Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): 120793 Registered with Ofsted: 04/01/2001 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Strong standard

All children are making excellent progress from their starting points. They cooperate extremely well with others and use language, visual prompts or support as needed from the childminder to express their feelings and needs. Children regulate their emotions effectively. They demonstrate strong resilience, high levels of perseverance and pride in their achievements.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children's speech and language is developing extremely well. They are using an increasing range of vocabulary, speak confidently, listen attentively and take turns in conversations.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children are independent in their personal care. They confidently manage routines and understand how to keep themselves and others safe. Children demonstrate an impressive understanding of healthy lifestyles and can explain how exercise and food support their bodies. They build secure relationships, communicate highly effectively and show high levels of independence, confidence and self-regulation. All children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning, including school.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder creates a respectful and inclusive environment. She forms extremely strong bonds with children from the start. This helps children to settle very quickly into her care.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder has high expectations for children's behaviour. She sensitively encourages kindness and cooperation and thoughtfully supports children in expressing their feelings and worries. When children need extra reassurance, the childminder provides calm and gentle encouragement at the level of their understanding. The atmosphere at the setting is loving and caring, and children support each other during their play.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children demonstrate exceptional resilience, confidently tackling challenges and taking pride in their achievements. Even the youngest children show impressive perseverance and coordination as they stretch, reach for aerial hoops and swing with confidence. Children also display excellent skills in regulating their emotions, using words to describe their feelings during their play. For example, they respond positively to peer praise and express feelings such as 'happy.' Children flourish in response to the childminder's consistent encouragement and positive reinforcement. The childminder shares her policies and procedures clearly with parents and carers so they understand expectations around children's attendance. She works closely with families and offers support and guidance where barriers arise, such as punctuality. This collaborative approach has a positive impact on children's wellbeing and helps to ensure that they benefit

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Children's welfare and well-being Strong standard

The childminder provides a welcoming home-from-home environment. She works extremely well in partnership with parents and takes time to understand each child's routines, preferences and comfort needs. This helps children to settle quickly in her care. Parents highlight how 'family fun days' provide valuable opportunities to meet other families. They comment that this has helped them build supportive relationships and arrange play dates outside of the setting, which further strengthens children's social skills.

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Children's welfare and well-being Strong standard

The childminder establishes highly effective routines that reflect children's care and welfare needs. This supports children's emotional wellbeing and a strong sense of security at the setting. Children demonstrate strong, secure attachments and actively seek the childminder for reassurance and emotional support.

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Children's welfare and well-being Strong standard

The childminder places a strong emphasis on teaching children personal safety, and children show they trust her guidance. Younger children build on their core strength as they climb on the climbing frame. They wait calmly for support before coming to the pole. Older children demonstrate a secure understanding of how to keep themselves and others safe. They ensure that their younger peers are clear before using the swing.

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Children's welfare and well-being Strong standard

The childminder adapts her environment to provide high-quality and individualised support for each child. For example, she has introduced areas such as a quiet area and a sensory den, which have greatly enhanced children's ability to regulate and manage their emotions. The childminder offers sensitive, responsive support in these spaces, which helps children to return to their play feeling safe and understood.

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Children's welfare and well-being Strong standard

The childminder promotes children's health and wellbeing extremely well. During music sessions, children recognise that their hearts beating faster shows their bodies are exercising. This helps children to develop a positive understanding of healthy lifestyles.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder provides a meticulous curriculum that is firmly rooted in her thorough assessment of each child's starting points. She carefully plans engaging and purposeful activities that reflect children's individual learning needs and interests, and she implements these with precision.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder supports children's language and literacy development extremely well. She skilfully engages children in carefully selected stories, such as 'Handa's Surprise', and adapts her approach to meet different developmental stages. For example, as younger children delight in handling animal masks and props, the childminder introduces new vocabulary through modelling clear language in diverse contexts. For older children, she uses thoughtful questioning and prompts to encourage them to recall and describe key events in the story. This strengthens children's knowledge of sequencing and telling a story from the start to the end.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Children's physical, social and emotional development is supported highly effectively. Even the youngest children show strong relationships as they work together to tidy up before their nursery-rhyme session. Children count as they practise marching. They bend and stretch with determination and show a thoughtful awareness of others. The childminder introduces words such as 'higher' and 'lower', which supports children's mathematical understanding. She fosters children's interests and introduces new skills, such as spinning, which develops their coordination skills and builds on their ability to navigate space safely.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder ensures that children receive an excellent start to their education. She gains a thorough understanding of each child through meticulous assessments and highly effective home visits. This allows her to identify emerging gaps in children's development quickly and put targeted support in place, particularly for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder works highly effectively in partnership with other professionals, including the local authority. She understands how to make effective use of funding, such as the early years pupil premium. She carefully plans how this is used to have the greatest impact on children's individual care and learning needs. This includes providing targeted resources, specialist support and training to enhance children's outcomes.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder regularly evaluates the impact of all strategies in place. She attends multi- agency meetings to review children's progress and adapts her support accordingly. This reflective and collaborative approach consistently enhances children's development and wellbeing. Targeted training, such as how individual children learn and communicate in different ways, has further strengthened the childminder's practice. This has had a positive impact on children's developing language and understanding.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder values each child as a unique individual and promotes their cultural identity exceptionally well. She weaves children's cultures into the daily life of the setting, which enables them to celebrate their traditions and festivals with pride. Children show great enthusiasm as they try new foods, share their family flags and learn about one another's backgrounds. This fosters a strong sense of belonging for children in this setting.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder has a genuine passion for continuous professional development to benefit children. She uses her precise knowledge of each child to successfully target meaningful training. This enables her to increase her skills and understanding in areas that will provide the greatest support to children. For example, recent training has had a positive impact on how she teaches children how to manage their feelings and emotions. The childminder plays an active leadership role within the local childminding community. She facilitates a monthly county-wide network group that offers high-quality support and guidance to other childminders. This brings practitioners together to share best practice and to access specialist support from multi-agency specialists, such as speech and language therapists. This has a significant impact on the development of children in the local community.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder's strong partnership with the local authority has enabled her to participate in pilot intervention programmes that have had a significant impact on children's development. For example, this work has supported the early identification of delays, such as in children's speech and understanding, and strengthened her ability to plan highly effective support strategies and track progress over time. Targeted training and highly effective support, delivered in partnership with parents and multi-agency professionals, have significantly accelerated children's progress and enhanced their care and welfare.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children benefit from the care of a highly experienced childminder who spends time getting to know them extremely well. Home visits play a key role in establishing strong and trusting partnership working, which provides a secure foundation for highly successful collaboration between the childminder, parents and carers. The childminder skilfully adapts routines, activities and her interactions to meet children's individual needs. This ensures that all children are fully included and able to participate confidently in all aspects of the day. Children have strong bonds with the childminder and thrive in her care.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The childminder is an exceptional role model. Her calm, kind and nurturing approach greatly influences children's behaviour. For example, young children show high levels of patience. They are kind to their friends and naturally take turns to press the button on the water butt. Children use an impressive range of vocabulary for their young age, confidently applying words such as 'full', 'empty' and 'heavy' in context. The childminder skilfully extends children's thinking and introduces more concepts to deepen their understanding of mathematical language. She promotes children's independence exceptionally well, such as encouraging them to solve simple problems and take responsibility for small tasks. This builds on their confidence and self-esteem.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The childminder provides children with rich opportunities to engage with the local community. She uses regular visits to charity shops to help children to develop a growing understanding of empathy and helping others. These real-life experiences support children to appreciate kindness and social responsibility. The childminder plans regular outings to the local library, fostering children's love of reading. Children enjoy choosing books to take home to share with their families, which extends their learning beyond the setting. Robust procedures for outings ensure children remain safe at all times.

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About this setting

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:30

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Next steps

Leaders and those responsible for governance should sustain their work to ensure continued improvement and high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of children.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder, children and parents during the inspection.

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About this inspection

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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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standards expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standards set out in statutory and non-statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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