Loveders Nursery School

Loveders Nursery School Priors Leaze Lane, Nutbourne, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 8RH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 16/05/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: Not Applicable 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

 The nursery school has highly effective systems for organising and planning activities and this enables all staff to use their enthusiasm and expertise to provide rich, varied and imaginative experiences for children.  The quality of teaching is consistently high and all staff demonstrate very strong levels of understanding and providing for each child's individual development.  Staff are entirely flexible in following children's interests and ideas; they purposefully and expertly engage with children at all times and fully enable children to develop at their own pace.  There are highly successful strategies to engage parents in children's learning and this strong focus and area for improvement has increased and developed parent's awareness of continuing with opportunities for learning at home.  The nursery management have comprehensively developed and extended the systems for evaluating staff performance and this very effectively includes opportunities for staff

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This provision is outstanding

to make progress and reflect on the quality of their daily practice.  The provider has established and embedded an exemplary ethos to support children's care and learning since initial registration and the dedication to self-evaluation and continual progress fully maintains the quality of the provision.

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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 arrived and toured the premises with the manager

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Inspection activities

 The inspector met and spoke with the joint owners and spoke with staff, children and parents.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager during an activity.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector gained evidence through observing the activities and daily routines, and through viewing a range of documentation.  The inspector provided feedback and gave the inspection judgements.

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Information about the setting

Loveders Nursery School opened in 1983 and re-registered as limited company in 2013. It operates from a converted barn in Nutbourne near Chichester, West Sussex. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery provides care for children from the age of two years in the nursery and for children aged from four to 12 years in the out of school club. All children attending use both floors of the building at various times during the day and share the outdoor play areas. The premises are not easily accessible for wheelchair users as there are steps inside the building to different levels and the after school children mainly use a first floor room. The nursery school is open each weekday from 8am until 6pm for 50 weeks of the year. Children attend a variety of sessions. School age children attend before and after school, and during the holidays. Children attending out of school

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Information about the setting

care are transported to and from Southbourne, Funtington, Westbourne and Chidham schools. The nursery school has 161 children on roll and 89 children are in the early years age group. The nursery receives funding for free education for children of two, three and four years. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who are learning English as an additional language. The joint owners hold relevant level 3 qualifications and employ 14 staff to work with the children. Of these, four staff have Early Years Teacher Status and one staff member is an early years graduate. The remaining nine staff also have relevant level 3 qualifications. The nursery school also has a full time chef.

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

 enhance the organisation of some group activities to strengthen opportunities to consistently hold children's attention.

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who attend

The nursery school has established highly effective systems to encourage children's learning and progress. The nursery provision bases all opportunities for learning on creating a stimulating and challenging environment. This enables children to gainfully explore and develop their chosen play ideas equally across all indoor and outdoor play. Children have excellent levels of support from well-qualified and knowledgeable practitioners who plan in advance for different nursery workshop areas. For example, children move freely between the nursery rooms and the play provision for creative activities, construction ideas and they spontaneously take part in imaginative play. They show increasing skills of emergent writing and making marks, they relish the tactile activities in specific areas. There is an exceptionally wide variety of learning opportunities during indoor and outdoor play. Children's continual freedom and opportunity to explore,

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who attend

extensively stimulates their physical development. In this way children also create friendships and increase their skills of communication and consequently they are very happy.

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who attend

Children enthusiastically use the sand to draw circles and staff support and assist in drawing a maze for children to follow with their fingers. Children are eager to talk about visiting a maze and they show a clear understanding and a determination to follow this to the end, showing their awareness and experience in reaching the centre. This promotes children's language and understanding, their concentration and perseverance and their physical control. Staff also encourage children's understanding and ability during water play because the water in the trough is very shallow and children clearly want to collect more water in the containers. Staff have added sponges and children capable learn how to soak up the water and squeeze the sponges, they collect the water through using funnels to fill containers. This ingeniously enables children to learn and successfully increases their physical abilities and understanding. Staff help children individually to learn this process

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who attend

and in this way they enrich children's vocabulary and language skills. Children are highly motivated in their learning. In general they show high levels of concentration. However, on the odd occasion children can lose focus during group activities.

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who attend

Children show high levels of interest and involvement in watching, feeding and talking about the guinea pigs. They help to water the vegetable garden and learn how to handle the hose. They listen to the imaginary stories staff tell and show mounting excitement in developing these into role play scenarios. Staff listen to children's ideas about what will happen next in the pretend play and this develops children's imaginary thinking and their ability to use words and gestures to explain their thoughts. Children are unquestionably keen to handle the large flexible pipes and they use these to send small cars down the tubes. This challenges their ability to succeed as they try to judge which cars or vehicles will fit. They also spend time fitting a large piece of rope into the pipe to see if it will reach the end and this demonstrates their curiosity and interest in exploring possibilities.

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who attend

Staff have fully designated roles when deployed in specific nursery areas and these are planned in advance. This enables them to use their precise knowledge and plan for children's learning in each workshop area. They use the recorded information about each child's progress to focus on a particular next step in development. Key person staff record these details regularly to enable any staff to quickly reference a child's area of progress and work towards this. They also have a focus aspect of learning to include overall or during any activities or workshops. For example 'managing feelings and behaviour'. Staff have extensive knowledge and understanding of child development and this focus enables them to successfully include learning in any small group or one to one activity, when they have an opportunity. In this way all staff build a significant level of knowledge about each child's learning and development and this enables them to significantly promote children's

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who attend

The high ratio of staff to children enables staff to spend longer times with individual children and enrich their growing ability to communicate through sounds, gestures and facial expressions. This substantially meets the special educational needs of some children attending and successfully promotes their development. Key staff are keen to explain their excellent understanding of children's early learning and their flexibility in settling and observing children. They meticulously build this knowledge over time and complete a summary assessment of each child's progress for parents, before children reach the age of three years. Staff show a confident and professional ability to gauge children's progress in learning and this is supported by a comprehensive system of evidence which is used for planning children's next steps in development.

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who attend

Parents show enthusiasm for the nursery and the staff. They have limitless opportunities to become involved in children's nursery experiences and the provider, manager and all staff fully recognise the importance of parents' positive involvement. There are daily verbal exchanges with parents and children show they relish these discussion times when their capabilities and achievements are the focus of the conversation. Staff have proactively displayed photographs and information about children's weekly activities to ensure parents are aware of their children's involvement and abilities. This is organised to encourage and extend children's learning at home.

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who attend

Staff are highly active in working with families and local schools to successfully prepare children for moving on in their learning. They arrange visits annually and invite teaching staff to the nursery. They use display boards to show children pictures of their next school and have various local school uniforms for children to practise wearing. Staff also plan individual one to one sessions for all children that will transfer and in this way they can increase any areas of learning to enrich and prepare children. The nursery is uniquely able to encourage children to socialise with older children who already attend school, because they offer before and after school care to several local schools already. In this way children can learn to build relationships and increase their confidence.

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

The provider, manager and staff work harmoniously together and they are highly skilled and experienced in sensitively responding to children's needs at all times. This consistent and dedicated level of care is organised from the start by the key person. Who extensively develops children's trust and securely increases their emotional attachment. Staff plan settling routines with parents and this nurtures younger children to fully encourage their level of attachment. All staff demonstrate high levels of commitment to promote children's security and safety. They unreservedly respond to meet children's individual needs at all times and they use their intuition to follow children during their chosen activities to ensure their safety. This is impressively planned during children's settling time because the key person has no other responsibilities except to meet the settling child's needs and encourage their sense of belonging. The highly motivated responses from all staff reassure

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

children and this results in children developing very positive relationships. All children learn to follow the planned daily routines as depicted in the 'time line' book, as well as substantial freedom to make choices and decisions. This extensively encourages children's growing independence and actively builds their levels of confidence.

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

Staff demonstrate excellent attitudes towards flexibly following children's interests and ideas. They create opportunities for children to develop imaginative play ideas and they listen to children and often adapt play scenarios to follow children's lead at times. They also effectively explain and include boundaries especially during small group activities to reinforce older children's understanding of expected behaviour. Staff purposefully and frequently include praise and this raises children's self-esteem and encourages them to learn how to manage their own behaviour.

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

Children have extensive opportunities to learn about risks and hazards during their play because they freely make choices and often challenge themselves with enthusiasm. For example, as they grow and become more ambitious older boys expertly use the climbing wall apparatus and learn how to gain strength and support themselves by holding on. The apparatus is well placed for safety and it enables children to experiment. Children also purposefully pull themselves up the wooden slope using a rope and even younger children show they can successfully achieve this. Children balance with expertise on wooden planks, they learn how to cross the slatted bridge and the practise balancing on the constructed walk way. All these opportunities for increasing physical development realistically involve small risks. Children successfully increase their capability to manage these safely whilst greatly increasing their physical capabilities.

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

Children's daily outdoor play provides excellent opportunities for promoting a healthy lifestyle. Children experience different weather and learn how to dress to control their temperature. They comprehensively learn to recognise their feelings of hunger and thirst by accessing their own water bottles and taking part in snack time with healthy options. Children regularly and independently wash their hands before snack and meal times and after touching the guinea pigs. This fully increases their understanding of the importance of hygiene in maintaining their health. Younger children can also sleep comfortably during the day and this significantly promotes their health and increases their energy level. The provision has continued to expand the level of resources and areas used by children and this has resulted in children having immediate access to an outstanding variety of play experiences and opportunities for learning.

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provision

The nursery school has recently re-registered and the provider and many staff have strong continuity in working together. The provision is inspirational in successfully meeting the needs of children, parents and staff and highly experienced in creating harmony across the setting. The management offer extensive and dedicated support to continually improve the provision through regular and effective evaluation and training. There is a very high quality of professional management and supervision for all staff, which encourages exemplary teamwork and information sharing. The knowledge, experience and enthusiasm of the management team are motivational. There are rich, varied and imaginative ideas for widening children's experiences and developing their competencies. The curriculum manager and staff have developed very comprehensive systems of assessing children's progress and these methods have recently been extended to

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provision

successfully close any gaps in children's learning. There are rigorous employment processes and detailed records are in place to show the suitability of all staff. There are fully embedded systems of induction and very regular staff appraisals have been developed and extended to include staff self-evaluation. These well- organised systems promote staff in understanding their responsibilities and priorities. The newly extended appraisals encourage all staff to research their interests for further training.

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provision

The manager and staff show high levels of understanding their role in safeguarding and protecting children. They demonstrate a confident and unquestionable approach to prioritising children's needs and maintaining their welfare. They know the nursery procedures for raising any concerns and they have a precise understanding of their responsibility to recognise any signs and symptoms of concern. All staff are qualified and have a professional level of awareness in their understanding of meeting the requirements. The nursery school has effectively developed precise records of risk assessment and these clearly state how children's safety is prioritised at all times. There is a named staff member responsible for all health and safety processes and this ensures that risks and hazards are identified and information is shared to successfully manage children's safety.

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provision

The provider and manager liaise continually and review and update their knowledge to maintain exemplary practice. They eagerly include new ideas to enhance the provision and comprehensively evaluate all daily and wider provision. For example, a newly employed staff member has joined the nursery school to oversee the provision for two-year-old children. This significant change has been included because of the higher numbers of two- year-old children attending. The management have also introduced key person group time and regular one to one opportunities for promoting the progress of individual children before they transfer to school. These planned changes have been introduced through dedicated systems of evaluation which highly benefit and enhance the provision.

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provision

The provider consistently encourages parents and staff to give opinions and evaluate the daily provision. This open system of sharing information and ideas across the nursery rooms encourages all staff to aim to make improvements to benefit children's play and learning. For example, staff regularly evaluate children's activities and movements to track how often children use various resources. This provides clear information for staff to change areas and alter the position of resources to making improvements and develop children's interest. In this way staff show they are constantly appraising and re-organising to stimulate children's learning through play.

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provision

Staff use highly effective systems to develop close relationships with families from the start. They encourage parents to provide a wide range of information to help them know and build relationships with children. This information also helps staff to plan learning opportunities and activities to meet children's individual needs and promote their progress. Parents regularly see and contribute to children's records of progress through the comments they add to the assessments. They show their support for the next planned steps in development that staff identify. In this way parents and staff successfully work together. The manager shows extensive professional knowledge and a significant ability to link with other agencies to support children's individual 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 EY471484 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 943693 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 64 Number of children on roll 161 Name of provider Loveders Nursery School Limited Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01243377934

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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

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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