Oak Trees Day Nursery School

Seymour House Day Nursery School Ford Research & Engineering Centre, Laindon, Basildon, SS15 6EE

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 23/07/2014 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: Not Applicable How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 The educational programmes have superb depth and breadth and are delivered by staff, who have extremely high expectations of themselves and the children. Staff's astute observations, meticulous use of assessment tools and excellent teaching result in children and babies making rapid progress in their learning and development.  Key persons are highly skilled and sensitive and help children to form strong emotional attachments and feel very secure within the nursery.  Highly effective partnerships between the key persons and parents ensure that children's needs are quickly identified and exceptionally well met.  Children become extremely confident communicators as staff members show a keen commitment to developing their speech and language skills.  Staff have an excellent understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The rigorous

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This provision is outstanding

implementation of robust policies and procedures successfully promotes children's safety and well-being.  The management team demonstrates an immensely strong commitment to maintaining the high quality provision. This is reflected through the ambitious development plan and a programme of training and support to enhance staff's already excellent skills and knowledge.

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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 activities in the indoor and outdoor learning environments.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the Head of Early Years.  The inspector held discussions with the management team, staff and children.  The inspector viewed a sample of the children's development records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector saw evidence of suitability and qualifications of the staff, self- evaluation, risk assessment and policies and procedures.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day and from the responses to surveys organised by the nursery.

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Information about the setting

Seymour House Day Nursery School was registered in 2002 and registered again in 2014 under a limited company on the Early Years Register. It is one of eight settings run and managed by Seymour House Limited. The nursery operates from purpose-built accommodation in Laindon, Essex. It serves the children of parents, who work for the Ford Motor Company. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round. Opening times are from 7.15am until 6.15pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. Children are cared for in four playrooms and they have access to an enclosed area for outdoor play. There are currently 84 children attending, who are within the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for three- and four-year-old children. It supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children, who speak English as an additional language. There are currently 13 staff working directly with the children, all of

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Information about the setting

whom have an appropriate early years qualification. Nine staff have a qualification at level 3, three staff have foundation degrees and one member of staff has Early Years Professional status. The nursery receives support from the local authority.

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

 extend the already very successful ways in which the nursery engages parents in their children's learning, for example, by enhancing the activity packs that they take home, to provide additional inspiration for children to build on their mathematical skills.

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who attend

Staff have an exemplary understanding of how young children learn best. The excellent range of resources and practical activities, together with exciting surroundings, provide children with many opportunities to learn. This means that children are extremely curious and keen to concentrate and persevere, as they become absorbed in their play. For example, children talk excitedly when they can see caterpillars changing into butterflies and particularly enjoy sharing their new knowledge with visitors. There is a strong focus on activities that promote investigation, exploration and experimentation. As a result, the younger children and babies enjoy superb creative and messy play activities, which help them to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings in many ways. Children show high levels of curiosity as they plunge into new sensory experiences, such as exploring shaving gel, paint, corn flour gloop or the 'mud kitchen' in the garden. They also demonstrate a

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who attend

great deal of pleasure playing with familiar resources, such as sand and water. Staff consistently offer excellent support and they inspire children to get involved and learn because of their own constant enthusiasm. Every opportunity is used to maximise children's learning, particularly their communication and language skills. There is a continuous flow of high quality conversations, as adults explain what they are doing and they encourage children to talk to each other about their tasks. Staff routinely ask questions of children that need more than a yes or no response and they give them time to think of their answer. This increases children's vocabulary and their ability to explain, with increasingly clarity, their ideas and understanding in sentences.

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who attend

Teaching is outstanding because planning, assessment and tracking for individuals and groups of children, are meticulous and detailed. Staff know exactly what the needs of each child are and uses this knowledge to deliver rich, stimulating experiences following the interests and learning priorities of the children. They make frequent and detailed observations of children's achievements in different circumstances and gather information from parents to reinforce these assessments. In addition, staff have successfully implemented a timely and robust process for completing the required progress checks for children between the age of two and three years. Staff work very closely with children's families and outside professionals, such as speech and language therapists. This enables the nursery to offer children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, a superb level of support to fully promote their individual progress and development. Interventions

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who attend

are timely and ensure the gap narrows rapidly from children's original starting points.

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who attend

Children are becoming extremely well equipped with the skills they need in readiness for starting school. They listen attentively and are motivated to try things for themselves through an impressive blend of adult-led and child-initiated play experiences. Children learn to dress themselves when they take part in role play involving school uniforms. Focused literacy sessions successfully develop children's early reading and writing skills. For example, children use their growing knowledge of the sounds that letters make to recognise and write key words. Children enjoy learning about counting, ordering numbers and writing numerals. They develop their skills through singing, counting on their fingers and jumping as they count. Children use the large number lines displayed by the projector to check the accuracy of their counting. Parents are highly respected and great importance is placed upon their contribution to the children's nursery experience. Staff

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who attend

successfully engage all parents in their children's learning through a variety of means, including regular contributions to the learning records, attending 'stay and play' sessions and making use of the lending library. Parents are also invited into the nursery to share their expertise with the children and this provides them with a wider knowledge of people's occupations. The nursery has placed an extremely sharp focus on encouraging parents to help their children to acquire literacy skills. Consequently, the nursery provides excellent activity packs for children, so they can develop their early reading and writing skills at home. There is scope to extend this further by also introducing resources that enhance mathematical development for children to share at home with their parents.

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

Children and babies are extremely happy and purposefully engaged in their play. A highly effective key person system operates throughout the nursery. This provides parents with a familiar person to share information with and helps children to form very secure emotional attachments. Babies demonstrate particularly strong bonds with their key person as they turn towards them to initiate play and interaction or they confidently seek comfort when they feel tired. Every key person knows their key children exceptionally well and demonstrates insightful understanding and sensitivity to their individual needs. This is due to parents supplying comprehensive information about children's routines and care needs, right from the start. In addition, parents supply photographs of familiar adults, children and pets for the family books, which are effectively used to promote children's well-being and their emotional development, when they join the nursery. The support given to

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

children when they change rooms within the nursery, is managed extremely well. For example, staff share with parents and children information and photographs of their new carers and the new playroom, to build children's confidence and prepare them for the move.

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

The nursery provides a highly stimulating and welcoming environment to all children. The playrooms are safe and kept scrupulously clean. The nursery kitchen has been inspected by an environmental health officer and awarded five stars for food hygiene. The equipment, resources and furniture are of excellent quality and support children's development. Resources throughout the nursery, both indoors and outside, are plentiful, easily reached and actively encourage children to explore and investigate. There are ample resources that help children gain an awareness of diversity and the wider world. In addition, the nursery positively reflects children's cultural backgrounds and truly values home languages. For example, children, who speak English as an additional language, become very excited when they listen to their home languages on the voice recorders or when they use electronic translation tools. Staff also plan interesting activities that reflect

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

customs and traditional events. For example, children have great fun recreating the Tour de France in the nursery playground. Children's behaviour is exceptional. They demonstrate a very high respect for one another and a very good understanding of their routines. Children happily play together, share resources and listen as someone speaks. For example, during group times, children listen intently as a child talks about their recent holiday. They learn to keep themselves and each other safe, as they take part in activities linked to a child safety week. For example, they talk about potential dangers in the home and in their playroom. This means they confidently explain to visitors that the yellow sign means they need to be cautious because the floor is wet. Children regularly practise fire drills, so they can swiftly evacuate the premises in an emergency and take part in activities that raise awareness of road safety. On hot sunny days, children knowledgably

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

discuss why they need to wear sun hats, apply sun lotion and drink plenty of water to keep themselves healthy and safe.

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

Children's health, physical and dietary needs are met to an exceptional standard. In addition, staff provide a strong base for children to develop their independence skills. For example, babies and young children quickly learn to feed themselves and older children enthusiastically serve their own meals. Staff efficiently encourage and support children to gain independence in undertaking personal hygiene routines, such as hand washing and toileting, along with an understanding of why these are important. Children's awareness of healthy lifestyles is promoted very well as staff provide them with extremely clear messages about why it is important to receive plenty of fresh air and exercise. The outdoor area is well resourced for children to develop their physical skills. They challenge themselves when playing on the climbing apparatus, developing their coordination and balancing skills. Children are provided with nutritious meals and snacks, which constantly

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

take into account individual dietary requirements. In addition, children learn about the food that is good for them as they grow salad vegetables in the garden. Staff prepare children extremely well for the move to school and for their future learning. This is because children learn positive skills and attitudes to exploring and learning, building friendships and their self-care. Staff forge superb links with schools and they have developed excellent relationships with the local teachers. Reception teachers are invited into the nursery to meet children and the key person shares development reports. This ensures that there is a successful collaborative approach to promoting children's learning and development and a smooth transfer as they move onto full-time education.

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provision

Leadership of the nursery is inspirational. The exceptionally capable and professional approach of the management team and the sharing of expertise across the Seymour House chain of nurseries, means that the quality of teaching continues to improve. All the essential documentation is meticulously maintained. The nursery's highly comprehensive policies and procedures underpin a first-rate level of care and learning. Recruitment procedures are exceedingly strong and therefore, make sure that the adults working with children are suitable to do so. Staff demonstrate an excellent understanding of how to carry out their roles and responsibilities. This is because these are clearly defined and frequently reviewed with them. Safeguarding arrangements to protect children are exceptionally robust. Risk assessments and safety checks are meticulous and reviewed whenever required, so children can safely access a wealth of learning experiences, both

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provision

indoors and outside. Staff are extremely well deployed across the nursery, so that children are constantly supervised throughout the day. Accident records are rigorously monitored for frequency and location of incidents, to ensure that children remain safe. Staff receive regular safeguarding training to make sure their knowledge is secure and up to date. Consequently, staff are able to effectively meet the needs of each and every child. This enables children to have fun in a calm and tranquil environment and parents can relax in the knowledge that they are extremely well cared for.

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provision

The nursery is successfully driven to support children's high levels of achievement through the outstanding leadership. The managers strive for excellence amongst the staff and their morale is extremely high. All staff have the confidence and willingness to try out new ideas and they receive extremely good quality professional supervision and training. There are highly successful systems to monitor the impact of staff practice, in order to promote the excellent outcomes for children. There are also excellent training opportunities to support every staff member's continuous professional development. For example, training is used particularly well to promote career development, especially for staff, who wish to become leaders in the future. All staff are highly reflective and have rigorous systems for evaluating their personal priorities to improve their practice further. Leaders and managers keep a very close check on the quality of activities experienced by each child or group of

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provision

children and the progress that they make. Consequently, accurate assessment and detailed observations ensure that each child's experiences are constantly enriched and built upon. Partnerships with parents are excellent. Their views are sought through daily verbal communications or through regular surveys. Developments within the nursery are strongly influenced by the views and needs of the parents, who use the provision. Parents and carers receive an abundance of information about the nursery through discussions, children's progress records and policies and procedures. This is further enhanced through information displayed on the notice boards, as well as regular bulletins and the nursery website. Parents are effusive in the praise of the nursery. They comment on the superb range of activities their children enjoy and the excellent progress they make. There are strong partnerships with other agencies. This helps to ensure that any additional support

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provision

needed for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is arranged efficiently, to support their optimum progress. Partnerships with schools and other early years providers are excellent, with information regularly shared to ensure continuity of care and learning for children.

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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 EY472633 Local authority Essex Inspection number 952507 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 51 Number of children on roll 84 Name of provider Seymour House Limited Date of previous inspection not applicable Telephone number 01268546644

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Setting details

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

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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Type of provision

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

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