KidSpace @ the Alport

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This provision meets requirements Children welcome the arrival of the familiar after-school-club staff who collect them from their classrooms.

They show that they feel safe and are looking forward to going to the club. Staff plan activities that promote children's physical development well. Pre-school children are fascinated by the impressive array of colourful beads.

They carefully thread them onto strings and pipe cleaners. This promotes children's small-muscle control and hand-to-eye coordination. Older children skilfully make hula hoops roll away from them, then spin back towards them.

They straddle jump the returning hoops. The challenging, e...nergetic game promotes children's stamina, coordination and agility.Children are polite to each other and to staff.

They demonstrate positive relationships in their play and conversation. Many activities require children to follow rules. They learn to take turns and to value other people's ideas and opinions.

Staff identify and minimise risks to children safety. They use cooking equipment, such as an electric toaster, in a room away from the club activities. This helps to protect children from injury.

Parents and carers say that staff gather information about children before they attend the club. This helps staff to get to know new children and they settle in quickly.

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

Staff are caring and supportive of each other.

They model polite, playful behaviour and this helps to promote a harmonious atmosphere. Children learn that the after-school club is a place to have fun and make friends. They write a club rap that begins with the lines, 'Now KidSpace is where we all have fun, the staff's nice smiles are like the sun.'

Children make decisions about what they want to do. This encourages their deep concentration for extended periods. Younger children request scissors and tape to complete intricate, self-initiated craft projects.

Older children make careful drawings of the creatures swimming about in the on-screen aquarium. Children know that their choices will be respected. This helps to promote their confidence and self-esteem.

The busy club gives children lots to talk about and this promotes children's communication and language development effectively. Children work together to invent storylines for imaginative role play. They devise and follow rules for games.

This promotes children's ability to offer suggestions and to reach agreement with other people.The varied activities help to extend and reinforce children's knowledge. For example, children who are threading beads create increasingly complex alternating and symmetrical patterns.

This consolidates their ability to devise and follow a mathematical rule.Children enjoy the food that the club provides. However, on occasion, staff do not help children to think about how much food they need to satisfy their appetites.

They do not give children enough information about choosing a balance of different food groups. This compromises children's ability to make the very healthiest choices about what they eat and drink.Children demonstrate a cheerful willingness to follow club routines.

However, there are instances of staff not checking rigorously enough that children wash their hands before eating. This does not help children to develop consistent habits that promote their good health.Staff are deployed effectively.

They position themselves so that indoor and outdoor spaces are supervised at all times. This promotes children's safety while they play. A member of staff is designated to oversee children's departure.

They pass on messages to parents and this helps everyone to promote children's well-being and welfare. Staff make sure that the register is kept up to date. This promotes children's safety in case of an emergency.

Staff complete training and professional development activities that update and extend their knowledge of safeguarding matters. They know how to seek advice if a child discloses information that indicates they may be at risk of harm. The club and the school share appropriate information about child protection matters.

This helps them to keep children safe.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

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