Little Folks Nursery & Out of School Club

Little Folks Nursery & Out of School Club Westwards Close, Kingstanding, Birmingham, B44 8LR

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 19/03/2014 29/08/2013

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 At times, the required adult-to-child ratios and the daily record of the names of the children being cared for are not maintained effectively, to fully secure children's safety.  There is scope to further develop the learning environment in the pre-school and toddler room to enhance children's decision making skills and enable them to explore, investigate and organise their own play and learning.  There is room to improve the opportunities for all children to play outdoors and enable older children to move freely between indoor and outside, and enhance children's independence skills during snack and meal times.

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It has the following strengths

 Practitioners have a sound knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities with regards to child protection, and the procedures to follow in the event of a concern.  Practitioners have a good knowledge and understanding of how children learn and develop, and the quality of teaching is good.  Practitioners are kind and approachable, ensuring babies and children settle and develop a sense of belonging.

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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 the all three playrooms, the outdoor play space and pre-school children having their snack and lunch. The communication/ICT room was not in use on the day of the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to the provider, manager, a senior practitioner, the practitioner team and children at appropriate times during the inspection.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with a senior practitioner.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of practitioners working with the children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including, staff suitability checks, children's development records and policies and procedures.  The inspector held a meeting with the provider and manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day of the inspection.

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Information about the setting

Little Folks Nursery and Out of School Club was registered in 2011 and is one of a number of settings run by Mishi Nurseries Limited. It operates from an adapted warehouse in the Kingstanding area of Birmingham and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It is open Monday to Friday from 7.30am until 6pm all year round, with the exception of Bank Holidays. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery employs nine members of childcare staff, six of whom hold appropriate qualifications at level 3. One member of staff holds a foundation degree and two staff hold Early Years Professional Status. There are currently 65 children on roll who are within the early years age group. The setting also offers care to children aged from five to eight years. It provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-olds.

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Information about the setting

The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who speak English as an additional language.

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must:

 ensure adult-to-child ratios are maintained at all times to meet the needs of all children and ensure their safety

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must:

 maintain an accurate daily record of the names of the children being cared for on the premises, their hours of attendance and the names of each child's key person.

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

 use routine activities consistently to strengthen children's growing independence to do things for themselves, such as being involved in the preparation of food at snack time and serving themselves to food at lunchtime

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

 review the organisation of toys and resources in the pre-school room and toddler room to further enable children to explore, investigate and organise their own play and learning

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

 improve the opportunities for children to play outdoors and enable the older children in the provision to move freely between the indoor and outdoor space to further enhance their learning and development.

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who attend

Children are warmly welcomed into the nursery by practitioners who have a good knowledge and understanding of how children learn. Throughout the nursery practitioners use effective planning, observation and assessment systems to provide a range of learning and development opportunities to meet their individual learning needs. Practitioners observe children regularly and use this information to plan activities based on children's interests, ideas and developmental needs. This results in children making generally good progress towards the early learning goals. However, in the pre-school room and toddler room toys and resources are not organised as well as they could be to fully enhance the opportunities for children to explore, investigate and organise their own play and learning, and fully maximise their learning and development in all areas and support them in developing the characteristics of effective learners. Children's progress is monitored well to

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who attend

make sure any gaps in their learning are quickly identified and addressed. Children's developmental records provide a good overview of children's progress and achievement. Parents are encouraged to be involved in their children's learning from the outset and to support and extend children's learning at home.

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who attend

Children's communication and language skills are fostered effectively in all playrooms. All children like to listen to stories and sing rhymes. They have opportunities to foster their expressive art and design skills, and their artwork is displayed, showing they take part in painting and sticking activities. For example, there are paintings depicting 'Our faces' and butterfly painting. Children's mathematical skills are developing well as during activities practitioners talk to them about numbers, shape names, colour and size. Children enjoy exploring the contents of the 'magic bag', as they dip their hand into the bag in anticipation of what they might find. They are encouraged to talk about the object they select, describe how it feels and identify the colour. Older children enjoy the opportunity to make their own play dough. They each take a turn and count 'three big spoons of flour' into the bowl. After adding the water children mix the dough with their hands and they

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who attend

talk about what the dough feels like. As they play, practitioners ask children questions to prompt a response, saying 'Let's all feel it', and children talk about the dough being 'squashy' and 'mushy'. The dough is manipulated by the children in different ways, and some children talk about making shapes.

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who attend

Children learn about the wider world and the environment through discussions and activities linked to the different seasons and a number of festivals and celebrations. Children use computers, accessing programmes and clicking on the mouse to perform various functions with increasing control. This helps to support their understanding of technology. Babies and younger children enjoy a cosy space where they confidently explore and investigate a wide range of resources appropriate to their age and stage of development. There is a good focus on activities to promote children's learning and development in the prime areas of learning. Practitioners take every opportunity to promote children's communication and language skills, and their interaction with the children is good. During activities they reinforce words with the children as they look at flash cards together. For example, they start by asking children 'What's this?' and 'Can you

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who attend

say it?' Children enjoy action songs and begin to identify and name parts of their bodies when they sing about this. This fosters children's communication and language skills from an early age. Children play with puzzles, shape sorters and a wide range of electronic toys, and find out how these work by pressing buttons to make a sound. Children use a range of natural resources and materials in their play. They explore the properties of sand and water, pasta and play dough. This helps develop the use of their senses. A good outdoor play space provides children with opportunities to develop their physical skills and confidence, although on the day of inspection this was not used to its full potential and there is further scope to consider how pre-school children can have more free access to the outdoor play space. Overall, children make generally good progress in their learning and development and practitioners help them to achieve the skills they need for their next

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who attend

phase in learning as they move on to school.

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

Staffing arrangements during the first part of the morning session on the day of the inspection did not meet the required adult-to-child ratios. This results in children's needs not being fully met, or their safety being fully assured.

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

Children's individual health, dietary and individual care needs are fully understood by practitioners and generally well met. An 'all about me' form is used to gather information about children's needs and interests at home when they first start at the nursery. Practitioners are kind and reassuring. They have a warm rapport with the children and this helps all children develop a sense of belonging and feel secure. Babies and younger children are confident within their environment and they move around freely exploring and investigating the wide range of resources which are thoughtfully set out to meet their needs. The storage of toys and resources, specifically in the pre-school room and toddler room, does not fully offer children the opportunities to enhance their decision-making skills. While children are progressing and developing to a generally good degree, there is room to enhance this through the better organisation of resources to make sure children

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

develop the skills they need as they move forward in their learning and on to school.

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

Children are well supported as they move between rooms in the nursery and move forward in their learning. They have regular visits to their new room to help them become familiar with the routine, the practitioner team and their peers. Practitioners and parents share information each day during arrival and collection times, and daily written feedback is provided for the younger children in the nursery. This ensures parents are kept informed about their child's day, care routines and achievements. Throughout the nursery all children receive good levels of support to manage their behaviour. They are helped to understand about sharing and taking turns, and they play harmoniously together to support their sense of well-being. Practitioners know the children well and talk about their unique characteristics. This helps them to manage their behaviour in a focused and appropriate way. Inclusion is promoted within the nursery, and all families are valued and

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

respected. There are clear strategies in place to support children who speak English as an additional language. Practitioners obtain key words from parents in their home language and use these during play and routines. This helps practitioners support children's communication skills, and helps children to feel confident and settled during their time at nursery. Links with other agencies and professionals work well to ensure all children receive the support they need.

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

Children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks that are healthy and well balanced. They enjoy fresh and dried fruit at snack time, and freshly cooked meals at lunchtime. Information is obtained from parents about children's special dietary needs, parents' preferences and any food allergies. Mealtimes are a sociable occasion where children sit together, and have the opportunity to relax and chat to their peers. Overall, children develop independence in their self-care skills well and older children talk about having clean hands before they sit down at snack time. Practitioners talk to children about healthy food choices, explaining that fruit is very good for them. However, opportunities are missed to further enhance children's self-help and independence skills, particularly in the pre-school room. For example, by including children in the preparation of snack time food, pouring their own drinks or serving themselves to food at lunchtime. These are skills

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

that will support them when they move on to school. Children's physical development is fostered generally well. A large outdoor play space provides plenty of scope for play and learning activities. A range of resources are accessible outdoors to promote children's development, including a playhouse, a small climbing frame, a slide and construction bricks. Toddlers enjoy practising throwing and catching using balls and beanbags, and riding on bikes. This helps promote their coordination skills. Practitioners are clear about how to minimise risks to children, and they carry out regular safety checks in all areas used by the children. Children learn about keeping themselves safe through their play and interactions. They also learn about the procedure for evacuating the premises in an emergency.

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provision

This inspection took place because of concerns raised with Ofsted about adult-to-child ratios, the security of the premises and health and hygiene concerns. While no concerns were observed in relation to aspects of health and hygiene, and the security of the premises, this inspection found that adult-to-child ratios where not being maintained during the first part of the morning session on the day of inspection. Furthermore, the daily record for children's hours of attendance is not always maintained accurately or in an efficient and timely manner. Likewise, the records of staff working with the children on any one day are not precise. This means that some of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and both parts of the Childcare Register are not met, and children's safety is not fully secure.

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provision

Practitioners fully understand their role in protecting children. They have completed safeguarding training and are knowledgeable about what to do in the event of a concern about a child, or if an allegation is made against a member of staff. Safeguarding information is displayed in the nursery. This acts as a useful guide for practitioners and parents, with the steps to take if they have concerns about the behaviour of any adult on the premises or concerns about a child's welfare. Disclosure and Barring Service checks are in place for all practitioners to ensure their suitability to work with children. Practitioners' ongoing suitability and professional development are supported through effective systems for supervision, appraisal and performance management.

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provision

Parents are warmly welcomed into the nursery and are provided with a range of information during the settling-in period, such as policies and procedures and details of their child's key person. This helps build the link between home and the setting. The nursery has established links with external agencies to ensure appropriate intervention for children who may need additional support.

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provision

The leadership, management and practitioner team are committed to improvement and work well as a team to achieve improvement through self-evaluation. Parents and children are asked to share their views about the provision, and this links into the self-evaluation process. In the entrance area parents comment and share their views about different aspects of the provision, such as the leadership and management of the nursery, and their interest in attending workshops. They also comment that practitioners are very helpful. Parents spoken to at the time of the inspection are happy with the provision and the progress their children make. They talk about their children being happy, the support they receive from the nursery and the warm and friendly staff team. That said, some parents expressed their wish to take part in more focused and regular meetings with practitioners where they can talk about their child's progress, and how they can support children's

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provision

learning at home if they wish. The management team are aware of this, and will arrange to talk to parents about how they can facilitate this.

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provision

Risk assessments are in place in individual rooms, and the overall policy is updated annually. There are effective policies in place with regard to recording accidents, and details of any medication administered to children. A wide range of policies and procedures are in place and shared with parents. This ensures parents are kept well informed about how the provision operates. The nursery have developed links with other early years providers in the area, and this supports children's continuity of care and learning. The nursery forge links with schools that children will be moving to, and they help introduce children to their new schools during walks in the local area to ensure that the transition process is a positive experience. This means that children's transitions as they move forward in their learning are supported effectively.

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provision

Good systems are in place to monitor the effectiveness of the educational programme and the progress children make. Learning journals are reviewed regularly by the management team to ensure children are making the expected progress in their learning and development, and that planning reflects their individual learning needs across all areas of learning. However, there is room to improve the organisation of the learning environment in some areas of the nursery to further promote children's learning and development.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 keep records of the following and retain them for a period of two years: a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  keep records of the following and retain them for a period of two years: a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (voluntary part the Childcare Register).

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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 EY428026 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 954157

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 44 Number of children on roll 65 Name of provider Mishi Nurseries Limited Date of previous inspection 29/08/2013 Telephone number 01213845790

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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

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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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