Humpty Dumpty's Kindergarden

Humpty Dumpty's Kindergarden The Barn, Fir Covert Road, NORWICH, Norfolk, NR8 6HT

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 10/11/2014 18/11/2013

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early years provision

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

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This provision is good

 Safeguarding is given high priority. Staff have a good awareness of the signs and symptoms of abuse and are confident to report concerns.  Children feel safe and are happy in this welcoming nursery. They develop secure emotional attachments with staff and an effective key-person system is implemented, to promote friendly and trusting partnerships with parents.  Management and staff are committed to continuous improvement. Significant progress has been made since the last inspection and there are good systems in place to monitor the quality of the provision. As a result, children's care and learning are promoted well.  The quality of teaching is effective, to support children to make good progress in their learning and development. Staff know children well and plan effectively to meet their individual needs.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Staff do not consistently sustain partnerships with other early years settings that also provide care and learning for children, to ensure that information about children's learning and development is shared and any concerns are identified and managed.  Staff are not always vigilant in monitoring what is going on around them, to ensure that children are engaged in activities that they choose to do and managing their personal needs.

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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 Caterpillars (children from birth to two years); Ladybirds (children aged two to three years); Butterflies (children from three to five years) and in the garden.  The inspector spoke with staff at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at activity planning, electronic records of children's learning and a selection of policies and records.  The inspector held a meeting with the nursery owner/manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of the suitability and qualifications of staff working with children, the provider's self-evaluation form and improvement plan.  The inspector spoke to parents and carers of the children attending.

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Information about the setting

Humpty Dumpty's Kindergarden was registered in 2011 and is on the Early Years Register. It is privately owned and managed, and operates from premises in Taverham, Norfolk. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It is open Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6pm, all year round, with the exception of bank holidays and a week at Christmas. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 65 children on roll who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It supports a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The nursery employs eight members of childcare staff. The owner, who is also the manager, has an early years degree. Six staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3 or above.

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

 focus more closely on staff's awareness of what is going on around them, in order to further support children's independence and engagement in activities

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

 sustain partnerships with other early years settings that provide care and learning for children, to ensure that information about children's learning and development is shared and any concerns are identified and managed.

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who attend

Staff know children well and talk confidently about where they are in their learning and development. Useful information is gathered from parents when children first attend the nursery, including children's likes, dislikes and interests. As a result, staff are quickly able to plan for children's continuing progress. Staff carry out observations of children and these are evaluated well to identify where they are in their learning and what they need to do to support their continuing progress. This is reflected well in activity planning, to ensure that children's individual learning needs are met. Staff have recently introduced the use of a commercially available software programme to record children's learning. Parents have access to their children's records through their own password system. Parents and carers are very pleased with this new system of recording because they are able to look at the record at any time and share it with family members. They state that they find they

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who attend

are much more inclined to contribute to the record, supporting staff in planning for children's future learning. The record also gives parents ideas for activities at home. Staff are able to print the records for any family who does not have access to information technology. Children's progress is tracked across the areas of learning and the progress check for children between the ages of two and three years is carried out. This is shared with parents.

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who attend

There is a good balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities and staff engage well in children's play, although sometimes do not pay sufficient attention to what is going on around them. This means that they do not always notice when children want to engage in an adult-led activity and eventually move away. Despite this, the nursery is inclusive and ensures that all children are able to participate in the routines and activities of the day. For example, children make choices about what they want on their bagel at snack time and are encouraged to spread the butter and jam themselves. Children pour their own drink of milk or water. Children choose if they want to play outdoors or inside and staff respect their decisions and support their play. They extend children's learning well. For example, when children look for insects in the bug garden, staff suggest that they draw what they have seen and provide clipboards with paper and pencils for this. Children

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who attend

readily draw spiders and worms before asking adults to write the word next to their drawing. Younger children explore making marks using media, such as shaving foam in a large builder's tray. They draw circles and readily suggest how they could become a face, by adding circles for eyes and a line for a mouth. Children suggest adding teeth and make marks around the line to represent them. Children recognise facial features and know that they have two eyes, one nose and one mouth. Children's awareness of shape is further supported through cutting activities. Staff draw shapes, lines and zigzags for children to cut along and support those children who struggle to hold the scissors. Children's enthusiasm to explore and investigate helps to ensure that they develop a positive attitude to learning, to support them when they move on to school.

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who attend

Children play imaginatively and cooperate with their friends. For example, they play together in the role-play home corner, deciding together who will be the baby and who will be the grown up. Children readily share resources, such as the magnifying glass when looking at bugs. They understand that looking through a magnifying glass changes how big the bugs and worms appears. Staff chat to children about what they can see and older children talk confidently to adults and other children. Staff demonstrate taking turns in conversation, such as supporting children in their understanding of living and growing, as children learn to take care of the recently hatched eggs that are in an incubator in the nursery. Staff respond well to the gestures and babbles of babies and encourage them to remove their dummy when they do not need it as a comforter. They support the development of babies' speech and language using songs and rhymes. Babies move their

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who attend

whole bodies to sounds they enjoy and staff extend this by introducing musical instruments. Children shake the bells and bang the sticks together, showing a good interest in the sounds that they make.

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

Children develop strong emotional attachments to their key person and other staff because they are supported well to settle into the nursery. During the settling-in process, staff support children and parents through a programme of short visits. Each child is allocated a key person who takes responsibility for their well-being, plans for their learning and development and builds positive relationships with parents. Staff find out about children's individual routines for sleeping and feeding and continue these, to promote continuity of care and support children to develop a sense of belonging. Children who do not separate readily from their main carer are supported sensitively by staff. As a result, children are happy and develop the emotional well-being, which helps them embrace new experiences with confidence. Children are supported well by their key person as they grow, move through the nursery and finally onto school.

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

Staff act as good role models and treat children with positive regard. Unwanted behaviour is managed well, taking into account children's age and stage of development. Consistent boundaries are in place, to support children to know what is expected of them. Children seek out others to share play experiences and staff support their developing awareness of the needs of others, such as encouraging them to share and take turns. Good behaviour and individual efforts are valued and staff give meaningful praise. This helps children to know what they have done well, promoting their confidence and self-esteem. Children are supported to play safely. For example, they are reminded not to take the bikes onto the grassed area and babies who are not yet mobile have a sectioned area of the garden where they can be outdoors.

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

The learning environment is organised well, to promote all areas of learning both indoors and outside. This means that those children who learn best from being outdoors are able to do so. Children develop self-care skills, such as putting on their own coat and boots before they go outside. They manage their own personal toilet needs, relevant to their age and stage of development and wash their hands before eating. However, staff are not sufficiently vigilant about monitoring what is going on around them, to ensure that children are managing their personal needs. For example, they do not notice when children are wet and cold from playing in the outdoor water tray and do not recognise when children need a knife, as well as a fork, to eat their lunch. Children use their fingers to scoop food onto their fork, which does not sufficiently support them to use and manage cutlery. Children are provided with a healthy and balanced diet that includes fresh fruit

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

and vegetables. A copy of the menu is available to parents and special dietary needs are met well.

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provision

The nursery premises is secured, to protect children from intruders and prevent children from leaving unsupervised. Written risk assessments are carried out and reviewed regularly. In addition, staff carry out daily checks. For example, they complete a checklist for the garden before the door is opened to enable children to play outdoors. This ensures that children are able to play safely. Staff have a good awareness of child protection issues. They know how to report concerns in line with Local Safeguarding Children Board guidelines and are aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse. Robust recruitment and selection procedures are in place, ensuring that adults working with children are suitable to do so. A record is maintained of suitability checks. Regular supervision takes place for all staff, to provide them with effective support and coaching. Underperformance is managed well and staff are confident to implement the whistleblowing policy if they have

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provision

a concern about another member of staff.

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provision

Staff are enthusiastic and motivated. They are led by an owner/manager that is committed to providing high quality care and education for all children. Staff are encouraged to reflect on their practice and share good examples through team meetings. A programme of peer observation and feedback has been introduced and staff report that this has raised their awareness of their quality of teaching. An action plan is in place that is challenging and achievable, to bring about improvements in practice. Very good progress has been made since the last inspection, when actions were set to address the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, how staff observe, assess and plan for children's learning has been revised. A commercially available software package has been introduced into the nursery, to support staff in recording children's learning and the identification of their next steps in learning. From these, staff plan a varied and interesting range of activities, to

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provision

meet the needs of all children. The use of the software is closely monitored by the owner/manager, to ensure that observations of children's learning are purposeful, accurately evaluated and used to promote children's future learning.

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provision

Partnerships with parents are friendly and trusting. Parents are very happy with the childcare service that is provided and value that they find staff friendly, caring and supportive. Parents and carers appreciate the 'homely feel' to the nursery and that staff are approachable and 'genuinely care' about their children. Parents would be happy to recommend this nursery to family and friends. Staff share good quality information with parents and a daily diary is maintained for younger children. Effective partnerships are established with outside agencies, such as speech and language therapy and the auditory support unit. This ensures that children with identified special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully supported to make the best possible progress that they can. Nursery staff have also initiated links with other settings that children attend. However, these links are not consistently sustained, to ensure that information about children's learning and

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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 EY429172 Local authority Norfolk Inspection number 962923

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 33 Number of children on roll 65 Name of provider Humpty Dumpty Kindergarden Limited Date of previous inspection 18/11/2013 Telephone number 07883872001

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Type of provision

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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