Childminder in SurreyOfsted report card, 24 Sept 2026

Childminder

Unique reference number (URN): 2826210 Registered with Ofsted: 14/03/2025 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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Achievement Strong standard

Children are very well prepared for their next stages in life, including the move on to nursery. All children make very rapid development from their starting points, including children with barriers to their learning. Children flourish in the childminder's care, which supports children to consistently develop and embed skills across all areas of learning.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children have plenty of clear space to play and explore, and they enjoy being active and enthusiastically join in playing on the equipment, enhancing their climbing and balancing skills. They develop their social and physical skills while cooperatively taking turns to climb the steps, sit down and glide down the slide. Children further extend their concentration levels during activities while extending their learning. They receive continual praise and encouragement and praise for their efforts and achievements. This helps children to become resilient from a young age and be willing to try new things.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children develop the muscle skills and memory they need for tasks in their future learning. For example, they learn how to use pipettes to move water from one vessel to another and squeeze the trigger on the water sprayers. This helps them to develop their small muscles in readiness for activities, such as holding a pen or pencil in the future.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder has created and fully embedded a harmonious environment and atmosphere for children where there is a highly respectful culture. Children receive reassurance continually from the childminder, which boosts their confidence and ability to follow instruction. They receive consistent messages and direction, and the childminder celebrates their achievements, such as commenting on 'good listening' when they follow her calm and gentle direction.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children learn about kindness and respect from the childminder, who is a highly successful role model. For example, she consistently seeks all children's views, no matter how young. She asks their permission for carrying out personal care tasks or to ask their opinion on changes to the activity or routine. This helps children to establish positive attitudes from a young age about valuing and appreciating the opinions of others.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

The childminder consistently encourages children to express their feelings and emotions. She validates how children are feeling to help them to recognise these emotions. She gives children the skills they need to regulate their behaviours and to enable them to resolve their own minor conflicts. The childminder encourages children's regular attendance and shares information daily with parents and carers to promote a collaborative and consistent approach to help children to make the best developmental progress.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder is extremely responsive to children's ever-changing needs and interests. For example, she recognises when they are exploring and engaging in their chosen play, rather than directing them to a planned activity. The childminder also offers children an extremely wide range of experiences away from the home. For example, they go on nature walks and treasure hunts. They discover and learn about foods growing in the environment, such as wild garlic. This helps children to develop curiosity in the natural environment while also further extending their physical development. All children show deep bonds and caring relationships with the childminder. Children demonstrate they feel very safe and secure in their environment.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

The childminder makes routine care tasks fun. For example, children use a safety step to reach the kitchen sink to wash hands, where they enjoy climbing the steps. She sings a song and demonstrates how to wash the backs as well as the palms of their hands. Children develop a very secure understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The childminder provides children with a balanced diet of freshly prepared foods. Children make choices about the amount of food and which foods they want to eat. Children access their water bottles readily when they are thirsty. The childminder consistently supervises children during mealtimes and embeds consistent routines and good manners. This helps all children to further enhance their understanding of the importance of the rules for safety while eating and to enjoy relaxed and sociable mealtimes. The childminder works in full partnership with parents and carers to ensure that she meets children's dietary needs. They liaise on matters

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

such as weaning, sleep and toileting routines. This helps to ensure that children receive a consistent approach in their care and routine needs.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder plans a highly individualised curriculum for each child that is of consistently high quality. From the outset, she works tirelessly to give children the skills they need to learn how to play. She recognises the importance of providing children with the best early years education she can. The childminder works in consistent partnership with parents and carers, and she shares information to help parents extend children's learning at home.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

She uses a system of observation and assessment that she has devised and is effective in highlighting any emerging gaps in learning. The childminder swiftly recognises any indications that a child may be facing a barrier to their learning. She acts immediately to revise the planning for the sequence of learning within her curriculum. She uses this information to plan an interesting range of age-appropriate, yet challenging activities, that promote all areas of learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The childminder fully engages children in their play and skilfully enhances and extends their learning, incorporating what she knows children need to learn next. For example, she is extremely consistent in supporting children's language acquisition. She uses simple language and sentences which are age appropriate, while always introducing new language and challenging children's communication skills. As a result, children hear a very wide range of words and begin to use these in their speech and sentence construction. This helps children to consolidate their learning effectively.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder has a clear and effective focus on children learning to be independent and gain the skills needed for them to manage their personal needs. This enables children at a very young age to be independent in skills, such as toileting. This helps prepare them as they move on to the next stage of their early years journey.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder provides highly effective support for children facing barriers to their learning. She makes ongoing assessments of all children's individual progress and swiftly identifies any emerging gaps in children's learning. She works in full collaboration with parents and carers and other professionals, as needed, to make adaptations and amendments to her provision and curriculum. For example, she establishes consistent ways of working, which helps children to understand the expectations for their behaviour, and she swiftly alters the patterns of the daily routines. Children can participate fully in all activities, gaining the most from the very wide range of learning experiences on offer. She plans these activities on a highly individual basis, with clear and specific learning intentions in mind that help children to make the best progress.

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Inclusion Strong standard

The childminder makes successful and consistent use of her professional qualifications and experience. This helps to ensure that all children, including those with barriers to their learning, access a fully inclusive and nurturing environment. She has well-targeted plans to further enhance her knowledge and expertise in the area of special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder uses her experience and expertise to support her successfully across all aspects of her childminding provision and to ensure that children thrive and flourish in her care. She is extremely passionate in ensuring that each child receives the highest quality early years education that they are entitled to. She fully recognises her part in providing this. The childminder is highly reflective, assessing every part of her provision, her knowledge and the difference she can make to each child's learning experience.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The childminder actively supports children and their families in readiness for any changes in their lives, such as a move to pre-school or nursery. She provides parents with developmental information about the children to enable them to share this with the key person at nursery. She also works with parents to gain permission to work collaboratively with other early years settings children also attend to exchange information consistently. Parents comment positively on the time the childminder takes to understand the children as individuals and how she supports children's curiosity, and of children thriving under her patient and caring nature. These highly supportive and professional relationships with parents helps the childminder to ensure that children make rapid developmental progress from their starting points.

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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's individual needs are consistently met by this calm and caring childminder, who provides a warm and nurturing place where children feel safe, cared for and confident to explore. They develop a strong sense of belonging, and the childminder knows each child very well and consistently responds thoughtfully to their ever-changing needs and interests. Children are active learners and follow their own interests during play, self-selecting resources and helping to put them away after use. For example, when outdoor play is ending and without prompting, even young children stop and tidy away their play traffic

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Inspector:

cones before going inside. This shows that routines have been learnt, understood and are embedded in learning. The childminder fully recognises the uniqueness of each child attending her setting. She works tirelessly to assess and re-evaluate her provision to ensure she provides the best possible care and learning experiences for all children and their families.

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Inspector:

Children become deeply engrossed in their learning and engage in worthwhile discussions with the childminder about their observations. For example, they spot a squirrel in the garden taking the conkers. The childminder discusses with the children about what the squirrel will do with them. This ensures that even young children hear and understand accurate information in an age-appropriate way for them to take forward in their learning. Children gain independence through everyday routines from a young age, such as choosing resources and managing simple self-care tasks.

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Inspector:

Children hear mathematical language during their everyday experiences, such a climbing the stairs. Young children are beginning to learn the numbers in sequence, such as when they count the conkers into the weighing scales. The childminder skilfully extends this to introduce language, such as 'heavy', and children relate the scales to a see-saw. Children receive well-targeted and consistent praise and encouragement for their understanding of concepts, their achievements and successes. Children receive effective support from the childminder, who is patient and consistent. Therefore, children develop high levels of confidence in managing their own needs. Children are confident and enthusiastic learners, are inquisitive to explore and develop the social and communication skills needed for their next stage of learning.

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Next steps

The childminder should continue to target her professional development opportunities, particularly for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to have a sustained and transformational impact on children's learning.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the childminder and children during the inspection and took account of parents' views through written feedback.

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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. Helen Penticost

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About this setting

Operating hours: Monday : 07:30 - 14:00,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday : 07:30 - 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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