Cuckoo Meadow Pre-School

Cuckoo Meadow Pre- school Rathbone Pavillion, Church Road, North Waltham, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG25 2BL

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 2 May 2017 3 June 2015

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Effectiveness of the leadership and management Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding 1

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This provision is outstanding

 The co-managers work exceptionally well together. They know and complement each other's strengths, inspire staff with ideas from their degree training and guide staff through improvements across all aspects of the pre-school. They lead exceptionally skilled and widely experienced senior staff.  Staff thoroughly risk assess and adapt exciting learning opportunities to keep children safe and secure. For instance, children enjoy rich excursions into their local environment and community. They talk avidly about handling and caring for wild creatures, such as snakes and owls that visitors bring into the pre-school.  Staff use their accurate assessments and detailed monitoring to clearly document children's outstanding levels of progress from some very different starting points. Staff develop highly effective partnerships with parents and carers to link children's achievements at home and at the pre-school to extend their learning.

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This provision is outstanding

 Highly skilled staff rapidly settle new children into the pre-school. They nurture children's confidence to voice their ideas and share them effectively with others.  Parents comment that staff use storytelling and themes developed from children's interests extremely effectively. Children are swift to share rhymes and knowledge from favourite stories. For example, children know that crocodiles hatch from eggs and that the river Nile flows through Africa where the ground is dry and sandy.

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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

 strengthen staff confidence in exploring children's questions about different faiths and beliefs to further develop children's understanding of shared values and different traditions.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed, listened to and talked with children as they played indoors and during outdoor play.  The inspector talked with parents and listened to their views about the pre-school and their children's progress.  The inspector sampled children's records, discussed staff's planning and evaluation of activities, and how staff exchange information with parents.  The inspector reviewed records and procedures relating to safeguarding and risk assessment, and discussed a range of other procedures relating to children's welfare with the co-managers and chairperson for the parent committee.  The inspector observed care routines and completed a joint observation with one of the co-managers. Together they discussed how staff training had contributed to children's learning and development.

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Effectiveness of the leadership and management is outstanding

Safeguarding is effective. The co-managers ensure staff know how to record and report any concerns about a child's welfare or staff conduct. They attract high-calibre staff and committee members who meet stringent policies and procedures for recruitment, vetting and induction. Staff notify parents promptly about any accidents or injuries their children receive. The co-managers diligently review these and minimise risks to children's safety. For example, as more children practise scooting and cycling, staff chalk out roundabouts, add circuits and discuss road safety rules. Children learn how to play safely together and make excellent progress in their physical development and social skills.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

Staff constantly reflect on and evaluate their practice to raise the quality of their teaching and interactions with children. They challenge each child appropriately to look deeper, think more imaginatively and investigate creatively. For example, staff fascinate children with an extensive range of live and preserved insects and mini-beasts. Children learn to use microscopes and magnifiers to examine with awe and wonder the finer differences between beetles, spiders and insects. Staff quickly observe how to extend children's understanding to other areas of their play. For instance, children learn to copy the spirals on a snail shell when rolling toppings for playdough cupcakes. They study the toy animals they are playing with more closely and sort out the tigers from the lions and leopards.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are outstanding

Staff patiently nurture and support children towards high levels of independence in managing their personal needs. For instance, children quickly learn to take their shoes on and off in order to bounce and count on a well-supervised small trampoline. Staff are highly effective in welcoming parents into the pre-school to enrich children's interests in different jobs, skills and places in the world. Parents say they appreciate how staff respect and accommodate their home cultures, faiths and languages. However, on some occasions staff do not have the confidence to answer children's questions about different faiths and beliefs in terms of shared values or different traditions.

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Outcomes for children are outstanding

All children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning and for school. This includes children who arrive with minimal spoken English and those managing ear infections. Children develop excellent control of small tools and develop precision as they begin to write letters and numbers. For example, young children concentrate, persist and take great pride in their 'needling' as they thread back and forth through large sewing frames. Boys as well as girls are keen to write for specific purposes, such as recording measurements when playing builders or issuing speeding tickets on the bicycle track.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY254143 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 1091640 Type of provision Sessional provision Day care type Childcare - Non-Domestic Registers Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register, Voluntary Childcare Register Age range of children 2 - 4 Total number of places 20 Number of children on roll 41 Name of registered person Cuckoo Meadow Pre-School Committee

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reference number

Date of previous inspection 3 June 2015 Telephone number 01256 398 172

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reference number

Cuckoo Meadow Pre-school registered in 2003. It is located in North Waltham, Basingstoke. The pre-school opens five days a week from 9am to 3pm, during school term times. A lunch club is available each day. The pre-school is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education to children aged two, three and four years. There are seven staff working with the children, six of whom hold appropriate qualifications at level 3 to level 5.

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reference number

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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reference number

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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reference number

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reference number

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reference number

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

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