Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): 2663435 Registered with Ofsted: 22/12/2021 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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Inclusion Strong standard

Inclusion is a clear strength of the childminder's practice. She consistently makes a demonstrable difference to the experiences of all children, including those who face barriers to learning. Individual needs are identified promptly and responded to without delay. As a result, all children participate fully and confidently in every part of the day. The impact on children is evident throughout the inspection. For example, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are given sufficient time to process stories and remain engaged with books after group story sessions. This unhurried and uninterrupted approach enables them to deepen their understanding, develop their vocabulary and remember key events and ideas.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder and her team use sign language throughout the day. They use signs during songs, stories and daily routines, ensuring that all children receive clear instructions. This helps children, including those with SEND and those who are disadvantaged, understand instructions, express their needs and participate fully in activities. The childminder adapts activities effectively within shared sessions so that every child can access learning at the right level. For example, younger children enjoy books and experiences that match their developmental stage, while older children engage with longer stories and more challenging tasks.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Additional funding is used thoughtfully to purchase resources that directly address individual children's developmental priorities, including resources for physical and sensory development. The childminder works with relevant specialists when needed and promptly implements their advice.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children's knowledge, skills and understanding are in line with expectations for their age and stage, giving them a strong foundation for their next steps in learning. They make expected progress from their individual starting points across all areas of learning.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children's early mathematical and literacy understanding is developing well. They count in sequence, show a good grasp of shape and engage with concepts of capacity and volume through everyday play. Children's early literacy skills are also growing. For example, children handle books with care, choose them independently during quiet time and show an emerging understanding that print carries meaning.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children are confident and independent learners. They manage daily routines with confidence, such as tidying up without prompting. Older children are focused and self- directed, taking on small responsibilities within the childminder's setting. They are familiar with routines they will encounter at school and approach new experiences with curiosity and resilience.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children's behaviour is very positive. They are curious, engaged and enthusiastic throughout the day. During songs, stories, outdoor play and creative activities, very little redirection is needed. Children's manners are impressive across all ages. Even the youngest children say please and thank you without prompting, which reflects the high and consistent expectations the childminder maintains.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children settle quickly, feel safe, and readily return to the childminder for reassurance and cuddles. This is a clear sign of the secure, trusting environment she has established. The childminder reinforces universal values purposefully. For example, she reads a story about a character who refuses to share, then opens a discussion with the children, asking them questions and inviting them to connect it to their own experience.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children engage thoughtfully and reflectively, which shows how effectively the childminder uses everyday moments to build children's social understanding. Typically, the childminder has clear expectations for children's behaviour and typically explains how this helps to keep children safe. However, she does not consistently reinforce her expectations, and children do not have a clear understanding of what she expects. This means children do not always have the opportunity to understand why the rules matter or to connect it to keeping themselves and others safe.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

The childminder understands the importance of promoting children's attendance. She proactively communicates with parents the procedures she introduced to ensure children's attendance is promoted.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

The childminder structures the day to give children a balance of active outdoor time, creative indoor exploration and calm resting times. Children move between the routine activities with confidence and ease.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children are physically active. They run and slide in the garden, explore their world with binoculars, and take part in a stretching and jumping session before lunch. These activities are planned meaningfully to support children's physical development and their growing sense of their own bodies.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Meals and snacks are healthy, varied and well considered. Children benefit from nutritious meals that include a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables. The childminder uses mealtimes purposefully to teach children healthy choices. For example, she asks children what they are eating and why it is good for them, which builds their understanding of healthy eating in a way that feels natural and conversational rather than instructional. Children participate in these conversations with genuine interest.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children feel emotionally secure. They approach the childminder happily for reassurance and return to play with confidence. This is a clear indicator of the quality of the relationships she has built. The childminder is warm and attuned to how individual children are feeling, noticing when a child needs support and responding with calm and care.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder creates a curriculum that covers all areas of learning and closely matches the developmental stages of the children in her care. The communication and language environment is rich in print, books and meaningful conversations. The childminder introduces ambitious vocabulary throughout the day and takes time to explain it. For example, she uses the word 'inquisitive' during play and story time, pausing to give its meaning and checking that children can use it. Children begin using new words in context within moments, reflecting the vocabulary-rich environment she creates.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teaching is purposeful and responsive. The childminder uses songs deliberately to develop specific skills. For example, a song about vegetables requires children to recall names, colours and characteristics in sequence. Traditional action songs require children to remember and perform 3 actions in order. This helps children build their working memory and extends what children already know.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder introduces children to early mathematical concepts. Children count during outdoor activities, use shape vocabulary when building with construction blocks, and explore capacity as they play in the sand tray. During a story session, the childminder points to each word as she reads aloud, helping children understand that print carries meaning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Typically, the childminder uses purposeful interactions to extend children's knowledge and skills. At times, however, these interactions do not consistently stretch children's problem- solving skills and creative thinking. For example, when mixing paints, the childminder does not always encourage children to predict what will happen or to notice and explain what they observe. Building this in more consistently would strengthen children's reasoning across all areas of learning.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder leads her setting with clear commitment, placing children's best interests at the centre of every decision she makes. She has a well-established vision for what she wants children to experience and achieve in her care, and this vision is evident in the quality of the provision she delivers every day. For example, she wants children to feel valued and confident in group activities. She ensures that all children have opportunities to share their opinions.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder identifies her strengths with confidence and is equally clear about where she wants to develop further. She pursues professional development, including mandatory training, and genuinely reflects on how it has influenced her practice.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Parents speak very positively about the setting. They describe the childminder as warm, flexible and caring, with many saying they want their children to remain in her care for as long as possible. The childminder gathers detailed information about children's backgrounds, routines and interests from the outset and uses this knowledge to tailor what she provides to the families attending, so parents feel listened to and valued from their very first contact with the setting.

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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 arrive at the childminder's setting settled and demonstrate that they are happy and content throughout the day. They are welcomed into a warm home environment where they feel genuinely known. The childminder understands each child well and uses that knowledge to create meaningful experiences. For example, children create paint collages, use sand to fill in different-sized containers and create patterns with wooden shapes.

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

Children move between activities with confidence and enthusiasm. They sing songs that challenge their memory, build with construction blocks, and explore the garden with binoculars.

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

Children are kind to each other and independent. They put on their own shoes, wash their hands before meals and choose their own books without being asked. They carry out those small acts of responsibility with evident pride. Their manners are impressive across all ages. Children say please and thank you consistently, wait their turn with patience and engage with stories about sharing in a way that shows they have genuinely absorbed what the childminder teaches.

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

Children learn a wide range of skills and knowledge that prepare them well for their next stage of learning. All children develop their language skills well. They use ambitious vocabulary in context, recall songs and stories with impressive accuracy and engage confidently in conversations with the childminder and with each other. Older children are comfortable with routines they will experience at school.

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

The childminder knows each child well and uses that knowledge to make sure no one is overlooked or left behind. Children feel safe, valued and free to explore. Every child, whatever their needs or starting point, is fully included.

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Next steps

The childminder should strengthen opportunities for children to develop their thinking skills, deepen their reasoning and extend their understanding across all areas of learning. The childminder should embed consistent explanations of the reasons behind rules and expectations, particularly in relation to safety, so that children develop a secure understanding of how to keep themselves and others safe and apply this understanding independently in new situations.

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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,Friday : 07:30 - 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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