Grange Pre-School

The Grange Pre-School The Grange Free Church, Circuit Lane, Southcote, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 3HD

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 06/12/2013 04/11/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Up-to-date information has not been supplied to Ofsted in order that suitability checks on committee members can be carried out. This is an offence.  Behaviour is not managed consistently by staff or to promote children's understanding of good relationships, group rules or sharing. The role of the key person is ineffective and does not meet the specific needs of children.  Risk assessment procedures do not take into account details of behaviour incidents or accidents to promote children's ongoing safety.  Children do not make good enough progress in their learning because the quality of teaching is not rigorously monitored. In particular, strategies to support those children with additional needs are not implemented effectively by all staff.  Activities and staff interactions fail to challenge or inspire children, which does not support some children to catch up in their learning or prepare them for school.

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This provision is inadequate

 Monitoring procedures in the pre-school are weak. The manager does not robustly evaluate or mentor practice to support good teaching.

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It has the following strengths

 Children enjoy activities in the garden area which supports their physical development.

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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 the main room of the pre-school, the smaller room and the garden area.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector had discussions with the manager, administrative assistant and a member of the committee.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to members of the staff team about the progress of their key children and their understanding of the nursery's policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's observation, tracking and assessment records, planning documentation, evidence of suitability of committee members and staff working with children in the pre-school and a range of other documentation.  The inspector took into account the views of children, their parents and carers.

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Information about the setting

The Grange Pre-School registered in 1989. It operates from two rooms in the Grange Free Church at Southcote in Reading, Berkshire. There is a enclosed area for the children's outdoor play. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Currently there are 58 children aged between two and five years old on roll.

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Information about the setting

The pre-school is open weekdays during school term times. Sessions are from 8.50am until 11.50am and then from 12.20 pm until 3.20 pm. There is a lunch club available each day which operates from 11.50 am to 12.35 pm. The pre-school provides funded free early education for three- and four-year-olds. It supports children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are 12 members of staff that work with the children; of these nine have relevant qualifications at level three. The setting receives support from the local authority.

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must:

 ensure there are appropriate arrangements in place for the supervision of staff who have contact with children and families, which includes opportunities for staff to discuss any issues - particularly concerning children's development or well- being; identify solutions to address issues as they arise; and receive coaching to improve their personal effectiveness

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must:

 implement the behaviour management policy and procedures to promote consistency in behaviour management amongst staff

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must:

 improve staff's knowledge of the learning and development requirements in order to consider the individual needs, interests, and stage of development of each child and use this information to identify their starting points and next steps, and plan a challenging and enjoyable experience for each child in all of the areas of learning and development

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must:

 ensure the written record of accidents or injuries contains all necessary detail, such as a full description of the accident and full details of the action taken

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must:

 implement a policy and procedures to promote equality of opportunity for all children; include how the individual needs of all children will be met; arrangements for reviewing, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of inclusive practices; how inappropriate attitudes and practices will be challenged; and how the provision will encourage children to value and respect others

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must:

 implement a clear and well-understood policy, and procedures, for assessing any risks to children's safety, and review risk assessments regularly, to ensure the risk is removed or minimised

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must:

 improve self-evaluation systems and use this to drive future improvements by identifying the settings strengths and weaknesses accurately and taking appropriate action to address these

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must:

 implement an effective key person system which ensures that every child's learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs

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must:

 review the training and development needs of all staff members to ensure they offer a quality learning experience for children that continually improves.

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who attend

Children do not make enough progress in their learning given their individual starting points. This is because the quality of activities on offer and the support children receive from staff is variable. Overall, it is not focussed enough on supporting children's individual learning needs. This is particularly evident in the lack of progress made by some children who have underachieved in their prime areas of learning, such as their personal, social and emotional development and their communication and language. This is because staff fail to remind children to care for the toys, support care skills, help them to deal with conflict as it arises or create opportunities for children to work cooperatively together as a team.

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who attend

Although the pre-school special needs co-ordinator is committed to improving outcomes for some children by identifying and drafting focused learning plans, other staff fail to robustly implement these identified strategies. For example, staff fail to spend quality amounts of time with some children with identified delays in language development, and so miss opportunities to talk to them or build on their emerging communication skills. This results in these children falling further behind, rather than staff helping them to catch up and make the same levels of progress as their peers. Consequently, too many of the children in the pre-school fail to make sufficient progress in order for them to establish meaningful friendships, learn to communicate their needs or follow simple rules.

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who attend

The quality of teaching overall is poor. Staff do not have a secure understanding of children's starting points. This means that they cannot securely build on what children know or understand, because they do not have a solid base from which to work. This also results in a general lack of focus in the activities on offer, because staff have not been able to make a purposeful link between the choice of activities and how they should support children's specific learning targets or interests. Staff also fail to recognise the difference good quality interactions or dynamic and purposeful questioning can make to children's experiences. For example, interacting and supporting them while they play by providing a narrative of what they are doing, showing, explaining or exploring ideas. Furthermore, the lack of regard to matching planning with children's current interests does not help children to stay focused on tasks and they tend to wander between activities with

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who attend

little purpose. This means that children are not consistently challenged, motivated or engaged in their learning, which impacts on the amount of progress that they make. As a result, children do not gain a good range of skills in readiness for school when the time comes.

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who attend

Parents are provided with opportunities to share information about their child's home life and interest as staff extend a home visit to each family when they start. However, the information gathered from this visit is not used to good effect as staff do not link this purposefully to create secure starting points or next steps. In addition, although parents are able to view the information in their children's learning journals, the content and quality within these is variable. This is because the manager has failed to tackle inconsistencies in how staff track and assess progress, which gives parents and others a false sense of where children actually are in their learning. In addition, it does not give an accurate picture of what children can actually do and where they may need extra support.

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

he lack of an effective key person system within the pre-school means that children are not supported to develop the skills necessary to promote their well-being or independence. Staff have failed to make effective use of information gained from the parents in order to tailor a settling in procedure to help children with their first experience of being away from home. This has not supported their emotional well-being as some have struggled to manage this transition and have not become well settled in their play. Staff have also failed to implement a behaviour policy that supports positive behaviour, or addressed episodes of poor behaviour in a consistent way within the group. As a result, children exhibit frequent episodes of disruptive behaviour, which includes throwing or arguing over toys because staff do not help them to resolve these disagreements by modelling conflict strategies. This in turn has led to a number of incidents that have

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

caused minor injuries to children, which does not support children feeling safe or secure in the pre-school. There are some opportunities for children to manage self-care tasks for themselves, such as staff helping children to zip up their coats or children putting on their shoes for outside play. However, these are limited because the staff do not re-enforce these practices and there are too few other opportunities. For example, children do not have opportunities to put away toys or take responsibility for tasks, such as preparing and tidying up after snack. Little action has been taken to help children build resilience or promote self-esteem, particularly in those groups of children whose home life situations make them especially vulnerable. As a result, children miss further opportunities to acquire the skills and attitudes necessary to prepare them for their next stage in learning and school.

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

Resources within the pre-school are suitably accessible and children have opportunities to play outside through the session. However, the staff have not fully evaluated the range of play items on offer for children in the day when setting these out. For example, children are provided with a selection of items for a hairdressing activity. However, this selection is limited to very stereotyped resources, which does not fully respect the cultural backgrounds of the children attending. This also does very little to help children learn about difference in positive ways or build a non-stereotyped image of gender. Further resources, such as small picture cards and visual timetables recommended by professionals supporting children in the pre-school, are not used well because some staff fail to make use of them in the day.

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

Staff work adequately in partnership with parents to ensure that dietary needs are catered for and suitable hygiene procedures for the preparation and serving of food are observed by staff. Children are developing some awareness of healthy lifestyles as they access fruit snacks. They have good opportunities to develop their physical skills as they access a daily range of climbing, balancing and pedalling activities in the fresh air.

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provision

The provider had failed to update Ofsted of a change to individuals who make up the pre- school committee. This is an offence and means that Ofsted does not currently have an accurate picture of those committee members who are responsible for the pre-school. On this occasion, Ofsted does not intend to take further action as the pre-school have taken immediate steps to rectify this breach. Furthermore, staff have failed to meet their safeguarding responsibilities by recording full and accurate details of any accidents that occur in the pre-school. As a result, they have not been able to complete a rigorous enough risk assessment that reflects the actual cause of some of the accidents that have occurred, or been proactive enough in ensuring they do not re-occur. This is a breach of a legal requirement and does not support children's health or ongoing safety.

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provision

Leadership is inadequate because procedures to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the educational provision are not effective. The manager has not met her responsibility in overseeing the delivery of educational programmes within the pre-school. This means that she has failed to sufficiently promote a programme of learning that has sufficient depth, breadth and challenge or that reflects the needs, aptitudes and interests of children. She has also failed to ensure that there is a shared sense of responsibility between staff in order to create a safe and stimulating environment in which for children to learn well, feel safe and succeed, which has led to further gaps in children's learning. Self-evaluation is also weak because the pre-school team have not set ambitious enough targets to improve their own practice or placed enough focus on supporting children to achieve.

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provision

An effective system for staff supervision, performance management and continuous professional development has not been securely established. Although staff attend additional training, are subject to appraisals, and discuss ongoing issues within the pre- school at staff meetings, this has failed to address weak teaching or inconsistent practise. This is because the manager has not monitored the effectiveness of these opportunities or provided staff with feedback on their performance to tackle inconsistencies in their practice. In addition, staff show a general reluctance to fully implement new ideas that they gather from training they attend. For example, a staff member has devised a simple pictorial guide on how to manage behaviour and provided staff with these. Staff do not access these in the day and behaviour still remains an issue. This does not demonstrate that staff have a suitable regard to implementing new ways of working to support the

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provision

current children in their care, or that they are making good use of their training opportunities. Further policies and procedures, including how staff understand and implement their child protection policy, are adequate. There are suitable procedures in place to recruit staff and a Disclosure and Barring Service check is obtained for each staff member who works with the children. There is a system in place for staff to disclose any issues that may affect their ongoing suitability.

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provision

Partnerships with other professionals to support children with additional needs are not yet effective enough to rapidly support the progress of some groups of children, or improve their life chances. This is because the manager does not monitor or promote staffs' use of suggested strategies to support individual children, or initiate new ways of working to promote a shared approach to supporting children's additional needs to ensure they are making a difference.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 ensure that children's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  inform Ofsted of the following: the name, date of birth, address and telephone number of any partner, director, senior officer or other member of the governing body (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  undertake a risk assessment of the premises and equipment: at least once in each calendar year, and immediately, where the need for an assessment arises (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that the childcare is accessible and inclusive by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the needs of each child, relating to their childcare, are met (compulsory part of the Childcare Register).  ensure that children's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  inform Ofsted of the following: the name, date of birth, address and telephone

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

number of any partner, director, senior officer or other member of the governing body (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  undertake a risk assessment of the premises and equipment: at least once in each calendar year, and immediately, where the need for an assessment arises (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that the childcare is accessible and inclusive by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the needs of each child, relating to their childcare, are met. (voluntary part of the Childcare Register).

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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 Requires improvement The provision is not giving children a good standard of early years education and/or there are minor breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected within twelve months of the date of this inspection. 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

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Grade Judgement Description

the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. 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 116829 Local authority Reading Inspection number 842712 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 40 Number of children on roll 58 Name of provider The Grange Playgroup Association Committee Date of previous inspection 04/11/2009 Telephone number 0118 956 8528

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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

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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