Fawn & Fern Woodland Nursery

Inspection of Bracken Place Day Nursery 3 Bracken Place, Chilworth, Southampton, Hampshire SO16 3NG

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Overall effectiveness Good

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

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The provision is good

Positive improvements have been made since the last inspection to ensure the registration requirements are being met. The key-person approach is securely embedded. Staff work hard to foster good relationships with all children to help them settle swiftly. Consequently, children are happy and settled and confidently seek out staff for reassurance and support when needed. Staff have a robust understanding of the unique needs of each child. This allows staff to plan educational programmes that continuously build on children's existing knowledge and skills. There is a particular emphasis on ensuring that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their needs met well.

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The provision is good

Staff expose children to rich and varied opportunities to develop their communication skills and extend their growing vocabulary. For example, very young children show curiosity in selecting props from a song bag to join in group singing. Furthermore, older children delight in engaging in ice play where staff model new words and their explanations, such as 'freezing', 'melting' and 'droplets'. This helps children make connections between their play as they learn new words and their meanings.

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The provision is good

Staff plan for challenging physical activities. This supports children to develop skills such as balance, spatial awareness and dexterity so they can move their whole bodies in a variety of ways. Staff are positive role models to children. They help children to understand their growing emotions and promote consistent behavioural expectations as they learn right from wrong. This contributes to children's positive behaviours within their play, interactions and learning.

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need to do better?

n Leaders continuously reflect on their early years offer to identify how they put steps in place to drive continuous improvement. This contributes towards ensuring children receive good quality early years care and education. n Staff recognise the importance of planning activities and play experiences that incorporate children's interests as well as their individual stages of development. Since the last inspection, leaders and staff have worked together to design a bespoke curriculum. Although this is in place, leaders recognise it is yet to be fully embedded. Despite these early stages of implementation, children demonstrate they are making good progress across all areas of learning. n Overall, staff plan and provide a variety of purposeful outdoor play opportunities. However, at times, the youngest children's outdoor experiences are not as well considered as they could be. Nevertheless, staff ensure that children have daily

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need to do better?

access to the outside provision. n Staff provide opportunities for children to play together in mixed age groups.

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need to do better?

20 January 2025 This allows children to develop social skills, including empathy. Staff support children to learn about their own needs as well as the needs of others. For instance, older children are eager to help younger children with self-help skills such as washing hands. They help them to turn the taps on and give them gentle reminders not to forget the soap. Staff provide positive praise to reinforce children's kindness as they develop good relationships with their friends. n Leaders and staff work collaboratively with parents and a wide range of external professionals. This enables them to seek advice and guidance to implement effective strategies to support individual children, including those with SEND, to make the progress they are capable of. n Risk assessments are used effectively to ensure children can play and explore in a safe environment. During play experiences, staff gently remind children of

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need to do better?

rules and boundaries, explaining why they have asked them not to do something. This supports children's growing understanding of how to keep themselves safe. In addition, leaders consider staff deployment arrangements to ensure children are well supervised at all times. n Staff provide children with high-quality interactions and recognise the importance of developing children's communication and language skills. They provide purposeful opportunities to promote language through a variety of ways. For example, staff regularly share stories, rhymes and songs with children. In addition, staff provide children with time to share their own thoughts and ideas. This gives children time to process new information and extend their own discussions as they practise conversational skills. This supports children to become confident communicators. n Leaders and staff work hard to generate good partnership working between

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need to do better?

families and the provision. They provide feedback to parents about the progress of their children's learning and development. Furthermore, they offer a variety of additional information, advice and guidance to support families about a range of topics, including safer sleeping and potty training.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

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should:

n continue to build on the curriculum offer to ensure it is fully embedded and precisely meets the needs of all children n strengthen outdoor experiences to ensure these offer purposeful and well- planned learning opportunities to support the youngest children.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 511326 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 10365758 Type of provision Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Registers

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

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inspection

Total number of places 96 Number of children on roll 59 Name of registered person Bracken Place Day Nursery Limited

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reference number

Telephone number 07769698970 Date of previous inspection 28 August 2024

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Information about this early years setting

Bracken Place Day Nursery registered in 2000. It operates from a converted house and a purpose-built extension in Chilworth, Southampton. The nursery opens for 51 weeks of the year, from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery offers free entitlement funding for children aged from 9 months to 4 years. There are 14 members of staff, of whom nine hold relevant early years qualifications.

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Inspection activities

n The deputy manager and inspectors completed a learning walk together of all areas of the nursery and discussed the early years curriculum. n The inspectors observed the quality of education being provided and assessed the impact that this was having on children's learning. n The deputy manager and the inspectors carried out joint observations of children during lunchtime. n The inspectors talked to staff at appropriate times during the inspection and took account of their views. n The inspectors observed the interactions between the staff and children. n Parents shared their views of the nursery with the inspectors.

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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

20 January 2025 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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