Greenfields Nursery School and Children's Centre

Greenfields Children Centre Recreation Ground, Southall, Middlesex, UB2 5PF

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 15/05/2014 07/07/2011

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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

 The manager and deputy manager are extremely professional in their approach. They have an excellent understanding of their responsibilities to ensure that the nursery provision meets the safeguarding and welfare, and the learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.  The children's centre is a highly welcoming and inclusive environment.  Staff are deployed exceptionally well and provide very good supervision of children, which means that children's needs are extremely well met. Children's behaviour is very good.  Staff have an exceptional understanding of the children they care for. An outstanding environment, well planned activities and resources, and excellent teaching skills mean that children thrive in their learning and are very interested in what they do.  Children are making excellent progress in relation to their starting points. They are very happy and engaged in their play, both indoors and outdoors.

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This provision is outstanding

 Parents are very positive about the care their children receive and the progress that they make. Parents are involved in their children's learning.  There are excellent partnerships with other professional agencies that provide additional support for some of the children attending.

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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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Inspection activities

 The inspector met with the manager and deputy manager, and the lead teaching staff. She sampled the children's centre documentation records and children's records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed children in their play and in their interactions with the staff who care for them.  The inspector spoke with staff, parents and children.  The inspector discussed the children's centre self-evaluation processes.  The inspector joined the deputy manager for a joint observation.

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Information about the setting

Greenfields Children's Centre registered in November 2004. It is situated in a corner of the recreation park in Southall, within the London Borough of Ealing. The centre operates from a purpose-built building and children have access to three main group rooms. The centre also has access to meeting and training rooms and a sensory room. There are large outdoor play areas. The centre serves the local diverse community. The children's centre is registered on the Early Years Register. There are currently 103 children in the early years age group on roll attending the day care provision of the children's centre. The centre opens each week day from 8am to 6pm for 48 weeks of the year. It provides education, care and learning opportunities for children and families. The centre supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. The centre employs 41 members of staff, of whom 30 work

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Information about the setting

directly with the children. Of these, all hold early years qualifications and, of these, six are qualified teachers and one holds Early Years Professional Status.

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

 extend mathematical labelling to further promote children's recognition of numerals and the written number word.

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who attend

Staff fully value the children as individuals and are very skilled at adapting activities to meet their individual needs and interests in order to help them succeed in their learning. Staff are extremely enthusiastic and, therefore, engage and motivate the children to join in and challenge them fully in what they choose to do. Children benefit from particularly rich and varied experiences across all seven areas of learning. All staff demonstrate an excellent understanding of the learning and development requirements for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The quality of teaching and the interactions staff make during adult-led activities and child-initiated play is extremely enriching.

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who attend

Assessment at all ages is precise and focuses on the individual child which leads to highly effective planning. The qualified teachers and early years professional staff lead the planning for all children. They support all other key-person staff in their observations and assessments of children. Adult-planned activities are based on a wide range of topics. These include the 'bike project', planets, creative builders, boys and writing, photography, 'what is that creature?' and 'where do other creatures live?' to name but a few. From these focused activities and using children's freely-chosen play activities, teaching staff plan for individual children's next steps or learning intentions. This helps to ensure that children receive an extremely broad variety of learning opportunities and that staff specifically plan for any minor gaps in children's development. Consequently, all children are challenged across a very broad spectrum of activities and receive a wealth of learning

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who attend

opportunities that prepare them for school. Staff evaluate children's achievements every day to further their understanding of children's emerging interests and abilities. There are comprehensive systems in place to ensure that all children are emotionally prepared for the next stages of their learning.

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who attend

Babies and toddlers are highly stimulated in their development. They enjoy popular nursery rhymes and action songs together and are confident to join in. Staff deployment in the baby room is very good, which means that staff can spend plenty of time with individual babies. They use a range of verbal and non-verbal interaction to help babies feel emotionally secure. Babies, therefore, are content to choose activities, such as building towers, looking at books, playing with toy animals or playing with brightly coloured rings from a treasure box.

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who attend

A small group of older children wait patiently as an activity is set up. A staff member talks about the ingredients needed to make dough. Children are delighted to take part and happily wait for their turn. The staff member is flexible in her approach, particularly when others decide to join the group of children. She provides reminders to the children about the importance of washing their hands prior to taking part which supports their awareness of health and hygiene. Children help to measure out and count spoonfuls. They recall how they have done the activity before, as the staff member creates opportunities for this recall by asking them 'what next?' She helps children learn mathematical language as she talks about 'full cup' and 'half-full'. However, the activity lacks additional props, such as pictures of number or representations of numbers and words to further support children's ability to put mathematical concepts into context.

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who attend

Children are making excellent progress in their physical skills and their personal, social and emotional development in relation to their starting points. There is a clear focus on supporting children to acquire very good communication and language skills regardless of these starting points. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are extremely well supported. This outstanding practice helps to prepare all children for the move to school. Staff are highly supportive but allow children to be independent. They all join in with music and movement activities, aimed at maintaining their engagement and supporting them to follow instructions. Children take turns to catch a ball, use a microphone, sing or use tapping sticks in time with the music.

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who attend

Babies and toddlers thoroughly enjoy story time. The staff member uses a prop to stand the large book up. Children sit on the floor and move so that all their friends can see the pictures. Exceptional teaching practice actively involves the children, who take turns to turn the pages for example. The staff member maintains excellent rapport with the children as she acts out the characters of the story, using different tones and voices and then building on what is happening to maintain children's attention. A child confidently points to the page to show they understand what is happening next.

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who attend

Older children also thoroughly enjoy small group activities. One group looks at beans that they are growing in the garden. They feel the bean and describe how it feels to them. A staff member asks the children to recall what they know about the story of 'Jack and the beanstalk'. Children explain that the beans in the story are 'magic beans' and that the mum in the story 'grew the magic beans'. They add that it 'turned into a beanstalk'. Again, excellent teaching practice extends children's comprehension of literacy and language, as the staff member proactively asks the children 'What is Jack doing here?'

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who attend

There are highly successful strategies to engage parents in children's learning. Parents state at the inspection that they are delighted to join children for curriculum days and take part in children's play. They add that this helps them to understand how to extend teaching and learning at home and to be aware of the seven areas of learning. The centre invites parents to stay and play sessions and workshops entitled 'Keeping up with the children'. They are also encouraged to attend parent meetings with key-person staff to further support their understanding of their children's achievements.

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

The centre offers a highly stimulating environment for children which provides a calm atmosphere for learning. The vast spaces indoors and outdoors means that children have the freedom to explore and move about. The centre provides a substantial range of topics and resources to inspire children's engagement across all seven areas of learning. Children are extremely confident to choose their own activities and resources and decide whether to play inside or outdoors. They are very happy and clearly demonstrate that they feel safe and are emotionally secure. They have particularly warm bonds with the staff and are able to adapt their relationships with one another in tune with the needs of others. They demonstrate high levels of self-control during activities and behave exceptionally well.

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

Babies and toddlers relish experiencing water play. They sit together and listen as the staff member confidently extends their learning by showing and explaining how the water goes down the top of the funnel and out of the bottom. The children take over and excitedly transfer water for themselves from one container to another. They splash and walk through the puddles. Proactive staff teaching helps children recognise the marks they make with their footprints. Other toddlers engage enthusiastically with staff using a 'gloop' activity of custard powder and water. They splash and make marks in the tray by running their fingers through the liquid. The exceptionally well-planned activities are simple but highly effective. As a result, children remain engaged for lengthy periods.

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

Staff are meticulous in promoting children's growing understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. Children are confident in their self-care and understand the importance of washing their hands prior to eating, for example. Children demonstrate a growing awareness of these routines and cooperate happily and with minor intervention prior to eating snacks or meals. They follow instructions from staff, such as prompt reminders not to run indoors. Children have exceptional awareness of the routines of the day and staff expectations. They treat staff and one another with mutual respect.

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

The centre provides nutritious snacks and meals. Staff are exceptionally well organised throughout the day and particularly during mealtimes. All children over two years old eat together in the main classroom. Tables are set with flowers in a vase and plates. A staff member supervises each table and is provided with a folder containing all essential information about the children sitting with them. Therefore, staff are significantly aware of children's dietary needs or preference and the menu for today. Meals and snacks are prepared and cooked on site, with options to meet all children's individual needs. Staff are proactive. They chat to children over lunch about the food they will be eating today and how this supports their well-being. Babies eat their meals in their own room. Babies' meals are labelled prior to serving. This ensures that all babies' preferences and weaning needs are met and that staff are fully aware of these. Babies are encouraged to feed themselves.

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

Staff are exceptionally caring and supportive and ensure that all the babies eat all they want to and enjoy their meal. Excellent staff deployment means that other staff sit with older children who are leaving after the morning session. This very good practice means that children are supervised exceptionally well as others eat. It also means that staff are on hand to talk to parents as they arrive and offer information about what children have done during the day.

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

All children have regular access to the outdoors. They can move freely between the indoor and outside play area which supports their play and exploration and their physical skills and development. Older children dig and explore in the sand pit. They experiment with what happens when they add water to the sand. Under supervision from staff who interact purposefully, children build ramps and constructions to walk on or balance over. They wear hard hats and together carry the planks in twos demonstrating their ability to work together. These exceptional partnerships between children promote their relationships with one another. Other children busy themselves washing dolls in the bath or playing in the large tree house. Children's physical development is very well supported throughout the day. Substantial thought has been given by the centre to extending the opportunities for children outdoors. As a result, children have their own growing areas with raised beds.

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

They can therefore sow and harvest their produce which helps them to understand where food comes from. Children thoroughly enjoy the golf course too. This actively promotes their coordination skills and gives them confidence to take part in a wider variety of activities. The centre supports children's creative expression well and employs an artist in residence. The artist has worked with the children to design and paint pot plants which children have given to local residents to display in their gardens.

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provision

The leadership of the children's centre is inspirational. The centre manager and her deputy lead by example and are highly professional practitioners. They have an excellent understanding of their responsibilities to lead and manage, to safeguard children, to promote children's high achievements and to motivate staff to continuously improve practice.

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provision

Staff demonstrate a very strong understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements for the Statutory framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage. All staff complete safeguarding children training. They are, therefore, able to demonstrate an excellent understanding of the procedures to protect and keep safe the children in their care. Safeguarding and child protection practice is reviewed regularly to ensure it is always up-to-date and prioritised. Almost all the staff working with children hold a recognised first aid qualification so that they can treat minor injuries. The leadership team successfully implements robust recruitment and induction practice. High quality supervision procedures ensure that those working with children are suitable to do so and are highly motivated in their roles. There is a broad range of further training and systems of targeted professional development for all staff. Staff morale is, therefore, very high and there is a shared ethos

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provision

of always improving practice. This has direct benefits for children's care and learning.

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provision

The centre implements robust policies and procedures which staff adhere to at all times. These policies are shared with parents so that they fully understand the procedures that support children's health and well-being. Comprehensive risk assessments of the environment and ongoing daily checks, both indoors and outside, promote children's safety and well-being exceptionally well. Staff are vigilant and supervise children effectively at all times. Staff record any accidents or incidents that occur and these are later reviewed to inform the management team of any intervention that may need to be made. The extremely efficient staff team deploy themselves very well at all times of the day. This exceptional practice has a positive impact on children's safety and their own awareness of behaviour. Staff and the leadership team are highly approachable. Therefore, parents are confident to approach them with any minor concerns. Highly

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provision

effective systems are in place to work with parents, for example in the appropriate and comprehensive administration of any complaints that the centre may receive.

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provision

The nursery has been highly proactive in evaluating its priorities. The views of parents, children and staff support the management team in identifying the strengths of the nursery and making plans for future improvement. These ongoing plans and targets focus on the children attending and the ever changing needs of the local community. The lead teaching staff reflect on staff practice daily. They use their reflections to support their short-term planning in order to promote the high achievement of the children attending. The centre is very clear about the strengths of the provision. These include the successful approaches for narrowing the attainment gap for children attending with below typically expected starting points. Parents state at the inspection and through their questionnaire responses that staff support children's learning extremely well. Parents value the support from approachable staff through home visits, daily exchange of information and

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provision

newsletters. They speak about personal circumstances and individual experiences where the centre has been very accommodating and how the care provided has made a significant impact on their children's development.

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provision

Staff have a thorough understanding of the learning and development requirements for the Early Years Foundation Stage. They demonstrate an excellent understanding of children's backgrounds and interests. Staff obtain this information through the purposeful home visits completed by the management team prior to children starting. There are exceptional systems to monitor the educational programmes in order to ensure that all children receive a high standard of learning brought about by highly effective teaching methods. The qualified teachers leading the teaching are an excellent team and make a significant impact on the planning and assessment for all children. Staff make timely and accurate observations of children's learning. All staff encourage children to explore the exciting opportunities the centre offers. This means that children are supporting exceptionally well in acquiring the skills to learn effectively and be ready for the next stage

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provision

The centre is purpose built and provides an excellent environment for children to move freely, accessing the indoors and outdoors as they choose. The centre is highly inclusive and has an exceptionally welcoming approach and ethos. It caters for an extremely diverse area and the vast majority of children attending speak English as an additional language. The centre offers enriching experiences for all children. There is excellent support for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The inter- agency working and partnerships with other professionals who work with some of the children are fully embedded into daily practice. Staff use their skills and training, for example the use of Makaton sign language, to promote the outcomes for all children. As a result, all children make excellent progress in relation to their starting points.

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provision

Partnerships with a broad selection of feeder schools are well established. Consequently, staff can offer parents advice and be able to support children's readiness for when they move on to school. Partnerships with parents are extremely positive. They are fully included in their children's care and learning and have professional, established relationships with the staff. The centre provides additional support for families, for example through curriculum days, which parents are extremely positive about. The centre also offers families a Polish group and a support worker is available for home visits for example, to support families originating from Somalia. The centre is also making a considerable impact on the local community overall and through their gardening projects local neighbours have invited children to display their pots. The centre also invites the local community to join children for their international celebration days. Staff take children

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provision

to visit all local places of worship which successfully promotes children's awareness of similarity and difference. As a result children develop a strong respect for others.

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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 EY280837 Local authority Ealing Inspection number 960101 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 96 Number of children on roll 103 Name of provider London Borough of Ealing Date of previous inspection 07/07/2011 Telephone number 0208 813 8079

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Setting details

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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