Rocking Horse Nursery

Rocking Horse Nursery The Old Brewery House, Bath Road, Shaw, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 8EF

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 23/05/2014 12/02/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 2 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 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision requires improvement

 Staff develop effective partnerships with parents which help to support children's individual needs.  Behaviour is managed well which enables children to develop confidence and self- esteem.  Children benefit from a well-resourced outdoor environment which encourages children to explore and learn about the natural world.

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It is not yet good because

 Systems to monitor staff practice are not rigorous enough to ensure that the quality of interactions across the nursery are consistently good. This limits opportunities for children to develop their language and communication skills.  Children are not sufficiently challenged in their independent play and routines, which reduces opportunities for children to practise counting, calculating and problem solving skills.

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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 inspector had a tour of the premises and observed children in all playrooms and in the outdoor environment.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector conducted joint observations with the provider and the deputy manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation, including children's assessment records, planning, the provider's self-evaluation form, staff induction, a range of policies and procedures, and checked evidence of staff suitability and qualifications.  The inspector held meetings with the provider and the deputy manager.  The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken with during the visit.

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Information about the setting

Rocking Horse Nursery opened in 2002. It is registered on the Early Years Register and on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. The nursery also offers after school care. It operates from a detached house in the village of Shaw, on the outskirts of the town of Melksham in Wiltshire. A maximum of 39 children may attend at any one time. The nursery is open from 8am until 6pm, all year. All children share access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area, which includes a grass and paved area, an allotment and a wooded walk area. There are currently 70 children on roll, all in the early years age range. The nursery is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education for children aged three and four years. Children come from a wide catchment area. The nursery supports children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and children with English as an additional language. There are links with the local schools. The nursery

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Information about the setting

employs 15 staff who works directly with the children, and in addition, a chef and a cleaner. 12 staff members hold an early years qualification. In addition, one staff member is working towards a level 3 qualification and two are working towards level 2.

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must:

 improve the supervision of staff to ensure that the quality of interactions is consistent so that all children are supported effectively to develop communication and language skills

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must:

 plan and provide a range of challenging learning experiences to encourage children to develop and improve mathematical skills and problem solving

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

 extend opportunities for children to develop their literacy skills, for example by writing and linking sounds to letters through a range of activities that include making marks, both outdoors and indoors.

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who attend

Children enjoy their time at the nursery and they settle well in a homely environment. Resources are easily accessible so that children can make independent choices about their play. Children demonstrate good levels of confidence as they move freely around the environment. Some staff interact effectively with the children during their play to promote their learning and development, however the quality of interactions across the nursery is variable. For example, children are supported by staff to talk about what they can see, introducing vocabulary such as 'near' and 'far' as they look through binoculars during their pretend play. However, during a painting activity staff do not encourage the children to talk about their ideas and their choices. For example, children are not encouraged to mix and experiment with colours or to try to write their name on their finished picture. This limits how well children can practise and develop their language and literacy skills and

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who attend

think creatively through art activities.

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who attend

In the baby room, staff promote children's thinking and problem solving well during their play. For example, babies are encouraged by staff to explore and combine a range of natural resources, such as posting shells into tubes and cones. The babies demonstrate their fascination as the shells appear at the other end of the cone, and they begin to repeat the action with anticipation. This helps them to develop early concepts, such as cause and effect, and to promote thinking and problem solving. However, teaching strategies to support children's mathematical skills are not consistent across the nursery. This results in some children not being supported to reach their potential. For example, during meal times, staff give items out instead of encouraging the older children to count or calculate how many are needed. This limits opportunities for children to develop and improve their skills in counting and problem solving in practical situations. Developing

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who attend

mathematics in practical situations was a recommendation from the previous inspection and has not been fully addressed.

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who attend

Staff know the children well and this is captured in their learning journals, which are well documented with photographs and positive comments. Staff maintain regular records of children's progress and share these with parents, along with the children's next steps to learning. Parents receive a learning story every three months and the parents and children are encouraged to contribute towards their ongoing assessments. Procedures to carry out the progress checks for two-year-old children are established and each key person meets with parents to share the assessment outcomes. Staff take time to obtain information from parents and use this to inform planning from children's interests and to establish starting points on entry to the nursery. Staff make assessments of children through regular observations and planning takes into account children's individual needs. However, this does not always result in good quality learning experiences for all children. This is

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who attend

because some staff do not use strategies, such as open-ended questioning, to extend children's thinking in their play.

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who attend

Children have daily outdoor experiences and they benefit from a natural outdoor play area equipped with a willow arch, mud kitchen and allotment area. The outdoor space enables children to develop curiosity and knowledge of the world around them as they enjoy exploring hidden pathways and making dens. Children are supported to take safe risks, for example, making outdoor fires. They can practise their physical skills through a range of outdoor activities, such as climbing trees and playing football. Older children enjoy filling and emptying pots and pans in the mud kitchen and they are encouraged to fill containers to make more mud from collected rain water. Staff use this opportunity to talk to children and extend their knowledge about the wider world, for example by talking about where the water has come from and recycling. In the pre-school room, children are encouraged to practise their hand co-ordination skills

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who attend

through activities such as using peg boards and threading. Children persevere as they try to thread laces through narrow pen-shaped tubes in order to make patterns on boards. This encourages good levels of concentration and supports children with their physical development. Staff support the younger children to develop hand control during meal times. Staff encourage the toddlers to use their spoons independently as they eat their cereals. As a result, children show good levels of independence and co-ordination.

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who attend

A range of equipment for making marks is available outside in the outdoor classroom. The resources are easily accessible in open storage to encourage children to self-select and make choices. The indoor pre-school room is also well equipped with a range of creative resources and materials to make marks, alongside tools such as scissors, glue sticks, a range of collage materials and mini white boards. Staff do not, however, effectively use opportunities to encourage children to practise their mark-making in a range of ways. For example, they do not support children to make marks and draw outside as they explore the environment, or record as they build structures with construction bricks indoors. As a result, opportunities for children to practise literacy skills such as emerging writing and linking sounds to letters, are limited.

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who attend

The setting offers an inclusive environment for children with additional needs. Staff work sensitively with parents to plan for individual needs and signpost to appropriate support agencies. Staff document small steps of achievement in the learning journals and share these regularly with parents. Some children have individual education plans with learning targets that are developed with the parents and other professionals, such as speech and language therapists. Staff are trained in order to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, for example, using a popular form of sign language to support communication.

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

Overall the staff working with the children are supportive and offer positive encouragement. Consequently there is a positive atmosphere at the nursery and children behave well. They demonstrate positive social skills such as turn taking and being polite to each other. Staff work well as a team to support each other, acting as good role models for children. For example, recognising staff kindness through an, 'appreciation tree'. Older children are encouraged and praised through a star reward system and this supports children to develop positive self-esteem.

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

Staff are appropriately trained and knowledgeable in safeguarding procedures. Required documentation is in place, including risk assessments, to help ensure children are kept safe. Staff are able to demonstrate how they would deal with concerns and follow appropriate procedures with safeguarding issues. Children are well supervised both indoors and outside. Babies show confidence to move around their environment as they make their way out of their room and towards the bathroom independently. Toddlers also move around with confidence and independence, for example as they negotiate descending the stairs backwards. Children therefore develop an understanding of risk within a safe environment. Children in all age groups enjoy regular opportunities to engage in physical activity and to enjoy fresh air outside.

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

A well-established key-person system helps children to develop positive and secure relationships. Staff know children well and build good relationships with parents. Staff support parents of children with additional needs in a sensitive way in order to effectively meet children's needs. Staff offer a welcoming environment which supports children's well- being and helps them feel secure. Children are allowed uninterrupted time to play and as a result, most children demonstrate good levels of self-motivation and perseverance in their self-chosen play. For example, children using scissors show high levels of concentration as they persevere in cutting shapes from paper independently. However, the quality of support given to children during activities is variable. As a consequence, some children do not show good levels of engagement during group activities.

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

The nursery has systems in place to support children to settle well when they first start. The key person offers a settling-in meeting with parents after four weeks of starting. Younger children have regular opportunities to mix with older children and spend time in the different rooms to support transitions within the nursery. This supports children to become emotionally prepared for the next stage in their learning. Staff have developed links with local schools and attend cluster meetings to support the transition process. Older children are encouraged to take part in more formal PE sessions in order to practise skills, such as dressing, in preparation for school.

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

Children are given a packed tea to unwrap to practice their independence skills in preparation for having a lunchbox at school. However, staff do not use other meal times, such as lunch and breakfast times, effectively to allow children to give items out, pour drinks or prepare food. The nursery offers children a healthy diet with home cooked food which the children enjoy. Meal times are sociable as all the nursery children sit together in the dining room; however, this can be noisy and busy especially for the babies. During meal times, staff spend time organising rather than sitting with the children. Therefore, this results in few opportunities for staff to talk to children and encourage their language skills.

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

Links with parents and other professionals are good. This has a positive impact on the care and well-being of children, especially children with additional needs. Staff are willing to follow procedures to support children with complex medical needs and develop individual care plans as necessary. Staff attend additional training to ensure children with specific needs are effectively supported and integrated into the nursery. Staff use information from parents on personal care needs, such as nappy changing, and this ensures that care routines are personalised in order to meet children's individual needs.

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provision

The management team demonstrates a suitable understanding of their responsibility to meet the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Consequently safeguarding and welfare requirements are met, ensuring a safe learning environment for all children. Recruitment and vetting procedures are in place to help ensure that all staff working with the children are suitable to do so. Good ratios of adults to children are maintained and staff provide a welcoming and secure environment for children. Induction procedures help to ensure newly appointed staff become familiar with policies and procedures. However, managers do not appropriately identify professional development needs of some staff in order to fulfil their roles effectively. This results in some inconsistencies in the quality of interactions with children, and therefore not all children develop across all areas of learning to their full potential.

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provision

Arrangements for staff supervision and performance management are in place, and all staff receive annual appraisals and regular supervision meetings. Staff appraisals result in individual staff action plans to identify some professional development needs and the nursery is developing the use of peer observations. The manager encourages staff to attending training and is supportive towards staff wanting to take on specific responsibilities. For example, staff are encouraged to attend training to support children with specific needs, such as sign language training and medical needs. The performance management system supports the development of some areas of the provision, for example, how staff manage children's behaviour. However, there is insufficient focus on staff mentoring and sharing expertise in order to improve the quality of teaching.

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provision

Managers carry out regular monitoring of assessments and planning. However, this is not rigorous enough to identify weaknesses in planning and delivery of educational programmes. For example, children's next steps in learning are not always effectively promoted by staff through activities involving children's self-chosen play. This limits children's ability to make good progress in some areas of the curriculum. Managers are developing a system to summarise and track each child's progress from their starting points. This system is not yet embedded enough to monitor the progress of groups of children that may need additional support.

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provision

The management team involve staff and parents in reviewing the quality of provision through a detailed self-evaluation process. Parents express their satisfaction with the nursery and comments from parents reflect a welcoming and caring atmosphere and approachable staff. Partnerships with parents are effective and parents explain that staff are very proactive in helping them to access specialist support for their children. Staff across the nursery care about the children and form secure attachments with them. Staff are committed to working in partnership with external agencies in order to meet specific individual needs of children and ensure their well-being.

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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. We re-inspect nurseries and pre-schools judged as requires improvement within 12 months of the date of 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

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Grade Judgement Description

is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. Met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. 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 EY104146 Local authority Wiltshire Inspection number 836997 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 39 Number of children on roll 70 Name of provider Fiona Mhairi Milner Date of previous inspection 12/02/2009 Telephone number 01225 700894

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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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