A-Star Kids

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Weaknesses in the leadership and management of this nursery compromises children's safety.

The management team do not ensure that risk assessments are carried out effectively to provide a safe environment for children. Oversight of food hygiene procedures is poor. Although the appropriate training for food hygiene has been undertaken, staff preparing food do not demonstrate confidence in this role.

This has a negative impact on the safety and well-being of the children. The provider does not ensure that the staff arrangements meet children's individual needs. Due to this, staff are unable to support children effe...ctively.

This results in some children wandering around aimlessly and not engaging in meaningful learning. Although, at times, staff interactions with children help them to develop their communication and language skills; this is not consistent due to the poor deployment of staff. As a result, children do not access a consistently good quality of education.

Children do not display consistently positive attitudes to learning. On occasions, activities such as reading the 'book of the week' are very structured and do not engage the children. This leads to them struggling to concentrate and developing positive attitudes to learning new things.

Staff support children to learn about sustainability and recycling. For example, they teach them about food being put back into the soil and children made a snowman from recycled materials.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

The manager has failed to carry out thorough risk assessments to ensure the environment is safe for children.

Despite identifying trailing wires, no action was taken to minimise this risk at the time it was identified. This creates a tripping hazard for both children and staff. Additionally, risk assessments in relation to electronic devices were not effective which led to a potential safeguarding risk.

However, when the provider was alerted to this risk, she took immediate action to ensure she minimised the danger of any confidential information being exposed to individuals not connected to the nursery. Staff have a secure understanding of the indicators that a child may be at risk of harm and know what to do if they have concerns.The implementation of the curriculum is weak.

Due to the poor arrangements of staff, children are not accessing a good quality of education. Since the last inspection, the provider has developed a more structured curriculum intent to help support the children's learning. Staff try their best to question children's knowledge to develop their critical-thinking.

However, due to the weak deployment of staff, children's learning needs are not met. Younger children are often unsettled and remain this way throughout the session. This impacts on their emotional development.

The support in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is inconsistent. The special educational needs coordinator creates individual target plans which are shared with staff and parents. However, due to the deployment of staff, children with SEND do not always receive the targeted support they need.

In addition, on occasions, children with SEND are left alone with staff who are not appropriately trained to effectively support their needs.The providers' oversight of food hygiene procedures is inadequate. The facilities for preparing food are poor.

For example, the sides where food is prepared are cluttered. This limits staff being able to clean them appropriately. Although the provider states that she oversees food preparation, it has gone unnoticed that food is not always stored at the correct temperature.

This puts children at risk of becoming unwell. However, on the day of the inspection, the provider made some plans to action this breach, which will be overseen by an external agency.The key-person system is not fully effective.

Some parents are not aware of who their child's key person is. This does not promote a strong two-way-flow of communication to support consistency for children's learning. Furthermore, children are not always placed in a room with their key person.

This hinders staff being able to form strong bonds with children to help them settle and support their development. Despite the weaknesses, some staff are able to demonstrate that they know some of their key children well.The provider failed to notify Ofsted of a significant event, which is a requirement of their registration.

However, due to the action the provider took by involving outside agencies, this did not have an impact on children's safety and welfare as a result of this failure to notify.Staff implement behaviour management strategies which helps children understand the impact of their actions. However, this is still not fully effective.

During overly adult-led group times, children struggle to maintain their attention which results in some children displaying negative behaviour. This hinders children's engagement to learn.Several parents report on how well their children are supported and commented positively on the progress they have made at the nursery.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.There is not an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure staff are deployed effectively to meet the needs of all children 09/04/2024 ensure there are suitable facilities for preparation and storage of food, and staff preparing food are competent to do so 09/04/2024 ensure staff take all reasonable steps to minimise children's exposure to risks.

09/04/2024

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