Regents Park Nursery

Regents Park Children's Centre Augustus Street, London, NW1 3TJ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 29/10/2013 23/07/2012

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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

 Staff routinely assesses children's skills and knowledge and use this to accurately plan, support and evaluate children's learning experiences. This enables children to make good or better progress in consideration to their expected developmental stages.  The educational programmes and staff practice provide challenging and interesting experiences that meets the needs of all children, some of whom have complex needs.  The centre makes excellent provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Efficient and established partnerships support and promote these children's education and health, ensuring they make excellent progress from their starting points over time.  Staff have good understanding and give high priority promoting children's safety and positive behaviour. Children's behaviour and interaction with staff shows that they feel safe in the centre.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 There are fewer planned opportunities for children to extend their understanding of mathematics with large-scale constructions.  Children's involvement in the evaluation process is not fully established, reducing opportunities for them to express their ideas for the centre.

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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 children's activity in all areas of the nursery, including outdoors.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector tracked children in the nursery, looked at assessment records and activity plans.  The inspector reviewed qualification, recruitment and suitability with the manager.  The inspector spoke to staff, children and parents.  The inspector reviewed documentation, and improvement with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Regents Park Children's Centre registered in 1994. It is run by the local authority and operates from purpose built premises on a housing estate in the Regents Park area of the London Borough of Camden. The centre is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Other services provided by the centre include a generic drop in for childminders, a creche for training, a parents' focus group and drop-in facility. Speech and language therapists run a language group from the centre; other health professionals, such as Midwives, Health Visitors and the early years intervention team, provide services from the centre. 'Baby bounce and rhyme time' operates weekly from the centre. Currently, there are 65 children on roll, who are all in the early years age range. The centre is in receipt of funding for free nursery education for children aged two, three and four years The nursery opens each weekday from 8am to

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Information about the setting

6pm for 48 weeks in the year and offers both full-time and part-time places for children; some children attend afterschool. The nursery supports a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They also support a number of children who speak English as an additional language. The centre employs 36 staff; of these, 25 work directly with the children. The centre manager holds relevant qualification to level 7 and two staff members hold Qualified Teacher Status. A further seventeen staff hold relevant qualifications at level 3 and others are qualified to level 2.

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

 provider more opportunities to extend children's knowledge of mathematics and the use large equipment to deepen their understanding of size, measure and shapes

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

 increase ways to involve children in the self-evaluation of the centre to encourage them to share their ideas and contribute to driving improvement.

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who attend

The centre provides a warm welcome to children and their families. For example, the attractive displays that welcome all users set high exceptions for equality, inclusion and diversity. Staff in the centre plan and deliver good quality play and learning experiences for children consistently well across all areas and most aspects of learning. Individual planning for children provides the foundation for activity plans. This allows staff to develop the educational programmes with clear learning intentions, drawn from regular observations, identification of children's next steps, individual education plans and children's interests. Staff successfully plan, monitor, evaluate and reshape children's learning experiences, which helps each child to make good or better progress from their starting points.

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who attend

Across the centre, staff plan effectively for the use of the outdoor play provision. This enables all children to benefit from using it across the seasons. Children are promoting their physical development, using a range of resources outdoors. In addition, they learn about being healthy, self-care skills and to manage tasks that are within their capabilities. For example, in preparation for outside play, those children who are able, dress themselves in appropriate clothing. Playing outdoors consolidates children's learning across many areas. For instance, they learn to share, take turns and they develop friendships with others. They learn to assess and take some risks in the safe play area. They learn about life cycles and living things, as they take care of the vegetable patch. This increases children's understanding of the importance of including fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet; they produce some of these for themselves in the garden. The

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who attend

well-equipped outdoor area, and planning for this area, is effective at allowing all children, including those who learn best outdoors, to do so. For example, as well as a wide range of physical activities, some children develop their understanding of the world as they use tills and phones while playing outdoors.

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who attend

There are many opportunities for children to develop their understanding of mathematics. For example, they count money and use it in their pretend play, they weigh and measure as they participate in cooking activities, and in water and sand play. As children make and play with dice they learn about numbers and three-dimensional shapes. However, there are fewer planned opportunities for children to regularly explore learning and enhance their mathematical thinking with activities, such as large-scale constructions, particularly during outdoor play.

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who attend

Interesting topics, such as 'People who help us', provide many opportunities for children to gain in-depth knowledge of their community and the world. The range of play opportunities that staff use to support and extend children's learning shows clearly that they understand how young children learn. For example, children in the preschool group experiment with oily paint and water to create interesting pictures. They use sticky foam, tools, rolling pins and fingers to manipulate and add contrasting material to dough. Younger children use dough and cutters to express their creativity. Discussions about children's artwork, stories and parents' contributions to the subject help to make sure that children experience learning in meaningful ways. Children are developing their communication and language in ways that are in keeping with their expected developmental stages. For example, staff take opportunities to talk one to one with

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who attend

children as they carry out daily tasks, such as during nappy changes. They sit with the youngest children and engage them with one to one interaction and activities that attract them to respond and locate sounds. There is graduating use of technology for all children in the centre. For example, the visual resources in the baby room draw their attention and encourage them to explore. Resources that respond to touch, intrigues younger children to explore more. For example, children learn that the train hoots when they press a button and this encourages them to try again. Children in the preschool group show increasing control as they make use of the computer, with staff supporting them as needed. Children enjoy playing educational games and develop their literacy skills by completing tasks to identify words of three letters.

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who attend

Across the centre children show that they are actively learning, eager and interested. Staff are supporting children very well to acquire and maintain the skills that they need to promote their learning now and ultimately in readiness for school.

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

Across the centre children's behaviour shows that, they are developing secure emotional attachments with staff. There is warm interaction, between staff and children and the atmosphere in all of the rooms is calm and purposeful. It is the staffs' practice to be down at children's level, and this makes for easier communication between them. Young children gain reassurance from their key carers and carry on exploring when others enter the area. Older children invite staff and friends to play and share their learning. Staff share information about individual children with each other and this helps to make certain that there are no gaps in children's care and their individual routines; they refer closely to guidance from parents to settle children. Staff use kind words, in English and in children's home language, as well gentle actions to reassure children. This helps to build children's security in the adults who care for them. Children interact confidently with staff, who

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

respond caringly to them. The key persons and the special education needs coordinator give clear information about the knowledge, skills and expected developmental stage for individual children. They record this information and use it to inform activity planning in the centre. This enables staff to differentiate activities for individuals, as well as for groups of children. Individual challenges motivate the children to learn. Overall, this keeps their learning moving forward at a good pace. Children's engagement in interesting and fun activities demonstrates their motivation for learning now and for the future.

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

The key person system is well established and staff work efficiently as team. For example, staff know the arrangements that are in place to meet the needs of children when their key persons are not present. This joined up approach to staff management ensures that there are always familiar adults to work directly with each group of children. Good and consistent planning for individual children ensures that when there is movement of staff for operational reasons, any other staff member can continue to follow through with the next step for individual children. Equality and early intervention is at the heart of the provision that the centre makes for every child. Staff are experienced at caring for children with diverse and complex needs. They work extremely closely with parents and a wide range of professionals to identify, plan and provide children with the best targeted care and learning opportunities. There are effective systems in place for ongoing assessments,

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

target setting and continuous reviews for these children. This ensures that appropriate and prompt interventions are initiated, with strong integrated professional partnerships, which continuously involve parents. This enables all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to make good progress from their starting points and close gaps in their learning over time and in readiness for school. The centre welcomes children from varying backgrounds and children who speak English as an additional language. The well qualified staff make efficient use an extensive range of quality resources that are designed to support children to gain and improve communication and language skills. In addition to welcome signs in different scripts, there are many displays of words written in children's home languages. These labels, supported with pictures, help children to make better use of their resources. They also remind them

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

that writing takes different forms. Sign language, picture exchange and knowledge of children's key words are all very good strategies that staff routinely use to promote children's understanding and speaking in English. These good resources and practices also make children and their parents feel welcomed and valued. The inclusive ethos of the centre means that it is routine for child with disabilities and children from diverse cultural backgrounds to play and learn together. All children see themselves and their families reflected positively in the centre; both in the staff team and the resources that they use each day. This helps children to learn that all people have equal status in society.

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

Children have ready access to an extensive range of resources to support their learning styles, indoors and outside. The centre is very well equipped with resources to meet the developmental needs of the children. Children are developing very good understanding of practices that support healthy lifestyles though consistent good practices. This includes the educational programmes, which develops their understanding of how and why they do things. For example, children make healthy choices about what they eat and drink, why it is important to take regular exercise, and why they wash their hands after using the toilet. Staff support children very well to move from wearing nappies to using the toilet independently. This helps children to take control of an essential part of their personal care. Through good hygiene practices, children are learning to safeguard their well-being and to limit the spread of infection between individuals. The safe physical environment is a

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

strong contributing factor to children understanding of safety. In addition, it helps children to increase their confidence and independence to make effective use of the centre's resources.

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provision

The leadership team manages the centre effectively; they achieve the efficient running of the centre. Including educational programmes, this provides all the children with a broad range of learning experiences overall. The staff support all children very well to make good or better progress from their starting points. Staff's practice across the centre shows that they have good, secure understanding of the areas of learning, as well as how children learn. Staff and senior managers consistently use effective procedures to make sure that planning, assessment and monitoring of children's learning and development are based on accurate information about children's skills knowledge and abilities. Staff complete many assessment reports for children at age two years. They work especially closely with these parents, health, and educational professionals to compile these reports. These effective partnerships ensure that the report covers all the required elements and

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provision

that the correct strategies are in place for their implementation. The recruitment procedure in the centre is fully developed to include full vetting of all staff, students and volunteers. Induction, ongoing supervision and appraisal for all staff are well established. There are effective procedures, which enables staff in the centre to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements. For example, staff have good knowledge of different aspects of the safeguarding policies, such as the whistle blowing element. They know the designated safeguarding officer in the centre. They have clear expectation for her to deal with concerns about children's well-being, in a timely manner and in accordance with the policy. Staff are clear to follow procedures that are in place to promote children's good health. As an example, they know why it is essential to continually assess risks to individual children's health and follow their care plan

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provision

consistently and closely. Senior staff manage and monitor documentation to make sure that all documents are up to date and include all of the required information to safeguard and promote children's good health. The centre safeguards children and promotes their welfare well. Staff guide their practises with clear policies and procedures that they all understand and implement.

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provision

Self-evaluation takes account of the views of staff and parents, and to lesser extent children. For example, there are many opportunities for parents to influence practice in the nursery, such as full engagement in the parent forum. Although staff note children's interests and include these in activity plans, children are not fully involved in the evaluation of the centres' practices overall. This reduces opportunities for them to contribute to driving improvement. The centre is striving for improvements; there are plans in place to enhance and extend peer coaching for staff. They have recently purchased resources for specific educational programmes, such as mathematics. There are clear lines of communication within the leadership team and with staff, and good systems to help staff to improve their knowledge and qualifications.

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provision

The centre works very closely with the parents and routinely gains their views to drive improvement and enhance the quality for children. Parents engagement extends to the settling-in period and their continued involvement in arrangements for children, especially for those with special education needs and/or disabilities. Good quality information helps all parents to understand how children experience learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage and to track children's progress and achievements. Children's artwork, pictures and records show how much they enjoy the additional time fathers spent with them in the centre, following a specific invitation to them. Parents praise the staff at the centre. They say that staff support children well, that they follow their guidance closely and are very responsive with their communication about children. They state that their children are making good progress, including increasing confidence in speaking English. They further

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provision

highlight children's increased confidence and social skills and their enjoyment of being able to play freely in the garden.

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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 100571 Local authority Camden Inspection number 939350

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 69 Number of children on roll 65 Name of provider London Borough of Camden Date of previous inspection 23/07/2012 Telephone number 020 7387 2382

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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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