Woodlands Nursery

Woodlands Nursery 105 Chestnut Lane, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 6EF

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/10/2013 05/05/2009

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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 show good attitudes and provide children with positive role models within this setting.  Children build friendships and learn good social skills, such as sharing and turn taking. Their behaviour is good.  The outside learning environment is planned well to promote children's learning about the natural world and extend their physical development.

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It is not yet good because

 The key person system takes insufficient account of children's needs, particularly during the settling in process, and does not fully promote secure attachments. This is because there is inconsistent collection of welfare and development information to support planning for children's individual needs.  Activity planning is not based on individual children's learning targets and these are not fully understood. Therefore, children aged two struggle to participate and older more able children are not fully challenged.  Systems to monitor and identify areas for improvement are ineffective. This results in inconsistent practice where staff performance remains unchallenged.  Children's independence and self-care skills are not consistently encouraged through appropriate systems and resources and therefore children are not always sufficiently challenged.

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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 conducted an unannounced inspection and observed staff teaching and children's learning.  The inspector discussed practice with the staff, manager and registered person.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled documents including those for safeguarding and safe recruitment.  The inspector read the self-evaluation form prior to the inspection.  The inspector interviewed two parents at the inspection to gather their views.

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Information about the setting

Woodlands Nursery is a privately owned provision. It registered in November 2000 and operates from a classroom in Chestnut Lane School, Amersham, Buckinghamshire. It is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm for 50 weeks of the year. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play garden. There are currently 40 children in the early years age range, aged from two to under five years. There is before and after school care from 8am to 9am and from 3pm to 6pm, for children who mostly attend the school on site. Strategies are in place to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and also children who speak English as an additional language. The nursery employs ten staff; nine of whom hold relevant early years qualifications at levels 2 and 3; one member of staff has a degree in teaching, one is working towards a degree in childcare and one member of staff is working towards a level two qualification. The setting

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Information about the setting

has links with the on site primary school and is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register.

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must:

 improve key person systems to help ensure every child's care is tailored to meet their individual needs by initially collecting relevant information from parents to support welfare and development needs; and by developing a buddy system to help children feel secure and settle when their key person is not around

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must:

 plan for children's learning by distinguishing between the needs of two-year-olds and the needs of older children and by refining observational assessments to identify targets for children's learning

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must:

 develop staffs understanding of assessment and planning procedures by implementing more robust monitoring and coaching systems.

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

 extend older children's independence skills; for example, by encouraging children to do more tasks for themselves at mealtimes, such as serving their meals, pouring their drinks in age appropriate cups and using suitable utensils to cut up their food.

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who attend

Most children settle upon arrival and enjoy a day of interesting activities. Some children are engaged in adult-led activities, such as cooking fairy cakes. Others explore their environment. They play with sand and water; explore paints and glue, sing rhymes with finger puppets, use the computer and build with construction. They also have use of an exciting outside space. Children enjoy the rain by adding bubbles to puddles and jumping in these. They also harvest the pumpkins they have grown. The range of play opportunities encourage children to learn. Overall, staff show confidence in their teaching abilities. Staff use descriptive language and open-ended questions, as well as language that builds on children's mathematical understanding. Children learn through adult directed activities and through their own inquisitiveness to explore and investigate. Children are encouraged to listen and pay attention to rhythms and noises. Those children

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who attend

who are confident and independent learners build vocabulary by participating in conversations. The open-ended questions staff use gives children the opportunity of thinking through their responses. Most children are fully engaged in the music session, which encourages them to participate actively. While most children feel secure enough to learn in this environment, there are some children who are less focused on learning. This is because they are struggling with strong emotions and are not fully settled into the nursery.

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who attend

There are inconsistencies within observational assessments. Information is not consistently collected from parents and is therefore vague. Initial assessments currently do not focus enough on what parents say children can do. Although not yet introduced, the nursery has recently developed new strategies to improve the sharing of initial information. Staff observe children. However, their assessments lack an informative summary and therefore outcomes become too broad. This is particularly evident in the two-year progress checks but also clear from other evidence collected. The staff lack confidence in identifying next steps or targets for individual children and these are often confused. Activities are too broadly planned and do not take account of younger children's needs or those of the older children. This means that although children are making progress, planning lacks focus on individual learning needs. Therefore, children are not fully challenged.

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who attend

Nonetheless, overall, staff work with parents to support their involvement in children's learning. Parents share special events through home observations and photos. Staff talk daily to parents about the activities children enjoy and their achievements. In addition, regular parent and staff consultations provide parents with additional opportunities to ask questions and share information.

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

The setting has a key person system in place. However, this system concentrates too much on building relationships with parents to the detriment of children settling into the nursery. New children have a key person or special person to go to. However, there is an expectation for them to build relationships with too many adults in the early days. This can be daunting for them. Despite this, most children settle well and appear secure and well adjusted to nursery life. Most children are lively and learn the skills they need to build friendships. Children learn to respect others, they share and take turns within games and as part of their everyday nursery experience. They are well behaved and learn social graces, such as manners and politeness towards others. Nursery staff are a good example to children. They show them how to behave through their interactions with each other, towards parents and with children. Staff show positive attitudes and engage children who

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

are struggling to adjust to nursery life. Children's home cultures are respected. For example, staff talk to children about how they celebrated the festival of Eid at home with their parents. The nursery shares special events with their community. Resources respectfully reflect children's home cultures and help children learn about how other people live and their communities.

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

Children learn about how to stay safe while they play in the outdoor space. Staff inform that they sometimes set up the outside space as a road. This gives children an opportunity to learn road safety. Staff support children's have-a-go attitude and offer helping hands when children feel unsure or over-challenged when climbing. There are many opportunities for children to learn self-care skills. For example, where children are able to use the bathroom areas independently, this is encouraged. At snack-time, children spread their own topping on crackers. However, where older children have a cooked meal they are not encouraged to serve this for themselves. This system relies too heavily on staff to make choices for children about what they want to eat. In addition, children are not sufficiently learning to manage cutlery as they are provided with plastic spoons and forks, which does not support them to cut up their own food They are also provided with

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

drinking bottles rather than age appropriate cups to pour their drinks. These resources do not fully support children to extend their independence. The experience of growing fruits and vegetables in the vegetable patch provides children with opportunities of learning about the cycle of life, and growth. Food that children grow in the garden is a great way of promoting healthy eating and children have tried new tastes. Overall, children's experience at the nursery is helping them to gain many of the skills they will need to promote a healthy lifestyle.

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

The environment is well resourced both inside and out and children have many opportunities to learn in this setting. The nursery encourages relationships with other schools and settings, valuing this as a resource to support children's ongoing development. They also recognise the importance of helping children manage change between one provision and another. They share developmental information to support children's smooth transitions. Overall, children gain the skills they need to support them as they move forward in their learning.

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provision

The leadership and management team have a satisfactory overview of the curriculum and how this is planned for in the nursery. While there is some evidence that there are ongoing adjustments and improvements, these are not yet in place. Systems to monitor observations and assessments are not consistently rigorous. Therefore, individual targets for children are not sufficiently challenging and in some cases, not identified.

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provision

The leadership and management team encourage staff to improve their professional qualifications through training. Overall, skills are maintained appropriately through in- house training, short courses and workshops. Staff have supervision and are appraised regularly. This ensures the continued good health and suitability of the staff team. However, systems to monitor staff are not consistently good enough to identify weaknesses in their understanding of the curriculum. The management team take some steps to evaluate their service. They take account of parents and children's views. However, while the nursery is able to identify strengths, their self-evaluation lacks a critical analysis of how they can continue to improve and develop. Nonetheless, the setting takes part in its local authority Quality Improvement Strategy and most changes take place as a result of this. The staff team demonstrate a good understanding of safety, how

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provision

to promote this and how to keep children safe. This includes their knowledge of safeguarding, the front door policy, fire safety, the procedures for finding lost children and the risk assessments. Staff understand their responsibility to report any safeguarding concern and work in partnership with safeguarding agencies. The premises, resources and furniture are maintained well and ensure children have a safe environment to play in. Visitors are appropriately monitored and supervised. There is a robust recruitment process. The measures taken ensure the continued safety of children.

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provision

Overall, partnerships with parents and external agencies are established and support the needs of children. There is a mutual understanding of the importance to share information.

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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 108003 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 907753 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 25 Number of children on roll 40 Name of provider Angela Aprcovic Date of previous inspection 05/05/2009 Telephone number 01494 729 054 or 07733 316669 (m)

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Setting details

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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