Bright Horizons Oxford Business Park Day Nursery and Preschool

Kidsunlimited Nurseries - Oxford Business Park Plot 9850, Garsington Road, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JZ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 27/06/2014 06/03/2014

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 3 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 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision requires improvement

 Staff give good levels of attention to gathering information from parents about family routine, health needs and how they want to hear about their child's day.  Teaching in the pre-school and baby rooms is good. Children enjoy their time with familiar staff and are active, busy and engaged.  Children are provided with a range of healthy meal options which support their good health and actively promotes their awareness of a healthy diet.

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It is not yet good because

 The effectiveness of the quality of teaching is not always monitored closely enough, to ensure all age groups make good progress.  Staff deployment during busy times in the day does not meet the needs of some age groups. This means that children do not get the support they need to promote active learning and does not provide them with individual attention in a timely way.  There is only a satisfactory range of resources to support outdoor play for the youngest age group and a limited selection of resources in the pre-school age group to support their understanding of information and communication technology in readiness for school.

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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 inspectors observed children's play experiences, activities and interactions with staff in all rooms of the nursery and outside.

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Inspection activities

 The inspectors sampled a range of documentation, including evidence of suitability of staff working with children in the nursery and a range of other documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspectors looked at children's observation, tracking and assessment records and discussed their progress with staff.

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Inspection activities

 The inspectors held a meeting with the senior staff members and undertook a joint observation of activities.

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Inspection activities

 The inspectors took into account the views of parents and carers by analysing information from the parents' questionnaires and talking to parents.

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Information about the setting

Oxford Business Park (KidsUnlimited) opened in 2000, and in 2013 was acquired by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a national chain of privately owned settings. The nursery is located in a business park development in Cowley, Oxford. Children attend from a wide catchment area. The nursery operates from purpose-built premises over three floors with enclosed outdoor play areas. It operates on weekdays from 7.30am until 6pm all year, except for bank holidays. There are 136 children on roll in the early years age range. It is also registered on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register to care for children over five years, although currently has no children in this age group on roll. It supports children who are learning English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The nursery provides free early education for three- and four-year-olds. The nursery employs 38 staff, of whom 30 work directly with

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Information about the setting

the children; of these 15 hold relevant qualifications at level 3; and 8 are working towards further qualifications.

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must:

 ensure senior leaders improve the quality of supervision opportunities for staff in order that staff are provided with effective levels of support, coaching and training where necessary, to assure the quality of teaching and to promote high quality learning

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must:

 ensure staffing arrangements meet the needs of all children and that they are adequately supervised at all times and particularly during busy periods of the day times such as drop off and pick up times and staff breaks.

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

 provide a wider range of programmable toys in the pre-school room to support children's developing understanding of information and communication technology in readiness for the next stage in their learning

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

 review the resources provided in the outdoor spaces for the baby room in order to promote further opportunities for younger children to explore, build and move freely outside.

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who attend

Children are making suitable progress in their learning and development. Staff are kind and welcoming and overall children appear to have settled well. Staff are supportive of tailoring their interactions with each family and they gather good levels of information about each child when they start. This helps them establish starting points for learning and guides them in providing play opportunities for each child so that they enjoy their time at nursery. The layout of the nursery rooms are carefully planned and play equipment is of a high quality. The nursery is generally well resourced for each age group. Children are provided with a suitable balance of child-initiated and adult-led activities covering all seven areas of learning on a daily basis.

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who attend

The quality of teaching in the baby room is secure. Staff place a good focus on meeting young children's care needs so they are well rested in the day in order to enjoy the activities on offer. Staff interactions are positive and young children benefit from a key person who knows their needs well. Regular and accurate assessments of children's learning are made and are used well to inform daily planning. As a result, staff are able to tailor their support for each child on an individual level which helps them to make good progress overall. This supports babies to be curious and motivated to learn more. They particularly enjoy sensory and tactile experiences, where they explore and mix materials, such as, cornflour and water, shaving foam or sand. They are fascinated by the wide range of resources on offer and enjoy exploring and manipulating shiny household items in a treasure basket. Babies compare and contrast textures and develop hand to eye

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who attend

coordination as they put small objects into containers. Babies have daily access to their garden area where they engage in activities on a larger scale than when indoors. However, this area is under development and staff are only just beginning to use it with good effect to enhance children's awareness of the natural world to mirror the challenging learning experiences inside.

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who attend

Children in the pre-school rooms are confident, motivated learners. They make good choices in their play and are well supported by staff to be creative and spontaneous. For example, during a role-play game, children discuss a magic potion they have made for the dragon. They engage in conversation about what could happen next if the dragon drank the potion. They speculate that he may become unwell and discuss how they should take care not to let this happen. They devise another plan to rescue the princess and are able to make successful links back to popular fiction they have enjoyed reading at their nursery in order to predict what could happen next. Later a group of children make cakes with the playdough. A member of staff effectively supports them by providing good levels of challenge in this spontaneous play activity. For example, she notes that the children divide their pies into smaller sections and begin to count and compare them. She uses this

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who attend

opportunity to introduce new mathematical concepts such as 'half' and 'quarters'. This allows each child to establish the link between their six slices and the whole pie in order to support them to work out if they have enough for all the children. This shows that the characteristics of effective learning are evident as children are confident in making links to explore and 'have a go' at new things. Children who learn English as an additional language in the pre-school rooms are well supported. Staff engage purposefully with children who are developing their confidence in learning English. Staff make good use of one-to-one time and small group work to support children's confidence further in order to promote good levels of readiness for school.

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who attend

Teaching in the middle age groups is variable and overall requires improvement to become good. Some staff, including some of the regular agency staff, show a secure understanding of how this age group learn and they provide good levels of support. For example, a small group of children spend most of the morning playing in the water play with a member of staff. They sing along eagerly to the 'five little ducks song' with a member of staff. When she patiently counts the ducks time after time at the children's request; they count back with her and quack each time a duck comes home. She uses this opportunity well to support them to learn about basic counting. She encourages them to take turns and share equipment with each other. As a result, this group of children stay engaged and happy in their play. However not all children are offered such consistent levels of attention or support. This is because of the lack of regular staff who are available

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who attend

to be hands on with the children which is further affected by where they are deployed in the busiest parts of the day. This has affected the amount of quality time staff spend with each child. As a result, children wander around the room self-selecting toys for play and interacting with staff where possible in the busy routine of the day. This generally is positive overall however because some staff do not engage the children in any purposeful conversation about what they are doing to extend their thinking or learning during these routine interactions, any learning is incidental rather than as a result of good quality teaching. In addition staff's failure to promote intensive support for some groups of children means that they are not getting the individual levels of targeted support they need to do well in their learning. Although their progress is steady, they are not making enough in order to catch up with their peers and in readiness for school. This is because

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who attend

some staff do not have a robust enough understanding of their key children's learning needs and so are also only able to provide more general support when they do interact with them. A general lack of monitoring from a leadership level has also failed to address inconsistencies in assessments of children's learning in these rooms. As a result, staff have not been held accountable for the gaps or inaccuracies in their record keeping or sufficiently mentored to tackle the differences in progress that some groups of children are making. Overall staff demonstrate a positive attitude to making improvements to their teaching but are currently hindered by the lack of a consistent, well deployed staff team, requested training and secure accountability procedures.

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who attend

Partnerships with parents and carers are well established to meet children's care needs but this level of attention does not extend to the learning needs of some groups of children. Staff communicate with parents on a daily basis and parents have regular opportunities to view their child's profile folder. Parents are encouraged to comment on their child's learning and development and staff in each room make time to share information in a way that suits each family's needs. Staff also undertake the progress check for children at age two, providing a copy of the report for parents to share with their health visitor during their developmental assessment. However, not all parents are provided with accurate information about what their child needs to do next in their learning. This is because some assessments do not identify the most urgent aspects of a child's learning that needs support. This means that any ideas and strategies that are

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who attend

shared with parents or other professionals to help develop their child's learning are not sufficiently accurate or focussed enough to guarantee continued progress and continuity of learning. A further range of information is available to parents, through monthly newsletters, noticeboards and the company website. This keeps them suitably updated on what is happening in the nursery and how they can become more generally involved in the aspects of nursery life such as upcoming social events.

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

The well-being of children and babies is suitably supported as there is an adequate key- person system in place that supports all children's care and welfare needs. This provides peace of mind for parents that there is someone who can tell them about their child's time in the nursery. The key persons also gather information from parents, about their children's care routines, to help them tailor settling-in arrangements that are specific to babies' or children's needs. In practice, however, the key person system is only working adequately well as staff changes have led to a reorganisation of staff between some rooms. Although staff's warmth and attentive support helps babies to feel at ease, providing them with a good introduction to nursery life, this is less evident in the toddler age group. This is because staff shortages and constant re-deployment has left some children without a consistent carer. Changes are underway to manage this but meanwhile

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

some parents have commented that this is unsettling and that they are unable to fully engage with a consistent staff member. Transitions are managed suitably well between rooms in the nursery and a series of settling-in visits take place to help children comfortably adjust to their new rooms and staff. Staff generally share enough information to support the child's move to their next room, although some information in the assessment folders are not fully reflective of the child's current stage of development. This means that new staff have to reassess each child's learning on their arrival in their room to ensure accuracy in starting points and individual needs.

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

Children demonstrate a positive approach to learning. Their behaviour is generally good, because staff share consistent messages and are suitable role models themselves. Children learn about the needs and feelings of others through sharing, taking turns and helping others. Children in the older age groups willingly take on responsibility, for example, tidying away toys and resources at the end of the morning session in preparation for lunch. Regular praise and encouragement offered by staff promotes children's self-esteem.

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

Staff support children's sound understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Children access drinking water throughout the day, which ensures they do not become thirsty and are comfortable especially in hot weather. Meals are provided in accordance with parents' wishes and any allergies or dietary needs are given high priority. Children enjoy nutritious meals and snacks, which are varied and include plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Lunchtimes are sociable occasions, and children sit together and talk about their day with staff. Older children show good levels of independence and they set the tables for lunchtime and competently serve themselves, observing good table manners. Staff discuss the importance of hand washing with younger children in order to guide them into using good hygiene procedures and the reasons why. Older children manage this routine competently and show a good awareness of self-care skills in readiness for

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

their move to school. As a result, children develop independence in hygiene and managing their personal care.

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

Children play outside on a daily basis and overall, the outdoor area promotes children's developing physical skills and confidence. They show good control and coordination as they negotiate space and use challenging physical apparatus and a variety of wheeled toys in the outdoor area. The indoor environment is effectively organised, allowing children to access a developmentally appropriate range of toys and resources covering all areas of learning. Each room in the nursery is well resourced and toys are regularly rotated and cleaned. All areas are well maintained and careful attention is given to health and hygiene routines. For example, staff are rigorous about implementing the no shoe policy, in areas used by crawling babies, to ensure the environment remains clean. The base rooms are large and staff often combined age groups during busy times in the day to support their staffing needs. On occasions this deployment does not meet children's needs because

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

although staff are in ratio overall, some staff have left the room to fetch resources, leaving remaining staff overstretched and unable to meet some children's needs. This is a breach in requirements.

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provision

This inspection took place as a result of a information received by Ofsted that raised concerns about staff deployment and ratios. In particular these concerns related to how staff manage their deployment in the baby room and how they meet ratios to ensure children's safety and needs are met. At the inspection, it was found that during busy times in the nursery staff deployment does not meet children's needs although staffing in the baby room appears stable. Although staff ratios are met overall in the building, staff are not always on hand to help out in some rooms as they are moving between rooms, busy with routine tasks. The nursery is also moving through a period of staff change and so while new staff are being recruited, the nursery relies heavily on agency staff and bank staff to fill in where possible. This does not provide consistency in some rooms. As a result, the provider was found to be in breach of the requirement that requires staff

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provision

deployment to meet the needs of the children.

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provision

Staff in the nursery demonstrate a suitable regard to keeping children safe in their care. Appropriate safeguarding procedures are in place to promote the safety and welfare of children. The premises are secure and visitors must identify themselves and sign in before being admitted to the building. Suitable recruitment and vetting procedures are in place and followed to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Each member of staff has a Disclosure and Barring Service check before they start and all staff, including agency staff, complete an induction to ensure they have a secure understanding of their working responsibilities. Staff are aware of the requirement to notify the management team of any changes to their ongoing suitability. All staff, including agency staff in the nursery demonstrate an appropriate understanding of child protection issues. They have completed safeguarding training, are able to identify the signs and symptoms that would

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provision

cause concern and they know the correct procedures to follow as a result, to help keep children safe. Staff are aware of the whistle blowing procedures and follow suitable procedures for the use of mobile phones, cameras and social networking. These are suitably monitored by the senior staff team to ensure they are adequately implemented. Senior staff have met their responsibilities to attend designated child protection training and show an adequate awareness of the referral process and what to do if an allegation is made against a member of staff. Staff complete daily safety checks and regularly review risk assessments to support children's welfare. Required records of children's family details are kept and staff maintain daily attendance registers. All documentation to support children's ongoing medical needs are maintained and staff act suitably when a child becomes unwell. Staff are suitably qualified.

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provision

Procedures to monitor the effectiveness of the educational programmes in the nursery are beginning to become more established. Although staff have opportunities to attend additional training and are subject to staff supervision and appraisals, these opportunities have not been used well enough to address weaker teaching or inconsistent practice. Some staff have not accurately updated children's progress in their learning journeys, and advice from outside agencies has not been suitably implemented to support some groups of children. Senior staff, with the support of the quality manager, are now becoming more involved in checking children's assessment records for accuracy in order to get an accurate overview of children's progress overall. However this initiative is still in its infancy and as yet had little impact on identifying or narrowing the gaps that have occurred due to the lack of consistently good quality teaching and careful monitoring by the senior team.

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provision

Procedures to monitor the effectiveness of the provision and drive forward further improvements are only adequate. The senior team meets regularly to discuss the action plan for the nursery and they are steadily identifying areas for improvement. However, this has not been done with the rigour and urgency that is necessary in order to quickly improve on areas of weakness raised by previous inspections, internal audits and third party concerns. Parents and children are actively consulted for their views and suggestions about how they feel improvements can be made to enhance the quality of learning their children receive which are suitably acted upon. Parents spoken to during the inspection, talk favourably about the nursery and the progress their children are making. Some parents raised concerns with staff deployment and recent staff changes. Staff communicate to the inspector their plans for improvements and their wish to attend

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provision

further training and receive further support. Overall, senior leaders, who lack clear direction, limit the capacity for improvement. They show some reluctance to effectively support the positive staff team, who are keen to make changes and move the nursery to good.

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provision

Partnerships between parents are friendly and they are quick to commend staff for their kindness and the information they provide on their child's progress. However, for some age groups, assessment records do not fully capture the areas that the children most need additional support in. Therefore, parents do not always receive a true picture of their child's progress and are not able to build on children's most important next steps in learning at home. There are suitable processes in place to ensure that children are referred to external agencies should staff feel they would benefit from any additional support. However, once this referral has been made, staff lack the confidence and the time to implement suggested intervention strategies to ensure that children receive the best levels of support to help them with their move to the next stage of their education.

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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 134835 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 979561

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 164 Number of children on roll 136 Name of provider Kidsunlimited Limited Date of previous inspection 06/03/2014 Telephone number 0845 3652949

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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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