Heaton Community Centre Childcare

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The manager and her deputy place a strong focus on supporting children and their families. This ethos runs through the staff team who share the same vision and ensure children's welfare is at the heart of all they do. Parents speak with passion when they describe the support they receive and how happy and safe their children are in the setting.

They say that ideas to support their children at home are invaluable. Staff have high expectations of children's learning, overall. They clap and cheer when very young children discover new areas of the room by crawling and moving around independently.

Managers acknowledge that ...a greater focus on the skills older children are learning will enhance the new planning system and support children to an even higher level. Children's behaviour is good. Older children cooperate well and share resources when they access activities together.

Staff support two-year-old children particularly well before they listen to a story together. For instance, children copy the actions of staff as they tap their heads and wiggle their fingers to show they are ready to listen. Staff sit alongside them throughout the story, which helps children maintain attention.

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

Very young children are supported well. Staff engage appropriately with them and help them to develop key skills, such as walking, beginning to babble and making sounds. This is evident when staff encourage children to take their first independent steps.

They support children to pull up to standing and give them words of encouragement as they move towards another member of staff. Children are very proud of their achievements and look around to see who has been watching.New arrangements for assessing children's learning are in place.

This enables staff to check what children already know and can do. However, this information is not always used to best effect with older children in order to identify and plan for the skills they need to learn next.Children form strong and secure relationships with staff, who get to know them very well.

Staff supporting the youngest children provide consistent routines to offer continuity in the care they receive. Older children enjoy engaging in conversations with staff as they make gifts for home, such as Christmas calendars.Children who speak English as an additional language are supported well.

Staff obtain key words from parents and use support materials, such as books, to help children to use their home language as they play.Partnerships with parents are good. Staff obtain high-quality information about children's prior achievements when they first start attending.

This helps to promote children's good progress from the outset.Children are supported well when they first start attending the setting. Effective settling-in arrangements, such as tailored visits with parents, help children to feel comfortable to stay on their own with the staff team.

Older children are supported well to develop their mathematical skills. Staff give them interesting things for them to count. For instance, children use small plastic figures and count up to 10 from a larger group.

This presents a high level of challenge and supports their learning well.Staff's training needs are identified through ongoing observations of their practice and supervision meetings. They attend professional development sessions, including training delivered during staff meetings.

However, managers do not consistently monitor practice to see whether key messages from training have been effectively implemented. For example, opportunities to extend children's learning outdoors have not been swiftly acted upon. Although children access a large outdoor area, their experiences are still very much focused on their physical development.

Partnerships with local schools are good. For example, transition forms are completed when children leave to share and continue their achievements. Staff share detailed information about children with other practitioners if they attend more than one setting at the same time.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff maintain a safe and secure learning environment for children. Safety measures, such as having a keypad on each door, keep children safe.

Children are supervised well in all areas of the setting, including the outdoor classroom area. Effective risk assessments are completed to minimise any hazards. Ongoing training ensures staff have up-to-date information regarding safeguarding.

Staff talk confidently about any signs or symptoms that may indicate possible abuse to children. They know how to act and who to contact should an allegation be made against them or another staff member.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen the use of assessment information to develop a greater understanding of the skills older children need to learn next nenhance monitoring to ensure key messages from training are implemented into practice and impact upon children's achievements.