Chestnut House Kindergarten

Chestnut House Kindergarten Ltd 45 Mill Road, Mile End, Colchester, Essex, CO4 5LE

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/01/2015 13/01/2009

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early years provision

This inspection: 1 Previous inspection: 1 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

 The quality of teaching is outstanding. Staff have an excellent understanding of how children learn and provide a range of activities and experiences for children that ignite their imagination and curiosity. As a result, all children make rapid progress given their starting points and capabilities.  Children form exceptional, caring bonds with their key person, other staff and each other, and staff manage changes for them seamlessly. As a result, children settle extremely well at the nursery; they are happy and confident to explore their surroundings and try new things.  Children benefit as the manager and early years managers continually strive for improvement throughout all aspects of the nursery. They motivate and value staff incredibly well.  Children are safeguarded excellently. Staff have a superb knowledge of the signs and symptoms of abuse and know the appropriate action to take if they have concerns

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This provision is outstanding

about a child.  Staff have excellent partnerships with parents. They provide extensive opportunities for them to be actively involved in their children's learning at the nursery and at home. As a result, all children are continually supported to make the best possible progress.

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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 had a tour of the nursery and observed activities in the nine playrooms and the garden.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector carried out a joint observation with the manager and early years manager.  The inspector held conversations with staff, children and parents.  The inspector held a meeting with the manager and early years manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector saw evidence of the suitability and qualifications of staff, self- evaluation, risk assessments, policies and procedures and other documentation in relation to health and safety checks.

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Information about the setting

Chestnut House Kindergarten Ltd was registered in 2005 and is on the Early Years Register. It is situated in purpose-built premises in the Mile End area of Colchester in Essex, and is one of six nurseries that are owned and managed by a limited company. The nursery operates from nine main playrooms and there is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery employs 29 members of childcare staff. Of these, 27 hold appropriate early years qualifications at levels 2 to 6, including two staff with Early Years Professional status and one with Qualified Teacher Status. The nursery also employs two cooks. It opens Monday to Friday all year round from 8am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 162 children on roll who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-olds. It supports children who speak English as an additional language and children with special

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

 continue to build on staff's skills sets and interests in order to enhance even further children's experiences at the nursery.

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who attend

The quality of teaching is outstanding and children's learning and development are given the upmost priority. Staff have an excellent knowledge of how children learn. They use this to provide a superb range of activities and experiences for the children that ignite their imagination and curiosity. For example, children are highly engaged as they tip the different paint powders into the tray with water; they talk about what will happen when they mix the colours together and find objects and resources from around the garden to mix the paint with. Staff are highly motivated and demonstrate to the children that they very much enjoy their company. As a result, children seek staff members out to involve them in their play and show high levels of engagement in activities. For example, in the garden, children ask members of staff to help them play a traffic light game with the ride- on toys, as they would like help in pretending to make the traffic light flash. Staff's

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who attend

assessments of children's learning and development are rigorous. They regularly observe children in their play and document individual children's interests and achievements in their planning. Consequently, they plan activities that are tailored to each individual children's capabilities so they are all excellently challenged and make rapid progress.

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who attend

Children are superbly prepared for the next stage in their learning, including the move to primary school. The providers employ an early years teacher to work directly with the children in all the pre-school rooms. Her role is to support children to gain the key skills they need for the move to Reception class. Children develop their early literacy skills. During an activity where the children are asked to guess what is in the socks, they correctly identify words that begin with the letters associated with the objects. In addition, staff develop children's communication and language skills excellently. They are always close by to the children, modelling good speech, and provide a language-rich environment. Younger children are supported with their communication skills. Staff use communication tools, such as sign language, throughout the day. Children respond really positively to this and use the signs and words, such as 'please' and 'thank you', regularly. Staff are skilled in

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who attend

supporting children to develop their large and small physical skills. Babies have access to soft play resources and have a varied range of equipment where they can learn to cruise, crawl and walk. Older children have a brilliant range of equipment, such as balance beams and stilts, where they learn to develop their physical skills beyond what is expected for their age.

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who attend

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are happy and settle extremely well. Staff work excellently in partnership with parents and other professionals, reviewing on a regular basis the support they provide, to ensure they are continually meeting the children's needs. Therefore, all children also make extremely good progress given their varying starting points and capabilities. Staff support children who speak English as an additional language very well. They obtain information from parents about children's home languages and use them throughout their play activities. As a result, the gaps for children are closely rapidly and they are making good progress with their language skills. Staff have formed highly successful partnerships with parents. They are actively encouraged by staff to celebrate their children's achievements at nursery and at home. Parents are informed daily about what their children have done and they praise the staff members. In

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who attend

addition, parents also contribute what the children have achieved at home by adding their own observations to the nursery's achievement board.

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

Staff implement the key-person system superbly. The rooms of the nursery are designed for small groups of children, and all staff in each room know the children extremely well. Therefore, in staff absence, or when staff have left before parents collect the children, they are still able to provide parents with a full account of the children's day and their ongoing development. Staff form exceptional, caring bonds with the children that enable the children to feel safe, loved and happy at nursery. As a result, the children show high levels of confidence and self-esteem. In addition, staff implement highly effective strategies when supporting children emotionally through transitions and changes to their routine or environment. These changes are well thought out and managed brilliantly to ensure that the children continue to feel safe and secure. For example, when staff move rooms, they visit the rooms for small periods of time beforehand, so the children get to

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

know them and are comfortable when they are there permanently. In addition, staff provide a classroom pretend play, photographs and books about school, and visit the school with the children to attend events. Consequently, children are extremely well prepared emotionally for the move to primary school. Staff obtain detailed information about children's care needs and routines when they start, and settling-in sessions are provided that are tailored to the individual needs of the parents and the children. As a result, children settle exceptionally well and make a smooth move from their home to the nursery. In addition, staff obtain photographs of children's family members and display them on the wall to provide an environment that the children feel confident and comfortable in.

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

Staff have an excellent understanding of how to promote children's independence. They provide children with a range of opportunities to learn to do things for themselves. Therefore, children learn important self-help skills, such as dressing themselves, washing their hands and accessing the toilet independently. Staff provide children with a range of opportunities to learn about a healthy lifestyle. They provide healthy, home-made food and snacks and encourage children to choose what they would like to eat. For example, younger children are provided with pictures of healthy snacks in the morning and are encouraged to choose what they would like for snack. In addition, children are able to experience foods from around the world on a regular basis; these are often foods from the countries that have a significant importance to the children attending. As a result, all children's needs are catered for and valued by the staff. Children have an extensive range

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

of opportunities to take part in physical exercise. Babies have a separate playroom that has an range of soft play equipment for them to climb, cruise and crawl on. Older children enjoy running and jumping games, riding bikes, dancing to music and regular visits from the nursery's yoga teacher.

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

Staff have high expectations of children and support them superbly in managing their own behaviour in age-appropriate ways. They encourage even the youngest of children to play cooperatively and share toys and resources with each other. Staff place a high importance on supporting children to learn how to keep themselves safe. When using spades in the garden, staff remind children to keep the spades near the ground and away from people's faces so they do not hurt anybody. In addition, children take part in evacuation procedures, ensuring they know how to keep themselves safe in an emergency.

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provision

The managers have an excellent understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements and implement them effectively into the nursery. Children are safeguarded excellently. Staff have a superb knowledge of the signs and symptoms of abuse and know the appropriate action to take if they have concerns about a child. They review the safeguarding policies and procedures in team meetings. Staff have regular safeguarding training to ensure they keep their knowledge and skills up to date. All staff have rigorous suitability checks to ensure that they are suitable to work with the children. Children are protected in the event of minor accidents or injuries as all staff hold current paediatric first-aid certificates. Staff make daily checks of the environment and robust risk assessments are in place for all areas of the nursery. In addition, the managers have implemented individual safety assessments of procedures, such as nappy changing, to

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provision

ensure that these are carried out in a safe and appropriate way to protect children and staff. The managers oversee the educational programmes to ensure they are implemented to a consistently high standard. They regularly observe staff's practice and feed back on ways in which they could improve. High quality supervision is available for staff to access at any time with the managers. They also hold a weekly catch-up sessions for each of the individual rooms where they can share their worries, concerns or new ideas in a safe environment. The managers monitor staff's assessments of children's progress, to swiftly identify any children that may need extra support in their learning and development. As a result, children's needs are met exceedingly well and they make rapid progress. The managers have implemented a highly comprehensive self-evaluation. A challenging, but achievable action plan is in place that is reviewed regularly and includes the input from

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provision

staff, parents, children and other professionals. Staff place a high importance on obtaining the views of the children. For example, recently children were invited to visit the other nursery rooms and give staff their views on what they thought about them. Children made comments that they thought one of the rooms was a little noisy. This led to staff rearranging the layout to reduce noise in the room. In addition, the pre-school children recently chose their new rug for their playrooms, by voting for the one they liked the best with stickers.

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provision

The managers highly value their staff and are always looking at new strategies to motivate and continue to develop their already first rate practice. They have recently implemented a resource library for staff to use. This includes early years magazines, books, resources and access to the internet. As a result, staff are able to spend time researching new ideas for activities for the children, to ensure they are always providing them with an exciting and stimulating learning environment. In addition, staff attend regular training courses and cascade the new information to staff at team meetings. As a result, by giving staff this responsibility, they feel valued and supported. The managers have thought about including staff's own hobbies and interests into the educational programmes. This has not yet been implemented and so there is room to develop and build on this idea, to enhance even further the learning and development opportunities the children have. Staff have

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provision

formed exemplary relationships with parents. They regularly share information about children's learning and development and offer a range of activities and ideas for parents to complete at home with their children. Staff regularly seek parents' views about the nursery, and work closely with them, to ensure they are always providing them and their children with a high quality service. Parents comment that they are amazed with how much work the staff put in to support their children's learning and development and to ensure they are kept safe and well. Staff have formed highly successful partnerships with other early years settings, schools and health professionals. They share information continually, and meet regularly, to ensure they are always providing the best care and education for the children in a collaborative approach. As a result, children's needs are extremely well met through these effective partnerships.

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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 EY301874 Local authority Essex Inspection number 848892

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 72 Number of children on roll 162 Name of provider Chestnut House Kindergarten Ltd Date of previous inspection 13/01/2009 Telephone number 01206 838900

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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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