Smile Day Nursery & Out of School Club

Smile Day Nursery & Out of School Club High Biggins, CARNFORTH, Lancashire, LA6 2NP

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 17/02/2014 09/06/2009

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early years provision

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

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This provision is outstanding

 The quality of teaching is outstanding because all staff have an exceptional awareness of how young children learn and develop. They have high expectations of the children and encourage them to think for themselves, develop their independence, imaginations and critical thinking skills. Consequently, they are making excellent progress in their learning and development.  Managers and staff place the utmost priority upon supporting children's physical, personal, social and emotional development extremely well. They are exceptionally caring, sensitive and skilled in helping children to form secure emotional attachments. This, in turn nurtures children's self-esteem, confidence and overall well-being.  Excellent attention is paid to ensuring children remain safe and secure at all times while at the nursery and on outings.  The inspirational and highly motivated managers and staff continually update their

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This provision is outstanding

professional development by attending numerous training courses and implementing what they learn into their practice. Managers regularly monitor and evaluate all staff, which results in continual developments being made to an outstanding setting.  Excellent partnerships with parents and external agencies ensure that children's individual needs are well-known and superbly supported.

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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 and spoke to children and staff undertaking activities in the four playrooms and outdoor play area.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at a sample of children's assessment records and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of the staff, the self- evaluation and monitoring forms and policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to and by reading a number of questionnaires.

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Information about the setting

Smile Day Nursery and Out of School Club is privately owned and registered in December 2003. It is registered on the Early Years Register and the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in the small hamlet of High Biggins, which is close to Kirkby Lonsdale, Lancashire. The nursery consists of four playrooms and all children have access to an outdoor play area. The nursery serves the immediate locality and also the surrounding areas. It opens five days a week from 7.30am until 6pm all year round, except on bank holidays and for a week at Christmas. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 68 children on roll in the early years age range. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. There are currently 11 staff working directly with the children, all of whom have an appropriate early years qualification at a minimum of level 3. Two members of staff

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Information about the setting

hold the Early Years Professional Status and two hold degrees in childhood studies. The nursery is a member of the National Day Nursery Association and works closely with the local authority.

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

 enhance the children's already excellent learning opportunities in the outdoor environment, for example, by continuing with the plans for introducing a forest school.

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who attend

The quality of teaching is outstanding. The experienced and highly qualified staff have high expectations of themselves and the children and have superb understanding of how to support young children to achieve the best they can in their learning and development. Children thoroughly enjoy their time spent with the enthusiastic and dedicated staff, who provide an excellent and imaginative range of high quality resources and activities, both inside and outside. The staff recognise the uniqueness of all children in their care. They help children to settle quickly by gathering information about their interests and individual learning needs from the parents when they first start attending. From this information, they ensure that superb activities and learning opportunities are made available based on the children's interests. The staff assess and identify children's starting points and ongoing developmental stages extremely well. They undertake regular observations and precise

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who attend

assessments of the children and use this information to plan for their individual next steps in their learning. Additionally, through the highly comprehensive completion of the progress check at age two years, any identified gaps in children's development are addressed through early intervention and involvement from other agencies to progress children's learning. Staff have highly successful methods of engaging parents in their children's learning when they first attend and thereafter on an ongoing basis. Parents provide photographs and written information about children's achievements at home to add to their learning journals. These are used to provide a complete picture of children's overall development. This joint approach supports the children extremely well to make very rapid and exceptional progress in their learning towards the early learning goals.

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who attend

Staff sensitively join in the children's play and have an excellent ability to engage with them and enter into their imaginative play. This extremely special skill results in children being highly motivated and enthusiastic to learn. For example, as children play together in the role-play corner, which is set up as a hospital, each decide to take on roles, such as, doctor, nurse and patient. Staff enhance the children's learning sensitively by asking them appropriately challenging questions which extend their play further. They ask the children what equipment they have. Children demonstrate excellent communication and language skills by explaining that they have syringes to give the medicine and a stethoscope to listen to peoples tummies. Staff encourage the children to identify where their hearts are and to listen to each other's hearts with the real stethoscope. They decide if the heart is on the left or right hand side of the body. They listen carefully and count the heart beats.

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who attend

Children continue to take their play further by talking to each other about their pets and distinguish between hospitals and vets. Their role-play area evolves into a vets surgery where they continue their role play. The staff's excellent approach to guiding children's play without taking over results in children developing high levels of creativity and maintaining focus on the activity for some time. This activity also promotes their language and communication skills extremely well by introducing new words. Staff speak to children all day long, engaging them in conversations and extending their language during activities. Children enjoy selecting their favourite story sacks to read with the staff who make excellent use of props to encourage the children to enact and retell the story in their own words. They become engrossed in stories and learn the names of fruit, such as, guava, papaya, lychee and passion fruit. This effectively extends their vocabulary and

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who attend

provides opportunities to taste different types of fruit. Staff skilfully support children's interest in literacy and language, by sensitively using early phonics to help them to link sounds to letters. Staff liaise very closely with the Reception teachers at the local school to ensure they are using consistent teaching methods in phonics and letter formation in order to fully support children in their learning when they make the transition to school. Staff also provide parents with an information booklet about phonics for them to use to support the children's learning at home.

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who attend

Staff provide excellent opportunities for children to express themselves while undertaking craft activities. Children help themselves to the easily accessible selection of resources, such as, paper, glue, scissors and paint. When children have difficulty twisting the lid off the glue stick the staff encourage them to try different approaches. Children show high levels of perseverance and are delighted when they succeed in pulling the lid off, therefore, building their confidence and developing a 'can do' attitude. This approach of encouraging children to do as much for themselves as possible is highly effective in preparing them well for their future learning. Staff encourage children to explore and experiment with substances, such as paints. They enjoy mixing paints together and learning that black and white paint mixed together makes grey paint. Children express a desire to make brown paint. Staff encourage them to experiment and anticipate how to

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who attend

make brown, they do not direct them, but allow them plenty of time to pour their chosen paints into bowls and mix various combinations together. Children remain engrossed for significant lengths of time due to the high quality resources and excellent staff interaction and support.

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

The nursery is vibrant, stimulating and welcoming. Staff are highly skilled and experienced in working with children and they sensitively support them to settle happily at nursery by using carefully planned introductions and settling in sessions. All children have their own key persons who take great care to make sure they forge close working relationships and excellent communication with parents. Key persons have an extremely good understanding of all children's individual care needs and routines. All children form exceptionally close bonds with their key persons, which support their emotional well-being exceedingly well. As a result, children are settled and exceptionally happy in their care. Consequently, they are extremely confident, independent and self-assured individuals. They very confidently explore the environment and happily make choices and decisions about their play from the extensive range of resources available to them. Staff have

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

excellent procedures in place for supporting children in their transitions within the nursery and ensure that they are emotionally well prepared when it is time for them to move on to school.

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

Staff fully support children to gain excellent levels of confidence in social situations and in forming positive relationships with other children. Staff encourage positive behaviour by calmly explaining the importance of sharing and ensuring that all children develop skills in playing harmoniously with each other. Children thrive because of the positive praise the staff offer to support their confidence and well-being, therefore, children feel valued and respected. Children are taught from an early age to recognise and begin to understand their emotions and those of others. They talk in small groups about whether they are feeling happy or sad and they tell each other what makes them feel happy when they are in nursery. Some say they are happy when eating their dinners and others say they are happy when playing with the big tractor. Staff also teach children excellent skills in caring for animals as they help to feed the nursery pet rabbit, Fizz.

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

Children learn to keep themselves safe and effectively learn to take risks in a safe manner. For example, staff encourage children to develop skills in using items, such as scissors during craft activities and they are taught to be careful so that they do not harm themselves or others. Children's all-round development is progressing exceptionally well, including their independent self-care skills. Staff have high expectations of the children which empowers them and builds their confidence to think for themselves and 'have a go' to do things for themselves. For example, they dress themselves before playing outside and they pour their own drinks at meal times requiring minimum assistance from staff. They have an excellent understanding of healthy lifestyles and hygiene practices. For example, they independently wash and dry their hands after using the toilet and they brush their teeth after eating their meals. Children learn about where food comes from as

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

they help to collect eggs from the hens and grow vegetables in the allotment. They thoroughly enjoy washing the vegetables and helping to prepare them for their meals. Meal times are pleasant and sociable occasions when children learn good manners and engage in conversations with each other. For example, while enjoying their home-made soup they share stories with each other about the recent power cuts they have experienced. Children's physical health and development is promoted exceptionally well as staff provide them with excellent opportunities to access fresh air and exercise in the wonderful outdoor play area and surrounding countryside. The excellent provision for outdoor play is identified as an area which can be enhanced even further by the addition of a forest school currently being developed onsite.

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provision

The provider, managers and staff have an excellent understanding and knowledge of how to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. All staff have undertaken safeguarding training and have a thorough understanding of what to do should they have concerns about a child. The safeguarding policy includes procedures to be followed if there are allegations made against staff members and also regarding the use of mobile telephones and social network sites. When appointing staff to work at the nursery extremely robust vetting procedures are undertaken including Disclosure and Barring Service checks on all staff to ensure that they are safe to work with young children. Prospective applicants are also required to spend supervised time with the children before a final decision is made to appoint them. This is to assess the quality of their interaction with children and their overall suitability.

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provision

The provider and managers have extremely high standards and only appoint high quality, qualified, experienced and motivated staff. Excellent and established induction systems are effective in ensuring all staff fully understand and implement the nursery policies and procedures. Rigorous monitoring of staff performance and conduct are given priority. Annual appraisals, regular staff supervisions and peer observations are undertaken to monitor the continued professional development and training needs of staff. Regular staff meetings and training effectively support staff well in their daily work with the children. Managers have procedures in place to tackle underperformance, which they do not hesitate to implement when necessary. Due to the vigilance and excellent care provided by the staff, children remain extremely safe and secure in the nursery and outdoor area. The managers ensure that the correct staff to child ratios are adhered to at all times and

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provision

often exceed the requirements. Great care is taken to ensure that staff are effectively deployed so that children are always well supervised and have their individual needs met extremely well. Robust risk assessments and rigorous daily safety checks undertaken inside and outside minimise hazards in order to reduce the risk of accidents to children. Thorough procedures for dealing with accidents are stringently followed. All staff are trained in paediatric first aid and are, therefore, prepared to deal with any accidents or medical emergencies should they arise.

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provision

The provider, managers and staff have a superb understanding of the learning and development requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The outstanding standard of teaching by all staff results in children being animated, highly motivated and enthusiastic learners. Consequently, all children are making excellent progress in their learning and development and many are exceeding expected levels of development for their ages. The managers meet with the staff regularly to discuss their key children's progress and to monitor the children's learning journals. They check that staff plan for children's next steps in their learning and that these are consistently followed through thoroughly. The managers also monitor the progress of groups of children using a chart which is very effective in illustrating exactly what stage of development the children have reached. It also makes it very clear what areas of learning require more focus in

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provision

order to close any gaps in their learning. For example, managers have recently identified from the data that more focus is required to assist some boys in their mathematical development. This has been swiftly addressed, particularly in the pre-school room. The provider and managers are extremely enthusiastic and motivated in their work and this has a positive impact upon the staff moral and attitude towards maintaining exceptionally high standards of care and education for their key children.

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provision

Partnerships between staff and parents are excellent. Parents' comments are extremely positive and include examples, such as 'all staff are excellent, welcoming and friendly' and 'Staff are genuinely interested in my child's development and the progress files are brilliant. They give me a great insight into my child's learning and development and the photos are lovely'. Many parents comment on how well their children are progressing and how involved they feel in their children's learning. The reception area has an abundance of useful information for parents to read including the self-evaluation document so that parents can read it and contribute their views and comments. Parents also have opportunities to provide anonymous feedback by using the 'Tell me tree'. This ethos of openness and joint working is exceptionally strong, which greatly benefits the children who attend. Partnership working with external agencies and professionals, such as,

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provision

speech and language therapists, health visitors and staff based in the local schools are extremely effective in ensuring that children are receiving the best possible, consistent care and education. Managers are constantly striving to provide excellence in the service they provide. They constantly and proactively seek the views of children and parents to contribute to their thorough evaluation and have a clear and well-targeted plan of action for future developments, which includes completing the forest school to provide excellent opportunities for children to extend their learning outdoors even further. The manager and staff work closely with the local authority advisors and swiftly address any recommendations they make. The nursery has been selected by the local authority to be 'lead practitioners' and disseminate their excellent practice to other providers of early years care and education. This is a reflection of the high standards that are maintained in

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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 EY264983 Local authority Cumbria Inspection number 860635

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 68 Number of children on roll 68 Name of provider Izzy Island Ltd Date of previous inspection 09/06/2009 Telephone number 015242 73700

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Type of provision

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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