Busy Bees Pre-School

Busy Bees Pre-school 1st Kingsclere Scout Den, Strokins Road, Kingsclere, Newbury, Berkshire, RG20 5RH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 18 May 2015 29 January 2009

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

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children Requires improvement The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision Requires improvement The setting does not meet legal requirements for early years settings

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This provision requires improvement. It is not yet good because:

 Staff do not accurately record the times when children arrive at or leave the setting in their attendance register. This is a breach of legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and associated requirements for the Childcare Register.  During activities, at times, staff do not take the opportunities that present themselves to help older children to solve problems for themselves.  Staff do not make the best use of equipment, particularly at snack times, to ensure that all children, who want to, can sit at a table, to consistently promote their awareness of healthy eating practices and extend their social skills.  Self-evaluation processes are not fully robust and do not effectively identify and target all weaknesses in procedures or areas to improve.

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It has the following strengths

 Children play happily at the pre-school and benefit from the good range of resources and quality of teaching, which enhances their learning and development.  Staff have many opportunities to undertake additional training, including gaining or furthering their qualifications. Recently the staffing team have all updated their food hygiene qualifications and use this knowledge to promote the health and well-being of the children.  Recruitment, supervision and mentoring procedures are robust, and all staff undertake the required checks to ascertain their suitability to work with children.  Well-established links are in place with outside agencies and professionals. This supports continuity and consistency in meeting children's needs.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

To meet the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage the provider must:

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

 maintain a daily record of the names of the children being cared for on the premises and their hours of attendance

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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

 review the organisation of the equipment available to the children to allow them to all be able to sit around a table, particularly at snack time, to socialise and increase their awareness of healthy eating practices  further build children's problem solving skills by encouraging them to suggest ways to solve problems that arise  develop the self-evaluation processes to clearly identify areas for development and improvement.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

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

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

 maintain a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  maintain a daily record of the names of the children looked after on the premises and their hours of attendance (voluntary part of the Childcare Register).

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities and play experiences available to children.  The inspector observed interactions between children and staff.  The inspector asked staff questions about their work and observed practice with the manager.  The inspector spoke to some parents about their views and opinions of the pre-school.  The inspector sampled the pre-school's documentation and children's development records.

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who attend. This is good

Children enter the pre-school with confidence, and quickly settle into playing with their friends and the activities available. Children's communication and language is purposefully supported by staff. They engage children in conversations and support their understanding and speech effectively. Children's creativity is well promoted as they make things from dough, and use pens and paper to construct labels for their garden. This enhances their mark making and early-literacy skills. Children enjoy exploring with construction, for example, they make rockets and fly these around the room. Staff extend children's imaginations well as they talk to them about the rockets, introducing numbers as children launch them. However, occasionally staff do not encourage children to work out things for themselves. For example, when children explain their construction keep breaking, staff tell the children why, rather than encouraging them to find the solutions themselves. This

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who attend. This is good

limits children's problem-solving development.

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requires improvement

Staff do not keep accurate records of children's attendance, as required. This means that staff cannot easily ascertain, particularly in an emergency, who is present. Staff use every day play opportunities to aid children's development of safety, for example, talking to the children about possible consequences of running inside. This helps the children to understand and behave in accordance with the pre-school rules. Staff provide a good range of healthy snacks and promote children's independence skills through self-selection. However, not all children can sit at the table to eat, if they want to at snack time, as there is insufficient space at the table provided. Therefore they eat sitting on the floor and are excluded from conversations. Despite this, lunch time is well organised and allows children to sit together with friends, which develops their skills in readiness for starting school.

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provision requires improvement

The management team are not meeting the all the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage, especially in relation to the attendance register. Generally they are aware of their strengths. However, the areas they highlight for improvements are not identified in their self-evaluation, and they do not identify where their practice breaches requirements, which shows this is not robust. All policies and procedures are in place and individual to the pre-school. Staff have a suitable understanding of their role to safeguard children. They understand the possible signs and symptoms of child abuse, and the routes of referral child protection. Overall, parents spoken to at the inspection are happy about the information they receive from the staff, through notices and newsletters.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 511310 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 826257 Type of provision Sessional provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 2 - 5 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 35 Name of provider Busy Bees Playgroup Committee Date of previous inspection 29 January 2009 Telephone number 01635 297576

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Setting details

Busy Bees Pre-school has been operating in Kingsclere since 1996. It is located in the scout hut in the centre of Kingsclere, Berkshire. The provision is open each weekday, from 9am until 3pm, term time only and children can attend for various sessions. The provision offers funding for free early education to children aged two, three and four. The provision employs 6 staff, of whom four hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3, and the manager holds a relevant qualification at level 4. The pre-school also employ a finance officer.

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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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