First Steps Childcare @ Brinsbury

First Steps Childcare @ Brinsbury Chichester College, Brinsbury Campus, North Heath, Pulborough, West Sussex, RH20 1DL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 27/03/2014 23/02/2011

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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 manager maintains a high level of organisation and this fully meets all requirements for deploying staff and supervising children well.  The manager and staff demonstrate precise knowledge about individual children's development. They reflect this well in the children's records of learning and effectively use their observations for future planning.  The staff use the well resourced outside play provision to encourage and enable children of varying age ranges to mix and socialise during outdoor play. This successfully increases their ability to explore and learn from each other.  The manager and staff have a welcoming, inclusive and open attitude to all families and they competently and continually develop partnerships with parents to promote children's learning.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not always use positive language to instruct children or manage children's behaviour and at times this reduces younger children's understanding.

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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 explained the inspection process on arrival and toured the premises.  The inspector observed children's activities and daily routines in all nursery rooms.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with the manager, staff, children and parents and viewed a range of documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector jointly observed a planned activity with the manager and discussed the outcomes for children.  The inspector provided feedback and gave the inspection judgements.

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Information about the setting

First Steps @ Brinsbury is one of four nurseries run by Chichester College Services. It registered in 2005 and has sole use of rooms in the purpose-built college. Children have access to an enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is situated in the rural location of the Brinsbury campus of Chichester College, between Billingshurst and Pulborough in West Sussex. It is open each weekday from 7.30 am to 6 pm for 51 weeks of the year. There are currently 63 children aged from birth to under five years on roll, some in part-time places. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are 10 members of staff who all hold qualifications in early years childcare and education. The setting provides funded early education for children aged two, three and four years.

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

 support children's understanding of managing their own behaviour by extending the use of positive language and encouragement.

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who attend

The nursery manager and staff plan and provide a wide range of interesting and challenging play experiences that meet the needs of the children attending. Staff effectively recognise and plan for children's early learning and they consistently use children's interests and levels of achievement to form these plans. For example, staff organise and include a cooking activity for younger children. This takes place with a small group of children to enable frequent turn taking and encourage children's confidence and communication skills. Staff encourage children to use the recipe book with pictures and this helps them to recognise and name the foods. Staff ask questions at times and automatically sound the first letter of the ingredient, which prompts children to match the foods with the picture. Children eagerly take turns and pass items to each other. They develop their physical skills when they practise with plastic knives to cut the butter. They

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who attend

learn how to spoon the flour and repeat as staff count. Staff praise children for their ability to handle eggs, especially when children capably use the side of the bowl to crack eggs. Children are encouraged to notice the weighing process and staff talk about numbers as they add ingredients. Staff clearly recognise younger children's interest in the simple techniques of cooking and they effectively use this for a range of learning opportunities.

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who attend

All children have ample freedom to make choices throughout their play. Once children move from the baby and toddler nursery room they mostly have free access to indoor or outdoor play. There are also opportunities for younger children to move into the pre- school rooms during free play to develop strong levels of curiosity and increase their confidence. Children calmly focus on the water play and pour water between containers and watch items float. They eagerly make marks with chalks and spend time covering all areas of the black board with chalk patterns. Children learn to fit puzzles together and use hammers and small nails with the woodwork toys. They have fun with the coloured flour and use large brushes to sweep the flour to different areas. Children are keen to hear stories and respond well to singing, especially the babies and toddlers who move their heads in time to the rhythm. These productive play opportunities encourage all children to make choices

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who attend

and take part, positively developing their physical skills and their understanding of the wider world around them.

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who attend

The manager and staff show high levels of knowledge about each child's characteristics and early learning. They clearly reflect children's progress through recording their observations of children's achievements and by providing summary assessments for parents. Staff competently use these to plan children's future learning. For example, to further increase children's confidence to talk in front of others, staff include regular small group times throughout the day and children choose how these will be organised.

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who attend

There are detailed records to show how staff work with parents and other agencies to promote and encourage children's progress in specific areas of development. Staff have clear evidence to demonstrate that this concentrated focus is supporting children's learning. The providers have recently developed an overall assessment scheme to monitor children's individual progress and link with staff's ongoing training and support. The nursery ran the scheme as a pilot and this is now included across all the nurseries in the group. It enables the manager to very clearly monitor the wider provision for children and close any gaps in children's achievement.

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who attend

The children's records of learning include thorough evidence of the detailed starting points that parents provide. These form effective opportunities for sharing information to support children's progress. The nursery has developed many systems to encourage parents and to regularly involve them in children's learning. Consequently parents eagerly explain how welcome they feel in the nursery. They have built close relationships with their child's key person and all nursery staff. This trusting relationship encourages children to feel secure and builds their confidence. They show strong skills of independence and decision-making and they know the nursery rules and routines. In this way staff competently prepare children for moving on in their learning.

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

The manager and staff follow fully planned settling routines for introducing key person staff to families. Parents and children spend ample time with their key person on the first visit to complete the nursery documentation and this build staff's knowledge of each child from the start. In this way staff build links with families and foster children's trust. Staff nurture younger children's personal and emotional development because they learn immediately about their individual care routines and follow these. For example, staff know the sleeping and feeding routines for babies and they organise and plan these to fit around daily walks.

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

As children grow and extend their capabilities, they have full opportunities to develop independence and take part in a wide variety of play opportunities. Children learn in this way to respond to staff and follow the nursery routines and rules. For example, children serve their own food and take turns automatically at lunchtime. They have good table manners and show a keen ability to socialise; they mostly listen and know how to behave well. Although at times of excitement and over-activity some children forget these rules of behaviour and staff do not always respond positively to encourage children's understanding of right and wrong. Children have freedom to create their own play and follow their ideas. They often build their relationships with others through using the play den to sit together and share their thoughts and imaginary ideas.

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

The manager and staff have created a well resourced outside play area that is clearly suitable for all age ranges. This fully encourages and enables children of varying age ranges to mix and socialise during outdoor play. Children successfully increase their ability to explore and learn from each other. In particular staff have used their knowledge to focus on the needs of younger children because they recognised the need for challenge in younger children's physical development. This resulted in staff including a wooden sloping walkway which fully encourages toddlers to walk up and down the sloping bridge and develop their early physical skills of balance. As children progress they show a strong interest in balancing on planks and with staff's help they competently extend this by learning to walk on the large tyres. Through taking small risks and independently making these decisions, children are learning about managing their own safety.

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

The children benefit from regular daily exercise and fresh air which strongly promotes their health and children have regular balanced meals. They show a keen ability to feed themselves and pour their own drinks. They make independent choices, especially at snack time when they spread their own toast. These routines clearly increase children's opportunities for extending their physical skills. Through the freedom to follow each other's example they recognise when they are hungry and thirsty. The wide range of indoor and outdoor provision in the nursery very effectively promotes children's all-round learning.

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provision

The manager has ample experience and a strong knowledge of the need to plan for children's learning. She works with qualified staff to provide a broad range of play opportunities. Through continually observing and effectively monitoring children's ongoing progress staff target areas of development. These systems enable the manager and staff to identify any gaps in the provision and plan accordingly to help children make good progress. There are clearly defined procedures for staff recruitment, checking staff's suitability to work with children and for their induction. Well-organised documentation shows that the manager follows detailed processes to ensure that staff know the nursery's safeguarding procedures to enable them to protect children's welfare. Through the induction process, new staff strongly understand the need to follow all routines for protecting and managing children's safety. This includes high levels of planned organisation to deploy staff and fully

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provision

meet the requirements for supervising children at all times and maintaining staff ratios.

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provision

Staff show a competent knowledge of safeguarding and clearly understand their role in recognising signs and symptoms of concern. They have attended child protection training and they know their duty to respond and to share any significant information about a child to help keep them safe. Staff have regular meetings and separate key person meetings across the nursery rooms. This enables staff to share ideas and plans for learning as well as developing ideas and driving improvements. The nursery also includes several inset days throughout the year for staff training and regular supervision and appraisal systems support all staff to continue to make progress. The nursery has fully organised training routes for apprentices and the manager and senior staff support and encourage apprentices to take responsibility as they develop. The nursery providers have introduced a computer system to track all children's learning and this also enables all staff to access

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provision

relevant and appropriate training opportunities.

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provision

The nursery has fully established processes for recording the assessment of risks and hazards for children's daily care and for walks on the college campus. The manager conducts a full nursery annual risk assessment and staff carry out daily checks. These include all details of on-site walks and staff use a nursery mobile; they record all the names of children taken out on the campus. Documented procedures are also in place for all fire drills and emergency evacuation. In this way the nursery is able to demonstrate consistent and competent safety routines to help to keep children safe.

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provision

The manager has completed a self-evaluation process which includes an action plan for each nursery room and for the outdoor area. This shows the focused plans for increasing staff's learning and for adding resources. Staff clearly explain that they contribute to the evaluation through monthly meetings and by adding ideas or suggestions. In this way they are positively contributing to the evaluation of the provision and helping to plan for future improvements. Parents complete questionnaires and use a comments box for suggestions so that they contribute to the nursery's improvement plans. They know that they can raise any issues or speak with key staff or the manager at any time. The manager has strong links across the nursery group and with the wider college provision for support and for seeking support and guidance from other agencies to meet children's needs.

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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 EY308040 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 956160 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 48 Number of children on roll 63 Name of provider Chichester College Services Limited Date of previous inspection 23/02/2011 Telephone number 01243 812938

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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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