Farm Friends

Farm Friends Day Nursery Home Farm, Condover, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY5 7BT

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/04/2014 24/02/2009

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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

 Children are exceptionally happy, confident and motivated to learn. They feel very safe and show extremely high levels of independence and enjoyment. Children develop very strong and caring relationships with the staff who care for them.  The leadership and management of the nursery is outstanding and as a result, all staff fully understand their teaching responsibilities and offer interesting, innovative and challenging learning experiences.  Children have exceedingly good levels of consistency and continuity as there are exceptionally effective partnerships between the nursery and parents and carers. Parents and carers have an extremely high degree of trust in the staff and leadership of the nursery.

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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 observed activities in all playrooms and outside.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector had a meeting with the manager/owner and undertook a joint observation with her.  The inspector looked at children's assessment records and planning documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability of practitioners working with children and a range of other documentation, including the nursery's self-evaluation form and improvement plans.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took into account the views of parents and children spoken to on the day and information included in the nursery's own parents' questionnaires.

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Information about the setting

Farm Friends Day Nursery was registered in 2005 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in a two storey converted building, located in the grounds of a family owned farm on the outskirts of the village of Condover, Shropshire. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. Children have access to enclosed outdoor play areas adjacent to the buildings. Across the farmyard, there is also access to woodland and extensive rural walks. The nursery employs 16 members of childcare staff. Of these, 14 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3, including one with Early Years Professional Status and one with a BA (Honours) degree in Early Years Education. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 103 children attending who are in the early years age group. The

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Information about the setting

nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 enhance the already excellent assessment and tracking systems, so that the quality of unique child observations is consistently exceptional throughout the nursery.

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who attend

Teaching is outstanding. Staff support children exceptionally well and use adult-planned and child-initiated activities to extend their thinking, interests and learning in innovative ways. For example, staff and children are actively involved in exploring numbers using a range of resources and highly effective teaching. Children identify number symbols on cards, match these with spots, build towers to match the numbers and use mathematical language, such as more or less, bigger or smaller, as they purposefully discuss and respond to the practitioner's questions. As a result, children are highly active and fully engaged in their learning and make extremely good progress. Superb and animated questioning enables children to develop their knowledge when independently playing and investigating. For example, staff and young children explore pasta and rice and discuss how it moves between their fingers. Staff use Makaton to support children with language

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who attend

difficulties and plan specific activities to successfully support learning and development. As a result, all children's communication and language is supported exceedingly well and they make excellent progress.

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who attend

Staff show a genuine and purposeful interest in children's play and interactions and as a result, relationships between children and staff are exceedingly positive, warm and strong. Children are very happy, confident and have consistently high levels of independence. They are highly active and motivated learners. They freely engage in many independently selected activities, which they sustain for long periods of time. For example, a small group of pre-school children play a matching game to identify rhyming pairs of words. They enthusiastically encourage each other, take turns and all successfully stay involved to complete the game with obvious enjoyment. Staff expertly challenge children to develop their skills and extend their learning. For example, young children sing songs to help them to identify body parts and staff use their voices, actions and resources in highly effective ways to motivate and stimulate the children's understanding. Staff have a deep and

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who attend

comprehensive understanding of children's progress and their needs and interests. Assessment is rigorous and exceptionally comprehensive, giving an accurate picture of children's progress from their starting points. Learning files for all children are started as the child begins at nursery, using information provided by the parents. Observations of children are carried out on their first day and again after six weeks, to monitor the child's progress and identify their needs and interests. These are shared with parents. 'Unique child' observations are undertaken frequently, recorded and cross-referenced to the areas of learning. The amount of detail in the 'unique child 'observations varies from room to room, however, the way staff monitor and track children's progress and achievement is highly effective. Termly summaries of children's learning and development in all areas are completed and discussed and shared with parents and carers, who are encouraged to add

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who attend

their own comments. These are supported by digital photographs and examples of children's work. Parents are actively involved in their child's learning and development as they are actively encouraged to observe and record play activities at home. Also, staff include these in the children's record files. Staff use all information in highly effective ways to develop weekly plans and adult-led activities, which are matched to children's needs and interests. As a result, children are making exceptional progress in their learning and development. The children's learning file provides a delightful and detailed reference to share with parents

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who attend

The nursery operates from sympathetically converted buildings on a farm. These provide exemplary large spaces for children to explore, move and develop their physical skills, independence levels and confidence. There are exceptional outdoor areas, such as a nature trail across farmland and a large adventure play area. These offer scope for many different activities to develop children's skills and learning, across all ages. For example, children freely explore the natural local environment, develop their knowledge and understanding of farming activities and play outside, extending their physical skills, imagination and independence. Children's move between rooms in the nursery are exceptionally well supported. A child's key person completes a transition sheet prior to the child moving and this is discussed and shared with the parents. The key person and child visit the new room several times before a move. As a result, children's needs are given

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who attend

utmost priority and they are exceedingly well prepared for future stages in their learning. Parents are warmly welcomed into the nursery by the staff and have frequent exchanges of information. There is an excellent range of high-quality resources, freely available for the children. As a result, children engage in an extensive range of self-chosen activities, both inside and outdoors, which interest and motivate them.

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

Children's personal, social and emotional development is very effectively supported within the nursery. This enables children to form very strong and caring relationships with their peers and the staff. A highly effective key person system is well embedded, however, all staff, especially the manager, know the children very well. As a result, children show a real sense of belonging; they feel very safe and have a strong developed sense of trust. For example, babies cuddle into familiar adults and receive loving and sensitive attention. Behaviour within the nursery is exceptionally good and children respond to instructions and directions exceedingly well. Staff are exemplary, positive role models for the children. They treat them with great respect and loving care. Boundaries within the nursery are very sensitively reinforced, which ensures that children are safe and are cared for in first- class ways. Children's understanding of safety issues is demonstrated effectively through

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

their play. For example, very young children pick up toys from the floor without being asked, so that others will not trip.

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

Staff ensure a very clean and highly organised, attractive environment is provided. They give children time to develop their own play activities, at their own pace. Staff support children in highly effective ways to develop good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of infection. For example, children respond positively when asked to wash their hands before snack. Children are provided with meals and snacks, which are prepared on-site using produce grown on the farm, in the nursery garden or locally sourced. The weekly menu offers very healthy, balanced and nutritious meals and snacks, which children clearly enjoy. Drinking water is freely available. Older children are fully independent in their personal hygiene routines. Younger children and babies are given due respect and privacy when their personal care needs are being met. They are encouraged to develop their understanding by highly supportive staff who involve the children in collecting wipes and

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

nappies as appropriate. The extensive outdoor environment gives children abundant spaces to move around freely, explore and develop physical skills.

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

Staff work highly effectively as a team and share information about children's care needs and interests. There are very high levels of consistency and continuity of care between different rooms of the nursery and as a result, parents are very well informed about their child's needs. Staff ensure that they tailor the children's care according to their needs and ages and place exceptionally high emphasis on getting to know children's preference and interests. Highly purposeful conversations take place between staff and children to plan and get their views on the nursery's activities. For example, young children draw pictures of things that make them feel happy or sad and their pictures are annotated by staff. As a result, children are involved, active and motivated by the very interesting and highly innovative opportunities and experiences available to them.

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provision

The leadership and management of the nursery is outstanding. The ethos of the nursery promoted by the owner/manager is one where children are the centre of everything they do and staff have the highest aspirations for each child. There is a highly positive and pervasive 'can do' attitude across all areas of the nursery. The manager is exceptionally passionate about the nursery and is highly articulate in enthusing her staff to share her vision and aspirations. There are very rigorous and clearly written policies and procedures in place to ensure the safeguarding and welfare of children. These are implemented highly effectively to ensure children's safety and welfare. All staff know and fully understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children. There are effective and rigorous recruitment, vetting and induction procedures in place to ensure that adults caring for children are suitable. All the required policies and procedures, including risk

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provision

assessments and emergency evacuation practices, are in place. These are regularly reviewed.

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provision

Staff are highly qualified and this contributes to the exceptionally high quality of the provision. Training and staff development is given high priority. Also, all staff are actively encouraged to access training opportunities, in order to extend and support children's learning and development. The training is evaluated and reflected upon during one-to-one interviews, appraisals and in the development and achievement of room action plans, monitored by the manager. Staff show an exceptionally strong commitment to the care and well-being of all children and are expertly supported by the highly qualified manager and her deputy. As a result, staff show excellent understanding of ways to support and extend children's learning and thinking in all areas. For example, staff praise children's efforts and achievements in a variety of ways using words, such as, 'fantastic' and 'brilliant' instead of 'good', thus, developing children's vocabularies. They use gestures,

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provision

such as, 'high fives' and cuddles and genuine enthusiasm, to inspire children. Staff performance is effectively monitored through an appraisal system and very frequent and informal one-to-one discussions and staff meetings. Staff have an excellent understanding of the educational programme and ensure the highly positive environment and innovative teaching methods contribute effectively to children's exceptional progress and learning. Children's achievements are very effectively tracked against the early learning goals to monitor their progress and all children achieve well. Highly effective cohort tracking by the manager ensures that any gaps in children's learning are acted upon promptly and supportive activities are planned. The nursery has developed its own effective format for completing the progress check at age two, which is well embedded into the assessment and tracking arrangements of the nursery. An informative letter is given to parents before

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provision

the check is completed and this gives them good opportunities to contribute. A designated meeting enables the completed progress check at age two to be shared with parents and carers. There are very clear and achievable improvement plans in place, which are regarded as working documents. They are accurate, realistic and challenging and are developed through discussions with staff, children and parents' questionnaires and feedback. Recommendations from the last inspection have been addressed in full. This demonstrates a strong capacity for further improvement.

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provision

Parents and carers are exceptionally complimentary about the service provided by the nursery. They are very well informed about the nursery through an attractive welcome booklet, several attractive and informative notice boards and very approachable and friendly staff. Parents provide detailed information about their child before they start at the nursery and as a result, staff plan appropriate and supportive activities to help the child settle. Frequent discussions with staff enable information to be shared about children's care and activities. A home to nursery diary is highly effective in supporting a two-way flow of communication, ensuring continuity and consistency of care for children. Partnerships with the feeder schools and other providers are very strong and effective. As a result, children develop confidence and are well supported in the nursery as they move rooms and prepare for the next stage in their learning. Visitors to the nursery, such as the

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provision

fire brigade and wildlife trust, help children to develop an understanding of their local environment.

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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 EY303577 Local authority Shropshire Inspection number 861814

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 82 Number of children on roll 103 Name of provider Farm Friends Ltd Date of previous inspection 24/02/2009 Telephone number 01743 874 277

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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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