Tops Day Nurseries - Corfe Mullen

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Leaders and staff are not vigilant in ensuring children's safety and prioritising their welfare.

Children have accidents that staff do not notice. When children become bored, their restless behaviour often goes unnoticed until they become upset and cry. Although children receive comfort from staff, the cause of their distress is frequently unknown.

Children are not safe when playing outdoors. They spend prolonged periods being physically active in direct, hot sunlight. While children have sun cream applied, staff do not remind them to take sun safety precautions, such as wearing suitable clothing, spending time i...n the shade to cool down, and drinking water.

The provider does not ensure that children learn from an ambitious curriculum. Staff do not provide activities or interactions with children that help support their development. For example, staff plan singing time for babies, but as they do not know the song lyrics themselves, they are unable to extend babies' vocabulary.

Children initially enjoy exploring the well-resourced indoor environment and a large outdoor area. However, most activities are not challenging for them, so they wander around with limited purposeful interaction. They quickly become bored as they look for things to play with and are often left to entertain themselves with resources and tools that they find.

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

The provider has not ensured that staff can identify and take action to minimise risk. Children's play that becomes unsafe is not considered a risk and is often ignored. For example, children run where there are trip hazards and staff do not remind them to walk.

Consequently, children trip and hurt themselves. Staff do not identify the risks to children on hot weather days. They do not remind children to wear sun hats or stay hydrated when spending extended periods in direct sunlight, while often engaging in physical activity.

The provider does not ensure that staff provide effective supervision for children. Children walk around the garden with food in their mouths unseen by staff. This lack of supervision means that staff would not be sufficiently alert should a child begin to choke.

Staff often position themselves facing away from children and do not see when children have accidents. While the provider is aware of weaknesses in staff deployment, steps to remedy this, such as reminders to staff about how to supervise children, have not had the desired impact and poor staff deployment remains a concern.The provider does not have an effective curriculum.

This is because curriculum planning does not consider what individual children need to learn next. As a result, while some activities interest children, staff do not teach them the skills they need to improve and acquire new knowledge.Children do not benefit from high-quality interactions.

They do not have the opportunities to develop their communication and social skills. While children experience friendly exchanges from staff as they serve food at lunchtime, not enough is being done by staff to support children to develop their conversational skills at other times of the day. As a result, children are not learning how to engage positively with others and this impacts on their personal development.

Babies experience some language as they listen to stories, but these are often cut short as those staff reading become distracted by other tasks.The provider does not have sufficient oversight of the quality of education for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff do not do enough to support these children to ensure that they all make good enough progress.

Although they identify that some children have SEND and follow advice from external agencies, they do not provide the targeted support children need in a timely manner to close any gaps.Children are happy and leave their parents with ease. They have a positive relationship with staff.

The provider has ensured that staff can identify child protection issues and know how, and to whom, to report their concerns.

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?

The provision is inadequate and Ofsted intends to take enforcement action.

We will issue a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to: Due date take action to implement a rigorous system for risk assessment to ensure hazards are identified and managed effectively and promptly, so that children are not exposed to risks 03/07/2024 ensure staff are deployed at all times to meet children's needs and ensure the effective supervision of children to keep them safe.03/07/2024 To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date develop a curriculum that identifies what all children need to learn, and ensure that staff take into account children's individual needs and next steps, so that they can provide targeted activities, support and challenge to each child for them to make the progress of which they are capable 09/09/2024 support staff to improve their interactions with children so that children engage in meaningful learning experiences that increase their exploration and engagement 09/09/2024 ensure that staff provide targeted support for children with SEND, based on what they need to learn next, to ensure that gaps in their learning close promptly and they catch up with their peers.

09/09/2024