Laugh N Learn Day Nursery

Laugh N Learn Day Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): EY465236 Address: 681 Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, B8 2LJ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 08/07/2013 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Eminant Child Care Limited

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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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Inclusion Expected standard

The setting provides focused support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who face other challenges that affects their wellbeing and learning. Leaders and the special educational needs coordinators work together with other professional agencies to develop personalised plans to help children to progress in their learning. Staff with specific responsibilities for supporting children with SEND receive regular training to keep their practice current.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff generally provide a consistent approach to help children to understand what is expected of them and to ensure they enjoy their time at the setting. Staff use supportive strategies to help children to access specific resources designed to calm and reassure individual children, when they become overwhelmed or anxious. They guide children to play with identified resources that hold their attention and encourage their curiosity. However, support for children not identified as having SEND is not as consistent.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Where children access additional funding, leaders use this to provide extra resources, training for staff to better meet individual children's needs and to support children to have a hot meal at the setting. Parents and carers are invited to be involved in these decisions to influence how funding is spent and to support their children at home.

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Achievement Needs attention

All children do not consistently build on their existing skills due to weaknesses in the learning opportunities provided for them. In large-group situations, some children quickly lose focus and wander off to independently explore the environment. They do not receive encouragement to re-engage or benefit from staff joining them in their chosen play to extend their learning. Therefore, children lack direction in their learning and are not well prepared for their next stage in education. Staff encourage children to sing as part of daily routines and introduce new words during adult-led activities and daily conversations to extend children's vocabulary.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Staff deployment across the setting is inconsistent. This means routines and strategies to meet children's individual needs are not always implemented quickly and consistently. However, children have positive interactions and appear to be happy and settled.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Children are supported to learn the importance of being kind to one another and to share and take turns with their friends. Staff generally provide age-appropriate guidance for children, so they understand group expectations and behave well. Staff provide praise and encouragement, when children repeat new words or show consideration to their friends. This helps to build their confidence.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Babies are content to have 'tummy time' near to other babies with positive interactions from staff in the room and older children play collaboratively with staff guidance and support. However, the interactions with staff in the toddler room do not consistently engage children to explore and build on their natural curiosity.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Children attend their allocated sessions and staff encourage parents and carers to inform them of any non-attendance. Managers check the reason for any unexplained absence to support regular patterns of attendance. Sleep routines promote the wellbeing of children. Children are constantly observed by staff, and regular physical checks take place to ensure that children remain safe and well as they sleep. Babies sleep in line with their individual needs and all toddlers sleep or rest following lunchtime.

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Children's welfare and well-being Needs attention

Within the toddler room, children do not have opportunities to build on existing skills. At mealtimes, staff feed children without allowing them to attempt to self-feed either with their hands or with cutlery. Staff actively guide the younger children during handwashing, which stifles their natural curiosity and sense of exploration. Children in the toddler room do not observe sound hygiene routines as prior to mealtime they use a shared bowl to wash hands without any soap on offer. Also, handwashing is carried out on the same table as their uncovered bowls of food. This practise is not effective in reducing the risk of cross-infection.

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Children's welfare and well-being Needs attention

Children are generally supported to follow the daily routines of the setting. Staff are quick to respond to babies' needs and provide them with the care and attention they need. Older children show they know what is expected of them and mostly respond happily to requests to tidy away or to share resources with their friends. They are confident to ask to go to the bathroom and are supported to do so. Older children have timetabled access to the outdoor space. However, babies do not have the same access to fresh air daily and toddlers do not spend long enough outside to engage in purposeful play.

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Children's welfare and well-being Needs attention

Children feel secure, playing with friends and talking to staff. Staff guide children in recognising and discussing their emotions, using soft toys to connect colours with feelings. Older children match the colour of the toy to related emotion. This helps children to feel secure.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

In most areas of learning, the curriculum is not well designed and leaders do not effectively monitor how well staff implement the curriculum. This means that staff lack sufficient direction regarding what children should learn and the sequence in which it should be taught. Therefore, the curriculum is not delivered consistently across the setting. Teaching is variable as staff do not have a sound understanding of the breadth of knowledge in key areas of learning. For example, staff focus children's learning in mathematics heavily on counting to higher numbers, with few teachable moments linked to other aspects. Consequently, not all children broaden their skills and understanding across all areas of learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff focus on supporting children's language skills while providing explanations as children play. Children happily engage in conversations during adult-led activities and learn to share and take turns. During a water play activity, pre-school children repeat the words 'ice, smash' and 'freezing' as they hammer the ice blocks. Staff engage children in discussions about the current road safety theme and use coloured play dough to introduce traffic light sequences and different modes of transport. Children readily repeat 'green for go', 'amber to get ready' and 'red for stop'. Children recall this information as they play in the garden. Although children are engaged and excited in the adult-led activities, staff do not adapt their teaching strategies to enhance children's learning. This is because assessment of children's progress is not robust enough to put in place sharply focused next steps. Therefore, children

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The setting has recently recruited a new member to the leadership team. However, Ofsted has not been notified of this appointment, which constitutes a breach of requirements. Despite this, the impact on children has been minimised because all staff have undergone appropriate suitability checks.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders share the management responsibilities. The leadership team is developing a cohesive approach. They plan supervision sessions to support staff's wellbeing and to ensure that their workloads are balanced. However, at times, the lack of communication between leaders means that staff are not deployed effectively during the day. At key points in the day, such as arrival and departure times, bank staff are deployed to communicate with parents and carers at the door. Subsequently, parents do not have regular opportunities to have face-to-face conversations with their children's key person. This inhibits the development of positive relationships between parents and their key person.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders can describe their vision for the future development of the quality of care and education of the setting. Nevertheless, it is not yet understood well enough by staff members to assess how it will bring about positive change. The leadership team welcomes the support of early years consultants. However, this guidance is not yet influencing the quality of the provision. Leaders organise professional development to support staff's understanding of child development, based on practice observations and supervision sessions. However, there is a lack of clear and shared expectations regarding the education provided to children. Additionally, leaders have not established plans to ensure that knowledge staff gain from training is integrated into everyday practice. Therefore, teaching is variable and children's approach to learning is not consistently well supported.

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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 enjoy their time at the setting and develop friendly relationships with their peers. Staff plan circle-time activities to support children to learn each other's names and foster a sense of community. They actively encourage children to understand the importance of sharing and kindness, leading to positive behaviour across the setting. Children learn to name and recognise their emotions, which staff support using props and resources.

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

Babies enjoy dedicated time with their key person with a focus on language acquisition and physical development. Staff support older children to develop their independence by putting on their coats before going outside and freely choosing from available activities. However, younger children do not have sufficient opportunities to develop independence skills during hygiene routines or at mealtimes. As a result, they are not acquiring the skills needed to support their next stage in learning.

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

The curriculum lacks ambition and breadth, which prevents children from building effectively on what they already know. Leaders do not have a clear understanding of how the curriculum is delivered. They do not check the accuracy of staff's assessment of children's progress frequently enough to ensure that children's next steps in learning are accurately sequenced. Although children enjoy participating in a variety of activities linked to current themes and topics, such as the weather and road safety, staff are not always clear about how these activities support children to learn more. Consequently, not all children make rapid progress in their learning.

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Next steps

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Childcare register the provider must take the following actions by the assigned date:

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Address:

681 Washwood Heath Road Birmingham B8 2LJ

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Eminant Child Care Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

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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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About this inspection

Since the last inspection, a new member of the leadership team has been appointed, and the day-to-day management responsibilities are shared. Leaders spend part of the week at another setting within the organisation.

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About this inspection

The inspectors spoke with leaders, staff, the special educational needs coordinator, designated safeguarding leads and parents during this inspection.

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About this inspection

A quality assurance visit by an additional inspector was carried out at this inspection.

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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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