Steady-Steps Pre-School

Steady-Steps Pre-School Rowner County Infant School, Copse Lane, GOSPORT, Hampshire, PO13 0DH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 3 February 2015 22 September 2008

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Previous inspection: Good 2 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The setting meets legal requirements for early years settings

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This provision is outstanding

 The manager shows high levels of reflective practice. She has extensive experience and uses her strong organisation and teaching skills, to monitor and benefit all areas of the provision.  Overall, the pre-school has an extremely well-qualified, focused and well-deployed staff team, with excellent systems of sharing roles and responsibilities. The manager conducts regular staff supervision meetings to identify any training needs to enhance staff skills. This collaboratively meets the wide and varied needs of all children attending.  All children make significant progress in their learning. Staff show purposeful levels of commitment to observing and assessing each child's ongoing learning, and using this to inform future planning. Staff build excellent links with other professionals, which helps children to fulfil their potential.  Staff show a dedicated priority for safeguarding and for maintaining children's

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This provision is outstanding

protection, through developing detailed and innovative statistics across many areas of the provision. This promotes children's well-being very effectively.  Staff use very positive and direct systems to involve parents and carers in their children's development and progress. This fully enables parents to maintain effective and regular links.  The dynamic and well-documented improvements show how the manager and staff have evaluated the pre-school over several years to raise the quality of the provision.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

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

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

 enhance older children's understanding of caring about each other's feelings through further developing language for sharing to enable children to manage their differences at times.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector viewed all areas of the pre-school used for indoor and outdoor play.  The inspector observed the quality of staff interactions with children during activities and daily routines, and spoke with children and staff at appropriate times.  The inspector interviewed the manager, two room leaders and the chairperson, and spoke with parents.  The inspector viewed a wide range of documentation on display and for record-keeping purposes.

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who attend. This is outstanding

The manager and staff provide a highly stimulating environment for children with a strong emphasis on freedom of choice for all age groups. Consequently, children rapidly gain confidence and self-motivation through decision-making. They fully develop their potential in communication and language skills because staff ratios are high, especially in the younger age group. Staff enhance children's communication further through specific and regular language groups, which benefits many different and varied areas of need. Staff are excellent role models, showing a highly motivated focus on play and interaction with children. This raises children's enthusiasm and fully increases their involvement and sense of purpose. Ongoing training and staff weekly planning meetings support staff's understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage extensively. These provide time for all staff to use their ongoing information to plan effectively for each of their key children.

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who attend. This is outstanding

Staff have daily responsibilities in each play zone for observing and noting children's comments and they often use children's own ideas to extend or alter play accordingly.

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outstanding

The manager and staff continually identify and make many positive changes to benefit children's needs. For example, they have separated the older and younger children's free- play times to very effectively create a quieter more nurturing environment. Younger children flourish as they gain close and emotional support from their key person. They develop relationships with key staff from the start through initial home visits. This enables them to bond and seek out their key person during daily routines. All children show their delight and readiness to take part in a wide variety of physical play through experiencing outdoor activities in all weathers. They learn to take responsibility for themselves and most children develop an awareness of the needs of others. Staff plan younger children's transfer across the pre-school sections meticulously. For example, staff organise and include short sessions at first to meet children's individual needs. Older children have

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outstanding

frequent opportunities to prepare for attending school. The pre-school has very well- established links with the Reception class and children spend regular weekly time experiencing a school environment.

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provision is outstanding

The manager and committee have cohesively developed close and effective working relationships. They implement the highly organised and fully documented safeguarding systems to protect children and families. The wide-ranging links with other professionals enable staff to seek extensive support for children's individual needs. Parents eagerly confirm their increased understanding of early learning through their involvement with the pre-school. They proactively use the interactive systems introduced for assessing and recording each child's ongoing progress, which promotes continuity in learning.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY364360 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 986258 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 5 Total number of places 50 Number of children on roll 89 Name of provider Steady-Steps Pre-School Date of previous inspection 22 September 2008 Telephone number 07843116576

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Setting details

Steady Steps Pre-school registered in 2008 in its current premises. It is located in a modular building in the grounds of Rowner Infant School in Gosport. The pre-school is registered on the Early Years Register. It is open from 8.50am to 3.20pm every weekday during term time only. Flexible arrangements for full- and part-time care are available, with a lunch club from 12 noon until 1pm. The pre-school receives funding for the provision of free early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. There are 16 staff employed to work with the children; 12 staff hold relevant early years qualifications at level 3 and above, including the manager, who holds Early Years Teacher status. There are close links with the local primary school.

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Setting details

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

procedures set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. 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, safeguarding and child protection.

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Setting details

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Setting details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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