Brixworth Centre Pre-School

Brixworth Centre Pre-School Church Street, BRIXWORTH, Northamptonshire, NN6 9BZ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 04/03/2014 04/12/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 1 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 The highly qualified staff team work hard to establish very positive relationships with children and their parents in order to provide a high level of support for children.  Staff show good knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and there are clear policies in place to support practice, helping to keep children safe.  The conscientious supervisor and the supportive committee ensure good leadership of the setting through their commitment to self-reflection and improvement.  There are very good opportunities for children to be independent, self-regulate and lead their own learning. This effectively supports children to prepare for further independent challenges that they will encounter when they move onto school.  The staff team are committed to strengthening the opportunities for parents to be involved in their child's learning and offer very useful information for parents on how they can support learning at home.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 There is scope to maximise the use of the space outdoors to offer a greater variety of learning experiences, so that all children, particularly the boys, are fully engaged and challenged to the very optimum.  Whilst the monitoring of teaching is undertaken, practices have not yet been fully developed to ensure that staff consistently use good teaching techniques, to encourage children to think, express their ideas and use their imagination.

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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 activities in the main room and the outside learning environment.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.  The inspector held meetings with the provider and the supervisor of the provision.  The inspector looked at children's assessment records and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of staff working within the setting, the provider's self-evaluation form and a range of other documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account the views of staff, parents and children spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

Brixworth Centre Pre-School has been operating since 1984 and is situated in the village of Brixworth, Northamptonshire. Activities are organised in a large playroom and in a safely enclosed outdoor play area. Entrance to the building is at ground level. The pre-school is open Monday to Friday, term time only, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. A lunch club operates from 12.30pm to 1pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, following on from the normal pre-school session. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently 35 children on roll. Children attend from the village and surrounding areas. The pre-school provides funded early education for three- and four-year-old children. A team of eight staff, including two managers, care for the children and five are always present at any one time. Of these, all hold early years qualifications. The pre-school holds Pre-School Learning Alliance membership. It supports children who speak English as an

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Information about the setting

additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 progress the monitoring and development of teaching to ensure that all staff help children to think creatively and critically by using language and open-ended questioning; this supports children to solve problems, giving them time to think and encourage them to find out answers for themselves

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

 enhance the outdoor provision to offer more experiences that offer rich opportunities for sustained, engaged play and exploration particularly focusing on the extension of learning for boys.

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who attend

The staff within this pre-school have a secure understanding of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and how children learn through good quality play experiences. As a result, children make good progress in their learning and development. The staff team develops a very good understanding of each child's abilities, interests and needs. This starts with the comprehensive information they collect on children during their initial start at the nursery and enables staff to plot accurate starting points in children's learning. The staff use their own observations and those from parents, providing them with observation stickers, to enable them to share what they know about their children. The staff use this information to inform planning, as evidence for tracking progress and to display in children's development files. The staff team ensure flexibility and allow for children's own ideas and expressions. This promotes children's drive to play well and they

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who attend

The learning environment is bright, stimulating, well-presented and provides learning opportunities that cover all seven areas of learning. It provides a range of resources and experiences to help children to make choices as well as extend their learning and make connections as they play. The self-registration system that the staff team have introduced, effectively helps children settle themselves into the setting when they arrive. Therefore, children show the ability to self-regulate and lead their own learning. This effectively supports children to prepare for further independent challenges that they will encounter when they move onto school. Staff have a very positive attitude towards equality of opportunity and the support of children who have English as an additional language. Children's differences are celebrated and this ensures that these children thrive and progress very well. For example, many signs around the pre-school are in three languages

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who attend

to reflect the home languages of the children within the setting. Additionally, during group activities, children are sensitively encouraged to share their knowledge of counting in another language, they readily do this showing considerable confidence within their peer group. Observations made during the inspection show that there is scope to enhance the stimulating environment further by offering a greater variety of learning experiences outdoors. Early in the session, the majority of the boys were observed rushing out as soon as the outdoor area opened. They seemingly struggled to sustain their engagement outside and gradually within a short time the majority of them came back in. These boys flitted between a number of activities and some returned outside but the vast majority of them continued to flit frequently between activities throughout the morning. The children, particularly boys, therefore, would benefit from rich opportunities outdoors for stimulating

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who attend

resources and challenging experiences, in order to sustain their play and extend and progress their learning to the highest level.

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who attend

The staff work exceptionally hard to promote very good relationships between staff and parents and this positively impacts upon the children as they benefit from continuity of care and learning between home and the setting. The staff ensure that they acquire and accommodate parental views by using a variety of approaches and strategies. For example, they encourage parents to share information about their child through informal discussion and meetings and also to express their views on parental questionnaires. These highlighted that parents would like more information on how their child has settled into pre-school and the staff now offer an informal meeting soon after settling-in to support this. Additionally, the number of lunch club days was increased from two to three days following feedback from parents. Parents speak very highly of the setting and praise the dedication of the staff. The staff team are committed to strengthening the opportunities

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who attend

for parents to be involved in their child's learning. They enhance this through the use of many strategies to develop parents understanding of how they can support learning at home, through stay and play sessions and regular publications, such as newsletters and leaflets. Additionally, the pre-school website has useful regular updates. The planned pre- school activities are linked with additional useful ideas of how to extend these at home as well as the promotion of healthy eating through details of the weekly snack menu, posted at the beginning of each week.

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

Children share very positive relationships with the staff that care for them and thoroughly enjoy their time at the pre-school. There is an effective well-established key person system in place. The key person takes responsibility for liaising with parents, meeting children's personal care needs and planning the next steps in their learning. Staff take time to get to gain a wealth of information about the children when they first start. This includes information about their development, interests, home life through beneficial home visits, 'All about me' sheets and an extensive and flexible settling-in process. This helps staff to build very good foundations for developing children's self-esteem and helping them feel secure. As a result, children's emotional well-being is very high. Links with other early years settings attended by children have been developed and relevant information is shared so that parents are well informed and children have continuity of care.

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

Children demonstrate they feel secure at this pre-school as they confidently navigate around the environment, selecting resources and chatting to visitors. They demonstrate a good understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles and good hygiene from a young age. Care practices are well defined and sensitive to the needs of the children. Children are offered beneficial independent opportunities to flow freely between the indoor and outdoor learning areas throughout the session. This effectively promotes a healthy lifestyle by encouraging and supporting children's access to fresh air and exercise every day.

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

The staff team provides very good opportunities for children to be independent. For example, children wash up their own snack items and even the younger children are clearly confident and capable in their application to this task. Staff support children if necessary but clearly understand the value of the opportunities for promoting their independence and allow children to manage the process themselves. Children have supervised access to a range of tools, such as scissors for cutting and knives for chopping fruit and vegetables. These first hand active learning experiences supported appropriately provide valuable opportunities for children to experience risk and to learn to manage their own safety. These experiences foster the characteristics of effective learning leading to children having high self-motivation and a 'can do' attitude. This also promotes children to acquire useful life-long learning skills and will prepare them well for their move onto

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provision

Robust safeguarding procedures and staff's firm understanding of safeguarding help to keep children safe. All of the staff have attended safeguarding training and are clear on the actions to take should they have any concerns about a child. There is a designated safeguarding officer who has received relevant training and takes the lead in dealing with any concerns. There are clear recruitment and vetting procedures to check staff suitability, meaning children are cared for by staff that are suitable to do so. Risk assessments are carried out and the staff team check all areas of the nursery daily to help to make sure children remain safe in their care. The environment is well organised, enabling children to freely access resources and make choices in their play. There are suitable places for children to relax, be active and eat comfortably.

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provision

Leadership is strong. The provider and her team demonstrate a firm commitment to extending children's learning. The team are well qualified and they effectively drive and secure improvement through self-evaluation and incorporate the views of staff and parents. Therefore, they successfully identify strengths and weaknesses. The team meets regularly to review the provision and to plan. Recommendations from previous inspections have been implemented and they review policies and update them on a regular basis. Parents can make suggestions informally or through the questionnaires the provider sends out. The supervisor is committed to improvement and is dedicated to developing high quality learning opportunities for the children. Monitoring of teaching is undertaken but has not yet fully developed practices to ensure that staff consistently use good teaching techniques to encourage children to think, express their ideas and use their imagination.

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provision

Well-established links with other professionals and the local authority enable staff to work closely with a wide range of outside agencies in order to meet the needs of children effectively. This means that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good support to extend their learning and to experience success. Inclusive practice is very evident in the pre-school and staff work in close partnership with parents and carers to facilitate this. The setting has also established good relationships with local schools and other settings to promote consistency of care for children and to exchange good practice. Examples of this can be seen in the 'sharing books' introduced to share information on children's learning and development. Additionally, a beneficial parental evening was undertaken with the neighbouring pre-school, to introduce the revised Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage which also forged very useful

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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 220216 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 854544

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 35 Name of provider Brixworth Centre Pre-School Committee Date of previous inspection 04/12/2009 Telephone number 07791 906305

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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

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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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