The Mulberry Bush

The Mulberry Bush 51 Locks Road,, Locks Heath, SOUTHAMPTON, SO31 6NS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 13/01/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 The provider and staff demonstrate a strong and coordinated ethos to childcare and early learning. They continually focus on making improvements across the provision.  The competent employment procedures and the robust systems for checking staff suitability enhance their clear commitment to safeguarding and maintaining the protection of children.  Staff provide children with a very wide range of purposefully varied, indoor and outdoor play provision. This enables them to experience well-planned activities and creates challenging and stimulating opportunities for independence and decision-making.  Partnerships with parents are well established and creatively maintained. The provider and staff show strong support for promoting and encouraging family links and this clearly contributes to meeting children's needs and supporting their continuing development.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not always enable children to consolidate their understanding of keeping themselves and others safe, by involving them in risk assessments.

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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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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed all areas of the provision during daily routines and during indoor and outdoor activities.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with the provider, staff and children and interviewed parents at delivery and collection times.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector viewed a range of documentation to support safeguarding and welfare procedures and to show how staff promote children's learning and development.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager during lunchtime routines.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector discussed all areas of the inspection findings with the provider and gave the inspection judgements.

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Information about the setting

The Mulberry Bush registered in 2013. It is a privately owned, family run company that operates from a single storey building in Locks Heath, Hampshire. The nursery is open each weekday for 51 weeks of the year from 7.30am to 6pm. It closes for one week over Christmas and on bank holidays. Children attend for full days or on a sessional basis. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. The nursery is purposefully designed with a central kitchen, which includes a dedicated children's cooking area. Children are cared for in age-related, inter-linking nursery rooms surrounding the kitchen. All the nursery rooms have free-flow access to a secure outdoor play area. This includes a forest area, a mud kitchen and a growing area. The majority of the outdoors has a soft-play surface with a permanent covered area. There are currently 154 children on roll. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for two-, three- and four-

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Information about the setting

year-old children. There are 26 members of staff including the provider and manager. Of these, one staff member has Early Years Professional Status and 22 other staff hold appropriate early years qualifications.

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

 provide more opportunities for children to take responsibility for their own safety and that of others during their play, by encouraging and increasing their growing understanding of safety and assessing risk.

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who attend

Staff in the nursery provide a continual focus on the learning needs of children at all times. They show strong levels of motivation and awareness to ensure that children's activities are appropriate for their age and stage of development. For example, free access to the sensory room for all mobile younger children offers high levels of stimulation. Children are eager to handle and experience the tactile resources. They use the transparent material to cover their heads and play 'peepo'. Younger children show increasing interest in the coloured bubble tube. Children quickly gain the knowledge of how to control the light switch and they show determination and eagerness to manage this themselves. The comfortable and safe surroundings and the easy access to sensory play resources effectively increases children's social and emotional development. Staff positively promote and extend children's developing language through continual

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who attend

interaction and they constantly challenge children's physical abilities for moving and handling items during play. Staff have high expectations for all children attending and often follow child-led initiatives for spontaneous play, especially during outdoor activities. For example, children are motivated and eager to play in the mud kitchen. They dig and fill containers; they skilfully use kitchen utensils and show perseverance in following their imaginary play ideas. Staff teach children to work together. Children cooperate very well to develop and fulfil their own ideas for play and this encourages their thinking, their communication with each other and fully promotes relationships.

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who attend

Staff use planned topics at times to increase older children's understanding of the world and they often extend these themes during small group activities. For example, children learn about technology and make decisions when programming moving floor robot resources. They sit together with a large floor map showing flags from different countries. Children learn to name the countries and talk about the colours. Staff hold and competently extend children's interest by showing them how to programme the robot and they eagerly watch as travels to different flags on the chart. This increases children's ability to concentrate and develops their understanding of positional language, as well as increasing their awareness of technology.

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who attend

Staff provide children with a very wide range of purposefully organised experiences throughout the day and enable them to make many decisions themselves, especially when taking part in the daily routines. The thoughtful planning of all daily routines successfully enables children to develop independence and clearly increases their confidence. These areas of play and learning are continuously provided throughout children's daily care and demonstrate how fully staff understand and promote the prime and specific areas of learning.

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who attend

Staff effectively observe and record children's progress and they competently use the learning records to plan children's next steps in development. Staff have continually collaborated with each other as the nursery has grown, to share systems and successfully develop ideas. They have also used information from parents and families attending to reflect and promote diversity. Several children attending speak dual languages and this has led to staff organising regular French lessons. The nursery has also used the knowledge of parents attending to celebrate festivals from other cultures. Staff regularly summarise children's progress and share this with parents, consequently the nursery is meeting the requirements for checking children's progress at the age of two years. Parents show high levels of confidence in the nursery and they eagerly explain how much their children have learned. They positively use the shared information provided by staff to

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who attend

promote children's ongoing development at home. This effectively identifies any gaps in children's learning and enables parents to work with staff to close those gaps and promote children's next steps in development.

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who attend

The nursery has clearly planned processes in place to prepare children for moving on to school and staff are keen to implement ideas. For example, children learn to wear their school uniforms and use book bags. Staff plan to make visits and take photographs of their new school to reassure children. The provider has thoughtfully and thoroughly developed the layout of all nursery rooms to encourage children's continual move between areas as they grow. Staff demonstrate high levels of commitment in continuing this dedicated focus in preparing children for future learning.

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

There are well-organised systems throughout the nursery to allocate staff key person responsibilities. Key person staff are closely involved with parents and children during settling visits and sometimes this includes home visits. These staff carry out all intimate care for their key children whenever possible and this strongly increases children's bonding and sense of belonging. The regular time spent with key children enables staff to gain a positive and accurate understanding of individual children's needs and characteristics. This close involvement forms the basis of children's social and emotional development and fully helps to encourages their confidence and positive behaviour.

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

Children have a very wide choice of resources throughout indoor and outdoor play. The nursery is very well resourced and purposefully designed. All nursery rooms surround the kitchen and this reflects the provider's strong focus on the importance of food and regular routines to maintain children's health. Staff encourage as much learning as possible through mealtimes and daily routines. Staff talk to the children about their food and about where food comes from. The provider sources all food as locally as possible and the nursery cook prepares all meals on the premises. Children often use their own kitchen for cooking activities within the kitchen area and these planned activities further enhance their interest in food. Consequently, children show high levels of independence in serving their food, managing utensils, communicating their choices and learning about table manners. Staff are diligent and persuasively encourage children to finish meals. They have

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

developed routines to enable children to be independent. For example, children pour their own drinks from a jug and take responsibility to clear their own plates when they have finished.

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

Older children competently follow daily routines of hand washing and they increasingly manage their personal care. This encourages their understanding of the importance of being clean to maintain their health. Children have ample opportunities for physical exercise and they are very eager to be active during outdoor play. They run and chase each other, they use the wheeled toys to increase their skills of manoeuvring and they climb and clamber. Children have a growing area in the garden and staff plan to use the full season ahead to encourage them to take part in purposeful digging, planting and growing fruit and vegetables.

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

Children respond well to staff instructions and requests and even the younger children understand and show a positive response to tidy-up time. Children learn about safety through frequent reminders from staff, for example, children realise their dinner is hot and they blow on this before eating. At times during imaginary play, children spontaneously use an oven cloth to take pretend cakes out of the role play cooker and this clearly show they are aware of following safe routines when items are too hot. Children take part in regular nursery fire drills and staff have organised visits from the fire department and the police. These events have increased children's awareness of danger and of how to respond. However, staff do not review the process for recording accidents to encourage children to be involved in risk assessments to consolidate their learning about keeping themselves and others safe.

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

Staff effectively plan for children's individual transition across the nursery rooms and they use their knowledge of each child's level of development and the close involvement of parents to organise this. For example, staff show high levels of recognising some children's advanced skills of counting and they capably include and introduce challenges during play to hold children's interest and encourage their involvement.

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provision

The nursery management team has a clear and dedicated focus on using the knowledge of qualified staff to work directly with the children. In this way, they fully promote children's learning and development. There is a high level of organisation and leadership involvement across the provision. There are strong levels of support for all staff and apprentices and this continually promotes effective teamwork. Key staff also work together to promote the consistency of children's records of learning and there are overall review processes to clearly show any gaps in children's achievement levels. This enables the management team to work with staff and include other agencies where necessary to promote individual progress.

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provision

The nursery has a full range of written policies and procedures for all areas of the provision and staff read and sign these during their thorough induction process. Parents also have opportunities to read all policies and procedures at the start of care arrangements. There are robust systems for checking staff suitability and clear records of evidence are in place. The detailed and regular process for including staff appraisals also maintains staff ongoing suitability.

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provision

Management are clear in their duty to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. All staff attend safeguarding training and they have a good understanding and awareness of recognising any signs and symptoms of concern. They know their responsibility to share this information and their understanding is regularly reinforced during staff meetings. Staff record all visitors to the premises and individually monitor parents entering and leaving. These routines fully enhance the strong safeguarding procedures for maintaining and protecting children. The provider has comprehensively followed the requirements for recording and responding to any complaints and parents are encouraged to share any concerns about their children's care or learning.

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provision

The nursery has a clear process for assessing any risks and hazards and there are daily checks of the rooms and the garden. Staff plan and assess routes for short walks and increase the ratio of adults to children to ensure children's safety. There are clearly recorded details of individual accidents of medication administered. These records show that the provider and staff clearly understand and follow all requirements. The provider has extensively evaluated the provision. She has provided a detailed and fully explained written self-evaluation to show how improvements have evolved since registration across many areas of the nursery. Staff show a strong sense of involvement and a positive commitment to making changes, they are fully encouraged to voice their opinions and this supports the provider in evaluating the provision and raising the quality for children attending. All staff encourage parents and welcome them into the nursery.

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provision

They are clearly working with parents in recognising and promoting children's individual progress and next steps in development. Parents are also encouraged to be part of the support committee. Staff proactively use parent's individual knowledge and roles in the community to promote children's learning and especially to widen children's knowledge of any cultural festivals.

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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 EY464833 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 946021 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 79 Number of children on roll 154 Name of provider TMB Day Nurseries Limited Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01489583130

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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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