Briar Hill Out of Hours Club

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Children play in a welcoming and well-resourced environment. Relationships between staff and children are very good, and children are happy, confident and sociable.

On arrival at the club, children make decisions about what to play with. They select toys and activities from storage within the large room as well as from a walk-in cupboard. Children quickly get involved in their chosen activities.

Staff have high behaviour expectations and children behave well. Children play cooperatively with their friends, and staff are always alert to, and acknowledge, acts of kindness. Children are physically active every day.

T...hey join in enthusiastically when invited to move to music using ribbons. Staff demonstrate how to form different patterns in the air with the ribbons, and children use their good balancing skills while they mimic the movements. Children talk excitedly about an outing to a pantomime earlier in the day.

They say that they know one of the characters was a man dressed as a woman and they laugh as they quote repeated refrains from the performance. While playing in the classroom, children join in with activities that support them in using their mathematical and literacy knowledge and skills. Links with the host school are good.

Staff communicate effectively with Reception class teachers so that they complement children's learning in school. Parents are very happy with the provision.

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

The partnerships with parents and school staff are strong.

Once a place has been offered, the provider agrees a procedure with parents to help their child settle in. She arranges an induction day before the child starts school, and, during this visit, the child is introduced to their key person. Once children have settled in, staff observe them in order to make assessments on what they already know and can do.

Staff share the information with parents and Reception class teachers. The provider attends meetings regularly with teaching staff.Parents share very positive views about the provision.

They describe staff as being wonderful. Parents say that staff take time to get to know their children and build relationships with them. They say that their children are happy and comment on them not wanting to leave the club at home time.

Staff support children in practising the skills they are learning in school. Some children choose to draw, write and colour in. They use their good handling skills to make party hats using scissors, sticky tape and different-coloured gel pens.

Children draw pictures to stick onto the front of their hats. Some children use their good writing skills to make a list of friends they intend to invite to their next birthday party Children use their good mathematical and manipulative skills to create pictures and patterns with small peg beads. They count out the different-coloured beads that they need to replicate pictures and patterns that they look at in picture guides.

Children play board games that require them to count the dots on a dice and then count out the matching number of movements on the board.Staff give children's good health a high priority. They are fully aware of children's different dietary needs and ensure that food provided is healthy and nutritious.

Food is set out invitingly by staff for children to serve themselves. Children know that they must wash their hands before eating. They line up in a very orderly fashion, older children showing consideration for younger ones and letting them go first in the queue.

Children engage in imaginative role play. They play with small-world toys, taking on the characters of different figures and using different voices when they pretend the figures are interacting. Some children use their skills to write menus in the role-play café.

The provider makes sure that staff keep their early years knowledge up to date, for example through training and online research. She leads the team along with an experienced manager, and they give a high priority to staff's welfare as well as the children's. Staff-to-child ratios are good.

Staff supervision is effective. Time is spent discussing how individual children's needs are being met, and training priorities are decided upon.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff complete training to keep their child protection knowledge up to date. They are aware of the signs of abuse and neglect and know the local referral procedures to follow if they have a concern. They are aware of the duty to prevent children from being drawn into situations that put them at risk.

The premises are secure so that children cannot leave unsupervised and unwanted visitors cannot gain access. Staff identify and successfully minimise potential risks in the premises. Recruitment and selection procedures meet requirements.

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