Nursery On The Hill (Enfield) Ltd

Stepstones Day Nursery Ltd St. Lukes Church Hall (Rear), 37 Morley Hill, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 0BL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 09/12/2013 02/09/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 The nursery is exceptionally well led and managed through a close partnership between the provider and the manager. Expectations are high and there is a strong commitment to improve the nursery provision through ongoing self-evaluation.  Children are thriving and make excellent progress in their learning and development in relation to their starting points.  Partnerships with parents are very strong, which supports continuity of children's care routines, learning and development.  Staff provide an inspiring learning environment in which children enjoy a range of learning experiences and are able follow their own interests, indoors and outside.  Children are very happy, settled and have excellent relationships with their key person and all staff in the nursery.  Children are safe and their well-being is promoted exceptionally well. They show high levels of confidence, self-esteem and an eagerness to learn.

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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 spent the majority of time observing in the main room.  The inspector and the manager carried out a joint observation.  Two parents met with the inspector and gave feedback.  The inspector sampled children's progress records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a meeting with the provider and manager and discussed roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures and self-evaluation.

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Information about the setting

Stepstones Day Nursery is run by Stepstones Day Nursery Limited. It opened in 2006 and operates from a purpose-built building, of a large community hall. It is situated in a residential area in North Enfield, within the London Borough of Enfield. There are 48 children on roll, who are in the early years age range. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm, 50 weeks in the year. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area. Children come from a wide catchment area, as well as the local community. The nursery employs nine staff. Five of the staff, including the manager hold appropriate early years qualifications, with two other members of staff soon to finish training. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register.

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

 further enhance the library area to build on the children's love of books and encourage regular independent reading.

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who attend

The nursery has a calm and productive atmosphere with the children all positively engaged in play. They move confidently from one activity to another which are all resourced to effectively promote children's learning and development. Staff provide children with a rich and varied range of equipment and materials which help them to develop skills in all areas of learning, both indoors and out. Staff have a comprehensive understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and plan activities that will enable children to make excellent progress in all areas of learning. The quality of teaching is high; staff use positive methods, giving clear explanations and introducing new ideas and concepts as they teach the children. There is a strong emphasis on children's personal, social and emotional development, which is demonstrated through the relationships between the children, their key person and all nursery staff. Children's communication and

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who attend

language skills are fully supported and staff take every opportunity to model and extend these through play activities, circle time and meal times. Children's confidence in their physical abilities is encouraged inside and outdoors as well as in how they learn. For example, children accessing the climbing equipment are supported to think through their choices of the best way to get down.

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who attend

Children are focused and interested during their play which impacts on their progress in all areas of learning. One way this happens is when children have their interests extended through role play. For example, the role play area is decorated as Santa's workshop and children have been writing letters to Santa, which are displayed inside. Consequently many older children can identify letters and are becoming competent in writing their own name. Use of an interactive white board brings another dimension to number and counting and the children are eager to have a turn. Children enjoy stories read to them and join in repetitive text of familiar books with staff; however, children are less inclined to read and handle books independently in the current learning environment.

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who attend

Staff regularly record observations, make precise assessments of the children's participation in activities and plan next steps in their learning. Staff have a secure knowledge of the characteristics of learning and use this to underpin learning and development across all areas. Staff make excellent use of open-ended questions, giving children time to think and talk, valuing their responses. For example, during a creative activity making a Christmas stocking when children are planning, designing and making decisions.

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who attend

The observations and assessments of children's learning enables staff to monitor children's progress and to plan suitably challenging activities. The staff use their strong knowledge of individual children to decide when to intervene and extend the children's learning further, or simply observe and let the play develop freely. Activities are presented in different ways to suit the needs of all children. Staff listen to children, questioning them during activities in order to extend their learning and enhance understanding. Consequently children of all ages make excellent progress in their learning in relation to their starting points. The vast majority of children are working comfortably within the typical range of development expected for their age. The nursery has an effective system that allows the staff and management to track children's progress and make decisions based on sound assessment.

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

Staff are fully aware of their responsibilities in keeping children safe. They remain vigilant, while still allowing the children to be challenged by taking well-managed risks in their play. For example, children learn to climb safely and confidently on outdoor climbing equipment with staff supporting them in thinking through how best to climb down.

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

Staff promote children's developing understanding of how to stay safe during emergency evacuation drills and the children are familiar, calm and confident with the procedure. Arrangements to help children settle into the nursery and build secure emotional attachments with the staff are highly effective and relationships are strong at all levels. Successful implementation of the key person system helps to ensure children feel safe and secure in the setting. Families say they feel warmly welcomed at the nursery. Children positively benefit from this highly effective key person system, as staff gain an excellent knowledge of each child's backgrounds from parents. This enables them to respond particularly well to children's individual needs and interests. For example, a child whose mother has recently had a baby is supported with this experience by the key person through play with a favourite doll. As parents have regular contact with their child's key

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

person, this helps to build positive relationships between home and the nursery, which then contributes to children's sense of security and well-being.

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

Children are provided with a healthy diet that includes fruit and vegetables. They enjoy a morning snack of fresh fruit, peeling their own bananas and satsumas, and pouring their own drinks. Children are supported to use a knife safely and cut pears; they are encouraged to be independent at meal times and are helped to keep themselves safe and healthy. Water is readily available to the children throughout the day for the children to help themselves. Children are encouraged to learn the importance of basic personal hygiene and ensure their hands are clean before eating and after using the toilet.

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

The environment is well thought through to support confidence in making independent choices. Children receive much praise and encouragement, which further supports their self-confidence and esteem and contributes to their feelings of security. This effectively enables children to make decisions, understand risks and learn about safety. There are a range of activities to support emotional confidence and the children's developing independence and control, including sessions of children's yoga inspired multi-sensory movement session. These sessions are inclusive and children of all ages and abilities enjoy join in. Children display high levels of concentration and enjoyment during their play. This impacts on their behaviour which is extremely good, demonstrating an understanding of the clear boundaries and high expectations within the setting.

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provision

The provider demonstrates a thorough understanding of her responsibility to meet all the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage requirements. She and the manager constantly self-evaluate and reflect on their practice. Their rigorous self-evaluation is at the heart of the nursery, which is constantly looking to improve.

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provision

The staff team have great enthusiasm and commitment towards their professional development and have widened their knowledge and experience through training with a number of staff working to further improve their qualifications. As a result, the staff team is motivated, skilled and enabled to offer excellent quality provision for all children. Effective systems are in place for recruitment, induction and performance management. This ensures that all staff have appropriate skills, experience and appropriate suitability checks to fully safeguard children and enhance their care, learning and development.

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provision

Effective partnerships with parents make a valuable contribution to meeting the needs of children. The nursery staff enjoy extremely good relationships with parents. Their active involvement is encouraged through personal discussions, contributions to their child's learning, newsletters, the nursery website and questionnaires. Parents are kept fully informed about their child's learning and development through daily verbal feedback on the activities that children have engaged in and regular formal feedback. Parents spoken to at the time of the inspection hold the provision in very high regard. They feel that their children are very well cared for and are helped to make very good progress in their learning. One parent said she was kept well informed about her child's progress and added 'I have no words to say how satisfied I am, I couldn't be more proud of him.' Another knew it was the right nursery for his child because of the 'homely, family feel.'

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provision

and added that he particularly valued the password protected photo blog because it made him feel part of his child's day when he was not there.

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provision

As a nursery team, the management and the staff are highly effective in continually monitoring the quality of the care and learning experiences that are offered to all the children. Staff consider the impact on children of the planning for their learning and development ,driven by the potential progress the children may make. Children's ongoing progress, their interest in activities, the way they use the environment, and knowledge from home, all contribute to this.

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provision

Safeguarding is given the utmost priority and all staff are clear of their role and responsibilities in protecting children. They all know to share any concerns about a child's welfare with the designated nursery safeguarding officer. All the required records, policies and procedures for the safety and welfare of children are in place, well maintained and reflect the outstanding practice. Confidentiality is maintained as records are stored securely and only shared with relevant parties. The premises are very secure and no unauthorised person is able to gain entry. Staff are highly conscientious in ensuring the safety and supervision of children. All staff are aware and extremely vigilant of children's individual dietary requirements. They follow procedures to ensure children only eat the food specified by their parents.

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provision

The provider and the manager share a strong vision and high expectations for all areas of the nursery and are continually striving to improve their already outstanding practice.

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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 EY341028 Local authority Enfield Inspection number 827472 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 48 Name of provider Stepstones Day Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 02/09/2010 Telephone number 0208 292 0212

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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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