St Johns Pre School

St Johns Pre-school 64 Larcom St, London, SE17 1NQ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 23/10/2014 11/10/2011

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early years provision

This inspection: 3 Previous inspection: 3 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 3 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 3

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This provision requires improvement

 Staff prioritise children's safety. All staff members are qualified in first aid which provides good protection of children in case of emergencies.  Staff have effective partnerships with community health professionals to provide support to children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.  Staff work well with parents and keep them informed of their children's progress.

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It is not yet good because

 Staff do not link children's next steps for learning firmly to planning so that their needs are met precisely, particularly in the case of more able children.  Staff have not fully developed the programme for physical development so that children learn self-care skills, such as hand washing at appropriate times.  Staff sometimes miss opportunities in role-play to maximise children's early mathematical skills.  Management does not fully evaluate the nursery to identify accurate key priorities for development.

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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 carried out a joint observation with the manager of an adult-led group activity.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed interaction between staff and children in the indoor and outdoor environments.  The inspector tracked the progress of several children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke to parents, children and staff and took their views into consideration.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation and held a discussion with management.

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Information about the setting

St Johns Pre-School registered in 1994 and is run by a management committee. It operates from the first floor of a community centre in the Walworth area of Southwark. There is no outdoor play area, but staff make use of nearby park facilities. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 18 children in the early years range on roll. The nursery is open each weekday during school term times from 8.45am to 11.45am and 12.30pm to 3.30pm or from 9.15am to 3pm. Children can attend on a part-time or full- time basis. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who are learning English as an additional language. It receives funding to provide free early education to children aged three and four years. The nursery employs five members of staff who work directly with children, including the manager all of whom

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Information about the setting

hold appropriate early years qualifications. Four staff members hold level 3 qualifications, and one staff member holds a level 2 qualification.

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must:

 link children's next steps for learning more firmly to planning so that their individual needs are met more fully, particularly for more able children.

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must:

 develop the educational programme for physical education in order for children to develop good self-care skills, particularly hand washing

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

 maximise opportunities in role-play to enhance children's early mathematics skills

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

 develop monitoring systems of the nursery further so that accurate key priorities for development are identified.

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who attend

Overall, children make sound progress in their learning. Generally, staff know children sufficiently well to meet their needs by planning activities based on their interests. For instance, staff plan a theme around children's interest in spiders. They provide activities that broadly cover areas of learning. Staff observe children regularly and evaluate this to form children's next steps for learning. However, these are not linked firmly to planning which means that children's needs are not met precisely. This is particularly evident for more-able children, who sometimes complete activities with ease and, on occasion, become bored. Staff provide a balance between child-led and adult-led activities which enables children to benefit from both structured learning and free play.

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who attend

Generally, children engage with a range of activities in the nursery. They develop small muscle control as they knead and roll play-dough. Staff talk to children about their designs by asking questions. This supports children's language development. Staff read stories to children, who make spontaneous comments about story characters. This helps to develop children's early literacy skills. The programme for physical development is not fully developed because staff do not teach children good self-care skills, such as hand washing before eating. Staff teach children the name of body parts and add new words to their vocabulary as they pretend to be doctors and patients using doctors' kits. During a small group session, staff enable children to practise their counting skills on a large floor abacus. While this was sufficiently challenging for some children, more able children were not sufficiently challenged by this and completed the task with ease. Although children enjoy

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who attend

taking part in role play, staff do not maximise the learning opportunities in this type of play. For instance, by providing opportunities for children to sort and group food or clothes items to support their early mathematical development. As a result, more able children sometimes lose interest and walk away. Children use the creative area to freely select different materials to create their own designs. For instance, they created birthday cards using feathers, glue and paint and used paintbrushes skilfully to make pictures. Children recognise their names on cards when they arrive at the nursery and this supports their early literacy skills. Overall, children learn sufficient skills for later use in school.

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who attend

Although the nursery does not have its own outdoor area, staff take children out to the local park each day to use the facilities. Staff also have a range of indoor apparatus, such as a climbing frame and balancing beams to enable children to practise moving in different ways. Children learn good physical coordination skills from a football coach who visits the nursery each week. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make sound progress. Staff work closely with community health professionals to meet their needs. They provide support to children who learn English as an additional language by learning key words in children's home languages. Staff work well with parents. They complete communication diaries each day to provide information on children's care and learning activities to parents. Staff talk to parents each day and keep them up to date on children's progress. They carry out progress checks for children aged two years and

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who attend

provide written summaries to parents. Staff invite parents into the nursery to share aspects of their culture, such as making lamps for Diwali which supports children's learning.

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

Children are happy and well settled. They enjoy being at the nursery because staff provide activities that match their interests. Staff find out about children's personalities when they first arrive at the nursery and use this information to meet their needs and build warm relationships. This helps children to feel understood and accepted. Staff provide a suitable routine which children understand and follow readily. The nursery is spacious and, generally, well-resourced which supports children's independent skills.

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

Staff manage children's behaviour sufficiently well. They share their expectations with the children and remind children of positive ways to behave. Generally, children behave well and are beginning to learn to take turns and share resources. Staff praise children which motivates them to behave in positive ways. Staff teach children about religious and cultural differences by celebrating and discussing significant events, such as Diwali. Children are beginning to learn how to behave in safe ways. Staff remind children of group rules, such as walking indoors to avoid accidents. They talk to children about how to behave in safe ways when going out on trips and this increases children's awareness of road safety.

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

Children are beginning to learn the importance of leading healthy lifestyles. Staff enable children to practise a range of physical skills on indoor apparatus and they take children out each day for fresh air and exercise at the local park. Staff provide nutritious fruit snacks which meet the needs of children with special dietary needs. However, staff do not always remind children to wash their hands before eating which presents a hygiene risk. Children tidy away their snack bowls independently. Staff encourage children to be independent by teaching them self-dressing skills, such as putting on their coats.

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

Children are prepared soundly for the move to school. Staff have effective links with local schools which enables children to spend time at the school to get familiar with the environment. Children are in mixed age groups at the nursery which means they have the same key person throughout their time at the nursery. This supports continuity of care and learning.

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provision

The management team has sufficient knowledge of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The manager, who is also the owner is aware of the need to comply with requirements. In relation to this, the team has a sound range of policies and procedures in place to keep children safe. For instance, the safeguarding policy and procedure is suitably detailed and staff have sound knowledge of procedures to follow should they be concerned about a child. All staff are qualified in first aid which provides good protection to children in case of accident emergencies. The manager carries out background checks on staff as part of the recruitment process and this adds to children's safety. Staff keep the premises safe and secure through suitable door locks, which helps to prevent intruder access. All visitors are asked to sign in the visitors book and their identity is checked. This helps to monitor who is in the building. Staff carry routine risk

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provision

assessments covering all areas of the nursery to help prevent accidents.

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provision

The management team monitors and supports staff soundly. The manager works in the group room with staff and this provides direct observation of staff practice. This enables the manager to have some insight into the quality of staff practice. She is involved in planning meetings with staff and reviews children's assessment records to check for consistency in quality. This provides some form of quality assurance. The manager meets up with staff to discuss work issues and provides written records of supervision to staff. The manager carries out appraisals to review staff performance and to identify training needs. For instance, staff attended a course on ways to support children with autism which led to more use of visual resources.

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provision

Staff work effectively with community health professionals to provide sound support to children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They have links with local schools to provide sound support children who move to school. Staff have effective links with parents. They keep them informed of children's progress and offer opportunities to be involved in their learning.

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provision

The management team does not fully evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the nursery. As a result, accurate priorities for development are not clearly identified. However, management has some ideas on ways to improve the nursery. For instance, it plans to make increase the range of technology resources to children. The management team has met previous recommendations, such as better use of local facilities to promote children's physical skills. The nursery has sufficient capacity to improve future outcomes for children.

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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 107639 Local authority Southwark Inspection number 816938 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 24 Number of children on roll 18 Name of provider St Johns Playgroup (Southwark) Committee Date of previous inspection 11/10/2011 Telephone number 07712 227013 or 0207 358 3349

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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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