Kids Inc Day Nursery

Kids Inc Day Nursery 59-61 Dukes Ride, CROWTHORNE, Berkshire, RG45 6NS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 11/12/2013 15/11/2011

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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

 Staff plan and provide children with a diverse range of rich and purposeful experiences, building on the children's interests and encouraging excellent development in all areas of learning.  Parents feel extremely at ease as they leave their babies and toddlers in the warm and attentive care of highly nurturing staff.  Monitoring and assessment are routine and detailed so staff know the children well. When necessary they are quick to add in further support or stimulation so that children reach their full potential and are well prepared for school.  Children's safety is of the highest priority to staff, and children are also inspired to adopt strategies to evaluate daily risks and help keep themselves safe.  Partnerships with parents are generally strong with a wide range of strategies in place to share information about children's care and education as well as nursery activities.

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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 the deployment of staff, activities and care routines in each of the rooms and outdoor play areas and talked with staff.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector reviewed documents relating to safeguarding, staff recruitment, behaviour management and the pre-school's planning and evaluation documents, and checked a selection of other policies.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including children's records, progress checks and tracking.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day, checked the complaints log and reviewed information available from parents' written comments.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector met with senior staff and reviewed practice in the pre-school room with the deputy manager.

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Information about the setting

Kids Inc Day Nursery registered in 2011. It is one of eight nurseries run by Select Enterprises (South East) Limited. It operates from two floors in a converted house in Crowthorne, Berkshire. There is no lift access to the first floor. Childcare is provided from seven main rooms and there are a number of enclosed outdoor play areas. The nursery opens each weekday from 8am to 6pm all year round, except the week between Christmas and the New Year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 73 children on roll. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for children aged two, three and four years. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those children learning English as an additional language. Sixteen members of staff are currently employed, all of whom hold relevant childcare

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Information about the setting

qualifications at level 3 or above. The deputy manager holds an honours degree in Early Years Development and Learning. The nursery also employs a cook.

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

 review strategies to support children's moves between rooms to make sure that all children settle in quickly and learn to manage change effectively.

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who attend

Children are making excellent levels of progress in their learning and development in this attractive and stimulating nursery. Senior staff have very high standards in all areas of their work and build on the enthusiasm of less experienced staff. Together they plan and implement highly effective educational programmes for all children. Babies and toddlers have ample room to learn to crawl, climb and walk with many vibrant toys and resources to encourage them to do so. They learn to manipulate sand, water, dough and gloop with their hands and with different tools. Staff know each child well and guide them to make exceptional progress in all aspects of their physical development. A wide range of toys are accessible for toddlers who are given sufficient time to explore and practise new skills. Staff are always nearby and sensitively fit in with the toddlers' existing play, only providing additional stimuli when interest is waning. Careful observation results in staff modelling

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who attend

the language toddlers need to express their desires, frustrations and excitement. This helps children understand the social behaviour expected of them and learn the language they need to communicate with their friends. Staff find ample opportunity to praise these young children, giving them confidence to try a new skill again, and again, until they are satisfied with their achievements. Babies and toddlers are happy in their learning and make good progress due to the highly reflective and nurturing staff.

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who attend

Children aged two to three years share two large base rooms around an enclosed courtyard play area. Both indoors and outside resources are plentiful and carefully chosen to stimulate children's learning and development. Children have space to learn to ride tricycles around the courtyard area, recognising and negotiating key road signs as they do so. Other children plant bulbs and delight as they see the first shoots peeping through. Play homes, construction areas, autumn investigations and a variety of painting opportunities engage young children indoors. Again, resources are varied and easily accessible to the children. This means they exercise choice over their activities so they can set their own goals and experiment with ways to reach them. At key times during the day, children are brought together for stories or group activities. Children choose and sing nursery rhymes, counting on and back as an imaginary penny buys another current bun.

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who attend

Staff skilfully use group sessions to bring the children together to take turns, share and cooperate, to negotiate preferences and develop a sense of pride in their team work. This session leads in to an ample healthy home cooked lunch around small tables, where attentive teachers foster further social skills. They help children plan their afternoon activities, perhaps adding to one of their imaginative and well-captioned wall displays about their latest favourite book.

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who attend

Assessment at all ages is consistently effective with good systems in place for parents to share information with their children's key person. As children join the nursery, their allotted key person guides parents through a welcome pack. This helps parents understand how their child's education programmes are organised and helps the key person to know the child's current skills and achievements. Using this information, the key person plans challenging activities that captivate children's interests. Regular spontaneous and planned observations continue the cycle of working with children's enthusiasm to provide further motivating and enriching experiences. Through such close monitoring, children generally make excellent progress across all areas of learning. On the occasions when they do not, staff and parents recognise gaps promptly, they agree intervention plans, and where necessary seek external expertise. Timely responses help children make

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who attend

the best possible progress, closing any gaps, so children move with their peers to their next stage in learning.

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who attend

Children in the pre-school class demonstrate excellent skills in planning, making decisions and problem solving individually and as a group. For example, the children brainstorm the characteristics of a princess. Boys and girls are eager to contribute to this latest debate and their teacher notes each of their ideas on a spider diagram. Amongst other ideas, the defining features of a princess turn out to be that they eat salad, like to sweep up, wear big pink necklaces and have cats with stripes. Building on the children's imaginations staff help them plan and locate the materials to make big pink necklaces and stripy cats. Joint planning and enquiry are evident at every stage of the process with children experimenting until they work out the best way to achieve their goals. The end results are original, hard earned and something the children are proud of. They decide that their next task is to move outside to sweep the leaves. This is a regular winter job for the Tuesday

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who attend

gardening club so there are plenty of brooms for all of them. All around the pre-school suite there is evidence of innovative and inspiring teaching, from Aboriginal storytelling to writing to pen pals in New Zealand. Speech bubbles across the nursery are used to highlight some key words in different languages. A variety of paper, electronic and chalkboard updates help parents keep abreast of invitations to participate in special days to celebrate a new mud kitchen or 'talk like a pirate day'. This is a highly successful and enriching learning environment for all children.

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

Staff's warm and attentive care helps babies and their parents feel extremely at ease. Children's individual needs and preferences are clear from the start with parents commending the highly effective key person system for babies and toddlers. Daily diaries detail individual care practices with additional notes to share special moments, celebrate achievements and look out for next steps. Such continuity between home and nursery helps children flourish, as they are emotionally secure, confident and have a strong base from which to explore. The current system for moving between toddlers and the pre- school class requires two room changes and therefore two changes in key person. For parents of two- to three-year-olds whose children attend the nursery for most of the week this proves a beneficial change in activities and challenges. Some staff overlap between the two rooms and a shared play area where both groups and their staff interact keep

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

some continuity for the children. Parents also exchange information with children's key person or other room staff at 'drop off' and collection times. However, some parents comment that their children take longer to settle when they attend for one or two sessions each week. Children's sense of security and belonging at this time therefore requires a little more thought and planning. Moves up to the pre-school class tend to be highly effective as there is more time for children to mix with the older children and their teachers.

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

Children's safety is of the highest priority throughout the setting, which parents greatly appreciate. Staff know how to safeguard children on a daily basis, diligently including practices to protect and support children. Children are inspired to adopt strategies to evaluate daily risks and keep themselves safe. Despite their enthusiasm to get outside, older children first pick up their 'safety spy checklist', created by them to identify play area dangers such as slippery leaves. The play area offers children of all ages a diverse range of experiences. Children join forces to pile up logs, first making a den and then returning to examine the insects that have taken up residence. Pinned to tree around the log pile are words they have chosen to remind them to be careful in their exploits. For example, they need to 'balance', have 'support', keep 'safe'. These three- and four-year-olds are already taking some responsibility for their own and each other's safety, and managing

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

small risks in their environment. These are exemplary skills for life and responsibilities that help them grow in self-confidence and self-awareness.

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

The outdoor environments are as highly stimulating as the indoor rooms. Babies and toddlers make daily use of the roof terrace accessed from the toddler playroom. Even on a dark winter's day swathes of bright rainbow material, sweep the skyline as the toddlers move outside to play with instruments. On very wet days, an empty playroom provides a large dry space for parachute games or the occasional party. Impressive teachers use every opportunity to vary the outdoor challenges available to children so they enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather. Children's excitement for compiling daily weather charts develops into a series of 'weather boxes'. The sunshine box includes a range of reflective resources to catch the light and change colour. Children dress accordingly to enjoy the rain box, which includes umbrellas, prisms for rainbows and rain gauges. They rig up a small length of drainpipe and run it down to a trough, designing it so they can catch

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

enough rain to make a puddle to splash in! This is truly imaginative play and exploration with 'hands on' discovery, motivating children to break new ground in their learning.

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

Planning and assessment for children's personal, social and emotional development is generally very strong in the pre-school group. The deputy manager has a keen focus on preparing children for their moves to school. Various initiatives inspire the children to share their thoughts and feelings with their classmates. From babyhood children have their own personal books 'Through my eyes' including pictures of key people in their lives and prompts for key memories and experiences. Older children bring in their 'Chatterboxes' from home, which are decorated shoe boxes containing special items. They gain experience and confidence in talking about the contents to friends as they share information about a favourite toy or something they have made. Children are encouraged to take on small responsibilities relative to their age. For example, when laying the table for lunch, three-year-olds take turns to match named cups with plates. The four-year-olds

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

have a rota of different duties so they take responsibility for checking the list to see their task for the day. Staff also skilfully support children's moves to school through careful liaison with new class teachers and offers of visits.

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provision

Leadership is inspirational. The owners aim to provide a very high quality of care and education, following the learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage meticulously. Along with their area managers, they support the nursery staff effectively across all areas of their work. The manager brings any concerns from parents or staff to their attention the same day, even when a satisfactory conclusion is likely. Leadership and management constantly review practice to maintain the highest levels of achievement for children and service for their parents. While the business in its tenth year, this setting is relatively new with corresponding fluctuations in staffing. The current manager and her deputy now provide a stable team. Growing in experience, they have an unlimited supply of ideas for further developing and maintaining outstanding education programmes. They manage a hard working and conscientious team who strive

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provision

to deliver high standards of care to all children. As a result, children make excellent progress from their starting points.

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provision

Systems for the recruitment, vetting and appointment of new staff are robust. Regular supervision also helps to ensure that staff continue to be suitable to work with children. Staff knowledge of issues relating to safeguarding children, paediatric first aid and food hygiene all help keep children as safe as possible. Senior managers are diligent at monitoring and maintaining appropriate ratios of staff to children so that parents may choose their start and finish times. More significantly, staff are deployed well and are quick to adjust their own agendas to meet the changing needs and interests of children on a minute by minute basis. Their diligence is instrumental in modelling desired behaviour and excellent language in addition to keeping children safe.

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provision

Procedures for performance management are used well to support staff in their own professional development and to identify training initiatives to enhance their work with all children. All staff have recently undertaken training in managing children's behaviour. Staff are sensitive to balancing the need for confidentiality with an open door policy for parents. Extensive and varied communication systems across the chain of nurseries as well as through daily blogs and entry notice boards help keep parents up to date with the nursery news. Parents receive details and photographs of replacement staff electronically, directly and through printed newsletters. Special events are also on the nursery website calendar, which is added to quarterly, via the manager's weekly blog and on various boards around the building. Exchanges of information about children's progress occur informally at the daily handover and more formally through a cycle of three monthly written reports and

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provision

parents' evenings. Discussion with parents highlights how extremely happy they are with the care their children receive. One or two question the frequency of change of key person for the two-three year olds. Mostly they comment on the positive changes they notice in their children's physical, social and communication skills. Parents also run a parent committee for the nursery giving parents another avenue to make their views known to the management and initiate change.

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provision

Staff regularly evaluate children's progress and the effectiveness of the activities they provide to engage and challenge them. Consequently, children who are not making expected progress in any area of learning and development are identified early. Extensive partnership working with their families, further training and/or external specialist support, helps address children's individual needs quickly. Additional support narrows any gaps in their skills and knowledge. This helps them to reach a point when they no longer require specialist attention and are ready to move on to their next stage in learning with their friends.

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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 EY426129 Local authority Bracknell Forest Inspection number 943462 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 0 Total number of places 82 Number of children on roll 73 Name of provider Select Enterprises (South East) Limited Date of previous inspection 15/11/2011 Telephone number 02085 982 600

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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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