minimise the risk of infection and illness. They provide varied and nutritious snacks and meals for children and this provides good opportunities for children to talk about the benefits of making healthy choices. However, there is scope to further promote older children's self-care skills at lunch time so that they develop higher levels of self-control,

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

make greater choices to support their growing independence. This is because practitioners serve children their lunch and offer fewer opportunities for them to do this independently, such as, pouring their own drinks and self-serving their food. Through playing outside, forest school activities, walks and outings, most children have many opportunities to be active and to enjoy the benefits of playing in the fresh air. This promotes children's health and all round development because practitioners encourage them to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, children climb, balance, ride bikes and enjoy playing with balls and other equipment that encourages them to be active. However, although younger less mobile babies experience the outdoor environment, opportunities are sometimes less frequent for them as for their peers. Therefore, on some occasions, practitioners are not always giving the highest priority to promoting their health and well-being.

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provision

Practitioners fully understand the importance of meeting the safeguarding children's welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and they take seriously any concerns that may impact on the quality of care they offer. For example, to ensure they safeguard children, all practitioners' complete training so that they have a good understanding of child protection issues. This means practitioners have a secure understanding of the potential signs of abuse and neglect and the procedures for reporting and monitoring concerns. This contributes to protecting children from harm.

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provision

This inspection took place following a concern relating to children's safety. The inspection found that two children pushed open a fire door and momentarily they were able to leave the nursery. However, there are high adult to child ratios. The effective deployment of practitioners at the time, together with their excellent supervision and vigilance, enabled the situation to be instantly noticed. Practitioners swiftly ran across the room to reach the children as one of them stood by the open door, while quickly reaching one who had run a very short distance along the path. They immediately recognised they needed to look at the security of the fire door and instantly carried out a full investigation. As a result of this, additional precautions to their existing safety checks have been implemented, such as ensuring they push all fire doors firmly to ensure catches close securely, rather than relying on a visual check. They are speaking to all community groups who use the building

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provision

to remind them of the importance of not leaving via fire doors. They are fitting sensors to the doors in consultation with the fire department, which will sound if the door is even slightly open. In the few days since the incident, the registered person and management have instantly made changes to prevent a reoccurrence, they have discussed the severity of the incident with all practitioners. On conclusion of their full investigation, they are notifying parents of their findings. They recognise the significance of the incident and as a result, they are taking all necessary steps to improve their practice to minimise future incidents of this nature.

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provision

To further demonstrate how they keep children safe, the nursery maintains a wide range of detailed documentation, policies and procedures. These include, how they manage children's behaviour, risk assessments, safeguarding polices and monitoring of accidents. Practitioners are aware of these through their induction and this contributes to keeping children safe. In addition, documentation includes robust recruitment and vetting procedures, which includes evidence of suitably checks on practitioners to ensure they are suitable to work with children. This contributes to safeguarding children. Through good deployment of practitioners and maintaining adult to child ratios, children are supervised well in their play, both indoors and outdoors.

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provision

Through reflective practice, regular staff meetings and self-evaluation, the nursery is proactive in bringing about positive change for children. Practitioner's commitment, drive and ambition to improve the provision for children are good. For example, their detailed action plans provide a well-documented overview of their achievements and clearly outline their future plans. These include developing resource boxes they can easily move between the indoor and outdoor environment to further promote children's imaginative experiences, such as, garden and builder's boxes. Practitioners access a varied range of training to support their professional development. In addition, through appraisals, peer observations and 'learning walks', management support their personal effectiveness. For example, through 'learning walks' around the nursery, they monitor the quality of teaching and educational programmes and highlight aspects of the service they can improve for

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provision

children. Practitioners welcome the views of children and parents and they seek feedback through questionnaires, discussions and through their observations of the children.

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provision

Practitioners have good relationships with parents. They work well together to meet the needs of children and to support their learning and progression. Discussions and information on questionnaires demonstrate they are happy with the progress their children are making at nursery. Comments on questionnaires include statements, such as, 'the nursery exceeded my expectations' and 'staff are friendly and professional'. Practitioners work well with other professionals and agencies involved in children's learning and care. For example, they have strong links with health professionals, external agencies and local schools. This includes inviting health visitors and parents into the nursery to complete children's health and development reviews. Therefore, practitioners are on hand to discuss their written assessment and findings from the progress check at age two they have completed on the children. In addition, practitioners have regular discussions with any

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provision

other professionals involved and this means they work together to set clear goals and targets to support all children. Therefore, they support all groups of children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities to progress well, given their starting points.

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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 EY440933 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 939797

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 60 Number of children on roll 52 Name of provider Littlefeet Childcare Limited Date of previous inspection 18/12/2012 Telephone number 07736390911

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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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