Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): EY357810 Registered with Ofsted: 06/07/2007 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 Expected standard

Children generally progress well through the curriculum from their starting points, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They benefit from engaging in back-and-forth conversations to enhance their speaking skills. Older children are very articulate. For instance, they ask for help, answer questions about their lives and recall past events. Younger children consistently grow in confidence to clearly express their needs and wants. They work cooperatively together to lay the table and independently manage all of their own personal hygiene routines. They are highly confident and independent.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children are motivated to learn. They develop a wide range of knowledge and skills for the next stage in their learning and school. Children learn basic numerical and literacy skills. For instance, they can recognise numbers, count to 20 and draw straight lines, circles and zigzag lines. They develop confidence in their own abilities.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

The childminder establishes clear routines and boundaries to help children to understand what is expected. She uses daily routines to promote collaboration, such as giving children specific tasks when laying the table, to set out the plates and cups. She consistently uses positive language and praise to help them grow in confidence. The relationship between the childminder and children is warm, respectful and built on trust. The childminder acts as a role model for children. For instance, she gently reminds them to use polite language, such as 'please' and 'thank you', when choosing fruit for their snack. Children develop highly appropriate social skills.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

The childminder uses interesting strategies to teach children emotional awareness. For example, children learn to identify feelings by exploring wooden dolls with different facial expressions and observing their own in a mirror. They become skilled at using emotion words to express themselves when feeling dysregulated.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

The childminder keeps accurate records of children's attendance and absences. The childminder works very effectively with parents to establish positive attitudes to routines and learning.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

The childminder places a high focus on children's emotional wellbeing to ensure every child feels safe and comfortable in her care. She guides and supports children to identify and manage their emotions, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For instance, she introduces calming strategies, such as a dark den and range of exciting sensory light-up toys, to support emotional self-regulation. This supports their health and emotional wellbeing effectively.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

The childminder ensures every child feels safe and comfortable in her care. For example, she looks through a family photo album with children on arrival to help them feel positively

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Needs attention

more settled. The childminder uses her training on emotions to support children to express how they feel and ask what would make them happy again. This helps children develop a secure sense of emotional wellbeing. The childminder respects children's personal choices and responds sensitively to their individual needs, such as if they want a cuddle or not. She forms secure attachments with children, who receive a suitable level of care and attention.

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Needs attention

The childminder typically supports older children to develop their understanding of personal safety. For example, older children discuss avoiding strangers, how to cross the road safely and call the emergency services. Children develop confidence in knowing how to keep themselves safe. The childminder promotes healthy lifestyles. For example, she shares information with parents about nutritious packed lunches and encouraging regular exercise. This helps to support positive feeding routines.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder designs an engaging curriculum based on topics, such as learning about ducks. She plans mathematical activities that also help children refine their fine motor skills. For example, children carefully manipulate scissors used to catch insects to pick up coloured ducks to improve hand-eye coordination. They count the ducks accurately alongside the childminder. This encourages enjoyment in exploring numbers through play. The childminder teaches children the name of a common duck, such as 'mallard', during a painting activity to build on their growing vocabulary. The childminder celebrates that children's voices are always heard and encourages them to take the lead regarding their learning. Children make independent choices about their play.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children are highly independent and demonstrate a broad range of skills, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, all children recognise and confidently write the initial letter of their name to develop secure skills in early literacy. At times, the childminder's curriculum and teaching style lacks ambition as she does not always swiftly recognise what children already know, to help extend their learning further, particularly older children.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder takes children on woodland walks for exercise to support their physical development. Children enjoy outings to local groups to meet their friends and develop confidence in their social skills. The childminder helps children understand their role as valued community members.

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Inclusion Needs attention

The childminder is not sufficiently proactive in engaging with external professionals, which limits the quality of support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive. She does not seek timely advice or secure accurate assessments to fully understand and meet their individual needs. In addition, the childminder misses key deadlines for applying for additional funding that would help remove barriers to children's learning. As a result, they do not receive the valuable resources and targeted support that could further promote their learning and development.

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Inclusion Needs attention

All children feel welcome in the nurturing environment and are generally supported well by the childminder. The childminder gives clear explanations to children about the similarities and differences between themselves and others to help children to understand and respect individual characteristics. This approach helps children to foster good relationships and understand equality of opportunity, ensuring every child feels valued and included.

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Inclusion Needs attention

The childminder identifies her knowledge of SEND is an area for development. She identifies professional development opportunities to help keep her well informed about SEND processes and how to support children more effectively.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Arrangements for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are not fully effective. The childminder does not seek assessments and interventions from external professionals quickly enough to provide children with the level of support they are entitled to.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Despite this, the childminder is committed in her role and attends regular training to reflect on and improve her practice. However, she does not consistently recognise the elements of her curriculum and teaching skills she could improve even further, to help support all children's emerging next steps in learning.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The childminder prioritises the wellbeing of those she works with and arranges training to keep knowledge up to date. The childminder knows her strengths and has a clear vision for improvement. For example, she has joined a professional association to access an online platform to share children's next steps more effectively with parents and support learning at home. Additionally, the childminder aims to create a resource to support smoother transitions into school, particularly for children with SEND.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The childminder takes on a leadership role by arranging group experiences for other local childminders, to share good practice. Children socialise with a wider group of peers, learning to share, cooperate and build friendships. This helps supports their transition into school.

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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

Arrangements for children with barriers to their learning are not fully supported. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities do not benefit from the involvement of specialist advice and additional funding quickly enough to progress their learning.

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

Children develop close and trusting relationships with the attentive childminder. This helps them feel safe and that they belong. The childminder welcomes all families to her home. Children self-register on arrival by finding their names and happily join their friends. They confidently explore the well-organised environment and choose from a wide range of activities that engage their interests. Children benefit from the childminder's responsive and enthusiastic approach. For example, they eagerly pull carefully chosen props from a bag to sing their favourite nursery rhymes. Children imitate the childminder's actions and demonstrate positive attitudes in their learning. They enjoy familiar stories, including a special book signed by the author during a library visit. Younger children hear repeated words and phrases to strengthen their vocabulary and comprehension skills. This helps support their future achievements.

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

Children develop their physical skills through creative activities. For instance, older children delight in mixing blue and yellow paint on lids to make green. Younger children confidently point to the same green colour on the duck's neck. The childminder extends the learning for older children and discusses how to make the green paint lighter. Children experiment with colour mixing and paint a large pre-drawn duck orange. They manipulate their paintbrush with precision as they keep within the lines. Children build their concentration and hand strength for writing. The childminder shares with parents the children's daily experiences to support their learning at home.

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

Children thrive when they engage in meaningful deeper mathematical learning, woven into everyday routines. For example, they work together to match the same number of plates to cups at mealtimes. The childminder encourages children to check that the number of people matches the number of plates and develop their thinking skills. Children notice there is one extra plate and quickly remove it. They develop an early awareness of subtraction and strengthen their problem-solving skills.

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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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Action Completion Date

ensure effective arrangements are in place to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. 13/04/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder, her assistant, the 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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About this setting

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 17:00

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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

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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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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