Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): 2828051 Registered with Ofsted: 26/03/2025 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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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder ensures all children fully understand her high expectations for positive behaviour. This helps children to know what is expected of them and to feel safe and secure in her care. She creates a calm and friendly atmosphere and treats all children with kindness and respect. As a result, children show empathy with others and play happily together. Routines are purposeful, predictable and support a secure mutual sense of belonging.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children form close and extremely positive relationships with the childminder and each other. The childminder is highly skilled at giving children time to think about their feelings and those of others. She acknowledges any disappointment when they need to wait for a particular toy and they happily find something else to explore. Very young children look out for each other and will often ensure their friends are happy and enjoy activities.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder works extremely closely with parents to support children with skills, such as toilet training. This ensures children receive a highly consistent approach to their development and enables them to become increasingly independent.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder promotes regular attendance with families, so children do not miss out on valuable and enjoyable experiences.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder places children's welfare and wellbeing at the heart of her inclusive practice. She consistently nurtures children's emotional health through thoughtful and supportive interactions during play and routines. Additionally, she works cooperatively with parents. For example, they make a book of photos of family members so children can see familiar faces and talk about their home lives.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder is consistently vigilant about supervising children to ensure their safety. At mealtimes, the childminder sits with children to ensure they are safe as they enjoy eating together. These are sociable times, when children chat about their experiences and develop consistently high levels of independence and social awareness.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder provides a secure environment, which is conducive to children's safe exploration. She consistently reminds children about how to keep themselves safe. For example, when children ride tricycles she talks to them about making sure they do not bump into others. They follow her instructions carefully as she gives them praise, saying, 'well done, good steering'. Children thoroughly enjoy daily opportunities to be physically active. They develop impressive coordination and agility, for instance, when they visit local parks. They relish the challenge of jumping higher and higher and running as fast as they can in the fresh air. This supports their physical stamina and good health.

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Achievement Expected standard

Generally, children make effective progress in their learning and development. They are curious learners and engage and concentrate well, persevering until they are successful. For example, young children continue to scoop sand into buckets until they are full and say the top is 'smooth'. They eagerly explore the texture of sand when mixed with water and talk about it being 'sticky'.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children become increasingly independent and manage their own personal care. They try hard to fasten clips and buckles, for instance, when they are getting ready to play outdoors.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children become confident communicators. They speak clearly and fluently at an early stage of their development. They listen carefully to adults and happily follow instructions. Children are able to communicate their needs to the childminder, such as when they need to use the potty. They follow effective hygiene routines without prompting and show increasing independence as they clean their hands before eating.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder understands child development and knows what children need to learn next. She gets to know children and families well and prioritises children's sound mental health and happiness. Her skilful interactions with children help them to lead their own play and explore their own ideas. For example, when children arrive at a sand area in a local park she watches as they choose the toys that inspire their exploration. They enjoy recalling previous visits and build on their experiences as the childminder prompts them. The childminder plays alongside children, adapting her approach to include all children and values what they have to say. This supports their understanding and confidence effectively. For example, she suggests different ways of making marks in the sand using a toy rake. She allows children time to make their own marks and experiment as she praises what they do.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children gain impressive speech and language skills. Very young children speak clearly and in increasingly longer sentences. For example, when they ask to look at a special toy parrot they describe details clearly and say, 'be careful, it's really delicate' as they handle it.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Typically, the childminder helps children to count through interesting activities, such as singing. However, she does not reinforce this learning consistently throughout the day, such as when children are exploring and experimenting.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Although the childminder has no children on roll with special educational needs and/or disabilities, she has a secure knowledge of how to provide care and learning for all children. She knows how to work with other professionals and use any funding appropriately, when children need additional support The childminder regularly assesses children following initial assessments, when they start to attend. This helps her to identify areas where children need a particular approach to their learning.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The childminder's high-quality interactions support all children's engagement and positive attitudes to learning. She adapts her practice to ensure each individual child enjoys learning and takes a full part in all areas of the curriculum. For example, she ensures each child contributes to conversations as they sit together at snack time.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The childminder has a secure understanding of child development. She uses this knowledge, together with her detailed understanding of each individual child, to provide age- and stage-appropriate experiences for all children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder is committed to providing children and families with high-quality childcare and oversees her setting effectively. She understands the importance of her role in keeping children safe and secure and giving them firm foundations for their future learning. The childminder is working on developing her relatively new childminding setting. She tries to balance her workload so that she continues to give children the best start in life while managing her own wellbeing. She is considering recruiting assistants to support her work with children further. The childminder has a clear understanding of child development and engages in some training and research to develop her skills further. However, she is still developing her setting and does not yet have a precise focus on developing her teaching skills to a higher level.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder forms positive relationships with parents. She gets to know them well when children start to attend, to assess children's abilities and find out about their home routines. The childminder uses a variety of ways to keep parents up to date with children's progress. This means that parents are fully involved in children's learning and development.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder is beginning to form positive working relationships with other childminders in the local area. She is aware of the need to develop links with other settings children also attend to provide continuity and consistency for children's learning and development.

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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 and settled in the care of this warm and welcoming childminder. They form trusting and friendly relationships with the childminder, which gives them emotional security and confidence. Children benefit enormously from the childminder's responsiveness to their feelings and dispositions. She talks to parents about how children are feeling at the beginning of the day and is highly attuned to their individual needs. As a result, children know that they are safe and secure. There are lots of smiles, cuddles and children confidently seek reassurance during their play. Children develop a firm sense of belonging

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Inspector:

Margaret Baird because the childminder is patient and values what they have to say. They often spontaneously sing familiar songs as they play and explore.

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Inspector:

Very young children show maturity beyond their age as they share and take turns with others happily. The childminder calmly gives them time to express their feelings and cooperate with others throughout the day. She is a kind role model and children copy her interactions, such as using good manners and listening to others.

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Inspector:

Children thrive and develop positive attitudes to learning as the childminder plays alongside them. For example, they thoroughly enjoy trying to throw and catch a ball, laughing with delight as they become more and more successful. They smile broadly as the childminder praises their efforts and show a real sense of achievement and pride.

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Inspector:

Outdoor learning is central to the childminder's well-thought-out curriculum. Children benefit from daily visits to a variety of parks in the local area. They enjoy the feel of sand in their toes and paddle in streams in the fresh air.

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Inspector:

The childminder adapts her practice to ensure all children are included and achieve the skills they need for future learning. She supports parents to ensure children attend regularly, so they make secure and ongoing progress in their learning and development.

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Next steps

The childminder should strengthen the curriculum for mathematics to ensure children have consistent opportunities to explore mathematical concepts during play to reinforce their mathematical understanding further. The childminder should seek out professional learning opportunities to strengthen her practice further, so that children make the best possible progress in their learning. The childminder should make links with other settings children also attend to provide consistency and continuity of care and learning.

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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 : 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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