Bacton Under Fives

Bacton Under Fives The Playcentre, c/o Bacton Community Primary School, Tailors Green, Bacton, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 4LL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 10/12/2014 24/09/2008

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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

 Children are effectively protected from harm because managers and practitioners demonstrate clear knowledge of their responsibilities with regards to following procedures for child protection.  The quality of teaching is good. Practitioners understand the seven areas of learning and use their expertise to provide children with a challenging, stimulating and interesting educational programme. Practitioners make good use of the extensive range of resources they have available to enhance children's learning.  Children form close and caring relationships with the adults caring for them. They approach them for comfort and reassurance and enjoy the warm interaction they receive back from practitioners.  Partnerships with parents and others are strong. Parents are provided with very clear and well-presented written information about what the children have been learning and how they can continue to support their development at home.

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It is not yet good because

 There has been a breach of requirements with regard to failing to notify Ofsted of changes to members of the committee.  Mealtimes are not always used effectively to provide a calm and relaxed atmosphere, whereby practitioners sit with children, help to develop their social skills and provide opportunities for them to develop independence 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 nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed play and learning activities and spoke to children and practitioners in the indoor and outdoor environments.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out a meeting with the manager to look at and discuss a range of policies, procedures and documentation.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at evidence of the checks used to assess practitioners' suitability and a sample of practitioners' training and qualification certificates.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to at the time of the visit and through written testimonials.

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Information about the setting

Bacton Under Fives Nursery was registered in 1979 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is located within a purpose built building in the Bacton area of Suffolk. It is managed by a committee. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. There is a fully enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery employs 13 members of childcare staff. Of these, 11 hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2, 3 and 5. The nursery opens Monday to Friday for 51 weeks of the year. Sessions are from 7.45am to 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 53 children attending who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children.

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must:

 improve leadership's knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage with particular regard to the changes which Ofsted need to be notified of such as, when committee members join or leave the committee.

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

 review the organisation of mealtimes to promote children's social development in a calm and relaxed atmosphere, where they can enjoy food, make healthy choices and develop independence skills, for example, by serving some meals for themselves.

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who attend

Children enjoy their nursery day, participating in a wide range of freely chosen learning experiences as well as some planned adult-led activities. Practitioners are knowledgeable about the seven areas of learning and how children learn. They use their expertise to provide children with an exciting educational programme, that is tailored to meet their individual learning needs. Each key person brings their group of children's next steps in learning to the weekly planning meeting. They identify activities that they feel will enable those children to move forward and develop. Key persons observe the children in their care and use their observations to track children's development. Practitioners complete the progress check for children aged two to three years in order to assess children's early learning needs and capabilities. These are shared with parents and used as a base to track and follow their continued development within the nursery. Evidence shows that children

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who attend

make good progress across all seven areas of learning, in relation to their starting points.

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who attend

Children are keen and busy little learners. They enjoy exploring the wide and exciting range of resources available to them. Practitioners skilfully question children's thinking to challenge them and to enhance their learning. They provide good amounts of time for children to respond and encourage them to solve problems for themselves. For example, a tray full of empty boxes and natural materials evokes a conversation between children and a practitioner about what will fit into the boxes and whether they need a bigger one or a smaller one. Practitioners support children's language skills through clear discussions and explanations. Key persons know the children in their groups well and follow their interests in order to excite and enthuse their learning. For example, children who like dinosaurs are provided with a good range of freely accessible toy dinosaurs to play with, as well as some planned, adult-led activities based around a dinosaur theme.

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who attend

The interesting range of play materials and activities available to children indoors and outdoors enables them to explore and discover learning across all seven areas. Practitioners use their knowledge of how to prepare children for school readiness to effectively develop children's confidence and independence. For example, they assist children when they are putting their coats on and off, but not before they have encouraged them to have a go for themselves. Children develop good listening and concentration skills when they listen to stories and participate in group discussions. Children's mathematical skills are enhanced through a range of planned activities as well as through accessing resources which enable them to use shape, counting and measurement. For example, some children recently made Christmas cakes whereby they measured the ingredients and observed what happened when they were mixed together.

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

Children are settled, comfortable and confident in their nursery environment. They enter the building and part from their parents and carers with ease. Key persons follow the nursery's established settling-in procedures to ensure children's and parents' early experiences of nursery life are positive. Children form close relationships with their key persons and with the other adults in the nursery. They receive lots of positive praise and warm gestures from adults, which help them to develop into emotionally strong and secure young people. Children understand the nursery's rules and boundaries, as practitioners consistently remind them in calm and gentle voices. For example, they are reminded of the importance to use their indoor feet inside the building to ensure that they do not fall over. They also know to place the dressing-up clothes back on the hangers to prevent anyone from tripping over them.

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

Children play in one of three main playrooms, a baby room, a room for children aged two to three years and a pre-school room. The nursery was purpose built in 2010 with children's needs at the forefront. Consequently, each room leads out to safe, well- equipped and exciting gardens. Toilets are accessible from the pre-school room and there is a communal room, which can be used for cooking activities as well as meals. The environment is bright, welcoming and vibrant as practitioners use wall space effectively to display children's creative work, writing and drawings. Children learn to respect each other's differences as key persons encourage them to be kind, caring and considerate towards each other. Practitioners use visual images of people from different cultures to extend children's understanding of others. Practitioners are skilful at preparing children for their next stages of learning. For example, they support children well as they move

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

through the nursery rooms. Key persons spend valuable time preparing children for their move and visiting their new rooms with them. Good partnership working with parents, enables key persons to develop clear understanding of any changes that are occurring in children's lives outside of the nursery. As a result, they effectively support them through these changes.

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

Children develop a good understanding about keeping healthy and safe within the nursery as practitioners enter into lively discussions with them and remind them how to remain safe. For example, they talk about placing their chairs back under the table when they have finished with them to prevent anyone tripping over them. Children enjoy a range of healthy and nutritious snacks and meals during their nursery day. They sit together in the communal room for their main midday meal. Practitioners are on hand to serve and assist with the cutting up of food, however, they do not sit down with the children. This means that practitioners do not always use this time to enhance children's social skills. Opportunities during mealtimes for children to gain independence are also not fully explored, for example, by enabling children to serve some of their own meals and pour their own drinks. As one practitioner serves all of the children's meals, there are times

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

when some children are waiting quite a while for their food. The general ambiance of the meal time is not calm or conducive to effectively meet children's well-being. Children have good opportunities to experience fresh air and exercise when they play in the nursery garden and when they go for walks in the local area. They understand that fresh air is good for them as practitioners talk to them about keeping healthy. Children develop knowledge of good hygiene practices and the importance of maintaining them to prevent germs from spreading.

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provision

Children are appropriately protected from harm, as practitioners and managers demonstrate clear knowledge of the procedures to follow if they have concerns about any of the children in their care. Practitioners and managers regularly update their safeguarding knowledge through appropriate training and through in-house discussions. All adults working in the nursery are vetted and proof of the checks used to assess their suitability are available on file. Practitioners ensure children's safety by completing daily safety checks, as well as more thorough regular risk assessments, in order to identify any safety issues. However, there has been a breach of the requirements with regards to informing Ofsted when members of the pre-school management committee join or leave. This is also a breach of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register. The nursery has struggled to attract people to join the committee, which means that it has been operating

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provision

for a number of years without one. The manager of the provision has worked at the nursery for over thirty years and has always undertaken many of the roles and responsibilities, which would normally be dealt with by key members of a committee. Therefore, the impact of there being no members of the registered committee has been minimal on the day-to-day running of the setting. The manager and her management team within the nursery have been working with Suffolk County Council to address this and following this inspection, have identified sufficient new committee members to constitute a committee. As the setting has not been operating with a full committee, communication with key organisations, such as The Charities Commission, have not been maintained. There are also weaknesses in the supervision of the manager, as she has had no one to oversee or appraise her work. However, she has been able to maintain an

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provision

effective managerial role and keep the nursery operating in the absence of committee members.

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provision

Practitioners and managers demonstrate secure knowledge of how children learn and use their expertise to plan an interesting and challenging educational programme for all children. The manager has effective systems in place to enable her to monitor the quality of teaching to ensure all practitioners work consistently to enable children to reach their full potential. The manager has recently introduced systems to enable her to track groups of children as well as individual children. This enables her to keep a sharp focus on all children's progress and to identify any gaps in the nursery's educational programme. The manager has arrangements in place for the supervision of all practitioners whereby she reviews their performance and discusses any training needs. The manager deals swiftly with any under-performance through effective supervision and gives individual practitioners feedback on her observations of the quality of their teaching. Practitioners

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provision

and managers aspire to improve. They use reflective practice to review and evaluate the provision for children, especially the planning and assessment procedures. The drive for improvement is demonstrated through a clear action plan, which identifies the nursery's strengths and weaknesses. This is successful at identifying the day to day issues and ones which mostly affect children and what action is taken to address these. However, less emphasis has been placed on ensuring that the committee which is the registered provider with Ofsted is operating successfully.

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provision

Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents are provided with very clear and comprehensive written information about the learning that takes place within the nursery. Consequently, they are able to play an active role in their children's learning both at the nursery and at home. Parents spoken to at the time of the inspection comment of the friendliness of the practitioners and how this helped to settle their children during their early experiences of nursery life. They state that their children are making good progress and that the nursery has a good reputation within the local community with many parents recommending it to their friends. Links with local schools are very good. The nursery is situated on a school site and works closely with the reception class teachers to support children during their move from nursery to school and to maintain effective communication. The nursery also works well with other early years settings that children

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provision

attend, to enable them to complement the learning that takes place across all aspects of children's lives.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are Met

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 inform Ofsted of the name, date of birth, address and telephone number of any partner, director, senior officer or other member of the governing body (compulsory part of the Childcare Register).

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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 251403 Local authority Suffolk Inspection number 871462

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 50 Number of children on roll 53 Name of provider Bacton Under Fives Committee Date of previous inspection 24/09/2008 Telephone number 01449 780079

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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

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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