Willow Cottage Nursery (Eynsham)

Willow Cottage Nursery at Owls Leat Willow Cottage Nurseries, Owls Leat, Eynsham, WITNEY, Oxfordshire, OX29 4EH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 06/12/2013 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: Not Applicable 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 Staff consistently include parents in the assessment process to ensure a full picture of children's achievements and areas to develop further is recorded.  Parents contribute to individual play plans that feature children's achievements at home to promote a fully cohesive approach to learning.  Staff provide children with excellent outdoor learning opportunities that fully support all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.  Staff implement exceptional responsive planning that incorporates children's own interests.  The nursery team excellently promotes children's awareness of healthy diets.  The systems for self-evaluation are robust and give each member of staff a voice to ensure strengths and areas to improve are identified.

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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 compulsory part 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 in all three indoor and outdoor areas of the nursery.  The inspector spoke to staff about key areas of practice.  The inspector undertook a joint observation with the manager.  The inspector reviewed documentation of the nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector met with the manager and head teacher to discuss aspects of nursery practice.

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Information about the setting

Willow Cottage Nursery at Owl's Leat opened at this site in 1996 and re-registered in 2013 as a private limited company. It is one of two privately owned nurseries located in Oxfordshire operating from a purpose built, single-storey building in the rural area between Eynsham and Long Hanborough. The nursery has its own entrance area and operates from three inter-connecting rooms and has a sleep room, a kitchen and bathroom facilities. All children share access to a secure, enclosed outdoor covered play area with impact absorbent surfaces and a separate grass area. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently104 children on roll attending on a full and part-time basis. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education to children aged four. The nursery is open each week day between 7.40am and 5.45pm for 50 weeks of the year. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or

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Information about the setting

disabilities. . The setting employs 34 staff, all of whom hold relevant childcare qualifications. The two managers hold the Early Years Professional Status qualification and one staff member is a qualified teacher.

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

 enhance the partnerships with parents of babies to help them fully understand the value of outdoor play.

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who attend

Staff provide all children with an extensive range of indoor and outdoor activities. These activities provide children with excellent opportunities that fully support their learning in all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff organise the daily routine extremely well so that children have extended periods of play. This enables children to make choices and to sustain their own ideas in play. Staff interaction with children is highly effective in extending their learning through open-ended questioning and through solving problems. For example, staff use objects, such as, a wand, spiders web, broomstick to help enhance a story about a witch with the children and then ask open-ended questions and set problem solving activities. For instance, asking children to think about the best way for the witch to get away from the fire. This enhances their critical thinking and problem solving skills and the use of props engages children fully in the storytelling process.

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who attend

The provision for personal, social and emotional development is excellent. Staff provide rich opportunities that are well-matched to children's different stages of development to help them feel secure in the nursery. For example, babies delight in playing musical instruments in time to a music cassette and older children enthusiastically dress-up and act out roles in the nativity story. Highly impressive opportunities to build children's communication, language and literacy skills are well-embedded into daily routines. For example, staff engage in vibrant conversations with children that support their vocabulary development. For example, staff talk with children about growing mangoes and how the star is a sign in the nativity story. Staff provide outstanding opportunities and resources for children to develop their physical skills within the nursery. The awe-inspiring outdoor facilities enable each age-range of children to fully develop their physical skills, irrespective

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who attend

of the weather. For example, babies develop their coordination skills as they reach out to catch bubbles. However, the full benefit of outdoor play to babies is not always sufficiently reinforced with parents as some send their babies in with short jackets during the winter months. As a consequence these do not keep the lower parts of babies bodies as warm so they cannot stay out as long as they want. Older kindergarten children develop their large muscles as they act out active play plots in a large boat in the garden.

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who attend

Staff place a significant emphasis is placed on literacy provision that enables children's awareness of reading and writing to flourish in line with their development. Staff build mini-libraries that enable all children to continue developing their emerging literacy skills at home. Abundantly resourced literacy areas enable older children to develop their early writing skills. On a daily basis, staff effectively use a literacy programme that uses games to introduce older children to letters and sounds. Inspiring opportunities exist for all children to develop mathematics skills that are firmly embedded into play routines. For example, younger children enjoy stacking bricks that effectively introduces them to concepts about numbers and shape. Older children play wrapping up presents that familiarise them with concepts related to size and area. Staff use every day experiences and routines effectively to explore numbers as children pass their plates and count the

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who attend

number of face cloths needed at tables. The outdoor areas enable staff to develop exceptional opportunities for children to develop an understanding of the world. For example, babies gain an awareness of materials and textures as they play in the sandpit. Staff build on older children's interest in worms by planning challenging activities, including getting children to build a wormery where worms can live. Staff provide children with varied experiences that foster their creativity. Babies enjoy moving to music. Wall displays show how older children use varied materials and tools to make marbling pictures and use mime to convey meaning in stories.

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who attend

Staff use a highly impressive range of assessment methods to monitor all children's learning and development. The assessment results enable staff to plan activities that accurately incorporate children's identified next steps for learning and develop on each child's interests and capabilities. This helps to ensure that each child makes maximum progress at their own rate. Significant efforts are made by staff to regularly involve parents in the assessment process. This enables parents to contribute to assessments and ensures that they are kept informed of the impact of teaching on their children's progress.

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who attend

Staff use highly-reflective practices that meet the precise teaching and learning needs of particular groups of children. For example, staff make extensive use of pictures to effectively support the learning of children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This increases children's opportunities to more fully understand activities, participate in routines and successfully go onto the next stage of their learning. Excellent communication and trust is well-developed between key persons and parents. This facilitates highly productive parental involvement in children's learning. For example, parents greatly appreciate how staff enable babies to start attending on a gradual basis and are kept fully informed about the role of the key person. Parents see themselves as equal partners in children's learning so that beneficial help to promote ongoing learning exists for children both at home and in the nursery.

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

Staff build warm relationships with all children and this fully nurture their confidence and motivation to learn. For example, babies are encouraged to explore what is inside treasure baskets so that they become curious. Staff cuddle and talk to babies during the moves between everyday routines so that babies are reassured about what will happen next. Staff gently ask older children about where they need to be in the nativity play so that children learn to successfully anticipate the next step in learning.

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

Key persons enable children to settle into the nursery exceptionally well and continue to effectively help them when they move into a new room or on to school. Photographs of key persons and their group of children provides parents with a reassuring connection with one particular person who they can go to for information and advice. This connection gives children and parents an important sense of belonging in the nursery.

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

Staff organise a flexible and balanced daily routine that is highly supportive of the wellbeing of both parents and children. Healthy lifestyles are consistently promoted, particularly at mealtimes. Staff give thorough attention to promoting babies awareness of personal hygiene routines by cleaning their hands and faces after eating. Older children are encouraged to pour their own water during mealtimes and to use face cloths to clean their hands and faces after they have finished eating. The nursery director is strongly committed to promoting healthy diets for children so that they are 'set up for life'. In addition, parents provided reflective input into healthy eating and now breakfast has been adapted to include more finger foods that enable babies to feed themselves. Staff know of children's special dietary needs and willingly provide alternative meals to meet these. Food is sourced locally whenever possible to ensure that it is fresh and the recipes are

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

published in a range of 'Mr Willow' books that help to promote healthy eating among children and families away from the nursery.

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

Staff have expanded opportunities for children to independently undertake more self-care skills during daily routines. Assigning 'helpers for the day' encourages children to prepare the lunch table. In addition, staff provide tubs of hats and gloves on the outdoor patio areas to encourage children to wear clothes that are appropriate to the weather. They also provide children with their own drawer creating useful opportunities that help them organise their own belongings.

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

Excellent procedures are in place to ensure that strict standards of hygiene are maintained. Staff implement a personal care policy at nappy changing and toilet times to check that children are treated with the greatest care and dignity. The nursery has routine checks from the local Environmental Health officer and has achieved the highest 5 star- rating for the hygienic preparation of food and food storage. This promotes children's good health. All areas of the nursery building, both indoors and outdoors are bright, clean and extremely well maintained. Toys and appliances are washed in anti-bacterial solutions to create a meticulously clean environment in which children are well and thrive. Staff pay rigorous attention to children's safety particularly during outdoor play, when children wear helmets to protect their heads while riding on bikes. A highly reflective review of resources resulted in the purchase of new toys to further help children's learning. For example, safe

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

areas with low-level storage shelves have been installed to enable babies, who are not yet walking, to choose their own toys. Resources were bought to further develop role play, the writing area, sensory experiences, creative materials and technology to ensure strong support for older children's learning.

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provision

A comprehensive range of safeguarding policies and procedures are in place that helps to ensure that children are thoroughly protected. A designated person is responsible for safeguarding and attends specialist training to keep all staff up-to-date with current requirements. The management team monitors staff knowledge and practice robustly. They encourage staff to take quizzes on safeguarding and well-being requirements and these help to ensure that they know about required procedures. Staff are vigilant in implementing child protection policies that help to keep children safe and demonstrate a thorough awareness of what to do if they have a concern about a child. Staff consistently model, reinforce and discuss positive behaviour with children throughout the day. This provides children with significant opportunities to think about their behaviour and understand the impact it has on others around them.

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provision

Parents and staff have been instrumental in contributing to new policies and procedures. For example, now there are new radiator covers in place to protect children from harm. Every morning staff carry out full risk assessments to ensure that indoor and outdoor environments are clean and safe for children. Fire drills are carried out each term to familiarise children with the emergency evacuation procedure. For each session there are staff present who hold paediatric first aid certificates to ensure that in the event of an accident or illness children receive appropriate treatment. The nursery premises are in a ground floor building that is set in a spacious rural environment. Each of the three nursery areas have toilet areas with washbasins and hand dryers that enable children to develop their personal hygiene skills in line with their development. Large open playrooms enable children to comfortably engage in learning activities and in mealtime routines. Staff follow

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provision

all children's home sleep routines and babies have a quiet sleeping area with their own cots and bedding to use. Each nursery area has a separate and safe outdoor area with canopied patios, soft surfacing and tuff grass that enable children to enjoy the outdoors throughout the year.

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provision

The management team has a robust recruitment system in place to ensure that all staff undergo the appropriate checks and are deemed to be suitable to work with children. Staff hold a range of professional qualifications that enable them to carry out their work competently. The management is proactive in providing staff with opportunities to continue their professional development, including courses that help them to develop their teaching skills and practices when promoting children's learning. Staff write long and short-term plans that effectively cover all areas of learning. Staff, with the input of parents, write exceptional individual play plans that feature each child's current interests and their achievements at home. Assessment procedures are extremely thorough and routinely involve parents in the monitoring of their children's progress. All staff contribute to the highly reflective self-evaluation process. This enables staff to read the newsletter

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provision

that features aspects of good practice and critically examine their work in light of their reading. Staff evaluate how they meet regulations and identify areas for ongoing improvement and consider the likely impact on children's learning.

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provision

Parental involvement is fully embedded into the provision and ensures that parents' views are heard. Effective lines of communication enable parents to be fully informed about nursery issues. Parents are in a position to make suggestions that have a positive impact on their children's experiences. Excellent links exist with other professionals who provide specialist support services to children while they are in the nursery. This arrangement enables children to receive services as they play and also enables staff to more clearly understand how to support children who have particular needs. Beneficial communication with other pre-school settings and with local primary schools helps to exchange best practices and also effectively support a cohesive approach to children's learning especially when they move between or onto settings.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory 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 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 EY464144 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 921372 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 65 Number of children on roll 104 Name of provider Willow Cottage Nurseries Ltd Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01993883583

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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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