The Alphabet House Nursery Schools

The Alphabet House Nursery School 23 Harold Road, Upton park, London, E13 0SQ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 27/02/2014 20/06/2012

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early years provision

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

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This provision is good

 The nursery provides a stimulating environment where children enthusiastically follow their own interests. Consequently, children are making very good progress with their learning and all-round development.  The well qualified management team work hard to support the continuous professional development of its entire staff and continually evaluates practice to ensure they deliver the best possible outcomes for children.  Staff have a good understanding of how children learn best through play. As a result children are active, engaged and have fun.  Children benefit from the partnerships that exist between staff and parents and outside professionals because information is regularly shared to support children's care and learning.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not organise the space and resources for young children to develop their walking skills effectively in the baby room to fully promote their physical development. There are fewer opportunities for children to learn about how to take care of living things to increase their understanding of the world around them.

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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 children's rooms.  The inspector took the views of parents into account.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documents, including the safeguarding policy, risk assessments and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a meeting with the manager, area manager and director and spoke to children and staff at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

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Information about the setting

The Alphabet House Nursery School registered in 1999 and is one of five privately owned nurseries run by Alphabet House Nursery Schools Limited. It operates from a purpose built two storey building in a residential area of Upton Park, East London. There is an enclosed garden available for outdoor play. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am until 6pm all year round. There are currently 64 children attending in the early years age range. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for two, three and four-year-olds. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who learn English as an additional language. The nursery employs 10 members of staff, most of whom hold appropriate early years qualifications. The director holds Qualified Teacher Status and an Early Years Professional award.

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

 strengthen children's understanding of the world, for example, by providing opportunities for them to dig and grow plants and learn about how things grow and change over time

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

 review the organisation of space and resources to fully support young children's ongoing physical development, particularly relating to encouraging their independent movement.

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who attend

The atmosphere of this nursery is purposeful and engaging. Staff provide an interesting and stimulating environment where children are encouraged to explore and learn successfully through play. As a consequence, children are busy, active and motivated to learn. Caring and enthusiastic staff use effective systems of observation and assessment in order to find out what each child's stage of development. They use the information gathered to plan well for children's future learning. This has a positive impact on children's learning and development, so that children make good progress. All children take full advantage of being able to choose to play in the outside area where they learn about climbing, balancing and negotiating pathways. For example, children ride trikes up and down the winding path, negotiating the space around others. This helps them learn about safety and space. However, there are fewer opportunities for children to dig or grow

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who attend

plants so they can begin to learn how living things grow to increase their understanding of the world. A variety of messy play opportunities offer young children exploration and investigation as they 'swirl' fingers around to find the hidden resources in the foam. Staff provide a variety of technological toys for children to operate to help develop their understanding of technology. For example, they learn to operate simple programmes on the computer. This helps them to understand how information can be retrieved in readiness for school.

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who attend

Staff ensure that the environment fosters children's emerging literacy skills. They include meaningful text and words on displays and provide a well-resourced selection of mark making tools to encourage children to write and draw. Furthermore, staff teach children to find their own name card and place it on the daily registration board. This enables children to recognise their own name, find out what letters form their name and ultimately how to write their name. Children like to practise their early writing skills and sign their own pictures.

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who attend

Children develop their physical skills by handling materials and tools, such as pouring vessels and measuring jugs. For example, children are practising how to pour their drinks and serve their own food at meal times. This teaches them the importance of doing things for themselves and supports their independence.

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who attend

Staff speak English and seven other languages that contribute to the cultural diversity of the nursery. This enables them to support children learning English as an additional language very well. They learn key words in the children's home languages to support their play and learning when children first start. This helps them to gain confidence and develop their self-help skills. As a result, children are making good progress in their communication and language development. Staff actively engage them in conversation and ask questions to promote children's language and thinking. Staff undertake regular observations to identify the next steps in each child's learning and plan activities that provide interest and challenge. The management is effective in identifying where children need additional help in their learning and liaise with outside professionals to obtain the help children need. These early interventions support staff in closing the gaps in children's

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who attend

achievements. They also help to foster strong partnerships with parents who benefit from shared knowledge in how best to support their child's learning. The staff complete the required progress checks for two-year-old children and use the information effectively to inform parents and health visitors about children's development.

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

The nursery provides a caring and supportive environment, and as a result children feel valued and happy. Children have good relationships with their key person and the staff team. These relationships help children form secure attachments that provide a strong foundation for their well-being and help prepare children emotionally for the move into school. Children talk openly with staff as they play out events and experiences. Staff are sensitive to children's individual needs and consistently help parents during settling in process. This provides the reassurances they need to leave their children and to help all children to separate from their main carer with confidence. Staff share with parents the details of children's care and activities each day through daily discussion. This ensures there is a consistent and coordinated approach to meeting children's needs. Staff are very well deployed throughout the nursery and know when and

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

how to effectively promote children's well-being and self-confidence. Staff encourage children's positive behaviour using a 'mood board display' that details what is acceptable language, so that children learn how to behave toward one another. As a result children behave very well at the nursery.

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

The learning environment is stimulating and well-resourced. It offers plenty of opportunities for babies and children to make positive steps to their all-round development. For example, staff deliver story time outdoors using big books and puppets to engage young children. Enthusiastic staff encourage children to predict the story outcome and to engage in the imaginative play-acting. This is evident as the children excitedly sound out the word 'f - o - x', demonstrating their extensive language skills. Babies have a separate play room that offers exploratory investigative resources and messy play opportunities, with access to the outdoors. Babies benefit from using smaller climbing equipment while outside to promote their physical development. However they currently do not have enough push along resources and organised spaces indoors to help them learn to walk and stand.

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

The nursery offers freshly prepared nutritional snacks and meals each day, prepared by the cook. This supports children to understand the importance of good health. Children visit the local fruit and vegetable market which helps to foster their understanding of where vegetables and fruits come from around the world. Staff encourage children to be as independent as possible and encouraged to wash their hands before meals and after using the toilet.

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

Children who learn English as an additional language are very well supported in learning English alongside their home language from experienced staff who speak seven languages. Books from around the world and displays depicting 'where in the world children come from' helps children to feel valued and safe. Furniture and resources are labelled with different languages that help those children who learn English to make sense of their play environment.

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

Children visit the nearby primary school in readiness for their move to school. The key person gives the teacher the learning journey and transition report to aid continuity. Children's moves between rooms in the nursery are well coordinated by the outgoing key person. She accompanies the child to the new room, along with the child's learning journey, to ensure the smooth changeover to the new key person.

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provision

The leadership and management of the nursery are very good. Management and staff have a good knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements. Staff know how to identify and report any concerns they may have about a child. The provider is fully aware of their responsibility to notify Ofsted of any significant event or information. They implement a strong recruitment system and a thorough vetting procedure. Together with background checks, good performance management procedures and team meetings, these secure processes help to ensure staff remain suitable for their role. Staff ratios are met and children are well supervised. Risk assessments are effective in maintaining a safe play environment. The nursery uses CCTV cameras to ensure security of the building is maintained at all times and that unauthorised persons do not gain access.

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provision

Management have embraced the self-evaluation process by completing a quality assurance programme. This had led to more effective evaluations of practice to improve outcomes for children. Management and staff have a good understanding of their responsibilities in meeting the learning and development requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Monitoring of educational programmes and planning and assessment are thorough and ensure children experience a broad range of activities to help them progress towards the early learning goals.

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provision

Since the last inspection targets for improvement have been implemented. The management have now developed mealtime safety checklists to ensure food requirements are met and that changed routines reflect the waiting times for serving foods. Future plans include building new toilets in the pre-school room to support children's self-care arrangements and to develop more active play experiences for boys by purchasing larger outdoors equipment.

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provision

Partnership with parents is good. Daily discussions and an 'open door' policy contribute to the working relationships and meeting the needs of the children. Parents offer positive feedback about the pre-school and value staff's knowledge in identification of children's developmental needs that helps them progress in their learning. Partnerships with external agencies and other professionals are generally good and mean that children benefit from and receive the support they need to make progress.

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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 132242 Local authority Newham Inspection number 952613

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 5 Total number of places 60 Number of children on roll 64 Name of provider The Alphabet House Nursery Schools Limited Date of previous inspection 20/06/2012 Telephone number 020 8548 9466

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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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