Abbey Children Centre Nursery

Abbey Childrens Centre Nursery and Creche Abbey Children's Centre, North Street, Barking, Essex, IG11 8JA

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 03/12/2013 15/10/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 1 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 support children effectively in their play and exploration. They enhance children's learning experiences by making good use of talk to help children in their learning.  Children enjoy the well-equipped outdoor area, which encourages them to develop good physical skills and keep healthy.  The nursery has close working partnerships with parents, the children's centre and school. Consequently children benefit from continuity of care and learning.  The nursery has strong systems in place to help staff monitor and evaluate the provision. These contribute to an ongoing good capacity for improvement.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not always make the most of opportunities to challenge children during free play and adult-led activities in order to further extend their learning.  Staff in the under-two's room do not always effectively interact with the youngest children to consistently extend their learning and 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 children taking part in a variety of indoor and outside activities.  The inspector talked with staff, and parents, and interviewed the manager.  The inspector carried out two joint observations with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled the documentation, in particular those documents relating to children's progress and safeguarding.

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Information about the setting

Abbey Children's Centre Nursery and Creche registered in 2005. It operates from a purpose-built building which is situated in Barking in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The nursery is one of two in the borough for whom the provider is the local authority. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery is open every weekday from 8am to 6pm for 50 weeks of the year. Children have the use of three play rooms and share access to a large 'studio' area and an enclosed outdoor play area. Currently there are 105 children on roll in the early years age group and a team of 20 staff employed to work with the children. The majority of staff hold early years qualifications and five of the team hold Early Years Professional status. The nursery is supported by advisory teachers from the local authority. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for

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Information about the setting

children aged two, three and four years. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who are learning English as an additional language.

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

 look for ways to challenge children more in their learning through, for example, using resources more imaginatively and making the most of opportunities to talk with children

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

 strengthen the deployment of staff and their interaction with children in the under- two's room.

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who attend

The nursery is effective in meeting the learning needs of children. Staff make good use of the different play areas to offer a choice of activities. They support children well by joining in with them and engaging them in conversation. They offer help when required and make suggestions to encourage children to explore further. As a result children enjoy their play and often spend long periods of time absorbed in their exploration. For example, they have fun experimenting with modelling material they have made or watch the patterns created when using a comb to investigate a flour and water mix. Consequently children have good opportunities to learn about the properties of different materials when taking part in hands-on practical activities. Most staff are skilled at encouraging children's use of language while they play and explore. For example, they introduce new words and model sentences clearly to help children develop good communication skills.

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who attend

Staff observe children's learning and collect their written observations into folders, alongside photographs, notes on children's next steps of learning and written assessments of their progress. These provide attractive visual records of individual children's progress and enable staff to include children's next steps in the weekly planning. Staff provide a good mix of free choice and adult-led activities. As a result they are able to focus children's learning at times as well as support children in their learning through play. They use their knowledge of individual children to help move each child on in their learning. There is a wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities each day. However, occasionally there are fewer good choices for children to learn through purposeful play as activities in the play rooms are not always well resourced. Occasionally staff miss opportunities in their conversation with children to encourage them to think and explore further. Therefore staff

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who attend

do not always fully challenge children in their learning and enable to make further progress.

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who attend

Children particularly enjoy the many opportunities to investigate technological equipment. For example, they learn to use cameras, torches and a laptop. They work together on 'big art' projects, which give them the opportunity to express their own ideas and to develop these over time as they build up pictures and displays over a few days. Staff support children in acquiring useful skills for the future, for instance, encouraging children to make marks in different ways so that they develop the skills needed for early writing. Children enjoy books and stories, often sharing these with staff who take the opportunity to help children learn more about written words. Staff include phonics teaching for older children and introduce them to games that promote their understanding of mathematical concepts. In these ways children are well prepared for further learning at school.

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

Staff are aware of children's individual care needs and ensure that children keep safe and healthy. Children feel secure because there are good ratios of adult to children in the nursery. This means that children have an adult nearby if they want reassurance or help. Staff demonstrate an inclusive approach and this contributes to children developing a sense of belonging. Children enjoy playing with friends and like to sing together at circle times. Staff offer good support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, helping them to access the activities on offer and to communicate with others in the group. However children in the under-two's room do not always benefit from effective adult support as staff are not always well organised and sometimes prioritise routine tasks rather than joining children in their play and exploration.

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

Children are well behaved and learn to share with others. For example, when mixing modelling materials they are all encouraged to have a go moulding the ingredients together. They learn the need to take turns, for instance, when waiting to play with torches in a dark tent. Children gain confidence and learn to make their own decisions as they move around the nursery choosing from the resources on offer. They show interest in the different activities, especially when offered a wider choice in the over-two's studio area. Children in the under-two's room are attracted, for example, by different types of materials to explore. Children are keen to try new activities, such as using a large magnifying glass to look closely at toy bugs. They persist at their chosen tasks, for instance, when attempting to fit together pieces of construction equipment to make a model. In this way children learn to concentrate on their learning and achieve an end

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

Staff encourage children to adopt healthy lifestyles. They provide plenty of fresh fruit from which children can make their own choices at snack times. Older children learn about the health benefits of eating fruit. They are helped to cut and share fruits, thereby gaining more knowledge of shapes, quantities and textures, as well as using tools safely. Staff talk with children at lunchtimes about the foods included in the menu. These are provided by an outside agency and are generally healthy and nutritious. Staff work with parents to support any children's additional health or dietary needs appropriately. Procedures for the administration and record keeping of medication and food supplements have recently been reviewed and improved to help safeguard every child effectively.

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

All children benefit from the nursery's well-resourced outdoor play area, which is shared with the neighbouring school. Children learn to make their own risk assessments when playing with large equipment, such as a climbing frame. They experiment with travelling in different ways around an obstacle course. In this way they learn how to keep themselves safe during outdoor play. In addition they are able to practise their physical skills and develop good balance and coordination.

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provision

The nursery manager works closely with her deputy manager and the team of advisory teachers. This has resulted in the introduction of some effective systems and procedures, which help to ensure that the quality of staff's practice is maintained and continually improving. There are good policies and procedures in place to promote the safeguarding of all children in the nursery. The manager ensures that all new staff undergo the necessary checks on their suitability to work with children. She carries out regular risk assessments in the premises and updates these if necessary between reviews. The written risk assessments are on display in each area so that staff are fully aware of any actions they need to take to keep children safe. Also on display is detailed information about child protection, enabling staff to keep up to date with the set procedures and enabling them to raise a concern if necessary to help protect children's welfare.

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provision

The nursery has a variety of good systems in place to continually monitor and evaluate its provision for children. The management team work together to monitor staff's practice through observation and the scrutiny of children's progress files. Staff are well deployed across the nursery and allocated to the different rooms, where they work together in teams. The manager is aware that the team of staff in the under-two's room is not working as effectively as the teams in each of the over-two's rooms. She has endeavoured to improve practice in the under-two's room by introducing more experienced staff. The manager recognises that further improvement is still needed to improve outcomes for children.

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provision

Staff track children's progress so that any gaps in achievement can be looked at and teaching can be reviewed in order to close these gaps. The nursery is particularly effective in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Extra one-to-one support is very well organised and additional resources are brought in, if required, to enable these children to maximise their learning potential. The management team also use different systems, and tools, to assess children's level of well-being and their communication skills. Again these alert them to any need to offer children more support, for example, by introducing more visual aids to help children who are learning English as an additional language.

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provision

There are effective partnership arrangements in place and these ensure continuity of care and learning for individual children. Staff use their roles effectively as key persons to develop close relationships with parents, starting with the home visits prior to children attending nursery. Parents exchange information daily with staff and are asked to contribute to children's learning by noting down their children's interests and achievements at home. Parents receive written reports on children's progress at regular intervals and are able to talk formally with their key persons at the summer and winter consultation days. Children borrow 'learning bags' to take home and these offer them an opportunity to try out an extra learning activity at home. The manager organises workshops for parents to help them learn more about the ways in which children learn, thereby enabling them to better support their children at home. Parents are unanimous in

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provision

their praise of the nursery and very pleased with the care offered to their children.

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provision

The nursery works closely with early years professionals attached to the children's centre. This enables them to offer a combined multi-disciplinary approach to assist those children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The nursery also has close links with the adjacent school. Staff take children to visit the school before moving over so that they feel confident about the transition. All staff attend mandatory training, such as safeguarding and first aid. They have many opportunities to attend extra training, which supports their individual professional development. The manager has introduced opportunities for staff to observe each other's practice and also to spend time at the nursery's sister setting. These initiatives help staff to continually improve the outcomes for all children. The management team maintain a written self-evaluation and action plan. These incorporate relevant plans for the future, which management continually revises

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provision

and updates to meet the needs of children and staff.

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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 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 EY297566 Local authority Barking & Dagenham Inspection number 942134 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 66 Number of children on roll 105 Name of provider London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Date of previous inspection 15/10/2010 Telephone number 02087241274

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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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