Angmering Day Nursery

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Royal Exchange Buildings

St Ann's Square

Manchester

M2 7LA

T: 08456 404040

Textphone: 0161 618 8524

E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of the registered early years provision. ‘Early years provision’ refers to provision regulated by Ofsted for children from birth to 31 August following their fifth birthday (the early years age group). The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and welfare, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The provider must provide a copy of this report to all parents with children at the setting where reasonably practicable. The provider must provide a copy of the report to any other person who asks for one, but may charge a fee for this service (The Childcare (Inspection) Regulations 2008 regulations 9 and 10).

Please see our website for more information about each childcare provider. We publish inspection reports, conditions of registration and details of complaints we receive where we or the provider take action to meet the requirements of registration.

The Angmering Day Nursery has been open since 2006 as a private nursery and transferred to the current partnership in 2009. It is the first of two nurseries owned by Angmering Day Nurseries Ltd. It operates from a residential house, in Angmering, West Sussex. Children have access to a large playroom, quiet room, discovery room and secure outdoor play area. The nursery is registered on the Early Years Register. A maximum of 24 children may attend the nursery at any one time.

The nursery is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm, 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is all on one level and ramps make for easy access to the front gate. There are currently 55 children on roll all in the early years age group from two years upwards. The nursery employs seven staff, including the owner, of whom all hold appropriate early years qualifications.

The nursery offers the children and their families an incredibly welcoming and calm environment. The management team are excellent role models for the team of dedicated and enthusiastic staff. Highly effective partnerships between providers, parents and other agencies ensure individual children’s needs are fully met. With clear systems for staff, children and parents to contribute their ideas in evaluating the nursery and the robust monitoring from the management team actions taken within the setting are well targeted to bring about continuous improvement.

The nursery continually maintains a high ratio of staff to children and this entirely promotes children's safety. The nursery has developed thorough routines for safeguarding with very strict policies around the safe collection of children from the setting. Robust recruitment and vetting procedures are in place to protect the children including the induction of new staff as well as regularly reviewed appraisals for everyone. There is a good awareness of safeguarding issues among the staff, all of whom undertake regular training in safeguarding and have clear lines of reporting concerns through a designated person. Safety has a high priority and the management team are currently reviewing their systems for assessing risks. In addition effective procedures are in place for monitoring accidents within the setting to inform the risk assessments and further protect children.

The nursery shows a fully dedicated approach to driving improvement and ensuring that routines and daily practice are effectively organised to have a beneficial impact on all children. All staff have an input into the success and improvements needed within the different areas of the nursery on a daily basis, the laminated cards around each area include suggestions for improvements and details of how the area was utilised each day giving the staff the ability to evaluate how well all resources are being used. The leadership team have high expectations and set high standards which are embedded throughout the nursery by a staff team who are all highly motivated and enthusiastic in their work. Rigorous systems are in place to continually monitor and evaluate all aspects of the nursery. Through complex systems, the success of children’s development towards all areas of learning is being monitored and evaluated. Through this system the management have addressed areas that they considered needing further staff awareness and therefore have had a positive impact on the children’s learning opportunities.

Children have access to all areas of the nursery throughout the day. The excellent use of space and open shelving allows children to continually make choices for themselves as they become independent learners. In addition they are becoming independent in their self care skills as they visit the bathroom or prepare to go outside. With the use of other areas for small group work, such as the discovery room or the quiet room, children are able to join in with individual, small or large group play. The resources within the setting are of a very high standard and well maintained. The staff set up table top activities with consideration to the presentation, making everything look exciting and stimulating to the children, these are changed repeatedly through the day offering the children an ever changing environment.

Staff show an expert knowledge and ability in focusing on individual children and understanding their level of learning; this fully promotes equality and diversity. One to one care and interaction is observed through different times of the day as staff have the confidence in their colleagues and the routines of the day to allow them to focus on one child at a time. Staff are highly effective in ensuring that all children are well integrated and activities are adapted to allow all children to achieve given their individual starting points. Excellent systems are in place for children with special educational needs as staff work closely with families and other outside specialist help to work towards targets decided with parents. Through effective partnerships with parents staff are developing their understanding of all children’s backgrounds to fully promote these in the setting, for example, where families are dual language the skills of all children are being developed as they learn simple words in every day play and routines.

The setting is highly committed to working in partnership with not only the parents and carers but also many outside agencies to fully promote the well-being of all children. There are effective channels for communication between parents and the key person for their child. High staffing ratios allow staff to discuss with parents any concerns at any time they wish and scheduled times are arranged with every parent for consultations, where details of children’s learning and development are shared and parents are invited to contribute to their child’s learning. In addition systems such as questionnaires and the nursery reacting to responses of these and through the closed group on a social networking website, parents can receive lots of information about what's going on in the nursery, ask direct questions and invite instant feedback, all ensuring parents are fully informed of their child's time within the setting. On a daily basis every child has a communication folder giving parents much needed information, mainly around the children’s care arrangements. Children have ownership of the communication folders as they access them themselves to place in them their art work that they want to take home. Partnership working has been successfully extended with teaching staff as children prepare to move onto school and strong links are in place with another pre-school in the area. Teaching staff are invited into school to meet with the children and the photographic record of the classroom, teacher and other key elements of school life are used within the nursery to help children become familiar with the school. In addition role play areas become classrooms and dressing up clothes include school uniform to help children to feel positive as they make their next step in their development.

The quality and standards of the early years provision and outcomes for children

Children are developing incredibly well and making significant gains in all areas of learning. This is mainly due to the high staffing ratios maintained within the nursery allowing staff members to really know their key children, identify their next steps in their development and help them make massive strides towards the early learning goals. All children show a strong sense of security and feel safe within the setting. They enter the nursery confidently and separate from their parents and carers very quickly as they set about making decisions about their play. They show an excellent understanding of what standards of behaviour are expected and apply these in order to keep themselves and others safe, for example, as some children talk to others about water spills at the drinks dispenser. Children use a range of tools and equipment within the setting as they learn skills for the future, they know how to handle the tools appropriately to keep themselves safe, for example, as they use small knives for spreading butter on their crackers at snack time and use appropriate utensils to dish up their meals at lunchtime.

Children are developing exceptionally well in their knowledge and understanding of the world as there are so many opportunities for children to develop every aspect of this area of learning. The discovery room offers the children an ever changing, interesting and stimulating environment to encourage their exploration and investigation skills. Children explore the dark den as they gain an understanding of light using a variety of torches and coloured lights and develop their senses in a variety of tactile experiences within the discovery room. Their sense of time is excellent, children know the routine of the day very well and understand what is happening next. Visual aids are cleverly used as children inform others that there are only three minutes left, using the giant sand timer so children can prepare for the end of their play. Resources within the nursery are fully promoting children’s learning in this area and all other areas of learning. Children have access to lots of information technology equipment and can independently set themselves up with appropriate computer programs, using and naming all parts of the computer correctly. Through this and other excellent resources children are enhancing their skills and are developing an excellent understanding of shapes, colour, numbers and letters. Children can independently access their own resources that develop their mathematical thinking and are challenged effectively by staff with weighing, sequencing and matching activities. The graphics area is continually used by the children as they create pieces for their personal folders using a variety of equipment including stampers, stencils, hole punches and other media. Excellent labelling around the nursery encourages children to understand that print has meaning. With name cards left on the graphics area children can attempt to label their own work and dual language labels are used on displays to promote other languages. The quiet room offers the children a space to share stories or independently access books and other resources. Music is used effectively in the quiet area as children listen to taped instructions as they play games with staff members. This area is also used well as a coming together time at different points in the day for reflection and preparation for what is to come.

Children’s tactile experiences are encouraged throughout the nursery, especially in the large tray that has ever changing resources. Children particularly enjoyed the feeling of the soft fleecy material as they discover hidden objects buried within. Some children delighted in the feel of the fleecy material on their skin and ultimately laid in the fleece as staff and other children pulled bits off to float down from above, children giggled in delight as they rolled in the fleece and watched bits floating down. Children’s physical development is encouraged by staff and the garden is accessed in all weathers as children prepare with their boots and coats to play on the resources or dig in the muddy flower borders as they use spades and tools to dig over the ground.

All children show an exceptional understanding of the importance of following good hygiene routines, they help themselves to tissues and throw them away. After lunch they use their own flannels for their faces and know to clean their teeth and wait for their time to visit the bathroom. They show an excellent understanding of healthy eating and make choices about their snacks and lunches. Snack time can be accessed when the children want to access it and their independence is further encouraged in the preparation of their snack. Some children choose cheese and crackers and spread the butter and cut the cheese, staff talk to the children about different cheeses telling them that they have cheddar today. Other children select from the fresh fruit bowl where they can choose their piece of fruit and have a go at cutting it up themselves with good supervision and help at hand. Children’s meals at lunchtime and tea time are exceptional. All are freshly prepared and cooked on the premises by staff who have a clear understanding of all dietary requirements. A three week menu offers the children variety and a well balanced, nutritional diet. The nursery recently took part in an analysis of their menu, portion size and quality of food where they were only given small suggestions which the management of the nursery have now considered within the menu, showing their commitment to ongoing improvement. Children are thoroughly involved in meal times as they sit to the table where they have found their named place, they serve themselves from containers in the middle of the table as they dish up their dinners. Meal times are a warm, sociable occasion for the children, staff set themselves as very good role models as they sit with the children and encourage a family feeling around the dinner table.

All children show an extremely strong sense of security and belonging within the setting. They are confident, settle well and develop excellent relationships at every level with adults and their peers. They display extremely high levels of confidence as they move around the nursery with a sense of ownership, they know where everything goes and the routine so well that they have high levels of self-esteem. All children are valued and listened to by staff who encourage the children to listen to each other and to respect each other’s opinions. The observations and details about children’s development are currently under review by the management due to a change in the systems being used, this is being monitored to ensure all learning journals of children are sufficiently detailed and all are being shared with parents who are encouraged to contribute to the children’s learning. In addition to continuous provision planning and adult-led planning where staff members identify all learning objectives, staff use their knowledge of their key children and the evidence from observations recorded to plan for their individual children. All staff within the setting have an excellent awareness about effectively challenging each child knowing their own capabilities. Ultimately, through the quality of the teaching, excellent resources and an environment that is very conducive to learning, children are making massive strides towards the early learning goals.