Childminder in Solihull

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 10/03/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: Not Applicable How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 The childminder forms secure bonds and attachments with children, so that they are emotionally secure in her care. They are happy and content in her care and enjoy the time spent with her.  Partnership with the local pre-school and children's centre is well-established. This means that transitions are well supported and managed to ensure they run smoothly.  Children learn to manage risk in a safe and supportive way, as they go out and about in the local area and attend community groups. They develop social skills as they mix with other children and enjoy activities together.  The childminder keeps up to date with developments in childcare and is always looking for ways to improve her practice and the outcomes for children. She is well-organised and maintains records and documentation to support children's needs.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 There is scope to develop the garden as an extension to children's learning, particularly with regards to investigation and exploration.

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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 spoke to the childminder and children throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities in the playroom environment and children having their lunchtime meal and snacks.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at documentation, including children's records, learning and development information and a selection of policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of the childminder and her self-evaluation and improvement plan.

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Information about the setting

The childminder was registered in 2013 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She lives with her husband and child aged nine years in a house in Knowle, Solihull. Her childminding service is known as 'ABC childminding'. The whole of the ground floor of the house, including a designated playroom and the rear garden are used for childminding. The family has two pet gerbils.

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Information about the setting

The childminder attends a toddler group and activities at the local children's centre. She visits the shops and park on a regular basis. There are currently six children on roll, all of whom are in the early years age group and attend part-time. She collects children from the local pre-schools. She operates all year round, from 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, except bank holidays and family holidays. The childminder is qualified primary school teacher.

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

 extend the range of flexible resources in the outdoor area so that these can be used in a variety of ways to facilitate children's investigations and explorations.

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who attend

The childminder provides effective care and learning opportunities, promoting very good outcomes for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. She has made a good start to her childminding career and offers children a good range of experiences in the homely, bright and well-resourced playroom. She creates an exciting, stimulating environment, full of good quality resources that support children's progress towards the early learning goals. Children are busy and involved in the exciting atmosphere where they are able to access toys and resources they want to play with. Children's artwork is attractively displayed, along with a good range of words, labels and numbers. Children make good progress in all areas of their learning because the childminder, in addition to being a qualified primary school teacher, has a good awareness of how to promote their individual skills and learning styles to enable them to reach their full potential. The childminder gets

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who attend

to know children in her care very well through effective settling-in arrangements, which enables her to effectively plan an educational programme based upon their current development and individual interests. Young children can select and enjoy a wide variety of interesting toys and resources to inspire their curiosity and intrigue them. The childminder creates an investigation box using sticky paper, on which she places a number of objects for younger babies to explore. Young children pull the objects off and on again, repeating this several times as they listen to the sounds made when the balls, pipe cleaners and viewing boxes are pulled off the sticky paper. In addition, they explore a range of recycled materials in treasure baskets and colourful transparent materials. Outdoor painting with water and chalking is popular as children 'decorate' the slabs or paint the fence with water. This enables all children to have a go as they make marks.

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who attend

However, the garden is not as well-planned for as the indoor environment and therefore, curtails the potential for children to consistently experiment, explore and use their imaginations.

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who attend

The childminder plays alongside children, extending their understanding by questioning and discussion. This prompts children to persevere and puzzle things out for themselves and they become engrossed in finding coloured balls, hidden under shredded paper in a tray. They say the colours of each ball and place them in the correct coloured buckets, then count how many they have. They play with the puzzle box as they manoeuvre the handle up, down and along groves, working out how to get it to move around the wooden box. They enjoy playing with the small world animals and comparing the patterns they see on them and the large tiger print materials. Children's language development and communication is very well-promoted. The childminder speaks constantly to children, narrating actions and telling them what will be happening next, such as when it is time to tidy up or have snacks. Books are freely available in the cosy book corner and children

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who attend

enjoy a quiet time cuddling up for a story. Children see a range of words and labels around them on storage units and displays. This helps children to learn that words carry meanings. Children enjoy being creative as they paint pictures of a colourful elephant and the childminder introduces the matching soft toy to show children an image of the elephant. The childminder provides good opportunities for children to socialise with others in toddler groups at the local children's centre, where they meet with others of a similar age. Further activities outside the home broaden their experiences in the social world and provide opportunities for them to begin to build social interaction and join in a wider range of activities. Children obviously enjoy their time at the childminder's home and are gaining good skills to help with their readiness to school and prepare them for the next stage in their learning.

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who attend

Parents are involved in their children's development as the childminder shares plenty of information with them daily, through daily diary sheets and children's learning journals. She uses a secure computer programme which contains her observation records of children. Planning is detailed and encompasses the next steps in individual children's learning and the childminder accurately tracks the progress children make. Children's learning journeys show that they are making good progress across the areas of learning. This means that the childminder is using assessment very effectively to involve parents in their children's learning on a daily basis. The childminder has also undertaken the two- year-old assessment checks, which she shares with parents. She provides newsletters for parents, which includes examples of activities they can support their children with at home. This encourages parents to share what their children do at home, so the

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who attend

childminder can take this information into account when planning her activities and further extend children's rich learning experiences.

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

The childminder is very warm and welcoming and clearly enjoys her new role as a childminder. She works very closely with parents to help children make an easy and confident transition from home to her care, by sharing information about children's care needs and routines. Consequently, children are relaxed and happy in her care and develop close attachments to her. They demonstrate they feel safe and secure by confidently moving around the lovely playroom and approaching her with much affection and babies raise their hands to be picked up. The childminder supports children well, engaging and cooperating in their play as she sits at their level and her positive interactions and frequent use of praise and stickers reinforce children's feelings of self-worth and confidence.

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

The childminder teaches children how to keep themselves safe. For example, she reminds them to keep the floor clear and only has certain toys out when babies are not present to prevent them putting objects into their mouth. Children learn how to evacuate the home safely in the event of an emergency as they regularly practise fire drills. This helps them to develop a sense of responsibility for their own well-being. In addition, she rewards children with a certificate for taking part in the emergency drills. The childminder offers a wide range of interesting activities to prepare children for the move to school. For example, children go on frequent outings in the local community to groups and when she picks other children up from nursery or school. This helps them to develop the confidence they need when they are ready to transfer to new settings and school. In addition, the childminder has newsletters from the nursery to enable her to know about events and

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

topics children are doing, so that she can continue these.

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

Good provision is made to promote the good health of children. The childminder ensures children clean their hands before eating and pictorial prompts displayed in the bathroom serve as an additional reminder about hand washing. Very good provision is made for children to benefit from fresh air. The childminder takes advantage of the many nearby parks and walks to give children lots of opportunities to benefit being in the fresh air and to learn about the world around them. Children enjoy scrunching through the leaves and learning about the wider world. They also enjoy decorating diva candles for Diwali, making sparklers from chocolate fingers dipped in colourful sprinkles, eating noodles and designing lanterns for Chinese New Year. This helps children to understand about the wider world.

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provision

The childminder's experience as a qualified teacher and good knowledge of the learning and development and welfare requirements ensures that she successfully promotes children's overall well-being and learning. She has a robust understanding of her responsibilities for safeguarding children. She completes child protection training on a regular basis and is fully aware of the steps she must take should she be concerned about a child. In addition, she displays the safeguarding procedures and contact numbers so that parents also have access to this information. Suitability checks are completed for adults living in the home to ensure everyone who has contact with children are suitable and visitors are asked to sign the visitor's book. The childminder implements thorough procedures that protect children when they are in the home and away from the home and uses detailed risk assessments. As a result, children are safe, both inside and outside of

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provision

the home. All relevant documentation which supports children's safety and welfare, such as records of attendance, accident and medication records, are well-maintained and kept confidential. A range of written policies and procedures have been implemented and are shared with parents.

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provision

The childminder continually assesses her practice. She responds to the views of parents and children's reactions to activities and routines to inform her of any changes she needs to make. She creates action plans to bring about effective changes, for example, developing treasure baskets with more natural resources. The childminder is committed to offering children and their families a welcoming, safe and inspiring service in which they can all feel secure and where children learn through their play. She is enthusiastic and completes research on the different ways children behave and learn through play. Partnerships with parents are strong overall because they are kept well-informed about their children's progress and well-being through daily discussions and the sharing of children learning records. Partnerships with other agencies and professionals, such as, children's centres, pre-schools and schools are quickly established should the need arise,

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provision

therefore, ensuring that all children receive the support they require to promote their all- round welfare and development. She obtains copies of the pre-school's newsletters and information about topics so she is able to supplement children's learning.

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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 EY466619 Local authority Solihull Inspection number 934603 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 6

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Name of provider

Date of previous inspection not applicable

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Telephone number

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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