Lilac Frog Day Nursery

Inspection of Lilac Frog Day Nursery 32 Church Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 7JB

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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The provision requires improvement

Children play happily together in the nursery. They feel safe and secure in the company of the familiar, friendly staff. Staff's planning for children's physical development is sequenced well. For example, younger toddlers dance to music. They have fun copying staff's movements and actions. This helps children to develop greater control of their bodies. Older children take part in the 'daily mile'. They run and walk to complete circuits of the outdoor area. Children get out of breath and their heart rates increase. They begin to understand that regular exercise is healthy. Children benefit from the calm and positive atmosphere in the nursery. This helps them to regulate their emotions and they behave well.

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The provision requires improvement

Parents and carers comment that managers and staff have done 'an exemplary job' during the COVID-19 pandemic. They say that staff took extra care to keep parents informed during the period when COVID-19 restrictions prevented parents from entering the nursery with their children. This helped everyone to work together to promote children's well-being. Managers often work alongside staff in the childcare rooms. This helps to promote positive relationships between managers, staff and children. However, managers do not identify weaknesses in practice effectively enough. This does not help staff to continuously and consistently improve the quality of their interactions with children to support their learning and development to the highest level.

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need to do better?

n Managers work alongside staff and provide ongoing coaching to help them to improve their practice. However, they do not scrutinise staff's individual practice closely enough. Consequently, they do not consistently identify weaknesses in staff's interactions with children. For example, some staff do not model language well enough. They wipe babies' hands and faces and take their shoes off without speaking to them. This means that children do not hear words that promote their understanding of daily routines. This hinders children's swiftest progress towards becoming confident communicators. n Children learn skills, such as gluing pieces of paper onto pre-drawn outlines, from a young age. This helps to promote children's hand-eye coordination well. However, staff do not build on this effectively enough. For example, pre-school children glue cotton wool onto cloud shapes. This does not extend their craft

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need to do better?

skills. It does not encourage children to think or to try out their own ideas. n Staff often read to children. Children remember what comes next in familiar stories. They join in with refrains and experience the rhyme and rhythm of spoken English. Staff, sometimes, combine stories with play. Children pretend to 'splash splosh' across the river when they go out bravely on a bear hunt. They

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need to do better?

9 November 2021 discover that books and stories are fun. This helps to promote their early literacy. n Staff incorporate numbers into everyday activities. Children begin to understand what '15 minutes' feels like, when they do the daily mile. At the end they slow down and count the last few seconds backwards from 10. This helps children to learn about using numbers to measure time. Children learn about relative size. They hunt for the biggest autumn leaf and discover that it is as big as their faces. n Managers and staff create opportunities for parents to participate in the work of the nursery. For example, parents read stories to groups of children. Parents value the information that staff provide in the online learning journal. They say that it helps them to continue children's learning at home. n Staff manage children's behaviour in a positive way. They notice and praise children who follow the rules. Children know what they are expected to do. This

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need to do better?

helps to promote their self-control and independence well. n The special educational needs coordinator incorporates advice from specialist professionals into individual programmes for children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps children to make good progress from their starting points. Managers use additional funding appropriately. They purchase resources that meet children's interests and help to promote their progress. n Children eat a nutritious and varied diet and this contributes to their good health. At lunch time, pre-school children take one portion of food. They return for a second helping when they have cleared their plates. This helps children learn to take enough but not too much. Staff encourage children to take regular drinks from the 'hydration station'.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Managers make sure that staff complete training that updates and refreshes their knowledge of child protection. Staff understand the nursery's procedures. They know what to do if they consider that a child is at risk of harm. They understand their responsibility to report concerns about colleagues' behaviour towards children. Staff follow routines that minimise risks to children's safety. They teach children to walk carefully up and down the nursery stairs. Staff know children well. They know the details of children's allergies to particular foods and of any religious preferences about diet. This helps everyone to make sure that children are safe. Parents' wishes about diet are followed.

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Due date

implement an effective system for supervising practitioners, that leads to continuous improvement in the quality of their practice. 07/12/2021

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should:

n improve staff's knowledge and understanding of language development, in order that activities and interactions fully promote children's vocabulary and communication skills n encourage children to express their own ideas and thinking when they learn and use craft skills.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY418216 Local authority Stockport Inspection number 10212825 Type of provision Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Registers

Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register, Voluntary Childcare Register Day care type Full day care

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inspection

Total number of places 54 Number of children on roll 57 Name of registered person Lilac Frog Day Nursery Limited

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reference number

Telephone number 0161 486 6999 Date of previous inspection 21 October 2016

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Information about this early years setting

Lilac Frog Day Nursery registered in 2010. The nursery employs nine members of childcare staff. Of these, three members of staff hold qualifications at level 6, one holds a qualification at level 4, two at level 3 and two at level 2. The nursery opens from Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 8am until 6pm. It provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children.

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Inspection activities

n This was the first routine inspection the provider received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the provider and has taken that into account in her evaluation of the provider. n The manager and the inspector completed a learning walk of the nursery. They conducted a joint observation of practice. The inspector held discussions with the provider and the manager throughout the inspection. n The inspector spoke with staff and children during the inspection. n Two parents spoke with the inspector. The inspector read written feedback from parents and took account of parents' views. n Examples of relevant documentation were sampled and reviewed by the inspector. She checked evidence of the suitability of staff working in the nursery.

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Inspection activities

We carried out this inspection 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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Inspection activities

9 November 2021 regulates and inspects to 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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, 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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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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