Partou Stepping Stones Day Nursery & Pre-School

School

Unique reference number (URN): EY392108 Address: 155 Whitefield Road, BRISTOL, BS5 7UB Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 27/07/2009 Registers: EYR Registered person: Little Acorns (South West) 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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Achievement Expected standard

All children gain the skills and knowledge they need to prepare them for the next stage of their learning, including starting school. Through the curriculum, they access a wide range of opportunities and learning experiences across all 7 areas of learning. Children throughout the nursery develop confidence in their physical skills. Older children enjoy taking on the challenge of the obstacle course in the garden, where they practise balancing and jumping with increasing control. Younger children also show enthusiasm for being active as they practise climbing and explore the water tray, developing coordination as they pour and transfer water. Children learn to be independent at meeting their own needs. The youngest children help to rub their sun cream in as they prepare to go outside to play. Older children set their place at the table for lunch and serve their own meals.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders and staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and attitudes to learning. Through a well-sequenced curriculum, consistent routines and overall purposeful interactions, children learn to manage their feelings and behaviour effectively. Children learn to be kind and considerate towards others and demonstrate positive attitudes that support their engagement and readiness to learn. When children struggle to share and take turns with resources most staff act as positive role models. They calmly intervene and talk to children about how they are feeling. This helps children to share their frustrations and manage their conflicts.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Staff help children to learn about caring for their environment and resources. For instance, as older children finish playing in the garden, they eagerly tidy up and make it ready for the younger children to use. Leaders have worked closely with staff to develop and implement daily routines that help children to feel secure and confident in the nursery environment. This supports children to understand what to expect throughout the day, enabling them to settle quickly and engage in their learning. Leaders recognise the importance of children being able to access the sessions available to them. They work with families to try and offer sessions that may be more suitable to maximise children's attendance.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from the warm and trusting relationships they form with staff and their key person. Staff are sensitive to children's individual needs. They model respectful, nurturing interactions. For example, when applying sun cream to babies, staff take time to explain what they are doing and why, reassuring them and encouraging their involvement to help them feel at ease.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders implement the key-person system effectively across the nursery. Staff know children well and work closely with parents to follow established routines, supporting children to feel safe, secure and ready to engage in their learning.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff supervise children well as they play. They use these opportunities to reinforce messages about personal safety. For example, as children practise balancing and jumping from the obstacle course in the garden, staff remind others to step back to ensure that the space around them is safe. Staff encourage children to follow routines around personal hygiene to help them develop independence and understand how to keep themselves healthy. They implement routines, supporting children to wash their hands, wipe their noses and manage their self-care with confidence.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have a clear and ambitious vision for what they want children to know and learn throughout their time in nursery. They have focused on developing opportunities that support children's progress across all areas of learning, prioritising children feeling safe and secure and developing positive relationships. Staff plan activities that actively engage children and provide appropriate levels of challenge, helping them to build the skills they need for the next stage in their learning. Overall, support for children is carefully tailored to each child's age and stage of development. However, some staff need more confidence with extending children's learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Some staff skilfully extend children's learning through their engagement. For instance, while children are playing outside, staff weave mathematical learning into play. They encourage children to find and order numbers that are around different areas of the garden. Children show high levels of engagement as they recognise familiar numerals and work together to sort and sequence them. Leaders are also prioritising children's communication and language development. They have recently introduced an initiative to strengthen early communication for babies, with plans to extend this approach across the whole nursery. Throughout the nursery, children enjoy listening to stories and joining in with action songs. These routines help to build children's vocabulary. Although leaders provide some resources that reflect children's individuality, there is scope to develop this further by embedding equality and diversity more fully within the curriculum to celebrate the wide range of

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

backgrounds, abilities and experiences in the nursery community.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders and staff follow established assessment and monitoring procedures to quickly identify any emerging gaps in children's learning. This ensures that appropriate support is provided at the earliest opportunity, particularly for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing other barriers to learning. Leaders target the use of funding well to meet the individual needs of the children it is intended for. For instance, they have accessed equipment to reduce the level of noise in the environment, creating a calmer and more supportive space for children. They have also accessed some resources that positively represent abilities among children. This helps to ensure that children can see themselves reflected in the environment and supports them to feel recognised, included and valued.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Some staff are confident in supporting children who are developing their language and communication skills to communicate their needs and to understand what is coming next. However, this practice is not consistent, which means that some children struggle to understand what is expected of them. Although leaders recognise this, they have not yet developed clear strategies to support children who need additional help to follow routines, manage transitions and engage in their learning.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

There have been some recent changes to the leadership and staffing team. Leaders from within the organisation have been providing effective support for staff through these changes. Leaders have accurately identified the strengths and areas for improvement in the nursery. They have started to meet with staff to reflect on practice and to provide support. This is having a positive impact on staff wellbeing. Staff say that they are happy in their roles and are well supported by leaders. They have access to online training to develop their knowledge and skills further, and leaders encourage this to be completed in work hours to ensure that staff are not working in their own time. Leaders monitor practice and have identified that some staff are less confident in supporting children's learning than others. However, they have not yet provided the focused support and coaching needed to ensure that all interactions are consistently high quality and promote children's learning effectively.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders and staff work well with families and other professionals to meet the needs of children who face barriers to their learning, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Parents compliment the support that their children receive as they face challenges to learning.

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

Children are happy. They separate from their families with ease as the friendly staff warmly welcome them when they arrive. Staff work closely with parents and carers before children start, gathering detailed information to help them get to know each child well. This helps children to feel secure and settle quickly and reduces barriers to learning. Children demonstrate that they feel confident in the nursery environment. They explore with interest and make independent choices about where they would like to play. Children are keen to join in with the activities provided by staff. They play imaginatively with their friends and are developing the skills to manage minor conflicts with minimal adult support.

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

Children form secure and trusting relationships with their key person, the staff in their rooms and their peers. Babies show that they feel safe as they pull themselves up to stand and seek comfort from staff when they need reassurance. Toddlers excitedly join in with action songs, eagerly copying the movements modelled by staff. Older children enjoy involving staff in their play. They work together to create group drawings and talk confidently about the characters they are creating. Across the nursery, children develop a love of stories. The youngest children spend time looking at books independently, while older children demonstrate sustained attention as they listen to staff reading to them.

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

Children are developing independence and demonstrate a positive, 'can-do' attitude. They benefit from sociable mealtimes where staff sit with them and engage in meaningful conversations as children confidently talk about their likes and interests. This supports all children to develop their communication skills and helps them to build positive relationships with others.

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Next steps

Leaders should implement strategies to support children who struggle to communicate their needs to understand routines and know what is coming next Leaders should target support and coaching for staff who are less confident, in order to raise the quality of interactions with children Leaders should further develop their curriculum to promote children's awareness of diversity and to celebrate differences.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke to managers, staff, parents and carers, children and the special educational needs coordinator 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

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Little Acorns (South West) Limited

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Address:

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

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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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Total number of places

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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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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