The Aunties' Old School Nursery

The Aunties Old School Nursery 33 Littleworth Road, Wheatley, OXFORD, OX33 1NW

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/03/2014 25/11/2009

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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 excellent leadership and management drive improvement, striving for excellence. They constantly reflect on practice and have received several awards from external quality assurance bodies. Self-evaluation is highly rigorous and reflects the views of all those involved, driving improved provision for children.  The quality of teaching is exceptional because the staff have an in-depth knowledge of how children learn. Staff complete comprehensive assessments and plan effectively for individual children to ensure they make outstanding progress in their learning.  Staff are highly skilled. They know where and when they are needed to provide children with support, They work as a team, tuning in to the children's needs. All staff are exceptionally sensitive and provide consistent guidance, so children are fully immersed in their learning and their behaviour is exemplary.  Excellent use is made of the outdoors environment which is a focal point for children's

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This provision is outstanding

learning. Staff use this space to encourage children's exploration, imaginative play and the ability to use the natural environment to broaden their experiences.  Partnerships with parents is exceptional. These positive relationships are valued by the staff and parents alike. Parents are very well informed about their children's progress and staff actively encourage parents to support children's learning at home.

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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 activities in four playrooms and the outside learning environment.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.  The inspector held meetings with the registered people of the nursery.  The inspector examined children's assessment records and planning documentation.  The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

The Aunties Old School Nursery, is one of two nurseries owned by The Aunties Limited. It registered in 2009 and operates from a detached house in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. It serves the local community and surrounding areas. Children of mixed ages use a large open plan space and have use of an enclosed outdoor play area, with 'forest school'.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is open each weekday from 8am until 6pm all year round, with the exception of one week in the summer months and the period between Christmas and New Year. The nursery is on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It takes children up to the age of eight years, and currently has 54 children on roll. Children attend for a variety of days.

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Information about the setting

The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. The nursery employs 21 staff members, 20 of whom, including the manager, hold appropriate early years qualifications. One staff member holds qualified teacher status and another holds an early years degree.

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

 review internal noise sources to improve the acoustics of the nursery room to further enhance the concentration for the youngest children.

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who attend

The quality of teaching is exceptional. Staff plan rich and exciting activities indoors and use the outdoors environment creatively to enhance children's learning. The staff embrace opportunities outside providing skilful teaching and support in this natural environment.

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who attend

Excellent staff support helps the youngest children to enjoy their time outdoors. Staff respond quickly to children's needs, providing reassurance and a cuddle. This nurturing environment supports the youngest children to become inquisitive, confident, and independent explorers. They confidently explore mud in its many forms, splash in puddles and use logs to support their balance and strengthen their muscles when they pull to standing. The staff team's skilful support helps the youngest children to develop their senses through exploration of texture, ready for the next stage in their learning.

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who attend

'Forest school' training has provided staff with the expertise to broaden children's learning expertly across all areas of learning, guiding play and enriching opportunities as these arise outside. Staff tune into children's interests and use their in-depth knowledge to extend children's thinking and learning. After the discovery of two worms, for example, staff engage the children to look more closely at the similarities and differences. They give clear explanations, encouraging curiosity an close observation, such as when saying: 'The longer one is an adult. Look, can you see the band in the middle? It's a different colour'. The children exclaim, 'It's brown there and that bit is light brown,' and 'This one is a baby worm it's all one colour.' This teaching provides valuable preparation for children's eventual move to school.

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who attend

The exciting activities indoors helps the mixed age groups to make progress in their learning. Staff provide an excellent range of interesting media and recycled materials to encourage imaginative and creative play. Older children combine and manipulate materials creatively to create different effects. The staff expertly use a range of strategies to promote all children's communication skills. They help children search for the answers to their questions, for example, by posing another question to extend their thinking. Staff and children energetically participate in singing throughout the day although on occasion, the noise levels can affect younger children's concentration. Staff utilise their linguistic skills very effectively, seeking support from parents to provide key words and songs in the various languages spoken. Children's home languages and cultural backgrounds are valued and play an important part in nursery life, helping children begin to understand

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who attend

Staff skilfully support mathematics throughout the day. The older children have an excellent grasp of number. They recognise numerals and demonstrate a growing competence in solving simple calculations. The pre-school room is extremely well resourced, and staff plan exceptional educational programmes to support children's early attempts at reading and writing skills when they write their names and captions for their drawings. These activities demonstrate that children are gaining extremely useful skills for their transfer to school

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who attend

The accurate observations and comprehensive assessment undertaken by staff ensure children make excellent progress in their learning and development because staff use these to plan exactly what children need to learn next. Parents receive excellent information about their children's progress. Staff actively encourage parents to contribute to the assessments and to support children's learning at home. Staff promptly identify children requiring additional support to achieve and appropriate programmes of support are in place. This is as effective for children who are achieving above their expected stages in some aspects as for children who may require additional intervention to meet their targets.

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

Staff are highly skilled at recognising and responding to children needs. The dedicated staff excel at providing an environment that nurtures children's self-esteem and confidence. Children have very strong bonds with their primary carers; emotional attachments are secure. They turn to familiar staff for reassurance, confident in the warm and caring response they receive. The close relationships between the staff and the children, contribute to how safe and secure they feel in the nursery. This means they explore their environment freely knowing help is available if needed.

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

Nurturing teaching supports children to develop confidence and self-esteem. The well- organised environment supports children to develop independence in their play and self- care in readiness for the next stage of learning and school. Staff offer very positive role models and give consistent guidelines that support children to manage their emotions; children's behaviour is exemplary.

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

The staff plan for the children to spend most of the day in the fresh air to boost their physical health. This approach helps children to gain a positive attitude to being outside and supports a healthy lifestyle. Staff who hold appropriate first aid qualifications manage minor accidents and injuries to children efficiently and inform parents of any such incidents.

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

Staff actively teach children to take charge of their own safety. Children demonstrate an aptitude for seeking out hazards and pointing them out to staff as part of a risk assessment before using the forest school area in their garden. The children search for stinging nettles, rubbish that might have blown in and things that they might fall over. The risk assessment monitor gives the all clear so the children can go and play.

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provision

The highly professional leadership team strive for excellence. The quality of teaching practice and delivery of the educational programmes is constantly under review. Self- evaluation is highly effective and drives improvement, as are the well-documented on- going monitoring procedures in pursuit of excellence. This process ensures the quality of teaching focuses on meeting children's developmental needs and as a result, children make exceptional progress in their learning and development.

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provision

The leadership has an excellent understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and has robust policies and procedures in place. Staff follow safeguarding arrangements diligently and are confident in the procedures to address any child protection concerns in the best interests of a child at all times.

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provision

Staff recruitment and selection systems are highly effective in building the diverse team. Induction is thorough, with a focus on developing relationships with the children, safeguarding, and health and safety. The leadership team is dedicated to supporting the professional development of staff and improving their already excellent practice. Senior staff make full use of their qualifications, skills and experience to guide the staff team. Appraisals take place annually in order to praise the strong practice and identify where any additional support may be required, and to identify training to enhance professional qualifications. Supervisions take place regularly to support on-going practice. Staff willingly review each other's practice so staff confidently feedback honestly to each other. They do not wait for 'the right moment' but talk to their colleague there and then to discuss observations and make improvements to practice.

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provision

The manager continually carries out research to improve her own knowledge and to develop the staff team. The manager explains the theory underpinning the benefits of children waiting: 'from research it is important for children to learn delayed gratification skills, self-regulation is a critical competency that underlies the mindful, intentional, and thoughtful behaviours of younger and older children, and has positive and long lasting effects on children's social and emotional well-being and their academic success.'

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provision

Highly successful engagement between parents and the child's primary carer mean parents have a comprehensive knowledge of the child's learning and development. Staff work with parents and other professionals to support children who require additional support, such as, a speech therapist. Parents express a deep appreciation of what and how their children are developing skills for their future education. They comment: 'The nature of the assessment report was a surprise, so detailed, and we were so involved in the assessment' and '• my daughter told us yesterday that she had been learning about another country, India and learnt some new words in Urdu. She is writing well, starting to sound out letters and reads some words.'

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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 EY385583 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 829962 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 35 Number of children on roll 54 Name of provider The Aunties Ltd Date of previous inspection 25/11/2009 Telephone number 01865351215

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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

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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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