Clive Vale Nursery School

Clive Vale Nursery School 29 Clive Avenue, Hastings, East Sussex, TN35 5LN

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 06/11/2014 04/06/2014

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: 4 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 2

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This provision is good

 Children are very confident and motivated to engage with staff at activities and play as well as making their own play choices.  Staff devise well thought out next steps in children's learning to support their individual needs and encourage progress.  There is a very good range of resources and activities to encourage children to explore, developing their creativity and imagination.  The outdoor play environment promotes children's physical development, with play in the fresh air supporting a healthy lifestyle.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 The staff are not routinely providing effective experiences for children to write or mark make for different purposes as they play.  The staff are not consistently showing how they review and use feedback from parents about how they are supporting children's learning at home.

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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 checked evidence of safeguarding practices, staff recruitment, ongoing professional development and self-evaluation processes.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at some children's records, including their learning assessments, and spoke to some key persons.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held meetings with the manager and deputy of the nursery and completed a joint observation with the deputy.  The inspector spoke to some parents and took account of parents' views.  The inspector observed activities in the play rooms and the outside play area.

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Information about the setting

Clive Vale Nursery School registered in 2005. It is a privately owned nursery, which operates from two floors of a large detached house in Ore, on the outskirts of Hastings, East Sussex. There are stairs up to the first floor. Children have access to an enclosed outdoor play area. It is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm, for 50 weeks of the year. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 131 childrenaged from two years on roll, all of whom are in the early years age range. The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. In addition to the provider and manager, the nursery employs 17 members of staff including the housekeeper and cleaner. The 15 staff working directly with the children are all appropriately qualified with all but two staff qualified to level 3 or

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Information about the setting

above. The deputy manager has Early Years Professional Status. The nursery is not currently in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education.

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

 encourage children to make more effective use of mark making and writing materials in a wider range of play and learning experiences both indoors and outside

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

 strengthen strategies that successfully engage all parents in supporting their children's learning at home and in contributing to the learning assessment processes.

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who attend

Staff are very aware of their key children's individual needs and promote the next steps in their learning well. Staff observe their key children routinely as they play to assess and track their stage of development. This means the key person can easily identify any learning gaps across all areas of learning. Staff plan effective activities or use play resources to support children's progress. There is effective ongoing detail in each learning record that shows children are making good progress. Parents have formal meetings, three times a year, with the staff to discuss children's learning and development. They are made aware of the next steps in their child's learning and of any individual planning in place. As a result, they are able to support their child's learning at home fully. However, it is not always clear how all staff use the feedback they receive from parents in the assessment process. This slightly limits a cohesive approach to supporting children's

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who attend

learning between the home and nursery. Parents speak very positively of the relationships they have with staff and of the information they receive. The required written progress reports for two-year-old children are informative. The reports give parents detail on children's personal, social, emotional and physical progress, as well as their communication and language development.

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who attend

Staff support children's developing communication and language well. They encourage children to express their thoughts and their ideas. Small groups for additional support are available to those children who need more input with their speech and language. Staff motivate children to take part in activities as they engage positively with them and help extend their learning or play, for example, by finding additional resources for them to use. Children develop the physical skills they need to begin to write. They practise making marks in sand and glitter trays that leads to the writing of letter shapes as they get older. There are drawing and writing materials indoors and outside. However, staff are not routinely encouraging children to use these for early writing practise in different activities or in their play. Staff support children's imagination and creativity well with a good variety of interesting experiences. These included, exploring cornflour and water, painting with

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who attend

string or using magnetic fishing rods to find fish in a mix of sand and water. The younger children enjoyed exploring natural items and plastic animals in a soil tray. Staff promote an interest in books from an early age. As a result, children are very keen to look at books and listen to stories. Children are clearly gaining the skills they need for going to school. They are confident and keen to interact with the staff and others. They play cooperatively with other children and gain independence skills, such as going to the toilet by themselves.

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

There is an established key-person system meaning that staff get to know their key children well. They are able to support children's personal care needs as well as promote their learning. Staff have positive relationships with parents and this helps them to share detail about children's individual care needs. Children gain strong personal and social skills. They relate well with others, such as the staff, and play cooperatively with other children. This promotes children's emotional well-being well and helps prepare them for any future moves.

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

The staff manage children's behaviour well. Children happily wait their turn, share resources when necessary and show they listen well. Children gain independence skills and confidence as they make choices about their play. The children learn to pour their drinks and manage their packed lunch boxes. Staff teach children the importance of hand washing before eating. Children benefit from the healthy and nutritionally balanced snack. They make good use of the outside play area for supporting a healthy lifestyle. The equipment, such as the ride-on toys, climbing ramp, slide and swings offer some challenge and there are different surfaces for children to negotiate. As a result, they learn to take some risks under supervision and develop good physical skills. The staff help teach children about the need to keep safe. Children practise emergency evacuations and learn to use scissors and other resources safely. Staff teach road safety, for example, by

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

introducing children to red for stop and green for go when using the ride-on toys on the path.

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

Staff ensure that resources to support identified learning needs are available. They extend the range of resources to meet children's interests, for example, finding some items for a child to add to her crown as jewels. There are printed words on display and children are keen to share books and listen to stories from an early age. The resources are at a low level to help children to make decisions about what they want to play with. Children have some natural resources and a range of textures to explore and investigate indoors as well as outside. The homely and welcoming environment supports children's all-round development effectively.

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provision

The staff team demonstrates a clear awareness of the safeguarding and welfare requirements. The premises are safe and secure with appropriate risk assessments in place. There are suitable systems in place to help the manager monitor accidents and incidents. The deployment of staff is good and they supervise children well, both indoors and outside. This helps children feel secure to make choices about where they play. The staff have a very confident knowledge about possible child protection issues and of the processes to follow should they have concerns. They complete safeguarding training and there are detailed written procedures in place. The robust recruitment process helps ensure the provider employs suitable staff and undertakes appropriate checks. The induction system helps new staff gain a secure understanding of their roles and responsibilities. There are individual review meetings where staff talk about their

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provision

development needs and training opportunities. The staff are keen to improve their knowledge, with some staff completing training to achieve a higher qualification.

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provision

There have been effective developments since the last inspection, demonstrating a strong capacity to continue improvements. Following the last inspection, the staff quickly gained the knowledge necessary to meet the safeguarding requirements. There was one monitoring visit where it was seen that there had been positive improvement made. The staff are now very clear about the need to inform the local authority duty officer of any serious accidents or injuries. In the main, the development plans concentrated on the issues raised at the last inspection. However, the senior staff reviewed all practices and identified some other issues for improvement. These have been successfully addressed and the staff are keen to plan for the future. The staff take account of parents' comments as they evaluate the nursery and are enthusiastic in wanting to improve practices. For example, parents asked for more formal consultations and these are now in place.

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provision

The staff have a secure knowledge of the learning and development requirements and ably support children's progress. The curriculum manager oversees and checks the learning records for each child to ensure accuracy and consistency. A new tracking system is being finalised to provide more detail in showing how well children are making progress. It will enable comparisons with groups of children, such as boys and girls or by age. This means staff can quickly identify learning gaps and address them with additional support. There are positive relationships with parents and other professionals to ensure children receive the care and support they need. Where necessary, staff establish links with other early years settings where children also attend. This helps staff meet children's individual needs well, fully supporting effective partnership working.

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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 EY314066 Local authority East Sussex Inspection number 981721 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 60 Number of children on roll 131 Name of provider Sian Nadine Hamilton Date of previous inspection 04/06/2014 Telephone number 01424 714 661

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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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