Lyndhurst Nursery

Lyndhurst Nursery 102 London Road, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 1NS

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 12/11/2014 22/09/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 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 1 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 1

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This provision is outstanding

 Children have exceptionally good opportunities to be independent, active learners, because staff offer them an excellent learning environment.  Staff promote highly effective partnerships with parents and external agencies enabling them to identify and meet children's individual needs exceptionally well.  The manager uses rigorous monitoring techniques to analyse the effectiveness of the provision and identify exact areas for improvement. As a result, they promote all children's learning extremely well.  The manager demonstrates excellent leadership skills motivating staff and conducting high quality supervision to support their professional development.  Each child's key person establishes highly effective relationships with children from the start, which means they feel very safe and secure.

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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 observed children's play and staff interactions with the children throughout the nursery.  The inspector took account of the views of parents through short discussions.  The inspector and manager completed a joint observation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector examined documentation, including a representative sample of children's records, accident records and policies.  The inspector spoke to the staff and held a meeting with the manager.

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Information about the setting

Lyndhurst Nursery is an established provision registered in 1970 and came under new management in 2004. It operates from a converted house using three rooms and a conservatory in the downstairs of the property. Children have access to an enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery is in a residential area in Sittingbourne, Kent. It is open five days a week for 50 weeks of the year from 8.30am to 5.30pm. There is a holiday club for children aged two to eight years that runs in all school holidays apart from Christmas. The nursery is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education for two-, three-, and four-year-olds. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulary and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 43 children aged from two to under five years on roll, some in part-time places. The nursery currently supports children with English as an additional language and children with Special

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Information about the setting

Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. There are eight members of staff, five of whom hold Early Years qualifications Level 3 and above and one member of staff who has a Foundation Degree in Early Years and Early Years Professional status.

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

 review and build on resources in the environment to fully promote diversity and help children's awareness of peoples' differences.

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who attend

Staff have an excellent understanding of how to meet children's learning and development needs. They devote themselves to ensuring children experience a highly stimulating and extensive range of activities both indoors and outside that cover all areas of learning. Staff plan rich and interesting activities that engage the children in thoroughly challenging play. This means that child-initiated play is of a high quality and staff are highly effective at extending and developing children's learning through play. As a result, children make outstanding progress from their starting points.

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who attend

The environment is colourful, very welcoming and provides high-quality age-appropriate resources. Staff give consistent thought to the layout of the furniture to encourage the children to independently access toys and activities allowing them to be active learners and self-select their own play. Clear labelling, photographs and displays throughout the nursery provides rich opportunities for children to learn to recognise words. Various different types of construction equipment give children the opportunities to use their imagination and recall skills. For example, a key person supported a child's thinking process when he wanted to make a steam train he had seen. Children have opportunities to access small world figures, dressing up clothes and books. Although, resources to promote children's understanding of diversity and peoples' differences as slightly less evident.

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who attend

The staff have excellent strategies to support and develop communication and language. The nursery is a very language rich environment, staff talk to the children about what they are playing with introducing new words in meaningful context. The staff use probing questions to extend the children's thinking and learning and encourage them to make links with their own experiences. For example, a member of staff used skilful questioning to relate a book the children were reading to their own experiences while also developing their vocabulary. Staff offer opportunities for children to listen and follow instructions in self-chosen play and group activities, developing good skills for the children's future learning. For example, following the stop, go instructions given by the football coach when playing a game to strengthen their large muscles and increase their knowledge of a healthy lifestyle. The ethos at the nursery encourages the children to be confident; they

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who attend

talk to each other and any adults who may visit the nursery even though some may have only recently started attending. As a result, children make excellent progress from their own individual starting points in communication and language. The nursery supports and works with children with speech difficulties. They have recently introduced sign language to encourage the shy, reluctant speakers to communicate and support the children with speech problems. Signing was often seen on the inspection particularly at the snack table. Staff extend their partnership with parents and encourage the parents to learn signing and use it at home.

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who attend

The staff use a very comprehensive system of observations, planning and assessment to plan for and show children's progress. Therefore, the individual children are able to make outstanding progress in their learning and development. The key person gathers information about children's starting points by using wide-ranging information from parents, observations and photographs. They use published guidance to assess the observations and plan for the children's future activities to extend their learning. Both the manager and key person meticulously monitor the planning and the children's learning records to ensure accuracy and to plan to close any gaps identified in the children's learning. Staff know the children very well and key persons talk in detail about the children's individual strengths and their next steps in learning.

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

The children benefit from the close relationships they develop with their key person and all staff members. Staff ensure that everything is done to help the children to settle quickly and happily and the key-person system is one of strengths of the nursery. It supports children's well-being and their feeling of security as they build secure attachments with staff members. The children stay with the same key person for the length of their time at the nursery and the nursery endeavours, because of the existing family connections, to keep the same key person for any siblings that attend. The manager takes the time to build an excellent relationship with parents from the very start when she shows them around the nursery. She explains the ethos, routine and gives them time to see and meet the staff. The staff work closely with the parents to gathering extensive information about their child's individual needs for example development, skills,

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

sleep pattern, eating habits, current interests, likes and dislikes. Therefore, due to this highly reflective system when children start at the nursery they settle quickly and start building bond with both their key person, other staff and children.

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

Staff are supported by a comprehensive special educational needs system. This helps to identify and offer early support to children and when necessary engage other professionals for example speech and language therapists. Consequently, staff support children with additional learning needs very well. Staff act swiftly on advice from parents and other specialists and ensure that activities meet the individual children's varying needs. Therefore, children receive support to reach their full potential.

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

Children benefit from a wide range of experiences that helps them to learn about a healthy lifestyle. They eat freshly prepared snacks that are nutritionally well-balanced. The staff give children excellent support to learn personal care skills as they select their own choice of food to eat at snack and pour their own drinks from the water station when snack is over. Children are developing an excellent understanding of personal hygiene. When asked if they could explain why their hands needed washing before snack, the replied 'because they were dirty'. Children have daily access to the outdoor area and staff develop the children's physical development extremely well. Children negotiate a wide range of physical play equipment and fine-tune their skills with the help of a football coach who visits the nursery twice a week. Together with the staff, he plans programmes to develop all the individual children's physical skills and abilities including those children with

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

additional needs. Consequently, children are learning skills that will benefit them in other areas of learning for example managing risks when negotiating the bikes or running around cones.

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provision

The provider and manager are fully aware of their responsibilities in meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements and learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The nursery have a very thorough recruitment and induction process. The manager has developed both an induction and staff handbook to ensure that staff feel supported at all times and are aware of all the relevant information and procedures. All staff participate in a very thorough staff supervision cycle discussing for example any concerns they may have about their key children and any training needs. Therefore, staff have excellent support to develop their professional skills and identify their own training needs.

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provision

Child protection and safeguarding take a high priority within the nursery. Staff have an excellent understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements. They display an extremely knowledgeable and clear understanding of the safeguarding procedure. All staff can identify the signs and symptoms that might give cause for concern about children's well-being. They know and can discuss the procedures in place should they have concerns about a child in their care or a worry about a member of staff. Staff conduct detailed risk assessments daily and are vigilant in minimising potential hazards for example mopping up water spilt on the floor. Documentation is in place to record any incidents or accidents and staff review these regularly. As a result, staff deal with any recurring incidents that may cause concern quickly.

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provision

Staff meet the learning and development requirements extremely well. They carefully monitor educational programmes, for both individual and groups of children identifying achievement gaps and addressing them. The manager uses rigorous monitoring techniques to ensure children reach their full potential. She uses a data programme to analyse the children's development and identify areas for improvement. For example, when reviewed over the last academic year, boys' writing was one of the weaker areas. The manager and staff discussed improvements, wrote an action plan to create more writing resources in the outdoor area. As a result, the boys' scores in writing have improved this autumn. This means that the action plans are responsive to children's immediate needs as well as providing long-term plans for the future.

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provision

The nursery has excellent partnership with parents, seeing families returning with their siblings. The staff have fully embedded systems in place to seek the views of parents through daily discussion, newsletters, parent questionnaires, formal meetings to discuss their child's progress. As a result, of the two-way flow of information parents' views and opinions are included in the self-evaluation process and contribute to meeting the children's needs. Parents speak very highly of the nursery they liked the friendly atmosphere, feel well informed about their children's progress and the daily activities the children complete. There is also a well established partnerships with other agencies for example speech and language therapist and Early Years Special Needs Coordinators. All of which benefit and support the children with additional needs.

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provision

Excellent leadership has allowed the manager to motivate, support and involve all the staff in improving all aspect of the practice. The self-evaluation system in place is open, efficient reviewed regularly and through questionnaires includes parents as well as children. As a result, there is a total drive to improve the outcomes for the individual 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 EY292410 Local authority Kent Inspection number 833830 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 8 Total number of places 30 Number of children on roll 43 Name of provider Hythe House Support Ltd Date of previous inspection 22/09/2009 Telephone number 01795 421995

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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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