Little Punnetts

Little Punnetts PUNNETTS TOWN SCHOOL, Punnetts Town, Heathfield, TN21 9DE

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 17/07/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2

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This provision is good

 Children benefit from staff's consistent, supportive teaching, which gives children excellent support for their critical and creative thinking.  Children are independent, highly active learners, shaping their play ideas by using an excellent range of resources to set their own challenges.  Children have mature social skills, demonstrating an exemplary understanding of how to cooperate, empathise and understand in play.  Parents benefit from good partnerships with all staff, who regularly share information about children's care, activities, learning and development.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Managers have not had opportunities to fully analyse children's achievements in order to identify and address potential achievement gaps in groups and individuals.

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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 children at play indoors and outside in the play area and garden area.  The inspector examined a range of documentation including children's records.  The inspector spoke to parents to gather their views.  The inspector and one of the managers carried out a joint observation.

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Information about the setting

Little Punnetts registered in 2013 following a change in charity status. The pre-school has been operating since 2009. The pre-school operates from a room within Punnetts Town CP School and has sole use of a group room and an outdoor play area. The pre-school also makes regular use of other areas within the school including the library, school hall, playground and outdoor growing areas. The pre-school opens from 8.50am to 3.20pm during school term times and currently has 33 children on roll in the early years age range. There are five members of staff working with the children, three of whom hold early years qualifications.

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

 develop further the systems for monitoring the curriculum to identify and address any potential achievement gaps for groups of children, and individuals.

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who attend

Staff have a good understanding of how to meet the learning and development requirements. Staff have highly effective ways of interacting with children which bring out all aspects of learning in child-initiated play. They provide a wide range of activities that give children interest and challenge throughout the curriculum. Consequently, children are always actively absorbed in purposeful play and make good progress in their learning and development.

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who attend

Staff have very strong teaching skills. They demonstrate a consistent understanding of how children learn, supporting them to be independent active learners. Children create their own challenges, following their play ideas and adapting the resources for their own purposes. For example, children playing with a farm set use small bricks to construct a car park for the tractor. Children work together to create story lines within their play. One child is delivering bales of hay with the tractor, while two others feed the animals, sharing who does what as they play. This demonstrates a mature approach to cooperative play, helping children to play for lengthy periods with little adult support. Staff are continually observing children's play and use their expertise to judge when to join in and when to stand back. For example, a group of children work together to make cement out of sand and water to build a wall. Staff note that the children are working together very well,

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who attend

sharing resources and showing each other how they are making the cement. Staff join in to show how sandy the real mortar is in the brick wall. Staff also encourage children to solve problems by prompting them to think about how they could transport more bricks from another play area. Children make suggestions, and staff ask for other ideas to inspire their creativity. Staff also ask children to consider how things worked out and reflect on how successful it was. This gives very strong support for children's creative and critical thinking. Staff weave mathematical learning into a wide variety of play. They use practical activities such as preparing the snack to help children make simple calculations about how many more plates they will need for their friends. Children also show a mature understanding of mathematical language such as 'more', 'enough' and 'taller'. Staff involve children of all ages by supporting them to team up across the age groups and work

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who attend

together. This helps younger children to stay involved and gives older children very strong social skills as they teach and help their younger friends. Children, who participated in this shared play, by being one of the animals in a favourite story, go on to use materials in the garden to build a home for their creature. Younger children bring twigs and branches for older children to construct a den and a roof. This shared enterprise gives all age groups a sense of pride and achievement.

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who attend

Staff meet with parents before children start to gather information about children's interests and starting points. Staff then observe children closely in their first sessions to note their learning styles, personality and levels of confidence. Staff make frequent observations of children's achievements in all areas of learning and use these as a basis for setting their next steps. Staff plan activities which focus on children's interests and plan group activities where children share particular next steps. Staff also ask children to bring items from home which staff use skilfully as a focus for their teaching. In this way, children are always engaged in activities and interested, helping them to learn more as a result. Staff write summary reviews of children's learning each term and track children's learning against expected levels of development. This helps them to identify and address any achievement gaps. Staff work closely with parents giving them ideas of activities to

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who attend

play at home to support children's next steps. Staff carefully judge when to carry out the progress check at age two so that they can be sure the child is confident in the pre-school and the check will be accurate. Records show that children are making good progress given their starting points and capabilities and are achieving at their expected level of development.

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

Staff are extremely effective key persons for children. When children are settling, they wait to see who the child builds a natural bond with before deciding who the key person will be. This gives the child choice and helps them to feel confident and comfortable in the pre-school. There is no change of key person while the child is attending which gives the staff and family time to build a very effective partnership in children's care. The small numbers of children who attend share one playroom, so get to know each other and all the staff very well. This family atmosphere helps children to separate confidently from their parents and build exemplary attachments. Staff have created an excellent learning environment both indoors and outside. High quality resources are stored in low shelves and are labelled clearly so children can be highly independent. Staff give careful consideration to providing a wide variety of household equipment and natural objects. This

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

enables children to develop their own ideas. For example, sand and water is used as cake mix, cement and a habitat for creatures. Cardboard boxes are containers, robot heads, and houses. This is extremely conducive to children being independent in exploring and investigating.

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

Children have excellent opportunities to learn about healthy lifestyles. Staff teach children by giving them frequent explanations about health and well-being. As a result, children regularly refer to what they have learned, commenting that fruit is healthy, that they must wear hats in the sun, drink regularly and use suncream. This gives them exemplary abilities in self-care, as they understand the benefit of what they are doing. Children have healthy choices at snack and meal times and grow different foods in their garden, so understand where food comes from. Children help to prepare snacks and enjoy simple cooking activities. Children follow the well-established hygiene routines to minimise the risk of cross-infection and know that they are washing off germs, which could make them unwell. Children have an excellent understanding of safety. They spontaneously comment on how an untied shoelace could make them trip, and make sensible decisions such as

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

dragging a branch rather than lifting it so that it does not go in anyone's face. This is a result of the careful, timely explanations given by staff. Children benefit greatly from a wide variety of physical activity. They carry resources around, rolling pieces of tree trunk to create a strong base for a construction, or balancing on logs because it is fun. They use scissors and small tools such as spoons and tweezers, which build their small muscles for early writing activities.

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

Children's behaviour is exemplary. They have a very mature understanding of how to work together and cooperate. Children have a wide range of techniques to solve their own disputes such as getting more resources to share, or asking each other for advice and instruction. In the normal frustrations of play, children are resilient and resourceful. For example, when a toddler accidently knocks a tower of bricks over, children do not get cross. They recognise it as an accident and talk about how young children are still learning, like them. Children are confident in group activities and express themselves very thoughtfully. Overall, they acquire excellent skills to help them in their future learning.

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provision

Leaders and managers have a good understanding of how to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements. They have strong policies and procedures to guide them in their work and use very effective methods to ensure that all staff understand them. All staff and trustees have been checked as to their suitability and staff have regular training in child protection. Staff know how to record and report any concerns they may have about the welfare of a child. Key policies are available to parents so they understand staff's duties and responsibilities. The managers conduct rigorous risk assessments and devise procedures for outings and use of the garden, for example. Staff follow the procedures closely, carrying out daily check and using a 'walking rope' to move to different sites within the school, for example. Staff maintain all documentation such as registers and children's records in a professional and well-organised manner, which underpins children's

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provision

well-being. Managers and staff share a clear focus on the needs and individuality of the child and their family. This shared vision is at the core of everything they do and gives the staff team a strong sense of direction as they develop the provision. The two co-supervisors work alongside other staff in every aspect of the pre-school's work, giving them a strong awareness of everyone's strengths and capabilities. They foster a great sense of teamwork, with all staff carrying out observations of each other's work and making time to reflect together about their effectiveness. The managers use very effective methods to raise standards in teaching. For example, they posted suggestions for open questions in the playroom and it is clear to see the impact this has had on teaching as all staff consistently use them.

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provision

Managers use supervision and appraisal meetings to set targets for improvements, which may involve training or mentoring, and also regularly ask parents to contribute their ideas. Managers regularly review children's development in order to monitor the impact they are having and identify any achievement gaps. However, this process is still in the early stages so they are not yet able to fully consider how different groups of children are achieving. The managers intend to use their analysis of the final data to enhance the provision for the direct benefit of the children. They have already adapted their learning journal formats to be more available to parents and children.

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provision

Parents receive a great deal of information from their child's key person at handover every day. Staff give parents ideas about things to do at home, and parents regularly send in items related to children's interests and pre-school themes. This builds a strong partnership and contributes to children's learning. Parents particularly value the teaching skills of staff and acknowledge how children learn so much from their play. Parents attend regular 'stay and play' sessions to see how the pre-school works and enjoy the regular social events. The pre-school has a very strong relationship with staff in the main receiving school, who are part of the board of trustees and also lend their expertise in supervision. Pre-school staff also have very effective relationships with other schools in the area, so all children can enjoy their move to school with confidence. The managers meet with other day care settings in the area and work with local authority staff to support

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provision

children's consistent care. This means that children who attend more than none setting, or those with additional needs have their individual needs met in consistent ways.

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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 EY471926 Local authority East Sussex Inspection number 954197 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 4 Total number of places 18 Number of children on roll 33 Name of provider Little Punnetts Committee Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01435 831515

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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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