Stepping Stones Nursery Pembury Ltd

Ltd

Unique reference number (URN): 2786751 Address: St. Anselms Catholic Church & Hall, Lower Green Road, Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 4DZ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 28/06/2024 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Stepping Stones Nursery Pembury LTD

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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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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children are happy and develop positive attitudes to learning. With the support of staff, children learn to behave well and are aware of the routines and boundaries in place. For example, they understand how to share resources so that their friends can join in activities. They also understand the routines around snack and mealtimes. Children are polite and considerate, following the effective role modelling of staff.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children are confident to make their needs known, and staff are fully in tune with the needs of those who cannot express themselves verbally. All children form strong relationships with staff and seek them out when they want attention. This could be because they want a long and comforting cuddle when tired, or a broom and cloth when they decide they want to sweep the floor and clean the tables.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders have recently strengthened the support that they offer parents and carers to encourage children's regular attendance.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff prioritise children's safety and well-being well. There are a range of risk assessments in place to ensure that the premises are safe and secure. These include adaptations to reflect children's individual needs, such as ensuring that all staff know how to use specialist equipment.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff promote children's emotional wellbeing effectively. The strong bonds that staff establish with children help to create a positive and friendly atmosphere, where children develop their confidence. In addition, staff provide quiet areas that children use if they feel overwhelmed and want a little time away from others. This, along with the ongoing support from staff, helps children to learn to regulate their emotions.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff deployment is effective, and leaders are vigilant in ensuring that children are appropriately supervised, particularly those who are eating or sleeping. Children benefit from nutritious snacks and meals. Their good health is also promoted as they develop effective personal hygiene routines.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders have a clear aim to identify each child's unique characteristics and to do everything possible to meet their individual needs. They share this ambition well with staff and monitor to ensure that intended practices are consistently followed. Effective partnership working with parents and carers, along with close observation, helps staff to gain a secure knowledge of children's abilities, interests and preferences. This knowledge is used very effectively to influence the organisation of the environment, resources and deployment of staff.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The arrangements to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are particularly effective. Leaders make good use of additional funding to provide the equipment and staffing resource that children need. Leaders and staff have an effective knowledge of the professionals and services available locally and engage well with these to provide additional support when needed. This has a positive impact on children's physical and emotional wellbeing.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff use their secure knowledge of each child's background and experiences outside of the nursery to help them feel included. For example, they thoroughly explore the languages that children hear at home and refer to children's pets and siblings to encourage them to engage in conversations.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have good oversight of the nursery. They have successfully overcome a range of unavoidable issues to establish a secure team of staff who work well together. Leaders have a clear understanding of the strengths within the provision, as well as the areas where further development is needed. They recognise the need to devise and implement a broad and suitably challenging curriculum. Until recently, their focus has been targeted on supporting the new staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. Since this has been achieved, leaders are working to identify how best to enhance teaching and the planning of activities and experiences. They understand the support available to help them and are keen to ensure that the system they devise is fully understood by all staff so that it can be implemented consistently.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders rightfully take pride in their achievements in supporting children who face barriers to their learning. They have formed good working relationships with key professionals to help them promote children's learning, safety and well-being.

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Achievement Needs attention

The lack of a suitably broad and challenging curriculum means that leaders cannot ensure that they are supporting children to reach their full potential. As activities do not always have clearly identified learning intentions, children's achievements are sometimes incidental. However, there are strengths in the provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and these children achieve well.

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Achievement Needs attention

The warm interactions children experience with staff support them to develop positive attitudes to learning. Although aspects of their learning are not coordinated well, children gain many of the skills they will need for the future. For example, they develop appropriate social skills and are confident to play with others. In addition, children develop effective self- care skills. For example, they become independent in their toileting and handwashing and enjoy serving their own food at snack time.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders recognise the need to provide a high-quality curriculum, but their recent focus has been on supporting new staff to settle into their roles. While they have now established a stable team of motivated staff, leaders do not currently have a clear understanding of how they intend to organise the planning of activities. There is an exception to this with a regard to the planning for children with specific special educational needs and/or disabilities, who benefit from care and teaching that are precisely coordinated.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders and all staff interact warmly and positively with children. They know when to seize opportunities to build on children's interest in activities to introduce new ideas and language. However, the lack of clear curriculum means that, although children learn a range of skills and language, their learning is not precisely sequenced or coordinated, for example in relation to mathematics or physical development.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Children take part in a broad range of freely chosen play and some adult-led activities. Although they engage well, they do not consistently benefit from suitable challenge. For example, some activities, such as arts and crafts, have a lot of adult direction, which reduces the opportunities for children to explore their own ideas. There are, however, times when staff engage children very effectively and ignite children's imaginations as they play. The success of these interactions is due largely to the very positive relationships staff maintain with children.

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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 are keen to attend the nursery and form close attachments to the warm and friendly staff. They approach them readily to share their ideas, ask questions or just for a reassuring cuddle. Children explore their environment confidently and play happily with their friends. They are motivated learners and concentrate well as they play. While all children take part in a broad range of experiences throughout the day, leaders do not currently have a clear curriculum in place. Therefore, although children have fun and concentrate well on their chosen play, their learning is not fully coordinated or sequenced.

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

Although the educational programme lacks coordination, staff are skilled at recognising when to build on children's interest in their play to extend their learning. For example, when

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Inspector:

Liz Caluori a water tray activity set up for some children engages the interest of others, staff are quick to provide additional resources to enable them all to join in. Staff use this fascination to introduce interesting vocabulary and to encourage children to learn through discovery. While all children enjoy playing together at certain times, babies and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from time in spaces specifically designed to reflect their needs.

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Inspector:

There is a very successful focus on supporting children with SEND. Leaders and staff work well with parents and carers and other professionals to ensure that children have the resources and coordinated support they need. They sensitively tailor their interactions to enable each child to feel settled and secure.

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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 action by the assigned date:

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children, and parents and carers 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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Address:

St. Anselms Catholic Church & Hall Lower Green Road, Pembury Tunbridge Wells TN2 4DZ

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Stepping Stones Nursery Pembury LTD

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 19:00

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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 standard 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 standard 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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