Little Seahorse Nursery/Hi Tide Kidz Club

Little Seahorse Nursery/Hi Tide Kidz Club St Ives Children's Centre, The Burrows, St. Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1DJ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 4 August 2015 2 April 2012

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 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 allocation of a second key-person to each child significantly enhances children's sense of well-being and confidence. Staff meet children's needs extremely well and children quickly settle and enjoy their time at the setting.  All children make very strong progress in relation to their starting points. This is due to each key person knowing their children very well. They carry out extremely well- focused, concise assessment and planning for children's individual learning needs.  Staff have very high expectations of themselves and the children. They make very thorough use of the highly effective monitoring and tracking systems to evaluate children's overall development and progress. They adjust and develop their learning programmes in response.  Staff have an extremely clear understanding of how children learn. They make full use of their training, knowledge and understanding to significantly enhance children's

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This provision is outstanding

learning experiences.  Staff are highly committed and extremely proactive in their support for children with additional needs. This enables these children to reach their full potential.  The highly committed and enthusiastic staff work extremely well together. This enables them to maintain the highest standards and consistency, and to promote children's welfare and learning extremely well.  Partnerships with parents are extremely positive; staff keep parents fully informed about their children's progress by involving them in their planning and assessment processes. This, along with the excellent partnerships with other providers and professionals, enables staff to enhance children's learning and care experiences.

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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

 continue to evaluate and reflect on practice to maintain the high quality provision throughout the approaching expansion of the business.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents that she spoke to at the inspection.  The inspector carried out a joint observation alongside the deputy manager.  The inspector observed activities in the playrooms and outdoor play areas.  The inspector had discussions with staff.  The inspector checked documentation relating to staff suitability, the welfare requirements, planning and children's progress.

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who attend. This is outstanding

Staff plan and resource activities extremely well, while remaining highly responsive to children's interests. They balance activities chosen by children with extremely well- planned, adult-led experiences. The use of sharply-focused planning ensures that children make extremely strong progress across all areas of learning and acquire very strong skills for future learning. Staff have superb teaching abilities. They skilfully engage and maintain children's interests through their use of props and their animated storytelling techniques. They make high quality and timely interventions in children's play to skilfully develop and extend children's imaginative play. At the inspection, children developed their physical skills as they created and negotiated an obstacle course. When a member of staff suggested that they were crossing the sea, this encouraged a child to go for an imaginary swim. They then enthusiastically acted out, and described, squelching through the squidgy

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who attend. This is outstanding

mud. Staff ably linked the activity to a familiar story and then children selected the relevant book and discussed its plot. Children learn about numbers in unusual ways, for example, as staff encourage them to find, identify and order numbered pebbles outdoors.

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outstanding

The exceptionally strong key-person system enables children to develop extremely strong and positive relationships with familiar staff. This helps children to feel exceptionally secure. Children benefit from the excellent balance of male and female role models. The staff teach and reinforce excellent health and hygiene routines and lifestyles. Babies and toddlers have excellent opportunities to develop their physical skills and coordination because staff systematically plan and provide soft play and physical activities for them. Staff make excellent use of an extensive range of communication methods to ensure that they fully include children with specific needs.

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provision is outstanding

The management team has a robust understanding of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It ensures that all staff are extremely knowledgeable about safeguarding children's welfare and it uses robust recruitment and vetting procedures to ensure staff suitability. Managers foster a strong culture of continual improvement, involving parents and other agencies in evaluating the quality of the provision. The nursery is due to expand and maintaining existing high standards is an area for development. Managers make excellent use of supervision and appraisal meetings to further staff's professional development. Staff make good use of a varied range of in- house training to develop their skills. For example, following training on the link between movement and development, they have introduced exercises to support children's future development.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY337656 Local authority Cornwall Inspection number 827430 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 66 Number of children on roll 97 Name of provider Julie Cooper and Stephen Cooper Partnership Date of previous inspection 2 April 2012 Telephone number 01736 794222

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Setting details

Little Seahorse Nursery/Hi Tide Kidz Club registered in 2006. It is sited in St Ives Children's Centre, at the rear of St Ives Leisure Centre in Cornwall. It is run by a husband and wife partnership, trading as Little Seahorses Childcare. The provision is open each weekday from 8am until 6pm throughout the year. The nursery is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early years education to children aged two, three and four years. There are two managers and 22 staff who work with the children in the nursery and the out-of-school club. Most of the staff have early years or play work qualifications. These include three who have achieved Early Years Professional Status, three who are qualified to level 6, three staff qualified to level 4, 11 qualified to level 3, two to level 2 and two trainees.

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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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