Childminder in Hampshire

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/02/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

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

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This provision is outstanding

 The childminder sets herself very high standards for the delivery of exemplary education programmes that routinely challenge children to make the best possible progress in their learning and development.  The childminder diligently nurtures the children in her care, identifying and closing gaps in areas of progress quickly so that children continue to make exceptional progress in all areas of development.  Highly reflective and accountable practice ensures all children, especially very young children and those in need of additional support, are forming appropriate bonds and secure emotional attachments.  Children are well prepared for their next steps at school and in other areas of life in terms of both their learning and personal, social and emotional development.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are:  scheduled at least once in every inspection cycle – the current cycle ends on 31 July

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Information about this inspection

 scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged inadequate  brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection  prioritised where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe  scheduled at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Information about this inspection

The provision is also registered on the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. This report includes a judgment about compliance with the requirements of that register.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed a wide range of activities and care routines across the indoor and outdoor play areas.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed the childminder's practice and talked to her throughout the inspection. The inspector also observed and talked with the children present.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector reviewed documents relating to safeguarding and risk assessment and checked a selection of other policies.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including children's records and progress checks, the childminder's planning and evaluation documents and information sharing with parents.  The inspector considered parents' views from recent written recommendations.

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Information about the setting

The childminder registered in 2013. She lives with her husband and three young children, one of whom is in school, in the South Ham area of Basingstoke, Hampshire. Children have use of three main rooms for play, including a lounge, dining room area and outdoor playroom. Children also have access to an enclosed garden for outdoor play. The family has a pet dog and chickens. The childminder welcomes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who are learning English as an additional language. The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She is currently caring for five children in the early years age range. The childminder offers a flexible package of care which includes day care, and before and after school care.

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

 build partnerships, as needed, with other early years settings or schools children may attend as they grow older.

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who attend

Children flourish due to the care and dedication of their highly reflective childminder. Her home is comfortable and extremely well-organised providing children with a relaxed, but stimulating, place to explore and learn. The childminder has a very secure understanding of how to promote learning and development that builds on children's current achievements and extends their play into new dimensions. For example, young children gather around a large trough of dried breakfast cereal. They feel it slip through their fingers, listen to the sound of it scrunch in their grip and spoon it back and forth between kitchen pots and pans. Children gain confidence in experimenting with familiar textures and the childminder skilfully uses this as the basis for introducing messier materials such as play-dough, gloop and managing muddy hands.

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who attend

The attentive childminder extends the children's experiment by gradually adding utensils for pouring, whisking and serving imaginary plates of dinner. She models new language and concepts appropriate for the different ages of the children, talking about the shapes and patterns made in the cereal and debating which pan is larger or the heaviest. Children's understanding and language develops quickly as the childminder knows and targets their individual needs extremely well. When the children pretend to cook eggs, the childminder suggests they check the hen coop for fresh eggs. Children learn about their immediate environment, making connections between hens, fresh eggs and cooking. They learn first-hand about healthy eating and the pleasure of finding their own egg. Children are given take pride in their achievements as they safely carry their eggs home. These rich learning experiences are greatly enhanced by the enthusiasm of the childminder who

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who attend

teaches them to marvel at their discoveries. Children thrive in this inspiring learning environment.

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who attend

The childminder is highly reflective when evaluating the children's progress. She makes frequent and astute observations across all areas of their learning and development. Consequently, she knows children's skills and achievements exceptionally well and enriches all aspects of their learning through the provision of well-pitched and challenging activities. The childminder has very high expectations and routinely shares detailed updates of children's progress with their parents. Her meticulous monitoring and assessments help her quickly identify any concerns. She works closely with parents to secure guidance should concerns arise, implementing highly effective early intervention programmes to close any gaps in children's development. The childminder works with parents to prepare progress checks for two-year-old children and reports to support moves to new schools. Her record keeping clearly indicates that children make very good

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who attend

progress towards the early learning goals while they are in her care.

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who attend

The childminder places a high priority on helping children to acquire communication and language skills and to express their ideas through speech and the written word. She encourages children to search through the abundant selection of books and choose stories that build on their interests and experiences. She adds a few of her own, aptly linking current themes such as hunting for eggs, or nursery rhymes about frying sausages. In doing so she extends new language and concepts across contexts, helping children understand the full meaning of new words. Using repetition to give children confidence to repeat new words, the childminder helps them match their articulation to hers and play with new speech sounds. Older children link sound to print as the childminder runs her finger under the words in the book. She matches her story telling to the pace of the children as they follow the line of print and pauses to let them guess or add a familiar

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who attend

word or two. Children try to write new words on the floor to ceiling chalk board. They are motivated to practise manual dexterity and pre-writing skills.

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who attend

The childminder constantly challenges children to think for themselves. For example, before opening a book about the beach, she asks the children where shells come from. 'Slugs' is the response, so the childminder encourages the children to think through their experiences to help them solve this problem for themselves. She begins with what children know about slugs and snails in the garden before moving on to shells from the sea. She helps them 'remember what happened', and predict what they might find in the book. The quality of teaching is consistently high, and is reflected in the excellent progress children make. Frequent and informative communication between the childminder and children's parents supports the carryover of learning between her home and theirs. Children therefore have an even stronger base of experiences to try out their new ideas, questions and knowledge.

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

The childminder is highly skilled and sensitive to children's needs. She ensures all children, especially the very young and those in need of additional support, form appropriate bonds and secure emotional attachments with herself and her own young children. Children are happy in her presence because they feel secure, know their needs will be met and that there is always something interesting to do. The childminder shows great patience in nurturing children from their different starting points. She is particularly able at enhancing children's personal, social and emotional development through careful observations and planning. The childminder provides a strong base for children to develop independence and explore new activities and adventures. Consequently, children flourish in her care.

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

Children develop the skills to make good relationships with each other, as the childminder models skills and expectations matched to each child's developmental level. For example, she models turn-taking and sharing for one child, while discussing the feelings one may provoke when not playing fairly with a slightly older child. The childminder is highly effective in supporting children's growing understanding and skills in taking control of frustrating situations or conflict. As a result, children begin to learn strategies to manage and express their feelings and behaviours from an early age.

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

The childminder effectively supports children's growing understanding of how to be healthy by facilitating healthy eating and plenty of physical outdoor play each day. She uses every day routines, such as morning snack time, to develop children's expression of choice and independence. For example, she offers each child a choice of fruit and supplies them with a sturdy chopping board and a child sized metal knife to develop their skills in cutting grapes or peeling apples, according to their age. She reminds children of the need for caution and why her ownership of the sharp knife is absolute. Children become more self-confident in managing daily skills for themselves as they are given routine opportunities to practice under the childminder's watchful eyes. Children also learn to manage risks relative to their ages. Personal care and independence is encouraged through daily routines such as hand washing and teeth cleaning. Small steps, along with

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

towels and toothbrushes in easy reach, support children's growing ability to attend to their own needs.

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

The childminder is experienced at promoting children's physical skills through daily physical play and fresh air. She uses frequent trips to outdoor parks and indoor activity centres to challenge children to develop their strength and physical skills. Indoors, young children learn to balance and coordinate their movements on a seesaw while older children enjoy the soothing motion of the rocking horse. In the garden there is a fully enclosed trampoline that is well used by all children and ample space for ball games, wheeled equipment and group activities, including stories in the summer. There are also small slides and climbing equipment giving children every reason to stay outside for long periods of fresh air. A large garden playroom provides an inspiring environment regardless of the weather outside. With a dolls house, books, and an abundance of other resources, there is plenty to engage children of all ages. The childminder is highly responsible in her

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

risk assessments and garden security, further helping to keep children safe in all their experiences with her. Children are well prepared for starting school, both in terms of their learning and development and personal, social and emotional development. Young children become familiar with the school routines when accompanying older siblings to and from school. This provides a smooth change over for the children and their parents, and effective transfer of information from school to childminder to home. The childminder has formats in place to support children's transitions to schools and other settings they may attend, however none have needed to be completed as she is a new childminder in the area. Parents report that they feel well supported by the childminder and that their children thoroughly enjoy their time with her. They appreciate her accountability to them and her dedication to their children.

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provision

The childminder is exceptionally thorough in meeting the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. She sets herself high standards for the delivery of exemplary education programmes that routinely challenge children to make the best possible progress in their learning and development while in her care. The childminder has highly effective systems in place to monitor and evaluate all aspects of her work. Her planning is imaginative and thorough and as a result she routinely provides activities suited to the different ages of children, while bringing children together in a common goal. The childminder has previous experience as a nanny and registered childminder and constantly seeks new ways to develop her practice to benefit children's care and learning.

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provision

The childminder has an excellent understanding of her responsibilities to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage due to regular training updates. She is highly responsible in ensuring that she meets and continues to review her policies and daily practices to help keep children free from harm. She is exceptionally well versed in signs of neglect and abuse and knows how to act should she have any concerns in areas of child protection. Children are in a safe place at her home and while they are with the childminder on outings. The childminder has clear written plans, policies and procedures for emergency evacuation. There is a comprehensive log of evacuation drills to cover all combinations of children across the different days of the week. Children rehearse evacuation procedures routinely so they begin to learn how to respond to the sounding of an alarm. Visitors to the house are logged in and all required

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provision

documentation to effectively support children's safety and welfare is in place. Regular updates in paediatric first aid and in food hygiene also help to keep children safe.

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provision

The childminder has written risk assessments for her home and for outings in to the community. Children enjoy the physical challenges of carefully selected indoor soft play areas. They also attend a music group and a toddler group each week, visit the library and take excursions further afield, such as to the seaside, in the school holidays. Children flourish in the care of this reliable and inspiring childminder.

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provision

Children's needs are quickly identified and exceptionally well met through highly effective partnerships with parents and with other agencies. Parents are very well informed about their children's progress through daily updates, learning journals and a computer based development record. Parents input their thoughts and comments on line. This means that they are fully involved with the childminder and know exactly how to extend their children's learning at home. Parents comment positively as they highly praise the childminder's care. They note that children are extremely happy and achieve well when they are with her.

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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 EY467953 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 932166 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 5

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Name of provider

Date of previous inspection not applicable

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Telephone number

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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