The Cheshire Day Nursery @ Guardian Street

Inspection of The Cheshire Day Nursery @ Guardian Street Guardian Street, WARRINGTON WA5 1UP

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

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

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The provision is outstanding

Children's unmistakeable sense of security enables them to take the ups and downs of a busy nursery day in their stride. Children feel safe because staff present routines and activities in a consistent and positive way. They make excellent progress because staff know that every detail of the environment and their teaching is important. This is particularly evident in the continuity between rooms. For example, children of all ages know that there is always a table with play dough on it. The familiar activity helps children to settle into a new room. Furthermore, staff expertly use the dough to help children to build skills and knowledge as they grow. The youngest children discover its texture and develop hand and finger strength. In the pre-school, staff skilfully use the dough to promote children's imaginative play and to deepen children's understanding of concepts, such as relative size.

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The provision is outstanding

Parents and carers comment that 'every element of play or activity has meaning behind it'. This indicates that staff take time to explain the curriculum to parents. As a result, parents know what to do to reinforce and extend children's learning at home. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the team focused even more closely on helping children to develop positive relationships. Children make rapid progress in learning to follow rules and routines. They gain understanding of how their words, mood and behaviour affect other people.

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need to do better?

n Leaders are ambitious for everyone's achievement. Managers attend accredited training that helps them to gain further insight into aspects of the curriculum. For example, managers study ideas from academic research about how changing the seating arrangements at group times enhances children's learning and involvement. They ably apply and share their learning. This helps everyone in the team to continuously grow their professional skills and knowledge. n Arrangements for supervising and supporting staff are comprehensive and well managed. Staff know that they and their ideas are valued. This helps them to feel happy and positive in their roles. The nursery is a caring, harmonious workplace. This immerses children in an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance that they learn to emulate. Staff say that the team 'feels like a big family'. They want to carry on working for the company. n The nursery's curriculum demonstrates leaders' excellent understanding of how

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need to do better?

to sequence children's learning. One intention is that children learn to cut with scissors. Staff help younger children to develop small-muscle strength and control. For example, two-year-old children excitedly use little tools to chip baby dinosaurs out of toy eggs. This groundwork prepares children to quickly succeed in learning to use scissors when they are older.

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need to do better?

18 April 2023 n The curriculum is rooted in the team's advanced knowledge of how children learn. Furthermore, the highly effective in-house training means that staff are confident teachers. Room teams identify a 'skill of the week'. In one room this is 'compare size and weights using gestures and language'. Staff seamlessly incorporate the concepts of comparative size and weight into routines, conversations and activities. n Books are at the heart of the curriculum. Babies focus on four core texts. Then more are added in each room. Discussion of the familiar stories becomes increasingly sophisticated as children grow. Children consider why the characters act as they do. When recalling the events of a favourite story, pre-school children remind staff that 'we didn't go through the stumble trip thingy'. Children ably apply their knowledge of stories to their own storytelling. n Children's vocabulary grows rapidly. Room teams identify new words to teach

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need to do better?

children, then create reasons to use them during planned and spontaneous activities. For example, children apply a newly introduced word, 'combine', when they mix ingredients together to make gingerbread men. In a further example, children match their baby dinosaur models to pictures. This motivates them to attempt multisyllabic words, such as 'triceratops'. n Well-developed routines promote children's learning. Tweenies purposefully explore the inviting room. This frees staff in the room to focus on one-to-one teaching with children getting ready for outdoor play. Pre-school children demonstrate the impressive impact of their time in nursery. They communicate a sense of achievement as they self-serve their lunch. Children know that they must think about how much food they need to take. This helps to promote their physical well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Everyone is vigilant about safeguarding matters. Clear delegation and effective line management throughout the nursery help everyone to understand what to do if they have concerns about children's welfare. The nursery manager passes on new knowledge about child protection. For example, staff participate in regular quizzes. Well-developed expertise and excellent direct teaching promote children's health and safety. This is demonstrated really well when forest school staff involve children in lighting a fire to toast marshmallows on. Children make visible progress in naming the items of safety equipment and their knowledge of how to use them. The experience teaches children about measuring and managing risk.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY408819 Local authority Warrington Inspection number 10263149 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 113 Number of children on roll 103 Name of registered person The Cheshire Day Nursery Limited

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reference number

Telephone number 01925657111 Date of previous inspection 21 April 2017

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Information about this early years setting

The Cheshire Day Nursery @ Guardian Street registered in 2010. The nursery employs 19 members of childcare staff. Of these, three members of staff hold qualifications at level 6, two at level 5, seven at level 3 and three at level 2. One member of staff holds early years professional status. The nursery opens from Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. The nursery 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 nursery received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and managers and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the nursery. n The nursery manager, the assistant nursery manager and the inspector completed a learning walk of the pre-school. The inspector conducted an observation of practice alongside the assistant manager and a quality support teacher. n The inspector held meetings as appropriate with the area manager, nursery managers and the special educational needs coordinator. She spoke with staff and children during the inspection. n The inspector spoke with parents and read written feedback. She took account of parents' views. n Examples of relevant documents 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

18 April 2023 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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