Busy Bees Day Nursery at Chelmsford

Busy Bees Day Nursery at Chelmsford 5 The Meades, Off New Writtle Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0GT

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/03/2014 04/04/2013

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 1 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's individual needs are highly reflected, valued and respected throughout the nursery, which results in children making exceptional progress in their learning, in both the indoor and outdoor environments.  Babies receive excellent levels of subtle and sensitive support, enabling them to settle quickly and make nurturing attachments with their key person.  The fully embedded assessment programme extensively monitors children's development through input from staff, parents and children. This enables the achievement gap between boys and girls to be decreased.  The partnership with parents and other professionals is extremely strong. This results in a committed approach to consistent practices and continuity for each individual child.  Children are very effectively safeguarded. All staff are very well informed about child protection issues, and the premises is safe and secure. The management team use

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This provision is outstanding

highly reflective practices to review staff's understanding of how to keep children safe.

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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 four rooms and the outside area.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the pre-school room leader.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took into consideration the comments from parents during the inspection and from questionnaires.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualification of staff working with children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the provider's self-evaluation form and improvement plan.

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Information about the setting

Busy Bees Day Nursery at Chelmsford was registered in 2000 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery is part of a large national chain, under the ownership of Busy Bees. The nursery runs from a purpose built single storey unit and is within walking distance of Chelmsford city centre and railway station. All children have access to an outdoor play area. The nursery employs 36 members of childcare staff. Of these, 26 staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2 or above, including one with Early Years Teacher Status. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round from 7.30am to 6.30pm on Monday and Friday and 7am to 6.30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. An out of school club is also provided. This is open each weekday after school until 6.30pm during term time and for nursery opening times during school holidays. A member of nursery staff accompanies

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Information about the setting

a taxi service to collect children from local schools. There are currently 188 children attending, of these, 171 are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 extend the effectively established tracking programme to assess the effectiveness of the inside and outside environment, for each individual child's progress.

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who attend

Children are safeguarded extremely well. Highly effective procedures are in place to keep children safe from harm. Staff have a very clear knowledge of what to do if they have any concerns about children in their care. All staff have attended child protection training and have an excellent understanding of how to implement procedures both internally and externally. The leaders and managers of the nursery provide robust procedures that are carried out thoroughly, in the event of a safeguarding concern. Very robust recruitment procedures are in place to employ highly suitable and qualified staff. The thorough induction procedure, appraisal and training programme allows staff to identify their own development needs, and to further their professional qualifications and practice. The process for monitoring the educational programme is highly effective, with every effort made to include all staff in this evaluation, and to encourage input from all staff about

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who attend

changes in practice. Well maintained documentation is constantly updated and recorded to promote children's welfare. For example, records of children's attendance are accurate and demonstrate clearly that each room meets the required ratios throughout the day. The partnership with parents is extremely strong. Parents have access to a wealth of information, either on the website, displayed, written or verbally exchanged. Parents make very positive comments about the nursery, praising the staff's dedication and commitment to their children. Parents feel part of the nursery and that their children's individual needs are at the heart of the nursery. The nursery also provides regular information for parents, such as ideas for menus and celebrations of their children's achievements from home. This parental involvement helps children to benefit from the increasingly strong shared understanding of how children learn and develop. The partnership with other agencies and

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who attend

professionals is also strong. Excellent partnerships are forged with the local authority to support children whose families are in need. Area Special Educational Needs Coordinators support staff when they require specialist information and ideas to promote individual children's development. Some staff have worked with other settings to disseminate their good practice. The pre-school staff have established very effective links with local schools to smooth and ease the transition for children to school. Reception teachers visit and liaise closely with the staff whose aims are to promote consistent practices, and to provide continuity from the nursery to full time school.

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who attend

The nursery's self-evaluation demonstrates all staff's pursuit of excellence. Management, staff, parents and children all have an active voice in evaluating the effectiveness of the nursery. They all participate in making changes in practice, that benefit children's potential to achieve and maintain high levels of development. The leaders and management strive to continuously improve, through challenging and prioritised actions. Individual staff's good practice is celebrated and shared with all staff to provide consistent levels or performance throughout the nursery, although all staff are highly encouraged and successfully implement a programme that celebrates and nurtures the individual child's needs.

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

Children's well-being is exceptionally well supported by staff. In the baby room, staff are extremely vigilant and provide subtle and sensitive support to enable young children to settle quickly, and feel confident and self-assured in their environment. Staff know children's routines well and have a very clear understanding of how the use of individual routines helps children to bond and make attachments, resulting in high levels of involvement in activities and developing independence through exploration. There is a well-established key person system in place, but all staff develop close relationships with all children, so that they feel confident with whichever member of staff they are interacting with. Staff know children's characters and personalities well, and recognise signs of tiredness, excitement and involvement, to enable them to interact and help children to feel physically and emotionally secure. For example, a baby explores the

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

materials and sensory experiences of the 'black and white' area. Staff notice when they show signs of tiredness as they cuddle up to their comforter. They provide very calm and sensitive interaction by providing the child with a quieter area, introduce soft books and pictures to them, and talk in soothing ways to provide an environment to relax their mind and body. Staff spend time reflecting this child's personal needs and individual routines by preparing their bed with their own covers and supporting the child into their preferred sleeping position, before soothing them into a calm and restful sleep by talking and stroking their backs. This was carried out whilst other babies took part in noisy, painting activities and physical play, but this did not detract from the importance of meeting children's individual needs in a highly professional manner.

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

Children use the highly stimulating outdoors area to support their overall feeling of well- being. They gain fresh air everyday through open doors and windows, as well as freely accessing the garden. Careful staffing arrangements are made to provide young babies with opportunities to go outside, and experience learning and exploration on a different level. Children's physical skills are highly prompted through movement and equipment. Children use the ride on cars to propel themselves, using small hills and banks to change directions and speed. Babies use space to explore by crawling and, in the first steps room, children learn to become mobile and secure on their feet, negotiating the two rooms and moving from inside to out. Staff support children's understanding of keeping themselves safe through clear explanation, excellent levels of support to gain independence and as good role models of supporting one another. Children are supervised well with staff having

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

a keen awareness of individual children's traits of wanting to be in other areas. For example, staff work closely together in the garden to allow children freedom to explore all areas in their designated space, but are quick to intervene when children wish to gain entry into the pre-school room to explore other areas. Staff make allowances for this and assess when it is safe to encourage children to use additional areas, such as the bridge and tunnel in the pre-school garden, but give very clear explanations when it is not safe for them to use this area, especially when the pre-school children are using the areas themselves. Children's understanding of hygiene is promoted very highly throughout the nursery. As children move up through the nursery they develop a clear understanding of good hygiene practices, with emerging skills in independence and self-care. Staff provide good demonstrations to children, from a very early age, about hygiene, including nappy

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

changing and toilet training. Safety is a high priority in the nursery. The excellent risk assessments show that the environment is effectively monitored to support children's growing understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. Children's behaviour is exemplary. This is due to the way the staff team work so well together, negotiating and cooperating in their working lives. Children see this as a positive role model and learn to support and care for each other. Children are provided with a varied and very nutritional range of meals, snacks and drinks. Children's diet is carefully monitored, especially those who have intolerances or allergies. Very effective procedures are followed to enable children with dietary restrictions to eat safely with the rest of their peers. Drinks are feely available to children, encouraging independence and self-help skills.

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

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those with English as an additional language are given exceptional levels of support and recognition. Children's individual needs are highly recognised, reflected in their every day care and positively valued. Therefore, children's culture, language, and physical and emotional well-being is prolifically supported, enabling them to feel part of the nursery and they are provided with a fully inclusive service. For example, staff gain written and verbal information about the language children speak at home and use resources to reflect their language, helping them to communicate their needs through gestures and pictorial aids, resulting in children settling quickly and making emotional attachments to staff. Staff are very well equipped to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They use information from parents and from other professionals to make small targets for achievements, and

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

work closely with other staff to provide the environment and resources to enable children to develop to their full potential. Children throughout the nursery gain a clear understanding about celebrating differences within their community and society as a whole. Children have use of an extensive range of resources that reflect positive messages of gender, non-stereo typical roles, skin colour and disability.

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provision

Children are making exceptional progress in all the areas of learning, in all the rooms in the nursery. Children flourish in the highly motivated environment, where very knowledgeable staff support children's learning, through very effective teaching practices. Children make clear decisions as to where they want to play and learn, moving freely and successfully between their care rooms and the garden. Staff cleverly support and challenge children's learning through observations, knowing when to interact with children and when to allow children to lead their own activities and learning. Staff use effective questioning to make children think, and to encourage further learning. Staff use subtle encouragement by introducing new words or resources to extend children's thinking which, therefore, results in children developing new ideas and establishing learning strategies. For example, children playing with small world animals and figures are

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provision

enthralled by the conversation with staff about how animals move, resulting in their play moving outside, and the introduction of movements to emulate animals from their play. Staff cleverly promote all the areas of learning equally, by installing new ideas and making suggestions to support children's learning to their full potential.

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provision

Children love to explore all manner of resources that are clearly labelled, easy to reach and linked to areas of learning, and to children's stages of development. Staff provide a rich and exciting environment for children both indoors and outdoors, which varies children's experiences and learning. For example, indoors, children make good use of the maths bear to use numbers, amounts and numerals, learning that numbers have a purpose in their everyday lives. Whereas outside, children associate numerals and amounts with the ride on bikes and cars, enabling them to match the number on their vehicle to the numeral written on the parking space. Children make marks from a very early age, developing the basic physical skills needed for this when in the baby and first steps room, progressing on to purposeful skills for writing in the pre-school room. Babies explore paints with their fingers, enjoying the texture and sensory experience, as well as

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provision

running their fingers along the table to make marks in the paint. Toddlers explore the sand and water in their rooms, making marks with vehicles and small tools, such as spades, to create lines and dots in the sand. Pre-school children develop skills that show a clear understanding that print has a meaning, by using emerging skills of labelling their paintings and creations, and using their names for registration, and recognition of name pegs. This demonstrates staffs' excellent understanding of the process of learning, very effective teaching strategies and provides children with the necessary skills, in readiness for school.

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provision

Children's progress is highly reflected through the successful and ever developing assessment programme. All staff have a very clear knowledge of how to track and assess each child's progress, using recorded information to plan for children's next steps. Parents play an important part in providing information about children's starting points when they start at the nursery, and have an ongoing input into their progress, by providing information from home. Staff provide each parent with ideas and suggestions as to how to support children's learning at home. Parents are kept well informed about children's achievements, these are celebrated verbally and in writing, through parent's evenings and daily diaries. Summaries of children's achievements, either through the progress checks for children age two, or regular reports, are evaluated to demonstrate how the gap between achievements for boys and girls is closing. Therefore, staff plan effectively for

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provision

each child's next steps, and their ongoing progress according to their individual development needs, interests and preferences.

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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 650090 Local authority Essex Inspection number 952561

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 99 Number of children on roll 171 Name of provider Busy Bees Day Nurseries (Trading) Limited Date of previous inspection 04/04/2013 Telephone number 01245 346 324

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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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