Bright Horizons Mount Vernon Day Nursery and Preschool

Mount Vernon Nursery Mount Vernon Hospital, Rickmansworth Road, Northwood, Middlesex, HA6 2RN

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/01/2015 30/11/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 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 2

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This provision is good

 The nursery is highly successful in encouraging an effective partnership with parents and engaging them in their children's development and learning.  Safeguarding is given high priority within the nursery. Staff demonstrate a thorough understanding of their responsibilities and implementing appropriate procedures to ensure children's welfare and well-being.  Staff's teaching skills are effective at promoting children's learning and development. They motivate children to learn through purposeful and fun play activities.  Children have many valuable opportunities to learn how to play safely without being fearful, such as planned woodwork lessons.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 Occasionally, staff do not always check to see if resources and equipment provided are working properly, which at times hinders opportunities for children to extend their play.  Staff do not always fully support children's move between the rooms in the nursery, by preparing personal items to help further ease the process.

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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 activities in the playrooms and talked with staff and children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector examined a range of documentation, including evidence of suitability and qualifications of staff working with children, a sample of children's records and development plans.  The inspector completed two joint observations with the deputy managers.  The inspector held discussions with the manager and company representatives.

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Information about the setting

Mount Vernon Nursery registered in 2005 and is one of the nurseries run by Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited. The nursery is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is situated in a two-storey building for babies and toddlers and another two-storey building for older children. Within the nursery, there are two staircases used by children and parents and there is no lift or ramp. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play.

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Information about the setting

The nursery employs 37 members of childcare staff. Of these, one holds a qualification at level 6, two staff have a qualification at level 5 and a further 22 staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks of the year. Sessions are from 7.20am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 174 children attending who are in the early years age group. The nursery is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education for children aged two-, three-, and four years old. It supports a number of children who are learning to speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

 improve the process for checking resources and equipment to ensure they are working properly to fully maximise children's learning opportunities

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

 strengthen the transfer process for children during room changes within the nursery, by providing familiar and personal items to further promote their sense of belonging.

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who attend

Staff gather information from parents when their child first starts and this helps to identify children's starting points. This also enables them to make regular and precise observations and assessments of children's learning. Staff display the plans for children's next steps in learning on a whiteboard and this informs all staff working in the room of the learning intentions of the activities. Furthermore, this guides staff to effectively support children's learning. Staff complete informative assessments, which have all the necessary information to successfully help them to complete the required progress check for children aged two years. This ensures that staff are fully aware that children, given their starting points, are progressing well towards the early learning goals.

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who attend

Staff are knowledgeable and teaching is based on their secure understanding of how children learn. For example, they refer to children's interests when encouraging them to sound out and write the initial letters of their names and those of their friends. Staff support children to expand their interest in writing for a purpose. Children continue to write their own labels for the toy boxes and furniture. This effectively supports them to be ready for the next stage of learning and eventually for school. Staff are enthusiastic and engage well with children, this influences children's strong motivation to play and learn. Young children enjoy comfortable story and song times while sitting close to staff. They sing songs that include their names and this helps children to feel secure to talk around others. Older children enjoy their specific language and music lessons. They confidently speak to visitors about the things they do at nursery. Staff can demonstrate that all

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who attend

children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those learning to speak English as an additional language, are progressing well. For example, staff use their own home languages to incorporate the children's home languages into their play. There is a range of dual-language signs and books and this helps children to grow in confidence in their communication and language skills.

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who attend

Staff use a wide range of resources and materials to challenge children through practical play experiences. They effectively adapt their planning to meet the needs of a group of older children. For example, staff quickly realise some children do not want to play with the magnetic letters and therefore, get out the gel letters instead. Toddlers concentrate intensely when touching the gloop mixture consisting of cornflour and water. However, on occasions, staff do not check all equipment to see if it is working properly, therefore, older children show disappointment when the battery-operated tools do not work as expected. This does not encourage children to engage fully in their role play and act out real-life experiences.

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who attend

Staff have established strong partnerships with parents. They encourage parents to share daily information with them about their children's achievements. Parents are very well informed about their children's learning and progress. They are invited to regular sessions to hear about how the staff help develop children's learning. Staff give activity ideas to parents using the improvised materials within the environment. This helps parents to further extend their children's learning at home.

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

There is an effective key-person system in place and the children and families have formed good relationships within the nursery. Children and parents are able to spend time with their key person as part of their settling-in time before they start. Staff work closely with parents to discuss the individual needs of the children. Staff, in close conjunction with the parents, plan to help children develop skills in managing their own behaviour. Staff are warm and caring towards the children. They ensure that young children have their individual comforter close to hand. Babies are held gently and closely in the arms in calm surroundings. This supports babies and young children to become confident in inviting surroundings. Staff support children as they prepare to move rooms within the nursery. Children are able to spend time settling into their new rooms and getting to know the staff. However, on occasions, staff miss opportunities to further ease the transfer process

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

for children when moving rooms, by personalising the experience for them. For example, by providing name labels on their pegs and photographs for younger children. As a result, staff do not fully help consolidate children's strong sense of belonging at these times. Nevertheless, staff encourage children to be emotionally ready for school. They obtain brochures from the various schools that children are likely to attend. The librarian visits with books and stories about starting school. This helps children to be confident and look forward to their move onto school.

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

Staff support children very well to learn about healthy living. They have many opportunities to exercise in the inside and outdoor areas. Specialist teachers introduce dance and yoga sessions to encourage children to develop their muscles and move with control. Children learn to play energetically and with safety, as they jump and crawl around the soft play room. Staff have introduced closely supervised woodwork sessions with the older children. They carefully assess children's abilities at each stage of the graded scheme so that children can use a range of real tools safely. Children learn about the need to wear protective clothing. They skilfully hammer plastic pins into cardboard, as well as saw and drill holes in pieces of wood that are held still in a vice. This helps children to recognise and minimise risks in order to keep themselves safe. Children are becoming independent in their self-care skills. They are encouraged to freely access water when

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

they are thirsty and serve their own lunches. Children enjoy healthy and nutritious meals and snacks during calm and social meal times. The staff have strong routines to ensure that children with food allergies are well protected. They supply meals that comply with parental and religious preferences.

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provision

The nursery management and staff gives a high priority to safeguarding children and provide a safe and secure environment for them to play and learn. The nursery staff consist of an experienced team and know the importance of safeguarding children. Staff regularly update their safeguarding knowledge through frequent training courses delivered to the whole staff team. They are confident to report their concerns, including about any colleagues. They know how to recognise signs that children may be at risk so that their welfare is safeguarded. Staff can relate the changes made in the recently updated nursery policy. The management continually monitors the number of children on the premises to ensure the correct ratios of staff to children are present at all times. Staff ensure that the premises are safe and well maintained. There are robust recruitment and vetting procedures to assess that everyone working with the children are suitable to do so.

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provision

Effective systems for induction mean that staff are familiar with the nursery policies and procedures and they work well in practice.

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provision

The management team monitors staff performance effectively through regular supervision meetings and appraisals. This helps to ensure that staff continue to be suitable to work with children. Staff are very eager to improve their knowledge and practice and to make the nursery the best it can be. They comment that the in-house training scheme on equality and diversity has given them greater confidence to acknowledge the festivals of the children. This helps children to gain in confidence and feel valued. Senior staff report their qualifications give them the skills to reflect on the practice in the nursery. This helps them support the less experienced staff to focus on improving the quality of teaching to support children's achievements over time. The manager regularly updates the self- evaluation form, based on the views of staff and parents and information from the staff meetings. This clearly targets priorities to drive improvement.

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provision

The nursery has effective systems for monitoring the children's learning and development. Tracking documents and the completion of the progress check for children by staff, helps to ensure that children continue to make good progress in their learning. Parents and carers spoken to during the inspection were keen to express their opinions of the nursery. They state that their children are happy and settled and they are pleased with the progress their children are making in their development. The nursery has good links with the schools it feeds into, which promotes good partnership working to aid a smooth transfer to the next stage in children's learning. Management demonstrate that appropriate interventions are secured so that children receive the support they need.

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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 EY305128 Local authority Hillingdon Inspection number 834146 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 124 Number of children on roll 174 Name of provider Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited Date of previous inspection 30/11/2009 Telephone number 01923844141 or 01923844635

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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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