The Rowan's Day Nursery

Rowan Sure Start Day Nursery The Rowans Sure Start Childrens Centre, 13a Moorfoot, Fullers Slade, MILTON KEYNES, MK11 2BD

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 21/01/2014 09/08/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 2 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision requires improvement

 Staff are knowledgeable about the child protection aspect of safeguarding. They are certain about their roles to act immediately when concerns arise about children's well- being.  Equality is at the centre of the provision the nursery makes for children. There are robust procedures in place, which enables all parties to work jointly in the interest of every child.  Staff in the nursery make effective use of the good quality resources to support children's learning indoors and outside. This enables children with different learning styles and abilities to enjoy learning and make good progress overall.

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It is not yet good because

 Staff do not always make good use of the information that they have about children to tailor children's care to their individual needs. Consequently, children's care is not always unique.  The key person system is not well established, this means that all children do not consistently get the support the need when they first start in the nursery.  There are fewer opportunities for children to practise writing for different purposes and the nursery's self-evaluation system is not robust.

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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's activities indoors and outside.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector tracked children, looked at children's assessment records and discussed activity plans with the manager and staff.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector reviewed documentation and discussed self-evaluation and improvement plans with the manager.  The inspector spoke to parents and took note of parents' views.

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Information about the setting

The Rowan Sure Start Day Nursery opened in 2006. It is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery is located in the Sure Start Children's Centre in Fullers Slade, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Milton Keynes Council owns the nursery. The nursery is comprised of two main rooms for children, plus an office, a kitchen and nappy changing, washing and toilet facilities for the children. The nursery operates weekdays for 51 weeks of the year. It opens from 8am until 6pm. Currently there are 52 children in the early years age group on roll. The nursery is in receipt of funding for free early education for children aged two, three and four years. The nursery supports children for whom English is an additional language. There is a team of nine staff, including two managers. One manager holds Early Years Professional Status, the other holds a relevant qualification to at level 5. One

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Information about the setting

member of staff holds a qualification at level 4, five hold relevant qualifications at level 3 and one member of staff holds a qualification at level 2. The Children's Centre provides a range of services for parents and children. These services include a crche a Citizens Advice Bureau, access to health care professionals including health visitors, a breast feeding group, a toy and book library, play sessions for children with additional needs, and stay and play sessions for parents and children. Some services are specifically arranged for families from the immediate area. The Rowans Sure Start Children's Centre's advisory board includes parents, and health and education professionals.

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must:

 ensure that all staff know how to use the information they have pertaining to individual children, by demonstrating in their daily practice that they have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, particularly relating to how they manage children's dietary needs to always safeguard their health

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must:

 improve the key person system, by making sure that every key person fully understands their roles responsibilities to help to ensure that every child's care is always tailored to meets their individual needs

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must:

 improve the systems for self-evaluation to ensure it continually evaluates all aspects of practice to consistently identify strengths and areas for development, taking into account staff performance to foster a culture of continuous improvement in staff's daily practice.

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

 provide more opportunities for children to start to write for different purposes to enable children to continually practise their early writing skills.

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who attend

Overall staff promote children's learning staff consistently well; they use observations and assessment to inform their daily plans. Staff plan and deliver good quality educational programmes that cover all areas. Staff's positive engagement with parents encourages them to contribute information about the activities that their children enjoy and this strengthens partnership working between both parties. Staff effectively differentiate activities and provide good levels of challenges for children through structured and free choice activities. Overall, staff engage with children well and this encourages children to share their learning and interests. Additionally, it provides more opportunities for staff to gauge children's understanding. For example, as children experiment with a range of resources, staff test their understanding by helping them to consider why some items sink and some float. Staff support children to increase their understanding of mathematics as

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who attend

they sort items by size and colour. Staff promote children's understanding of technology and children use their increasing skills on the computer to consolidate and extend their learning in other areas. For example, they become familiar with letters on keyboards. They show controlled fine movements as they complete simple mathematics programmes that require them to use their knowledge of shapes and sizes. With staff's guidance and routine use of the computer, some children are able to complete these programmes with little or no help. Staff encourage children to share their knowledge and learn from each other and this increases their independence to do things for themselves and to value the achievements of others.

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who attend

Staff provide an inclusive environment where children from varying backgrounds and children who are at different stages of development learn and play freely together. The stimulating and inviting play opportunities that staff provide and their engagement with children, help children to develop a wider group of friends over time. For example, many of pre-school age children play together at the water activity, in the role play area and in their outdoor play. Daily use of the well-equipped outdoor play provision helps children with different learning styles to explore learning in ways that suit their styles. For example, some children give their friends a ride on their vehicles, some younger children invite others to play with balls and hoops, while others experiment with large-scale blocks.

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who attend

Children's attitude and behaviour shows that they are learning actively. Although the nursery is busy, the atmosphere is calm and purposeful. Staff are alert to the communication of younger children and those with little language. Staff in the nursery routinely engage children in activities stemming for practices that are based on programmes, such as 'Every child a talker'. Staff use these methods successfully to enable all children to make good progress from their starting point in their language and communication. For example, children increase their understanding of personal safety as they use props, such as puppets, to make their topic relating to safety more meaningful to them.

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who attend

Staff support all groups of children to make good use of the outdoor classroom to deliver the educational programmes. Staff promote children's physical development as they support them to experience a wide range of activities outdoors. Children solve problems as they negotiate space and they learn about speed. For example, children make a ramp and experiment with their vehicles. They develop early writing as they mark marks in the soil. Staff promote children's understanding of the natural world as they plant and grow soft fruits and vegetables in the garden. Through discussion, staff help them to begin to understand where some food comes from and that living things need to grow. The well- equipped classroom makes it easy for children of different developmental stages to feel included. Children do some early writing in their creative work; however, there are fewer occasions for children to routinely practise writing for different purposes, particularly when

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who attend

they play indoors. Even so, children are making good progress in their learning and development overall and staff are promoting their readiness for school well.

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who attend

Staff share information with parents daily; additionally, all parents get reviews of their children's progress across the areas of learning. Children's learning journals, which include pictures of their work and play, are available for parents. These records help parents to understand more about their children's learning experiences in the early years. Parents state that they welcome this information because it helps them build on what their children are learning at home and show them how children spend their time.

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

The procedure in the nursery is to allocate every child a key person from the start. However, the key person system is not equally effective for all children. For example, the system works very well for babies. Staff know these children well and use the information to plan for their arrival at nursery each day. Conversely, some staff who work in the pre- school room do not always give the same priority to ensuring its effectiveness for these children. For example, some key persons in this area do not make sure that they routinely welcome new children at the start of the sessions. As a result, a few children do not immediately get the support they need to ease their separation at the earliest stage. Nevertheless, children settle well over time and through the majority of children's easy engagement with staff, they show that they feel secure in the nursery.

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

Equality is at the centre of the nursery's practice; staff welcome parents and children from varying backgrounds and children with varying degrees of need. Staff make all of the necessary provision for children who are learning English as an additional language and children with special education needs and or/disabilities. Staff are very experienced at working with educational professionals to identify and develop strategies to meet the needs of these children. For example, they use programmes such as 'Every child a talker' and early intervention projects that are specially designed to support children and promote their learning by closing gaps as quickly as possible. For example, staff make effective use individual educational plans and professional input, such as speech therapists, to improve children's communication, language and physical development and their personal, social and emotional development. There are strict systems in place that the managers, key

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

persons, parents and educational professionals use to monitor, target and review these children's progress. This ensures that staff, parents and professionals work together to implement effective strategies that keep these children moving forward at a good pace from their starting points. This enhances children learning experiences now as they engage with their friends and equips them well for the future.

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

The nursery staff work jointly with parents for the provision of children's food. When parents provide children's food, staff give them information to help them to meet children's nutritional needs to a suitable standard. All staff are well informed of children's individual welfare and care needs, but they are not all careful to use the information to always tailor children's care to their individual dietary needs. At such times, lapses in staff's practice have the potential to harm children's health. For example, on occasion staff served food that is contrary to children's dietary needs, although this was not eaten. Overall, children eat balanced and nutritious foods and their meals include foods from the main food groups. In addition to their diet, all children get plenty of fresh air and exercise each day. There is safe arrangement for the storage, management and administration of children's medication.

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

Staff act promptly to care of children personal hygiene needs. Staff consistently use good hygiene practices and activities along with routines for promoting children's understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles. For example, staff encourage children's hand washing, their independent use of tissues and dressing properly in consideration to the weather.

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

Staff make a wealth of good quality resources available for children to use indoors and outside. The premises are safe and secure; children are not able to leave unsupervised and all areas are clean and properly maintain. In this regard, the management and staff make effective use of risk assessments and hazard checks. However, since the last inspection, there has been a breach of safeguarding and welfare requirement pertaining to the management of children's dietary needs. At that time, the provider did not safeguard children and promote their welfare well, although the current practice is now suitable.

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

Staff are consistent in their methods for behaviour management; they set high expectations for children to behave well. They model good behaviour for children and help them to learn right from wrong. This helps children to learn to behave well and show consideration for others. Children are learning to listen and respond positively to adults who are caring for them. These are useful skills for them now and in readiness for school.

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provision

This inspection took place following a notification to Ofsted by the leadership team of the nursery. This was a notification about a serious incident pertaining to children's dietary requirements. This raised concerns relating to food and drink, medicines, training and risk assessments. Although there were no concerns raised regarding medicines, training and risk assessments, the inspection found that at the time of the incident, the provider breached a requirement of the Statutory Framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage, as the provider did not do all that was necessary to promote children's good health. A child was served food that did not meet their dietary requirements; however, immediate action was taken before the child ate the food, so that the child did not come to harm. This demonstrated that the leadership team did not implement their policies and procedures to safeguard children and promote their good health effectively. However, the

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provision

provider has taken immediate and effective action to address this matter. The leadership team has since revised the risk assessment pertaining to the management of food and health and carried out an immediate revision of food management in the nursery. As a result of the inspection findings, the provider is required to take further action as they are not meeting all the safeguarding and welfare requirements.

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provision

The provider has effective systems in place for the management of child protection issues. Staff are knowledgeable and well practised in dealing with child protection matters. They are clear and confident about what to if concerns arise about children's well-being. All staff in the nursery are fully vetted; this ensures that only suitable adults supervise children. Information pertaining to local safeguarding team and Ofsted is displayed prominently in the nursery. This enables staff and parents to act immediately if concerns arise about children's well-being. Staff know and understand the reasons for the nursery's whistle blowing policy. Documentation required to safeguard children and promote their good health is in place; records are accurate and up to date. The nursery's recruitment procedure is that of the local authority; it includes all of the required elements, including induction and staff performance management. There is continuous training for staff; all

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provision

staff hold relevant qualifications in childcare and education. Overall, the provider puts good systems in place for the delivery and monitoring of the educational programmes. Under the guidance of the managers, one of whom holds Early Years Professional Status, all children are making good progress in learning and development in readiness for school. Staff are experienced at completing the progress check for two-year-old children. Additionally, staff regularly provide every parent with progress reports for their child.

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provision

Currently, practice in the nursery requires improvement. There are some weaknesses in the key person system and in staff's inconsistency in practice. This means that not every child's care is fully tailored to their individual needs. Although there are systems in place to evaluate the nursery's overall performance, these are not all robust. Systems to monitor and deliver the educational programmes are effective, but the past breaches and current weaknesses pertaining to the safeguarding and welfare requirements and staff's practice demonstrate the nursery's self-evaluation is not effective. This is not good enough to safeguard children and promote their welfare consistently and to continually foster a culture of improvement. Even so, the leadership team has taken action to address recommendations from the previous inspection. This shows a willingness to improve the quality of children's experiences. For example, staff consistently plan and monitor

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provision

children's next steps in learning and development. Additionally, the leadership team is currently carrying out a review to make sure that they make best use of the space in the nursery for the benefit of the children.

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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 EY336016 Local authority Milton Keynes Inspection number 949087 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 48 Number of children on roll 52 Name of provider Milton Keynes Council Date of previous inspection 09/08/2011 Telephone number 01908 563269

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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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