Corner House Nursery School

Corner House Nursery School 130 Wadsley Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S6 4ED

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 15/07/2014 14/12/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 Staff throughout the nursery have excellent knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and teaching is excellent. Staff swiftly identify children's starting points and plan exciting experiences for them across all areas of learning. As a result, children make excellent progress in their learning and development.  Staff use highly effective methods to engage parents. As a consequence, consistent information is shared about children's learning and development, enabling them to continue their children's learning at home.  Children display excellent levels of independence because they are encouraged and motivated from a young age to be helpful and to do things for themselves.  Strong relationships and attachments with staff ensure children are happy and secure, and as a result, they are fully involved and confident.  Children develop their physical skills extremely well. They learn to manage risks and

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This provision is outstanding

keep themselves safe through an excellent range of challenging physical activities.  The utmost priority is given to protect and safeguard the welfare of the children. This is evident through highly effective practices that successfully promote children's safety and well-being.

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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 observed staff practice and their interactions with children during activities, both indoors and outside.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with children, held discussions with staff at appropriate times throughout the inspection and carried out a joint observation with the manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at evidence of staff suitability and qualifications, children's assessment records, planning and a range of documentation, including the safeguarding policy.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day and some of their written testimonials.

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Information about the setting

Corner House Nursery School opened in 1993 and is on the Early Years Register. It is privately owned and operates from a converted detached house in the Wadsley area of Sheffield. Children are cared for across six rooms within the house and two annex buildings in the grounds. All children have access to three enclosed outdoor play areas. The nursery serves the immediate locality and the surrounding areas. It opens five days a week from 8am until 6pm all year round, except for Bank Holidays and a week at Christmas. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 253 children on roll in the early years age range. The nursery receives funding for the provision of free early education for two-, three- and four-year-olds. It supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English is an additional language. There are currently 23 staff working directly with the children. Of these, 19 hold

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Information about the setting

appropriate qualifications at level 3, and the manager has a degree and holds Early Years Professional status. The nursery is a member of the National Day Nurseries Association and receives support from the local authority.

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

 enhance the existing comprehensive monitoring of staff practice to ensure the high quality of teaching, already achieved, is sustained and improved upon by extending the peer-on-peer observation with regard to the sharing of knowledge and excellent teaching skills throughout the nursery.

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who attend

Children thrive and are well motivated to learn in this high-quality nursery. The highly effective teaching throughout the nursery ensures babies and children make excellent progress in their learning and development. The staff have superb skills and knowledge of the learning and development requirements, and an in-depth understanding of how children learn. The stimulating and vibrant environment, both inside and outside, ensures that all children make rapid progress towards the early learning goals. There is a high focus on the prime areas of learning, which ensures children are well prepared for entry into school and their future learning. Children's learning is enhanced as the staff have a very high level of understanding of promoting children's interests and ideas. For example, a 'cinema' day is planned after staff hold discussions with children about their favourite films. Children delight in making their own cinema tickets, posters to display the film,

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who attend

popcorn bags and invitations for the cinema. Throughout the nursery, children's creativity is enriched as they express themselves freely in imaginative play. They work together cooperatively, expressing their ideas and solving problems with enthusiasm and confidence. For example, as they work together making a den with large bricks, they work out ways to make the den big enough so that they can all fit in it. Throughout the activity, staff are skilful in providing support and encouragement when needed and know when to step back to allow the children to experiment for themselves. They are very effective in encouraging the children to think by asking challenging questions.

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who attend

Arrangements for supporting individual children are exemplary. Staff monitor children very closely so that any intervention is made in a timely fashion and children receive any additional support they may need. For example, staff have produced communication boards with symbols of daily activities that children have participated in. These are sent home with the children daily and enable parents to contribute to developing children's communication and language, as they are encouraged to talk to their children about the pictures of the activities they have been doing at nursery. Staff are very sensitive to the needs of children who speak English as an additional language. They work closely with their parents to establish key words to use so that children can hear, and use, their home language in the nursery, which is essential for their language development. Children are confident communicators because staff are excellent role models. They engage freely in

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who attend

children's play and encourage conversations with them. For example, when younger children are playing with the 'feelings' dolls, staff talk to them about their own feelings, asking what makes them happy, sad and angry and asking if they can show a happy face, a sad face and an angry face. Communication and language is further promoted with younger children. They enthusiastically delight in acting out their favourite story about hunting for a bear, developing their use of expressive language and a range of descriptive and positional words, such as 'squishy', 'over', 'under' and 'through'. Babies show great interest in songs and rhymes. For example, they take turns in choosing a picture from a bag that represents a song or rhyme, readily joining in, doing actions and clapping and cheering at their favourite song. Resources such as musical instruments, mirrors and a range of wooden objects, ribbons and different textured materials, further enhance babies'

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who attend

Detailed information is gathered from parents when children start attending the nursery, and provides staff with a clear baseline for their learning. Staff know the children extremely well and provide individualised play opportunities to enhance their progress. In addition, children's progress and development are observed and monitored effectively, with development records updated regularly. Activities are planned using children's individual next steps as a guide. Staff consult children about what they have enjoyed and seek their ideas for activities. As a result, activities are extremely precisely matched to their needs and they make rapid progress in their learning and development. Staff throughout the nursery use information gained through the detailed observations they make of children's learning, the highly effective use of 'All about me' books and consultation with parents to inform the detailed summative reports and the progress check

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who attend

for children between the age of two and three years. They provide an extremely broad range of highly interesting and challenging experiences that meet the needs of all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language.

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

Key persons build very effective relationships with parents and carers that enable them to fully support children's personal care needs. Staff are highly proactive in gathering comprehensive information from parents to find out everything of relevance so that individual care plans can be initiated for each child. For example, they comfort children by making resources, such as mobiles, with objects that they know interest children, and as they arrive each morning they are able to clearly see the mobiles. This makes their arrival a comforting and smooth experience for both the children and their parents. In addition, children make strong emotional attachments to their key person, and other familiar adults, because their needs are consistently met and they feel secure. There are excellent and well-established systems to ensure children are prepared emotionally for making the transition to the next room within the nursery. Children make regular settling-in visits to

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

meet new staff, see their new room and experience different toys and activities. Parents are fully included in the process, and as a result, they and their children are very well supported in forming new relationships, building self-confidence and managing their feelings.

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

Children learn to behave responsibly from a young age and to cooperate within a group. Therefore, children are very effectively learning about social responsibility and accepted behaviour. Staff build respectful and caring relationships with all the children and their families. Parents and children readily discuss what is happening in their family. In all areas of the nursery, children and parents have contributed to displays of family trees. Photographs of children's and staff's families and pets are attractively displayed and children enjoy talking about the familiar people and pets in the pictures. Staff engage children well to learn about different cultures and people through planned and spontaneous discussion and activities. They enjoy learning about national and international festivals and celebrations. In addition, parents are encouraged to share information about their own cultures.

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

Children are extremely independent at every level. Babies are eager to feed themselves using spoons and they manage this very well. Toddlers and older children are able to use knives and forks to cut their food and are persistent in trying until they succeed. Mealtimes are very sociable occasions with children sitting together in small groups with staff joining them, and older children are able to independently serve out their own food. Children learn about the need for healthy food through additional activities, such as food tasting, cooking and baking. For example, children are actively involved in peeling and preparing vegetables for meals. Excellent hygiene procedures are encouraged and reinforced by staff through everyday routines and activities. As a result, children learn from an early age to manage their health, hygiene and personal care extremely well. The outdoor play area is exceptional. Children relish being active outdoors because of the

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

opportunities for them to move about and handle equipment and apparatus. The outdoor environment is separated into different areas. This enables children who wish to do quieter activities, such as construction or looking at books on a mat, to do so safely, as those who wish to engage in more boisterous activities are in a different area and do not impede other children's play. A garden area is imaginatively used for children to grow and plant a wide range of fruits and vegetables that they have nurtured, harvested, prepared and tasted at snack and lunch times. With excellent staff supervision, children are encouraged to safely take and manage risks as they climb and balance on the bridge, stepping stones and the balancing beams in the shaded adventure play area.

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provision

Management and staff have robust knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements and ensure procedures are implemented in order to protect children. This is enhanced by safeguarding and child protection training that ensures staff are kept up to date with local procedures. They are very aware of the possible signs of abuse and know precisely what to do if they have concerns about a child. Children's well-being is extremely well assured as the premises are very secure, and robust safety and security procedures ensure children are extremely well protected. There are very secure arrival and collection procedures in place to make sure children are collected by a known adult and that any visitors cannot access the premises without the knowledge of staff. In addition, very efficient safety procedures, routines and detailed risk assessments enable staff to provide a very safe environment. A comprehensive and detailed range of policies,

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provision

procedures and records, including meticulous accident and medication records, are highly effective in supporting the safety of all children.

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provision

Management strive for a well-qualified and knowledgeable workforce. They provide an extremely robust and rigorous recruitment and induction process that ensure staff have secure knowledge and skills to carry out their roles and responsibilities confidently. Management take great interest in the delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage and how staff are implementing it through their regular and focused monitoring of staff practice. Appraisals are held for all staff, and the observations of staff, conducted by the management, clearly focus on their professional development. This ensures they are able to maintain and continually improve their already excellent knowledge and practice. There is scope to further enhance staff knowledge and skills by extending peer-on-peer observations to enhance the already high quality of teaching within the nursery.

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provision

The management team and staff know every child and parent in the nursery very well and they use this knowledge to support and progress individual children with their care, learning and developmental needs. The planning of activities and children's progress are tracked and assessed very effectively to ensure that they are making excellent progress in line with their peer group and that support is provided to help narrow the gap where necessary. All of this means that children's needs are quickly identified and exceptionally well met.

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provision

There is a very well-established and effective system of self-evaluation that drives continuous improvement based on the views of management, staff, children and parents. Parents' views and comments are of particular importance to management to enable them to continue to develop the nursery. For example, parents are encouraged to complete questionnaires on a regular basis. Parents provide staff with valuable comments and information about what the children have been doing at home and their current interests through the highly effective all about me books. This enables staff to constantly evaluate and reflect on the activities they plan and provide to ensure they consistently meet children's needs. Strong partnerships with other early years providers make a significant contribution to ensuring the needs of all children are met. For example, teachers from local schools visit the children at the nursery before their move to school. This enables

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provision

them to build relationships and to share relevant information. Parents of children moving on to school are invited to nursery to make 'transition boxes' with their children. This involves them decorating a shoe box together with their children and filling it with pictures and photographs of special people, such as their friends, nursery staff and pictures of their favourite toys and activities. Consequently, children's transitions are as seamless as possible and there is excellent provision for their continuity in learning.

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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 300724 Local authority Sheffield Inspection number 818620

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 106 Number of children on roll 253 Name of provider Corner House Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 14/12/2009 Telephone number 0114 233 3349

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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Type of provision

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

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