New Life Nursery Group

New Life Nursery Group Danesford Community Centre, West Road, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4EY

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 20/03/2014 04/10/2011

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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 leadership and management are highly skilled in motivating the excellent staff. This actively contributes towards the rapid progress made by all the children.  Practitioners have an excellent understanding of children's learning and development and offer a broad and inclusive range of imaginative and effective activities. Because of this, all children are inspired by a wealth of innovative experiences to actively learn new things.  Staff celebrate children's work in vibrant displays which inspire their enthusiasm for learning. This is reflected in the children's exceedingly high learning outcomes.  Parent partnerships are significantly enhanced by the exceptionally selfless attitude of the caring practitioners at the nursery. Because of this, children's independence skills are significantly prompted, resulting in them becoming extremely confident, self- assured and school ready.  Assessment is rigorous and robust, clearly focusing on children's next steps for their

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This provision is outstanding

learning and development. The result of this is early and accurate identification of children's unique needs.  An excellent understanding of child protection issues and the high priority given to safeguarding mean that children are kept safe from harm.

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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 three rooms and the outside learning environment.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at a range of policies and procedures, children's assessment records and planning documentation.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of staff working with children.  The inspector took account of views of parents and carers spoken to on the day.

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Information about the setting

New Life Nursery Group was registered in 1987 and is on the Early Years Register. It is run by the trustees of New Life Church and operates from three rooms within Danesford Community Centre in Congleton, Cheshire. Children have access to secure outdoor play areas. The nursery serves children from the local community. It employs 11 members of staff, including the manager. Two staff hold Qualified Teacher Status, the manager holds a qualification at level 4 and a degree. Seven staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3.

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Information about the setting

The nursery is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 12.30pm and on Wednesday afternoons for rising fives during term times. There are currently 45 children on roll, all of whom are within the early years age range. The nursery is in receipt of funding for three- and four-year-olds and supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. It receives support from the local authority.

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

 build further on the good opportunities for children to assess and manage risk for themselves, for example, by making use of large outdoor equipment.

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who attend

The learning and development of children at the nursery is nurtured in a vibrant and innovative environment. Staff have an exemplary understanding of how to meet the learning and development requirements. They plan a stimulating and interesting curriculum which covers every area of learning and gives children exceptional choice and independence. Children have lots of opportunities to engage in child-initiated play and staff expertly facilitate their ideas, bringing out the learning in everything they do. As a result, children are highly absorbed in their activities and make excellent progress through the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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who attend

Staff are excellent teachers. They continually engage children in conversation, expanding their vocabulary and consolidating new words by following interesting themes in activities. For example, children are taught about worldwide musical instruments and the places they come from. The children are brought together to experience an inspirational and inclusive multicultural music time. Children are enthusiastic and animated in their approach to learning, which ensures that they are happy and confident. Children are given the opportunity to explore the instruments after learning where in the world they are from. The nursery also has a wider range of sound making instruments, such as boom tubes. These are long and tubular and children experiment and explore them, developing their physical skills as they do so. There is also a rich and varied range of drums from around the world. The staff put great emphasis on musical experiences as the vibration of the

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who attend

beat has a positive impact on children who have very little hearing. This demonstrates the excellent support provided for children with specific needs. It gives these children the opportunity to take part in an enjoyable and creative experience with their peers. The nursery actively uses sign language to communicate with children who use this as their home language. They also work closely with other professionals, such as a teacher for the deaf, to ensure that needs are fully addressed.

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who attend

As children talk, they build a wide vocabulary and learn to be confident in making decisions and expressing themselves. Children have exceptional opportunities to build their skills in literacy. For instance, children register themselves as they find their own names and put them onto the registration board. Staff provide large chalk boards outside to encourage children to make large pictures, using wide arm movements and stretching up. From a young age, children are confident to attempt writing their names on their work and write for a range of other purposes, such as creating labels on displays. They acquire a great interest in stories and books, using the highly effective story sacks to tell the stories in their own way. Parents are encouraged to take home story sacks and share them with their children. There is also an extensive lending library for home sharing, which further encourages parental involvement in children's learning. Staff give children

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who attend

time to think and respond in free play, which supports their creative thinking. Children speak a wide range of languages between them, and this is accommodated by staff, who expertly employ the use of Makaton and their knowledge of other home languages to help children to become confident in their use of English. Staff demonstrate an expert knowledge of how children learn, giving them endless opportunities to touch, explore and manipulate toys, equipment and materials. As a result, children have high levels of control and independence, which keeps them curious and excited about their learning.

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who attend

Staff work closely with parents to gather information about children's interests and starting points. In the first few weeks of attendance, staff are very attentive to how children engage in play and their level of skill in all areas of learning. This means that the first summary assessments staff make are highly accurate portraits of the child as a whole person. Staff meet with parents to discuss what the next steps in children's learning will be, and centre the plans round each child's learning needs. This means that planning is highly effective at providing the right level of challenge for all children, including the gifted and talented. Planning is shared with parents, which helps them to have conversations with the children about what they are doing at nursery. This further enhances the excellent partnerships with parents as they can confidently support their children's learning at home. Staff who act as key persons for the children moving on to school pay

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who attend

close attention to ensuring that children have the skills they need to make the transfer smooth. As children's independence and skills have been closely fostered throughout their time in nursery, children are very much ready for the next stage in their learning.

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

The key person system is highly effective. All children and staff work together in a warm and relaxed atmosphere where children can move freely and engage in their choice of play. The key person's role is to oversee their children's learning needs and care in a particular age group, but all staff engage with all children, so children benefit from a range of strong relationships. As children grow, they already know the staff who will be their next key person, so the transition is extremely smooth. As a result, children are confident to separate from their parents and are very secure in the nursery. Staff have created excellent learning environments indoors and outside. Play materials are always easily accessible, giving children high levels of independence and choice. Children experience activities in the different playrooms or go outside for the majority of the day, which ensures that all children's individual learning styles are catered for.

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

Children have excellent opportunities to learn about healthy lifestyles. They eat a range of healthy foods at snack times. Children eat in sociable groups, serving themselves and pouring their own drinks. This builds children's independence and personal care skills, as well as helping children to enjoy snack times as social occasions. Children follow well- established hygiene routines and understand why they must wash their hands after messy play or using the toilet. Children enjoy play equipment, such as wheeled toys, and know how to manipulate push-and-pull toys. Their small muscle skills and hand-eye coordination are well supported in art and craft, early writing and construction activities. The outdoors also offers rich opportunities, such as a bug hotel and a dig-and-grow area, for children to learn about the world. Staff are very skilled at giving children opportunities to challenge themselves, while providing support and guidance. There is scope to build further on

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

children's opportunities to assess and manage risk for themselves while outdoors. Children have the confidence to experiment with new skills while staff are at hand, eagerly using any opportunity to support children's imaginative and critical thinking as they talk about shape, numbers and volume and capacity. Language development is a particular strength as expert practice ensures children whose starting points are below those expected soon begin to make rapid progress. The nursery meticulously plans for children's unique needs and their inclusive practice is exemplary. For instance, they have installed specific equipment to enhance the hearing ability of children with particular needs. This is exceptionally useful for all children, but particularly for those with cochlear implants or intermittent glue ear. The nursery works with projects such as Every Child a Talker and the ICAN early language development programme. This actively contributes to the wealth

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

of experience that practitioners use when planning for children. Parent partnerships are further enhanced as staff share what they have learned with them.

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

Children demonstrate excellent behaviour and social skills. Children benefit from being in a warm and flexible environment where all staff are involved with all the children most of the time. There are times in the day when they are given opportunities to forge friendships with older and younger children. This means they can practise their developing skills in cooperation and turn taking, and also have empathy for younger children who are also learning. The expert and inclusive practice of the highly skilled practitioners provides excellent grounding for children to be school ready. Staff create highly effective activities around the kinds of behaviours that make people happy and safe, and those which make people feel sad. As a result, children are assertive, say how they are feeling and manage their own behaviour very well. There is a consistently high standard of work throughout the nursery on display. The children have been learning about Van Gogh and looking at

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

one of his paintings. This followed Bonfire Night in November when the children experienced seeing an array of star bursts light up the sky. The nursery introduced the children to this work and invited them to 'have a go'. This demonstrates how inspirational teaching motivates children to use their imaginations and be creatively inspired. This celebration of children's skills further supports their well-being. Overall, this means that children acquire excellent skills for the next stage of their learning.

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provision

The manager has an excellent understanding of how to meet the welfare and safeguarding requirements. All staff have undergone training in child protection and the policies and procedures are clear and well understood. All staff are checked for their suitability to work with children and undergo a rigorous recruitment and induction procedure. However, the turnover of staff is negligible because of the first class support provided by the manager. Staff know what to do should they have concerns about the welfare of a child and demonstrate an exemplary understanding of other procedures, such as whistleblowing. The manager has robust systems in place to ensure that she meets the staff-child ratios at all times. The nursery has its own policy of having a smaller ratio than is necessary as they strive to achieve consistently higher quality. As children move freely around the play areas, staff show an exemplary understanding of how to support children

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provision

in their play, moving around to where children need them. This means that children are well supervised and their needs are met at all times. Record keeping and documentation are highly organised and staff follow procedures exactly. For example, the records of administered medication are accurate and surpass the requirements. Fire drills are highly frequent and risk assessments are regularly reviewed. This helps to underpin children's well-being.

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provision

The nursery employs highly qualified staff, and all staff are further developing their qualifications as they work. This means that the manager and staff can regularly review their practice against cutting edge ideas. Staff appreciate the wide range of opportunities to develop their skills, whether by training, mentoring or supervision and appraisal. Staff and management regularly observe each other's practice, discussing this together and looking for ways to improve. The manager involves staff, parents and children in the self- evaluation process and is continually setting targets for improvement. For example, the nursery send out a regular questionnaire asking 'What can we do better?' The manager also takes staff suggestions on board. As a result, the provision is being continually enhanced for the benefit of children. The manager has exemplary methods for monitoring and analysing the provision. She works closely with her team to review all the learning

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provision

journals frequently and gathers data about children's progress. She makes regular cohort analyses to check the impact of their teaching. This gives her excellent evidence to address any areas where children may be underachieving and demonstrates the high impact of initiatives, such as challenging those children who are gifted and talented. Parents clearly value the nursery very highly. They receive a wide range of information about their child's day and their achievements. Regular parents' evenings mean they are well informed about their child's development and the flow of information means they always know what is planned in nursery. Parents recall how they are invited to a parents' evening where they are given information about the Early Years Foundation Stage and how children learn through meaningful play activities.

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provision

Parents share their views and build networks as a community through groups linked to the nursery, such as the church group. The manager uses questionnaires to gather parents' views anonymously, and a comments book, which is always available in the nursery. This helps her to understand any concerns they raise, but also demonstrates how appreciative parents are of the high quality of education and care their children receive. The manager and staff have built excellent partnerships in the community. They work closely with the receiving schools to support children and their parents as they move on. The staff have an excellent understanding of how to work with other professionals to support children if any additional needs are identified. Overall, this means that children enjoy highly consistent care.

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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 305210 Local authority Cheshire East Inspection number 871762

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 45 Number of children on roll 45 Name of provider New Life Church Date of previous inspection 04/10/2011 Telephone number 01260295927

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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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