The Busy Bees Ofsted Report
Introduction
Date of Inspection 14th September, 2009
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).
The setting also makes provision for children older than the early years age group which is registered on the voluntary and/or compulsory part(s) of the Childcare Register. This report does not include an evaluation of that provision, but a comment about compliance with the requirements of the Childcare Register is included in Annex B.
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.
Description of the setting
Busy Bees Nursery School Ltd opened in 1982 and is privately owned and managed. It operates from five classrooms in a purpose built building, situated in the village of Beck Row in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The premises have a small ramp leading to one of the entrance doors and there are accessible toilets available. Two secure enclosed outdoor areas and an adjoining farm are used for outdoor activities. Children also have daily access to an indoor heated swimming pool for swimming sessions which are led by fully qualified instructor. A maximum of 111 children under eight years may attend the nursery at any one time, all of whom may be in the early years age range. The nursery is open each weekday from 6:45am to 6:00pm for 51 weeks of the year.
The nursery is registered by Ofsted on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 254 children on roll, 215 of whom are within the early years age range. Children live in the local area and some also attend early years sessions at a nearby nursery and the local primary schools. The nursery is currently supporting a number of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who are learning English as an additional language. Care is also offered to children aged over five years to eleven years, both before and after school, and during holidays. Minibus transport is offered to and from local primary schools.
There are 21 members of staff, 14 of whom hold early years qualifications to at least level 2. Seven members of staff are working towards qualifications and one member of staff has recently achieved Early Years Professional Status. The setting provides funded early education for three and four-year-olds.
The overall effectiveness of the early years provision
Overall the quality of the provision is good.
Staff demonstrate an unquestionable commitment to working in close partnership with parents and carers, prompting their involvement in supporting children's learning and fully valuing their views. Children establish strong relationships with each other and their key person, and they are supported to feel confident and independent in the very inclusive and extremely safe environment. Effective self-evaluation by the manager and staff makes sure that priorities for development are continuously identified and acted on, resulting in provision that responds well to the needs of children and their families.
What steps need to be taken to improve provision further?
To further improve the early years provision the registered person should:
- provide further opportunities for writing during role-play activities, and encourage children to experiment with writing for different purposes, using features of different forms such as lists, stories and instructions.
The effectiveness of leadership and management of the early years provision
Children are expertly protected from harm as all staff demonstrate a very strong commitment to their role in safeguarding children. Most staff have attended appropriate training relating to the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) local guidance and procedures and their practice is informed by the setting's comprehensively written safeguarding policy. This policy has been thoroughly reviewed and updated, ensuring the setting can follow up any concerns efficiently to fully prioritise children's welfare. Robust and well-organised vetting procedures ensure that all staff have completed the necessary checks to ensure their suitability to be in contact with children. The premises is kept extremely safe and secure as a result of the highly detailed risk assessments which are carried out each day, and children are safeguarded further as there are very well-considered arrangements in place should an emergency situation occur.
Children experience excellent levels of direct support and attention because the manager organises the staff to ensure the adult to child ratios are high, often exceeding the minimum requirements. An excellent range of high quality furniture, equipment and resources are used very well to support children's learning and development. The manager has strong aspirations for the quality and standards of the service provided at the nursery and consistently communicates these positive expectations to staff. All staff have good opportunities to contribute their views to the self-evaluation process, ensuring the key strengths and areas for improvement are realistically identified across the setting. The staff are receptive to support provided by advisors from the local authority, ensuring they are able to gather new ideas to bring about further improvement. For example, visual timetables were introduced following guidance from the setting's Inclusion Officer.
The staff are strongly committed to working in close partnership with parents and carers. Parents are provided with a superb range of written and verbal information, ensuring they are able to fully understand and compliment the setting's procedures and expectations. Each child's 'learning journey' record is readily available for their parents to read, offering them meaningful accounts of the activities that their children have enjoyed and inspiring their understanding of their children's progress. Strong emphasis is placed on daily discussions with parents, ensuring each child's key person continues to gather relevant information to enable them to provide for children's changing needs. The setting has established good links with the other EYFS settings that children attend and values the input of professionals from outside agencies. For example, information from a speech therapist and educational psychologist is fully considered when planning support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The manager is dedicated to ensuring the setting is fully inclusive, actively promoting equality of opportunity and ensuring that staff understand how to sensitively tackle and challenge any issues with prejudice and discrimination.
The quality and standards of the early years provision and outcomes for children
Children benefit as the staff have good understanding of how children learn and develop through their play. They are offered a highly welcoming and child-friendly environment, with vast amounts of space to explore and spread out as they play with a broad range of resources. Resources are set out extremely well, and most are labelled with photographs to promote children's self-section and free choice. The recent introduction of free-flow access to the outdoor environment ensures that the rich facilities in the farm and other outdoor areas are fully embraced. For example, children delight in exploring the alpaca wool and watching how it is spun and dyed. They confidently ask questions to find out more and use their senses to touch the wool and smell the dried flowers. Children's individual abilities and interests are celebrated and often used as a starting point in the planning. For example, the younger children's interest in animals is fostered as they share a book about a farmyard, joining in as the staff make different animal noises to bring it to life. Children are developing sound skills in communication and language. For example, they develop their phonological awareness as they play 'I Spy', and they point to the letter at the beginning of their name when they notice it on the label on the toy box. Although children enjoy using the large chalk board and adding their names to their finished drawings, opportunities for children to attempt writing for a wider range of purposes, such as in their role play situations, are not always as fully promoted as they could be.
The well-established key person approach ensures that the planning for individual children is led by someone who has formed a particularly close bond them and their parents, and is best placed to understand their learning needs. The staff are competent in using observations and assessments to effectively track children's progress towards the early learning goals. These observations are collated in each child's 'learning journey' record, along with numerous meaningful photographs and comments from parents, providing a detailed overview of each child's progress.
Particularly strong emphasis is placed on inspiring children to lead extremely healthy lifestyles. There are rich opportunities for children to get involved in growing different crops on the farm, which they harvest and use in cooking activities. The staff are committed to encouraging parents to provide healthy snacks and meals for their children to enjoy at the nursery, and they make the most of opportunities to discuss the benefits of a healthy diet with the children. For example, children proudly explain that they are eating their orange "to get energy for swimming". Children delight in accessing the outdoor environment where they actively develop their larger physical skills, such as climbing and balancing, in the fresh air. Children feel extremely safe and secure as they play in the highly safe and secure environment. They demonstrate a strong awareness of their own safety as they tidy away resources and explain that this will prevent others from tripping over and hurting themselves. Children actively learn the sensible rules that keep them safe, as staff take time to show them how to use scissors safely.
Children demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility for their behaviour and are consistently well behaved and polite. They have a very secure understanding of the importance of being kind to others, happily playing alongside each other, sharing resources and stepping up to show concern for their friends when they are upset. Constant praise and encouragement offered by the staff helps to ensure that all children have high levels of self-esteem. Support for children who are learning English as an additional language is highly effective, as the setting clearly values linguistic diversity. Children feel very confident in using their home language in the setting as staff draw on their parent's expertise in pronouncing and writing key words in different languages. Diversity is reflected extremely well in the provision, through meaningful displays featuring people with disabilities, of different genders and from various cultures, as well as, new experiences such as using chopsticks to eat rice and noodles.
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