Riverside Nursery

Riverside Community Nursery 1a Riverside Close, London, E5 9SP

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 24/03/2014 19/04/2013

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision requires improvement

 Staff make suitable use of daily routines, free play, topics and planned activities to support children's learning and development.  Children's health is promoted during daily routines and in activities.  Staff's positive partnership with parents contributes towards children's care, learning and development.  Children are learning about the boundaries set by staff to help them to play co- operatively with others.

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It is not yet good because

 The management team and staff do not always inform parents of significant incidents which happen away from nursery, at another setting, that have an impact on the safety of their child's welfare.  The manager and staff have not reviewed their missing children's policy in order to further reduce the risk of children getting lost away from the nursery.  Children do not have easy access to dual language books so that they can become aware of other languages and the different ways they are written.  The treasure baskets for babies to play with lack a good variety of natural materials and resources for their sensory 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 interviewed the registered individual and the manager and invited them to conduct a joint observation.  The inspector interviewed a number of parents.  The inspector interviewed some of the staff.  The inspector observed staff's interaction with children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documents that included staff records, policies, children's assessments records and the register of attendance.

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Information about the setting

Riverside Community Nursery registered in 2004. It operates from three rooms in a purpose-built building in the Upper Clapton area within the London Borough of Hackney. All children share access to an enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm for 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 66 children aged from birth to under five years on roll. The nursery supports a number of children learning to speak English as an additional language and supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are nine members of staff, seven of whom hold early years qualifications at level 3 or 4. The manager holds a degree in early childhood studies and one member of staff holds Early Years Professional Status.

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must:

 ensure that parents are informed of significant events that have an impact on the safety and well-being of their children, such as a child going missing, at the earliest opportunity.

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

 review the policy for missing children and update where necessary particularly in relation to if a child is missing away from the nursery

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

 place dual language books where children can have access to them and in doing so learn about other languages, including those that are written in different ways

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

 widen the variety of sensory materials on offer to broaden babies sensory development and experiences.

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who attend

Children are generally happy to play alone, for example when drawing pictures. They enjoy playing in small groups in the role play area, developing their imaginations and social skills. Staff provide opportunities for children to develop a sense of belonging and relationships with others. For example, they create opportunities for children to become engaged in large group activities during circle time sessions. This helps prepare them for the opportunities they will experience when they go to school. The staff support children in celebrating their achievements as they help them to notice what they do well. They provide opportunities for children to see their work on display in the rooms and the hallway. This helps to promote children's self-esteem and also shows that the staff value children's contributions.

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who attend

Staff regularly observe the children at play and keep a record of each child's achievements and the next steps in their learning. They use this information well to implement individualised learning for each child or group of children, taking account of their needs and specific routines. This helps the staff to plan and provide activities and topics that are appropriate for children's stage of development, enabling them to make sound progress in their learning.

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who attend

Staff engage in conversation with children, which helps to develop their communication and language skills. For example, staff use positive teaching techniques, such as asking open-ended questions that encourage children to respond and express their ideas at their own pace both verbally and non verbally. Staff also take interest in what children say as they listen and allow children time to communicate, which indicates that they value what children say. Staff provide a running commentary of what they are doing when changing babies' nappies, which helps to promote babies' communication and language development. Staff also support children learning to speak English as an additional language though repetition of words, labelling objects and through the use of visual support that helps them to understand what is being said. Staff encourage children to develop their creative and imaginative skills through painting activities, water and sand

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who attend

play, dry food activities and role play. However, babies do not have a good range of natural materials to explore to develop their sense of observation, touch and smell and to encourage them to interact with their environment.

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who attend

Children make decisions about what they would like to play with from the toys that staff set out for them each day on tabletops and at floor level. In the main, children have opportunities to independently select from the range of toys and equipment that are available in low-level storage units. However, children do not have independent easy access to the nursery's range of dual language books as staff store these books in the hallway and well above children's height. This means that children have fewer opportunities to develop an understanding that there are languages other than English and to become aware that other languages are written in different ways.

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

Staff and parents work together to plan a settling-in arrangement according to the children's specific needs. Staff encourage parents to share information about their child's daily routines, interests, likes and dislikes. This helps staff to get to know the children and start to build trusting relationships that helps to develop children's confidence in a new environment. Key persons stay close to new babies and young children so that they feel reassurance when unfamiliar adults are present in the room. Children's self-esteem is fostered by staff who give praise, encouragement and recognise each child's efforts and achievements. Staff are consistent in their approach to behaviour management and use appropriate strategies to manage children's behaviour, such as distraction techniques and simple explanation. Children also benefit from some basic ground rules, which the older children help staff in creating. Young children demonstrate that they are aware of some of

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

the ground rules as they remind each other to not shout when singing songs.

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

Children benefit from daily opportunities to play outdoors and engage in a range of physical activities. They enjoy riding tricycles, climb up the climbing frame, push buggies and walk along balancing beams. Staff provide regular opportunities for children to practise kicking, throwing and catching skills with balls. Staff create sufficient space for babies to crawl, learn to sit up and practise walking. Children develop their hand and eye coordination as they use small equipment such as puzzles, pressing buttons on activity sets and linking constructions sets. Some young children are beginning to use their three fingers to hold a pencil when making marks, demonstrating good manipulative skills.

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

Children enjoy healthy meals and snacks that meet their dietary requirements. Staff make sure that fresh drinking water is available for children so that they do not get thirsty. Staff use appropriate hygiene procedures during daily routines to reduce the spread of germs or infection to children. Older children know to wash their hands before meals, after toileting and painting activities. Staff support young children to wash their hands at routine times so that they learn to develop good personal hygiene. Staff help children to understand how to keep themselves safe as they practise the evacuation procedures in the event that there is an emergency on the premises.

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provision

The nursery's arrangements for safeguarding children are satisfactory. The manager and staff demonstrate a sound understanding of child protection issues and how to proceed if they have concerns that a child is at risk of harm. The nursery has put in place suitable measures to help ensure that children are unable to leave the premises without a suitable adult. In addition to this, the positive key person system and staff deployment contributes to the careful supervision of the children throughout the day. The inspection took place following a concern raised to Ofsted that the nursery did not inform a parent that their child was missing. At the inspection the manager admits that they did not ring the parent because they assumed that the other setting the child had been at would ring the parent first as the child went missing whilst in their care. Although the nursery did not have the responsibility of caring for the child at that time, they did not meet this aspect of a

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provision

safeguarding and welfare requirement. This is because they failed to inform the child's parent, or act in the child's best interests when they discovered that they were missing. There was no significant impact on the child's welfare because they were safe. The manager and staff demonstrate that they are aware of their responsibilities if a child is missing at the nursery. Although the policy for missing children shows that it was last reviewed over two years ago the staff are able to demonstrate the steps they would take if a child went missing when on outings, which includes contacting the police and ringing the parents.

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provision

The nursery has suitable recruitment and vetting procedures in place to check that staff are suitable to work with children. Staff have regular supervision, which helps towards the assessment of their ongoing suitability. Staff attend meetings where they share information and ideas, which contributes to the development of their practice and improving outcomes for children. Staff have an understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage learning and development requirements, which contributes to the children making sound progress.

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provision

The manager and staff have appropriately addressed the recommendation set at the last inspection, thus demonstrating their sound capacity to make improvements. In the main, the provider and the manager have a clear idea of how they want to improve the nursery to continue to meet the needs of the children and their parents. The manager and staff welcome the advice and support they receive from external agencies, such as early years advisors, health visitors and therapists. This supports the welfare of the children.

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provision

The staff's positive relationships with parents are both friendly and supportive. Staff greet parents on their arrival and engage in conversation, exchanging information that enables them to be consistent when attending to children's care routines. In addition, the staff encourage parents' involvement in their children's learning and development within the setting or at home. For example, parents attend regular meetings with their child's key persons where they have opportunities to contribute to their child's ongoing assessments. The nursery has appropriate communication systems in place to inform parents of their babies' care routines, children's activities, general well-being and their policies and procedures. Parents say that the staff are friendly and approachable. They say their children are happy to attend the nursery and are developing well. The parents also comment that the male staff members have helped the boys to grow in confidence. The

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provision

nursery has appropriate systems in place to support children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Close liaison with parents and outside agencies ensures all children's needs are planned for and met appropriately. They also say that their children are safe in the nursery. In light of a recent incident, the nursery is now developing working relationships with the other settings to promote continuity of care for children who attend both settings.

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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 EY278939 Local authority Hackney Inspection number 944288 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 42 Number of children on roll 66 Name of provider Riverside Community Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 19/04/2013 Telephone number 0208 806 7143

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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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