Jillings, Stephanie Ann

Jillings, Stephanie Ann

Unique reference number (URN): 2837022 Address: Davenport Methodist Church, Holmes Chapel Road, Congleton, CW12 4SS Type: Childminder without domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 20/06/2025 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Stephanie Jillings

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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

Children demonstrate consistently kind and considerate behaviour towards one another, reflecting the effectiveness of the emotional support they receive. For instance, when children say 'no one wants to play with me', the childminder helps them find their own solution, rather than solving it for them. Similarly, when children find a spider in a tray of toys, they gently rescue it, showing concern for its safety. As a result, children are building genuine empathy, both for their peers and for the natural world around them.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children are taught to recognise and manage their emotions well. These approaches are adapted sensitively to each child's age and stage of development, so that all children, including those who face barriers to learning or need more time to settle, are supported to meet the setting's expectations. Established routines, including for mealtimes and moving between activities, are well understood by children, who are given plenty of notice before transitions. The childminder ensures children understand the well-established routines, meaning that children feel secure and know what to expect throughout the day.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder's high expectations for behaviour are applied in the same way by all adults in the setting. This consistency means that children experience a uniformly calm and positive approach from whoever is caring for them, supporting them to develop positive attitudes to learning. To extend on this, the childminder works with parents to promote regular attendance and consistent routines at home.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder has created a setting where the ethos is to teach children to take care of themselves, each other and the world. Children learn practical skills through real-life experiences, incorporating nature and the changing seasons. Children are supported to become highly independent in managing their personal hygiene and individual needs. For instance, they use a foot pump and outside tap to wash their hands, with gentle prompts given to 'scrub away the germs'. Children serve their own breakfast cereals and pour their own drinks. They use the toilet independently and are afforded privacy and dignity in the cabin, with the childminder on hand to support when required. Children regularly access their own water bottles at the 'hydration station', and visuals around the setting offer consistent prompts to ensure their health and wellbeing is paramount.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder's approach to fostering independence is highly effective. For instance, rather than intervening directly, the childminder equips children with strategies to solve problems for themselves, such as showing a child how to pinch the sides of a crisp packet rather than opening it for them. As a result, children are building genuine self-reliance rather than becoming dependent on adult help for everyday tasks.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Safe-sleeping arrangements, including checks every 10 minutes for children who rest during the day, are implemented rigorously and in line with recognised guidance. Mealtimes are calm, sociable occasions with early evening meals cooked on an open fire using vegan, home-grown ingredients. Children make their own choices, serve themselves and learn

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Expected standard

about healthy eating and where their food comes from, contributing to consistently high levels of wellbeing and confidence.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children's own language provides clear evidence of secure achievement. Children demonstrate secure mathematical thinking and reasoning for their age as they comment that a semi-circle is 'a half circle... like the moon'. Other children demonstrate confident and well- developed communication skills. For example, they tell an adult, 'You know it's a duckling, not a duck'. Children make positive progress from their starting points across all areas and any barriers to learning are swiftly addressed.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children demonstrate character and the confidence to lead their own learning. They express themselves clearly and articulate their feelings to one another. Secure friendships are developing as children use their creativity and imagination as they make choices throughout their play.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children manage their own risks and demonstrate increasing independence as they carry out many tasks for themselves. They are developing the knowledge, skills and confidence they need for the next stage of learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder plans activities that follow children's interests. She adapts them in the moment to reflect their curiosity, the changing seasons and the opportunities available outdoors. This gives children rich, real-life experiences, including building dens from mud and wood and solving problems for themselves.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

There is a clear focus on developing children's communication and language. The childminder introduces new vocabulary purposefully during play. For example, she extends children's use of 'wonky' by introducing 'slanted' as an alternative word and explains its meaning. Mathematical language, such as positional and comparative terms, is introduced in the same way, and the childminder extends children's thinking skilfully through careful questioning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The childminder knows the children well and adapts activities to provide the right level of challenge for each child's age. The curriculum is intended to be inclusive, with activities differentiated so that both younger and older children access appropriate challenge in the environment. However, while children's individual uniqueness is valued and celebrated within the setting, they have fewer planned opportunities to learn about the wider world and communities beyond their own. This means their understanding of difference beyond their immediate experience is less developed than other aspects of their learning.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The childminder values all children and has created a setting where every child and family are welcomed and included, regardless of any barriers to learning or children's individual starting points. Practical adaptations, such as rope swings lowered for younger children, keep the setting accessible to all on roll.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The childminder identifies and assesses children's needs using regular observations and conversations with parents. She monitors the impact of any additional support and adjusts it when needed. For instance, children's settling-in sessions are extended when it becomes clear that they need more time to build their confidence in groups. Similarly, when children join whose first language is not English, they are supported with visual resources and an extended settling-in period. As a result, typically all children forge secure emotional bonds and are fully included and valued in the setting.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The childminder nurtures children's curiosity about difference through books, resources and everyday conversation. An example of this is when the childminder tells children she's from America and asks them how they think she got here. Children consider this together and suggest 'by boat', then, prompted to think again, 'on a plane!'. This kind of open exchange builds children's confidence to notice and ask about people different from themselves. Generally, children receive an abundance of praise for their actions, and all children are supported to make positive progress.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

In general, the childminder has an accurate understanding of the setting's strengths and areas for development. She manages her own workload sensibly, balancing part-time working across the week to protect her wellbeing, while supporting the other adults in the setting to do the same through open, collaborative working.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder keeps her professional knowledge up to date through regular training, including safeguarding refreshers, and is about to begin forest-school leader training alongside an enhanced outdoor first-aid course. Risk assessments are reviewed regularly and used effectively to identify and minimise potential hazards, creating a safe environment for children to learn and play.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder works closely with the other adults, sharing responsibilities, policies and a jointly agreed whistleblowing policy, so that governance of the shared site is understood and applied consistently by everyone involved. However, there are some refinements in leadership across the setting that have been noted for further development. The curriculum is not planned with a clearly sequenced structure, and what children should learn next is broad rather than precisely identified. This means that systems for reviewing the strengths and areas for development of the setting are not fully in place. Teaching, while effective in the moment, needs to be planned with a clearer structure across the setting, so that what children are intended to learn next is more precisely defined.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The childminder has built effective partnerships with parents and professionals and shares regular updates on children's progress through daily conversations and the online app. Parent feedback is highly positive and they are supported through regular progress updates to continue their child's learning at home.

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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 engaged in their outdoor learning at this delightful forest setting. Children are growing in confidence, resilience and independence through rich, real-life experiences outdoors, and those who join with fewer words, or who find groups harder at first, are given the time and support they need to find their voice. Children develop secure relationships with the childminder and other adults, who know them well and respond sensitively to their individual needs. This means that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, feel equally known and valued by whichever adult is supporting them, and form strong friendships across different age groups. Communication with parents is honest and effective, with the result that families feel confident to raise any concern directly with the childminder.

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

Outdoors, in a calm and unhurried environment, children are trusted to spot and manage everyday risks for themselves. They enjoy exploring the natural environment and are highly motivated to learn through play. For instance, children explain to visitors the importance of wearing their 'work glasses' as they carry planks of wood and make 'cement' from the wet mud. Children collaborate and problem-solve through play with the childminder on hand to guide and support. For instance, when children run out of cement to build their den, she says, 'What could you do now', and children eagerly say, 'make more!'. These practical activities develop children's physical and critical-thinking skills well.

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

Children are encouraged to become increasingly independent. They pour their own drinks, serve their own cereal, dispose of rubbish and take responsibility for the environment and themselves. The childminder consistently promotes children's ability to look after themselves, each other and the world around them. This prepares them well for their next stage. This consistent approach means that children's kind, considerate behaviour is well established.

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Next steps

The childminder should provide further opportunities for children to learn about communities beyond their own in order to deepen their understanding of life in modern Britain. The childminder should further refine systems for reviewing the strengths and areas for development of the setting in order to raise the quality of the planned curriculum to an even higher standard.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder, her co-childminders, parents 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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Address:

Davenport Methodist Church Holmes Chapel Road Congleton CW12 4SS

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Address:

Type: Childminder without domestic premises

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Address:

Operating hours: Tuesday,Wednesday : 08:30 - 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

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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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