Childminder

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): 2849249 Registered with Ofsted: 18/07/2025 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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Achievement Strong standard

Children make significant progress from their individual starting points across the curriculum. Communication and language develop particularly well. Children increasingly use a wider vocabulary and confidently use words, gestures and other forms of communication to express their ideas, needs and feelings. They listen and respond to others and become increasingly confident communicators during their play and everyday interactions.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other barriers to their learning or wellbeing achieve well from their starting points. Carefully tailored support and close monitoring reduce barriers and enable children to participate fully and make sustained progress across the curriculum.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children remember and increasingly apply what they learn. They use emerging mathematical knowledge during their play and demonstrate growing independence in everyday routines. For example, children confidently use safety knives to prepare strawberries for their snack, developing the coordination and physical skills to manage an increasingly challenging task for themselves. They also remember familiar routines and increasingly manage aspects of their own personal care. Consequently, children develop the communication, independence, resilience and physical and social skills that prepare them very well for their next stage of learning and development.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children thrive in the calm and positive environment the childminder creates. Expectations and routines are consistently understood, helping children to feel secure and know what is expected of them. Warm, trusting relationships are evident throughout the day. Children readily seek the childminder's support and respond positively to her calm guidance.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder skilfully teaches children how to cooperate, take turns and consider others. She recognises that very young children are still developing these skills and adjusts her expectations and support according to their age, stage of development and individual circumstances. Consequently, children increasingly manage social situations successfully and develop positive relationships with others. Children are explicitly taught how to recognise and regulate their emotions. Visual resources and practical breathing techniques are embedded into everyday practice. For example, children use small windmills to practise controlled breathing when experiencing frustration. This helps them develop strategies to regain calm and increasingly manage their emotions.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Attendance is consistently good. Children benefit from their full agreed entitlement and the childminder promotes regular attendance with families. She monitors attendance carefully and promptly follows up unexpected absences, recognising the importance of consistent attendance for children's relationships, emotional security and continuity of learning.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children receive highly responsive care that reflects their individual needs, routines and stages of development. The childminder works closely with families to understand children's home routines and preferences and adapts care accordingly. Secure, affectionate relationships are evident. Children confidently seek reassurance, share their needs and involve the childminder in their play, demonstrating that they feel safe and emotionally secure.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder gives high priority to helping children understand how to keep themselves healthy and safe. She uses local health information to inform her practice and has proactively developed resources to promote good oral health. Children prepare nutritious snacks, practise good hygiene and receive simple explanations about why these choices matter. For example, the childminder encourages children to 'catch your cough' and explains why they wash their hands afterwards before touching food. Consequently, even very young children begin to understand how everyday actions help to keep themselves and others healthy. Children also benefit from regular physical activity and increasing opportunities to manage their own self-care.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children are supported sensitively to recognise and express their emotions. Consistent approaches and visual resources help them communicate how they feel and develop emotional security. Care routines are flexible and responsive rather than determined solely by the childminder's timetable. Eating, rest, personal care and transitions reflect children's individual needs. Consequently, children are healthy, increasingly independent and secure in the predictable and nurturing care they receive.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder has a clear and ambitious curriculum shaped by her precise knowledge of children's starting points, interests and individual needs. She wants children to become confident, resilient and independent learners who are eager to explore and 'have a go'. She ensures that children experience a broad curriculum across all areas of learning and reflects carefully on how effectively her teaching supports these priorities. Communication and language are prioritised throughout the curriculum. The childminder consistently models rich language and sensitively extends children's words and phrases into fuller sentences. She introduces new vocabulary in meaningful contexts and builds on what children communicate rather than relying on questioning. Mathematical learning is similarly purposeful. During water play, children hear language relating to capacity, such as 'half full' and 'nearly full', while vehicle play introduces concepts including 'straight' and 'zigzag'.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder skilfully builds on children's previous learning. While preparing fruit, she shows children the seeds inside an apple and connects this to their experience of growing sunflowers. Such connections help children recall and deepen what they know. Children develop independence, perseverance and strategies to regulate their emotions. Teaching is adapted precisely to different ways of learning and communicating. Consequently, children participate fully, confidently embrace challenge and increasingly apply their knowledge and skills independently.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Inclusion is at the heart of the childminder's provision. She has high expectations for every child and creates an environment where children feel welcomed, valued and able to participate fully. She understands that children develop and communicate in different ways and makes thoughtful adaptations so that individual needs do not become barriers to learning or wellbeing. The childminder identifies emerging needs swiftly and takes prompt, purposeful action. She works closely with families to share concerns, agree support and review children's progress. Where additional help is needed, she uses the graduated approach effectively and seeks advice from external professionals, including speech and language services. Her ongoing special educational needs coordinator training further strengthens her expertise.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder carefully tailors support to children's needs. For example, she introduces sensory baskets and visual timetables alongside carefully selected speech and language resources and individual activities. She sets clear, measurable targets and regularly reviews children's progress to determine whether strategies are working and what needs to happen next. Effective adaptations are embedded into everyday practice so that children remain fully involved alongside their peers. Consequently, barriers are identified and reduced effectively. Children with differing needs participate fully, develop their communication and confidence, and experience a genuine sense of belonging within the childminder's home.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder has an accurate and reflective understanding of the quality of her provision. She actively seeks parents' views about what they value and what they would like to see developed further. She uses this feedback alongside her own evaluation to identify priorities and continually improve children's experiences.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder makes thoughtful decisions that place children's individual needs at the centre of her provision. She is proactive when children face potential barriers to learning or wellbeing. She works closely with families, seeks specialist advice where appropriate and adapts her practice so that children receive the support they need to participate and progress. Professional development is purposeful and has a clear impact. The childminder selects training and research in response to children's needs and priorities she identifies. For example, she is completing a Level 3 special educational needs coordinator qualification and has strengthened her expertise in speech and language development. This learning is evident in the carefully tailored communication support and inclusive approaches embedded throughout her provision.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder continually reflects on the impact of her teaching to help children achieve excellent outcomes and prepare well for future learning.

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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 flourish in the childminder's warm and nurturing home. They develop exceptionally secure relationships with her and confidently seek her out to share their ideas, experiences and feelings. Children's individuality is valued. They know that their voice matters and confidently communicate their needs in different ways. For example, when children meet the inspector for the first time, they independently select a visual symbol showing 'happy' to communicate how they feel. This demonstrates children's confidence in expressing their

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Inspector:

emotions and how effectively different methods of communication are embedded in everyday experiences. Children feel understood, valued and that they belong.

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Inspector:

Children are curious, enthusiastic learners who confidently explore and follow their interests. They benefit from rich, real-world experiences that make learning meaningful. When children become fascinated by aeroplanes flying overhead, the childminder takes them to watch aircraft at the airport and private airfields. She later revisits these experiences through conversations, books and play. Consequently, children develop an increasingly rich vocabulary and make connections between what they experience and what they learn.

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Inspector:

Children make strong progress from their individual starting points. They become increasingly confident communicators and develop considerable independence. They prepare elements of their own snacks, pour their own drinks and persevere when managing their clothing. Children learn mathematical language naturally through their play and develop the physical, communication and social skills that prepare them very well for their next stage of learning. Children learn to understand and manage their emotions from an early age. They use familiar visual resources and breathing techniques to express how they feel and begin to regulate their emotions. When they become frustrated, they respond to a familiar strategy and blow small windmills to help themselves breathe deeply. Children behave positively, cooperate with one another and learn to share and take turns.

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Inspector:

Children are happy, safe and highly valued. Families are warmly welcomed and the childminder works closely with them to provide consistency and emotional security. Sensitive settling arrangements enable children to gradually build their confidence. Children attend consistently. They develop a strong sense of belonging and participate fully in the rich experiences available to them.

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Next steps

The childminder should build on her highly effective teaching and provide ways to provide sustained, uninterrupted play to enrich children's ideas, solve problems and deepen their thinking independently.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder 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. Claire Budge

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About this setting

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 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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