Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): EY343519 Registered with Ofsted: 30/11/2006 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

Children make secure progress from their individual starting points across all areas of learning and development. This reflects the consistent quality of the curriculum and teaching and means that learning builds steadily over time. Communication and language development is a particular strength. Children confidently express their ideas, engage in sustained conversations and use an increasingly broad vocabulary through play, routines and story times. This enables them to access learning across the curriculum with confidence.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children who face barriers to learning, including those with emerging needs, achieve well from their starting points. They benefit from timely support and carefully considered adaptations that enable them to participate fully and secure the knowledge and skills they need. Progress is monitored closely to ensure that support continues to make a positive difference.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children develop secure foundational knowledge, skills and confidence. They are very well prepared for their next stage of learning, including transitions into pre-school and school, with increasing independence, resilience and readiness to learn.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children thrive in a calm, nurturing and well-structured environment. Expectations for behaviour, attitudes and routines are clear and consistently applied. The childminder has embedded a positive culture rooted in kindness, care and respect. This supports children to feel emotionally secure and confident in their relationships and learning.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children build warm, trusting relationships with the childminder and with one another. They collaborate, share resources and take turns, demonstrating empathy and consideration for others. The childminder supports children to understand and manage their feelings through discussion, modelling and age-appropriate strategies. This helps them to regulate their behaviour and responses. As a result, children show consistently positive attitudes to learning and engage with enthusiasm in activities.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Routines are well established and support children's independence and confidence. Children understand the childminder's expectations during mealtimes and play. Routines are applied sensitively with reference to children's ages, stages of development and individual circumstances. The childminder works closely with families to establish consistent routines, promoting punctuality and regular attendance. This helps children settle quickly and benefit fully from their time at the setting. The childminder's consistent and inclusive approach enables children to develop positive behaviour and social skills. Their positive attitudes and readiness to learn contribute significantly to their wellbeing and development.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children benefit from high-quality care that is carefully matched to their individual needs and promotes their welfare and wellbeing. The childminder has created a nurturing environment with clear expectations and consistent routines. Care practices are thoughtfully adapted to children's ages, stages of development and personal circumstances. Where children encounter challenges, timely and sensitive support helps them to feel secure and confident in their surroundings.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Warm, responsive relationships are evident. Babies and older children form close attachments with the childminder, reflected in their confidence to seek reassurance, share their feelings and explore independently. The childminder knows families well and responds promptly to children's emotional and physical cues, providing comfort, reassurance and encouragement as needed.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children develop an understanding of healthy lifestyles and personal safety through everyday experiences. For example, they independently wash their hands to 'get rid of germs' and learn to use tools safely during play. During mealtimes, children manage their own lunch boxes and practise safe food handling. Sleep, feeding and personal-care routines are flexible and respectful of individual needs. As a result, children show increasing awareness of their own safety, wellbeing and self-care.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder has a clear and accurate understanding of the quality of the curriculum and teaching in her setting and makes well-judged decisions to sustain consistently high-quality practice. The curriculum is ambitious, broad and balanced. It is thoughtfully designed around children's ages, stages of development, interests and individual needs. Learning is purposeful for babies and children and is embedded across the day, including during routines and care moments.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Teaching is consistently effective and highly responsive. The childminder demonstrates secure knowledge of child development and uses this to shape interactions and activities. Every interaction is treated as an opportunity for learning, and teaching is skilfully adapted to respond to children's curiosity, emerging thinking and any misunderstandings.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

There is a secure and consistent focus on developing children's communication and language skills. Rich conversations, modelling vocabulary and purposeful questioning are woven through play, routines and story times. Mathematical learning is taught explicitly through practical experiences such as counting, comparing quantities and exploring shape and measure. Children's personal, social, emotional and physical development is prioritised through well-established routines and active learning. For example, the childminder uses stories and discussion to help children name and understand emotions, introduces simple breathing strategies to support self-regulation, models kindness and turn-taking during play and strengthens physical development through regular outdoor play and fine motor activities such as rolling, cutting and manipulating tools. Assessment is used effectively to check what children know and can do, enabling teaching to be tailored to children's different starting

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

points. Where needed, thoughtful adaptations to resources, routines and interactions reduce barriers and ensure that all children access an equally ambitious curriculum.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder has established a consistently inclusive culture in which children's individual needs are identified swiftly and accurately. She has a secure and detailed understanding of each child's development, interests and circumstances and uses this knowledge to assess needs, plan next steps and reduce barriers to learning and wellbeing.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Support is timely, proportionate and makes a demonstrable difference. Activities, routines and resources are systematically adapted so that children of different ages and stages can participate meaningfully together. Children with emerging communication or confidence needs benefit from targeted support, close observation and skilful adaptations that strengthen their engagement, independence and progress. The childminder monitors children's progress closely and reviews the impact of support regularly. She seeks advice and adjusts approaches as children's needs change to ensure sustained benefit.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Partnership working is a strength. The childminder works closely with families and other professionals, including pre-school settings, to share information, align approaches and support smooth transitions. Although there are currently no children in receipt of early years pupil premium funding, she demonstrates a clear understanding of how funding, specialist advice and external support would be used to reduce disadvantage and improve outcomes. This ensures that all children's experiences are fully inclusive and supportive and help them to make consistent progress.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder ensures consistently high-quality education and care for all children. She has a detailed and perceptive understanding of her strengths. She uses ongoing reflection to sustain high standards and respond thoughtfully to children's changing needs and circumstances. When children's needs or circumstances change, she adapts routines, activities and her interactions accordingly, for example by adjusting settling-in approaches, tailoring support during transitions and modifying experiences so that all children can participate fully and make progress.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder prioritises time with children and manages workload carefully. Systems are purposeful, ensuring that attention remains focused on high-quality interactions and care. This approach supports professional wellbeing and the sustained quality of provision.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Professional development is well considered and targeted. The childminder engages regularly in training and professional networks, using new learning to refine practice and support continuous improvement. This has a clear and positive impact on the quality of education and care provided. Partnership working is strong. The childminder works closely with families and other professionals to support children's learning, wellbeing and transitions, ensuring continuity and consistency of care.

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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 happy, confident and feel safe in this warm and nurturing home setting. They are welcomed into a calm and caring environment where they settle quickly and are eager to explore. Children enjoy a wide range of play-based experiences that are carefully shaped around their interests, routines and stages of development. They show curiosity and sustained concentration as they take part in imaginative role play, creative activities, shared stories and outdoor learning. Children enjoy learning and are active participants in their day. Through playful interactions and everyday routines, they develop independence, confidence and age-appropriate knowledge and skills. For example, children confidently prepare their own snacks, use tools safely, tidy away resources and persevere with self-care tasks, such as peeling fruit or managing their belongings. Children communicate well, sharing their ideas, asking

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

questions and engaging in meaningful conversations during play, routines and story times. Stories are used effectively to help children understand more about emotions and relationships. This supports them to talk about their feelings and develop empathy for others. As a result, children make secure and consistent progress from their individual starting points and are well prepared for their next steps in education.

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

Children feel a secure sense of belonging. They learn alongside their peers in an inclusive and respectful environment where positive relationships are clearly evident. Children show kindness and cooperation, readily including one another in play and thoughtfully supporting younger children or those who are still settling. Children who face barriers to learning or wellbeing are supported sensitively and effectively, ensuring they can participate fully and feel valued.

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

Children thrive because they benefit from consistent, high-quality care and well-established routines that support their emotional wellbeing, independence and resilience. They are confident to make choices, manage routines and express their feelings. Families are welcomed and their contributions are valued. This helps children to attend regularly and to feel secure and supported between home and the setting. Children are motivated learners, enjoy attending and develop the skills, confidence and positive attitudes they need for their next stage of learning.

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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 disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder and children 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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About this setting

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday : 07:30 - 17:30

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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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