Hollies Day Nursery - Find an Ofsted inspection report · Hollies Day Nursery 2 Private Road, Sherwood, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 4DB Inspection date 18/11/2013 Previous inspection date Not

Hollies Day Nursery 2 Private Road, Sherwood, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 4DB

Inspection date Previous inspection date

18/11/2013 Not Applicable

The quality and standards of the early years provision

This inspection: 2

Previous inspection: Not Applicable

How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend

2

The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

The quality and standards of the early years provision

This provision is good

The strong key person system supports engagement with all parents in their children's

learning and development in the nursery and at home. Consequently, this shared approach successfully contributes to the good progress children make.

Children's understanding of the natural world is promoted particularly well because of staffs' skilful and imaginative use of the local environment. It is well planned, stimulating and exciting for the pre-school children. Consequently, they make good progress in all areas of learning through these first-hand experiences.

Babies and children are cared for by staff, who are highly skilled at capturing their interests and planning a range of experiences that enthuse their learning. This results in them making good progress in their time at the nursery.

The nursery is led and managed effectively. The manager strives for continuous improvement of the provision. She monitors the educational programmes well and ensures that staff are supported in their training and professional development.

Mealtimes are a sociable occasion where children serve their own food. Consequently, children are developing skills that promote their independence.

It is not yet outstanding because

On some occasions, staff do not always ask open-ended questions to support children's

very good thinking skills and to promote their progress towards excellence.

Inspection report: Hollies Day Nursery, 18/11/2013 2 of 11

Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are:

scheduled at least once in every inspection cycle – the current cycle ends on 31 July 2016

scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged inadequate

brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection

prioritised where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe

scheduled at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The provision is also registered on the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. This report includes a judgment about compliance with the requirements of that register. Inspection activities

The inspector observed children during activities indoors and outdoors.

The inspector held a joint observation with the manager.

The inspector looked at children's assessment records and a range of other documentation.

The inspector spoke with the manager, staff and the provider at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

The inspector took into account the views of parents and carers spoken to on the day.

Inspector

Dawn Larkin


Full report Information about the setting

Hollies Day Nursery was registered in 2008, re-registering as a Limited Liability Partnership in 2013 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It is one of two nurseries run by the same partnership. The nursery is situated in a two-storey premises in the Sherwood area of Nottingham and is managed by Hollies Day Nurseries LLP. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. It operates from three rooms and there is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery employs 13 members of childcare staff. Of these, 10 hold appropriate early years qualifications at levels 2 and 3. In addition, the manager has a qualification at level 5. There are currently 109 children attending, who are in the early years age group. The nursery opens Monday to Friday all year round, apart from bank holidays and one week at Christmas. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. The nursery provides funded early education for three- and four-year-old children. What the setting needs to do to improve further To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should: enhance staff skills, so they all ask open-ended questions to support children's

thinking and promote their very good learning even further.

Inspection judgements

How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend

Children are well-supported in their learning and development because staff have a good knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They have a good awareness of the ways in which children learn best and provide them with many opportunities to explore, investigate and to learn through first-hand experiences. Consequently, children thoroughly enjoy attending nursery and are active learners. For example, children investigate where snails live in the local woods. Staff skilfully support children to extend their learning through the use of resources and sensory experiences. The vast majority of teaching is very good because staff ask effective questions to promote thinking skills. However, on occasions not all staff are as confident in asking open-ended questions. Consequently, this does not consistently support children to develop their problem solving and extend their already good thinking skills. Prior to joining the nursery the key person visits the family at home and this ensures every child's key person knows their individual needs and a good partnership is established with family. Parents comment that the home visit is really useful and puts them at ease


because they are able to ask questions and get to know each other. The regular exchange of information helps to keep parents informed and updated and contributes very effectively to continuity of learning at home. Staff know children they care for very well. This results in them being able to successfully identify the development needs of each child. Through clear and careful observations staff highlight children's next steps in their learning, which results in them making good progress in the nursery. For example, in the baby room they understand the development stage of a baby who is ready to start standing and give them opportunities to practise this skill. Children's progress is tracked and ensures staff have a good knowledge of children's development in all seven areas of learning. This also allows staff to plan accordingly, taking account of children's individual needs. Consequently, staff provide children with a broad range of stimulating activities, ensuring they make good progress towards the early learning goals. Babies are highly confident communicators and the skilful staff promote babies' language extremely well because they respond to their emerging language. Staff repeat words and babble, sing rhymes and introduce new words. All staff get down to babies and children's eye level and this promotes good communication. Staff constantly respond to babies interests, for example, they notice a baby looking at another baby, both members of staff encourage the babies to communicate by waving to each other and saying hello using babies names. This fosters good personal, social and emotional skills as babies are beginning to build relationships and interest in others. Throughout the nursery mealtimes are very sociable occasions; children talk about what they have been doing in the day and at home. Staff support this by extending language and reinforce prior learning, 'do you remember when..'. This develops children's language skills because they are supported in taking turns and joining in with a conversation. By reinforcing prior learning children are beginning to make links in their learning. Routines are carefully organised to promote children's learning and do not interfere with their play. For example, the rolling snack allows children to choose when to eat, subsequently they are able to stay deeply involved in their play and learning because they are not disturbed. Children's achievements are celebrated throughout the nursery and displayed on learning trees; this promotes children's self-esteem. Children are developing a good understanding of the world around them and how to care for living things because staff plan exciting experiences using the local environment. They enjoy trying to find snails in the woods. Due to staffs' good teaching children are beginning to identify different types of snails and learn about what it is like where snails live. Staff encourage children to look for clues where the snails might live and children investigate through their senses where the snails have been. Children ask questions to further their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. For example, 'is it poisonous?' The child's lead is followed and a discussion begins about dangerous colours and related back to everyday experiences. This extends children's learning about living things and supports their thinking skills. Children are encouraged to find safe places to put the mini-beasts they have found fostering a respect for living things. There are many opportunities for children to develop their mathematical skills, such as, counting strides to mark the 'safe area in the woods', sorting and weighing toys and identifying numbers hidden in the sand. Children's understanding of how things work and use of technology is encouraged through access to a computer and pressing buttons to


make toys move. Daily access to a wide range of equipment in the well-resourced outdoor area ensures children are able to practise climbing, jumping and manoeuvring their bodies and negotiating their way around the available space. Babies demonstrate their developing fine motor skills when passing wooden spoons from one hand to another and rolling balls. Staff enthuse and motivate children by joining in with their play, for example, dancing and singing with babies when they jiggle. This encourages babies to respond to the music by moving their bodies and supports them in language development because they join in with the songs staff are singing. Children's readiness for school is supported because staff give them the opportunity to engage in early reading and writing skills. For example, at the start of the day children are encouraged to find their name using phonemes and letter shapes, providing children with an awareness of linking letters with sounds. Making marks is well-promoted throughout the nursery and children are given lots of opportunities to practise this. For example, in the toddle room children enjoy drawing favourite animals and in the pre-school room practising writing their names.

The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children are very secure in their attachments with their key person and this ensures their move from home to nursery is successful. The very effective key person system contributes towards children's feelings of security and well-being. Attachments are strong because staff listen closely to parents and children during the settling-in time. Children happily say goodbye to their parents before independently engaging in stimulating activities. Parents comment that good communication supports their children's care, for example, when staff are changing routines at nursery they inform parents so they can do the same at home. This ensures there is continuity in the child's care. For example, if the nursery feel the child is ready to move from cot to mattress. Staff are responsive and sensitive to children's individual needs. As a result, children are very confident, engaged and motivated in all areas of their play and learning. Family books are used during times when children feel unsettled, for example, when older siblings move to school. Children are supported for the move to the next room through lots of visits. The move to school is skilfully supported and managed through a good partnership with some of the local schools. This results in children settling quickly into their new school and parents feeling supported. The nursery works hard to support this move, for example, by running workshops for parents about starting school. This supports children to be emotionally ready for school. The well-presented range of accessible resources and equipment in all areas of the nursery offer a rich and stimulating environment that is very welcoming for the children. Children are well behaved because staff are good role models and use age-appropriate strategies to support this. Staff consistently offer praise and encouragement, which helps to promote children's self-esteem and confidence. Children are given clear boundaries and staff explain to children why their behaviour is unacceptable and the impact it could have. Children are involved in safe risk taking, which helps them to learn about managing their own safety. For example, when playing in the woods children are allowed to slide down slopes. They are also given the opportunity to choose their route up the hill; some children


choose the steps, while others choose to walk up the hill. Under the supervision of staff, a few children fall when walking up the hill but other children hold their hands and aid them up the hill. This also develops children's understanding of team work and helping each other. The nursery promotes a healthy lifestyle because children have regular access to exercise and outdoor play along with healthy snacks and meals. Meals are freshly prepared on site, healthy and nutritious and reviewed regularly to raise cultural awareness. Older children self-serve their own meals and discuss with staff portion sizes and the types of food that is being served. The vast majority of babies and all children feed themselves and staff support this effectively. All children attempt to change their shoes and hang up their coats. Consequently, children are learning self help and independence skills. Children are learning good hygiene routines and know they must wash their hands after using the toilet, before eating and after exploring in the woods.

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision

The directors and manager have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities with regard to meeting all requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. They demonstrate high aspirations for developing practice and striving for improvement. There is a strong commitment to support staff's professional development to continue to raise the quality of the provision. This is identified during staffs' supervision, peer and manager observations and the outcomes are discussed with staff. They are then supported to attend relevant courses and 'buddied' by a more experience members of staff, in order to improve their knowledge and skills to further enhance their children's learning. Effective arrangements to ensure the ongoing evaluation of the provision are in place and action plans are implemented. This clearly identifies strengths and weaknesses and what action is planned as a result. For example, a key person mentor is to be established to support staffs' accuracy of linking observations and next steps. Staff have a good knowledge of how children learn and they plan stimulating and challenging experiences for children. The manager and staff monitor the progress of children and the educational programmes. This is completed with the use of regular staff meetings, observations, next steps for learning and tracking children's achievements. As a result, children are progressing well in their expected levels of learning. The manager and staff have a good understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and appropriate records are kept. They understand the policies and procedures for safeguarding children and are clear regarding their roles and responsibilities to ensure children are protected and kept safe. Through regular meetings staffs' understanding is monitored and addressed through internal and external training for a consistent approach. For example, staff have received training from the Local Authority Designated Officer for Safeguarding Children to enhance their understanding and practice. All visitors are asked to sign in and out of the building and there is a keypad on the main door to ensure children's safety. Children are cared for in a safe and secure environment as staff complete suitable risk assessments and daily checks. All children participate in regular fire drills, which support their growing awareness of how


to keep themselves safe. Robust recruitment and induction procedures for vetting and assessing the suitability of staff are implemented and in place. For example, prospective employees are formally interviewed, observed during practice and only when successful, enter into a six month probationary period. New staff are partnered with experience staff as part of a 'buddy system'. This ensures continuity and understanding of policies, procedures, the day-to-day running of the nursery and an initial evaluation of any training needs. During this time, regular observations are undertaken. Before employment commences, checks and references are carried out to identify the suitability of the new staff member. The nursery has high levels of engagement with all parents because they seek parents' views and involvement in a variety of ways. This helps to ensure they have a firm understanding of children's and families' needs. Parents are provided with detailed information on policies and procedures and are kept well-informed through noticeboards, newsletters, daily communication, parents' evenings, a very informative website and events. For example, workshops that are organised for parents include 'messy play' and the Early Years Foundation Stage. Consequently, parents feel confident in being able to support their children's learning at home. The nursery has also implemented a parent support worker who supports families with issues, such as breast feeding and going back to work and making social links, so children can go on 'play dates'. This results in families feeling supported and enhances their well-being. Parents speak highly of staff and the care and learning offered to their children and say 'friendly approachable staff, good communication with parents and a wide range of activities offered, for example, French and signing classes'. To aid all children, good links have been established with outside agencies, such as the local authority and other agencies. This also ensures that children's specific needs are assessed and that appropriate support is given over time.

The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are Met

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are Met


What inspection judgements mean

Registered early years provision

Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Outstanding provision is highly effective in meeting the needs of all children exceptionally well. This ensures that children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning.

Grade 2 Good Good provision is effective in delivering provision that meets the needs of all children well. This ensures children are ready for the next stage of their learning.

Grade 3 Requires improvement

The provision is not giving children a good standard of early years education and/or there are minor breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected within twelve months of the date of this inspection.

Grade 4 Inadequate Provision that is inadequate requires significant improvement and/or enforcement action. The provision is failing to give children an acceptable standard of early years education and/or is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection.

Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration.

Not met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider does not meet the requirements for registration.


Inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted 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.

Setting details

Unique reference number EY459148

Local authority Nottingham City

Inspection number 918511

Type of provision Full-time provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic

Age range of children 0 - 17

Total number of places 60

Number of children on roll 109

Name of provider Hollies Day Nurseries LLP

Date of previous inspection not applicable

Telephone number 01159606388

Any complaints about the inspection or the report should be made following the procedures set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email [email protected].

Type of provision For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply: Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration. Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools


and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration. Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school.


The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family

Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure

establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

safeguarding and child protection.

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille,

please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email [email protected].

You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long

as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any

way.

To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school

inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

Piccadilly Gate

Store St Manchester

M1 2WD

T: 0300 123 4234

Textphone: 0161 618 8524

E: [email protected]

W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

© Crown copyright 2012

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

Documents

Hollies Day Nursery - Find an Ofsted inspection report · Hollies Day Nursery 2 Private Road, Sherwood, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 4DB Inspection date 18/11/2013 Previous inspection date Not