St Anthony's Pre-School/Playgroup

St Anthony's Pre-School Playgroup St Anthony's Parish Centre Annexe, St. Anthony's Drive, Fulwood, Preston, PR2 3SQ

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 24 September 2015 11 December 2014

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Previous inspection: Requires Improvement

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Effectiveness of the leadership and management Inadequate 4

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate 4

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Staff understanding of national requirements for young children’s education is poor. Too many planned activities, including those to teach writing, are not engaging enough to help children learn well. Children’s learning is too narrow to give them enough understanding of the people, families and communities of modern Britain.  Arrangements to assess, record and track the progress of children are weak. Information is not used well to plan teaching and learning. Links with other early years settings, and assessments of children aged two-years do not meet legal requirements.  Leaders' knowledge of identifying and supporting children with special educational needs is too limited to give assurance that possible issues in children's development and learning are spotted and tackled.  Checks and reviews by leaders of the pre-school are inadequate. Failings in the understanding and work of staff are not identified and staff access to training and

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This provision is inadequate

support is minimal.  Safeguarding is not effective. Children's safety is at risk because leaders do not fully ensure the suitability of staff and volunteers to work with children.

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It has the following strengths

 Regular, indoor physical exercise for children is well-planned and taught.  Relationships among children and with staff are happy and caring. Staff place much emphasis upon helping children to be healthy.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

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

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Due Date

 urgently ensure that staff and managers of the pre-school understand what circumstances would disqualify them from working with children if they live in the same household as another person who is disqualified or live in a household where a disqualified person is employed (known as ‘disqualification by association’) 09/10/2015

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Due Date

 put in place arrangements to ensure that they are not knowingly employing a disqualified person. In doing so, act proportionately and respect privacy. Ensure that information is handled fairly and lawfully, notifying disqualification@ofsted.gov.uk where any person connected to the provision may be disqualified 09/10/2015

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Due Date

 record information about the vetting of potential new staff and volunteers in order to show that all necessary steps are taken to keep children safe. In particular, keep records of the interview, references, and all other checks made 09/10/2015

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Due Date

 improve the knowledge of staff and leaders about broader safeguarding issues such as domestic violence, and the grooming of adults 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 improve the knowledge of staff and leaders about the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014 and what this means for their work 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 ensure that staff understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and that planned teaching gives children a wide range of experiences that promote their understanding of the people, families and communities of modern Britain 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 improve staff knowledge of the teaching of literacy and ensure that activities to develop mark-making and early writing are meaningful and ignite children’s interest 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 fully consider the individual needs, interests and stage of development of each child when planning activities 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 ensure that staff understand which areas of learning in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage they are teaching through activities, and ensure that staff understand the different ways that children learn (the characteristics of effective teaching and learning), using these in their work with children 01/12/2015

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Due Date

 ensure that pre-school assessments of two-year-old children meet 01/12/2015 all legal requirements including showing children’s individual next steps  ensure that when children attend more than one early years setting that staff give and receive information regularly with that setting about children’s care and learning. 01/12/2015

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Due Date

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

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Due Date

 review the quality of teaching and assessment in more detail and with greater frequency, identifying what needs to be improved and use this information as a basis for giving coaching and precise feedback during supervision meetings with individual staff  improve the assessment and tracking of progress made by individuals and groups of children, ensuring that children’s starting points and current development are known and comparisons made to what is typical for children of their age  ensure that interviews of potential staff always include safeguarding questions that explore their understanding of the care and protection of children, their values, and their motivation for wanting to work with children.

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Inspection activities

 Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) spoke to children and observed learning and teaching indoors and outdoors. Some teaching was observed jointly with the pre-school manager/nominated person.  Meetings were held with the manager/nominated person, other leaders, a range of staff, and a representative of the pre-school committee.  HMI spoke to some parents and carers.  HMI checked evidence of the suitability and qualifications of pre-school staff, evidence of staff training and discussed recruitment and vetting procedures with the manager/nominated person.  While two-year-olds are on roll at the pre-school, none were present during the inspection. HMI did check the quality of assessments of these children as part of the inspection evidence.  HMI considered a range of documents including: reviews of how well the pre-school is developing; plans for the future; documents about the care and protection of children;

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Inspection activities

records of supervision meetings between the manager/nominated person and staff; plans for learning; children’s learning journeys and information about children’s progress.

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Effectiveness of the leadership and management is inadequate

Leaders’ views of the pre-school are inaccurate because they do not fully understand what good education, care and protection for young children looks like. This limits the usefulness of their support and advice to staff. Leaders do not understand the importance of always following safe recruitment practices. Insufficient records are kept to show that staff and volunteers are fully checked as to their suitability to work with children. A recent interview of a potential member of staff failed to ask sufficient questions of that individual about the care and protection of children. Equally concerning, leaders are not aware of the law that disqualifies a person from working with children. This would be if they live in the same household as another person who is disqualified or live in a household where a disqualified person is employed (known as ‘disqualification by association’). This failure puts children’s safety at risk. All staff have completed training in the care and protection of

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Effectiveness of the leadership and management is inadequate

children. However, leaders do not check the understanding of staff in enough depth to be sure that staff understand wider risks to children, such as the grooming of adults by dangerous persons. Leaders make too few checks on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Too little thought is given to helping staff improve, such as through the sharing of information, discussion, or access to regular training. Consequently, the quality of the pre-school is getting worse. Leaders believe the pre-school to be better than it really is. Furthermore, they do not set clear, precise priorities for improving the pre-school rapidly.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

Assessment of children’s development and progress is weak. When children start at pre- school, staff are not establishing a clear baseline of children's abilities upon which to plan teaching. Information from assessments is not used well when planning activities for children. Even though some children attend more than one setting, leaders of the pre- school are not making the legally-required links with this other provision in support of children’s learning. Staff are not clear how their chosen activities meet the individual needs of children. Staff are preoccupied with gathering excessive paperwork rather than the quality and use of their assessments. This means that staff and leaders do not have a clear enough understanding of how well children are progressing from their starting points. Nor do they know the next steps for the learning of all children. Links with parents are not detailed enough to help staff review children's learning in sufficient depth. During

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate

the inspection, Her Majesty’s Inspector found that legally-required checks on the progress of two-year-olds do not meet requirements. These assessments are incomplete and children’s next steps are not identified. Because leaders do not check the work of staff properly, they were completely unaware of this issue. The quality of teaching is inadequate because staff and leaders understand too little about national requirements for young children’s education and care. For example, in spite of their qualifications, leaders do not know in sufficient detail the different subjects (areas of learning) that they must teach. Leaders do not understand that their regular use of colouring-in sheets as a means of teaching children to write is undemanding and does too little to help children learn. Nevertheless, the planning and teaching of weekly, indoor physical exercise for the children is good.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

Children behave well at pre-school because staff help children to understand adult expectations. Support for children’s independence and confidence is adequate. For example, children are growing in their confidence to go to the toilet, and take their coat on and off, because of adult help. Staff encourage children regularly about the importance of eating healthily. Children’s own families are respected. However, leaders and staff give inadequate consideration to providing children with a wide range of opportunities to learn about the diverse world of modern Britain. For example, books and resources for children that show difference are limited and most of those that are used are kept stored away from the children. Celebrations shared with the children across the year do little to teach children about differences between people and risk reinforcing presumptions and stereotypes. Leaders are giving inadequate consideration to their legal duties to promote

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

equality and diversity in full. This holds children's learning back.

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Outcomes for children are inadequate

The pre-school is not reviewing how well different groups of children are progressing. Poor teaching means that children are not fully ready for their future lives at primary school and beyond. In addition, leaders’ lack a clear understanding about the identification and support of children with special educational needs. These weaknesses mean staff do not have enough expertise to always identify or tackle when children are behind in their learning.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 309463 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 1023067 Type of provision Sessional provision Day care type Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 5 Total number of places 24 Number of children on roll 22 Name of provider St Anthonys Pre-School Playgroup Committee Date of previous inspection 11 December 2014 Telephone number 01772 490295

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Setting details

St. Anthony's Pre-School Playgroup provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children. It was registered in 1993 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is run by a committee of trustees and operates from a parish centre annexe in Fulwood, Preston. The setting has use of a large room with access to a kitchen area, a coffee area, a large hall, a small room and toilets. There is an enclosed outdoor play area. The setting employs six members of staff to work with the children. Of these, five staff hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 3. The setting opens Monday and Wednesday mornings 9am to 11.30am, Monday 12pm until 3pm, Tuesday 9am until 12pm, Thursday 9am until 3pm and Friday 9am until 12pm. There are currently 22 children on roll.

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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

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Setting details

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