Feedback: OfSTED Inspection Reports Children are making good progress in their learning and development because they enjoy their time in the nursery and staff recognise their interests and individuality
Policies, procedures and parental permissions are clear to support good practice. Systems to monitor and evaluate the service are good which provides a secure basis for continual improvement and better outcomes for children.
Procedures for safeguarding children in the setting are effective. There is a good range of procedures and parental permissions to ensure children are safeguarded. All staff are aware of their personal responsibility to identify and minimise hazards to keep children safe
Staff foster good relationships with parents, carers and extended family. Information is shared with parents through a number of effective ways. For example, parent notice boards, regular news updates and a webpage
Practitioners work well with other professionals to support the inclusion of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, there are effective relationships fostered with the local authority special needs coordinator and local nursery school teachers
Staff work well together as a team and are keen to implement ideas, such as a new assessment tool to assist them to help children to make as much progress as possible towards the early learning goals. This demonstrates a professional outlook concerning continual improvement
Staff are skilful in identifying children's particular interests and plan and organise a range of meaningful and fun activities for all children in the setting
Older children are well behaved and are consistently praised for good behaviour and gently reminded when their behaviour is not acceptable. This helps them consider how their behaviour affects others
Develop observations further to consistently make links to the 'Development matters' prompts to plan the next steps in a child's developmental progress
Increase further the opportunities for children to be outside on a daily basis
"I am completely and utterly stunned at our inspection result.
The OfSTED inspector arrived at 8:30 and spoke to both Sonia and myself for half an hour. The first thing she said to Sonia was "I have read your Self Evaluation Report and it reads as if you are good because you did not use superlative words in your SEF ”. She walked through into PreSchool at 9:05 am and came up to the office at 11:15 am to check records and give us feedback and the result of our inspection – a total time in the Rooms in the Nursery of 2 hours and 10 minutes, without speaking to a single parent or child. Once she had found a wording error in one policy she told us that we could not achieve an "outstanding" overall and therefore she was going to give us "good" in all 17 areas.
Our first inspection in 2005 involved two inspectors who came in at 8am and left at 6pm and went through us with a fine tooth comb. We were confident that they had inspected us properly.
Five days after our shortest inspection ever another inspector came and inspected Smizkids 511 and saw all the same policies, staff and procedures and gave us “Outstanding" in all the same 17 areas. I could understand if we had a mixture of “goods” and “outstandings” in both inspections and different outcomes overall, but to get 17 different results means that someone is not doing a thorough job, or their job properly.
Where that concerns me is when they miss things in Nurseries that are not as good as us and still give them a “good” result. That scares me!
As there is a backlog of thousands of inspections and inspectors have been told to do their reports in less than 1000 words and they have restricted time on each inspection then I can only say that I believe that OfSTED'S standards
have dropped to a dangerous level. "
Ian Higginbotham - Managing Director
In November 2011 OfSTED inspected Smiz Kids 511 and said the following:
Our good points
Smiz Kids 511 ensures strong relationships are fostered between caring staff and happy children in a welcoming and child friendly environment
Staff are dedicated, caring and offer an inclusive and welcoming service where the uniqueness of each child is valued
Children engage in a wide range of enjoyable and challenging activities that support their individual interests and learning needs
The setting uses very effective methods to gauge the valued opinions of staff, parents and children, ensuring they are listened to and acted upon
The excellent quality of the equipment and staff's proactive approach to the local community ensures the sustainability of the setting
Everyone feels welcome in the setting and parents are encouraged to share their knowledge of cultures, festivals and skills. They are willing to share their appreciation of the setting. They feel that staff are 'perfectly approachable' and the setting is 'amazing'
Children enjoy healthy and nutritious, seasonal snacks, such as sandwiches, pasta, jacket potatoes and fruit. Their independence is supported as they choose what they would like to eat and pour their own drinks skilfully
Children are encouraged to develop habits consistent of excellent learners as they share resources, take turns and listen to each other. They clearly recognise their own needs and those of their peers as staff have very effective and consistent systems for managing children's behaviour
In February 2008 OfSTED inspected Smisby Day Nursery and had the following to say about us:
Our good points
All of the children are encouraged towards an understanding of a healthy lifestyle because they are provided with freshly prepared nutritious meals, have good access to physical play and daily opportunities for fresh air
The whole premises is very welcoming to the children and their families, with bright visual displays throughout
Children develop confidence and self-esteem as they are encouraged towards increasing independence in accordance with their stage of development
Children’s progress and development is well supported because staff observe and record their achievements regularly using a common system throughout the nursery, linked to aspects of the framework which make it possible for staff to see what each child's next steps need to be
Children benefit because staff working with them have a variety of qualifications and experience, with all having sound knowledge of the curriculum and a understanding of how children learn
The children are obviously happy to be at nursery and are keen to play and learn; they welcome each other on arrival, are responsible for taking their coats off and confident as they move about the premises
All children develop their individuality and self-esteem as they are given choices over activities, have opportunities for self-selection and get respect for their ideas and opinions from the staff and other children
Children's positive behaviour is promoted as a result of staff’s implementation of effective strategies such as encouraging them to have good manners, be polite, share and interact well with their peers
make sure children are unable to access the drains in the outdoor play area
ensure that the evaluation of activities links into the declared learning intentions, considering if the children have achieved them
"In light of recent studies about taking too much risk out of young children's lives, and on the basis that we as a nursery risk asses all of the outside play regularly, we will continue to defend our right to allow the children to see and deal with daily risks that are manageable. The drain mentioned in the report is a rainwater drain from the roof in the Pre School playground, is regularly cleaned and maintained, is risk assessed and is safe.
What are we going to do next? - Stop the children from playing on the grass just in case they come into contact with the mud? Not let them on the playground in case a bird has messed on it?
Some years ago the nursery had a couple of chickens. The children helped to look after them and were always supervised and had a strict hygiene rule for hand washing, which taught the children so much about animals. Ofsted deemed them to be a risk to the children and the Nursery was forced to remove them. This is a loss to the children that is detrimental to their learning and experience in our opinion.
We believe the Ofsted Inspector was totally wrong in this recommendation and would welcome a re-inspection at any time from any other inspector as we will not pander to a nanny state that tries to dictate to us to remove every possible risk to the children - next they will have us cut down the two apple trees and the Greengage tree in the garden just in case a child gets tummy ache from eating an unripe piece of fruit - something we probably have all done in our childhoods.
Fortunately we were able to remove the imaginary rose bushes the Inspector thought she saw in our garden! "
Ian Higginbotham - Managing Director
In February 2008 OfSTED inspected Smiz Kids 511 and said the following:
Our good points
A substantial range of equipment and play resources are readily accessible to children. Innovative planning provides them with exciting opportunities to make active choices about their play and promote their natural curiosity. Free-flow play, where children decide to play indoors or outdoors further promotes their opportunity to direct their own play. Excellently presented and supported activities provide appropriate levels of challenge to build their confidence and self-esteem
Children are highly motivated and make use of the appealing activities to learn and extend their knowledge but also to have fun in the relaxed yet productive environment. Children engage cooperatively as they enjoy creative activities
A clear and concise written policy works effectively in practice to promote equal opportunities for all children. They are clearly valued for their individual contribution as they develop excellent relationships with peers and staff
Children's behaviour is exemplary. A strong emphasis is placed on promoting positive behaviour and successful methods are adapted effectively to meet the ages and developmental stages of all children. Children listen intently to staff and respond positively to a consistent use of praise and encouragement. Children receive warm cuddles and affection and build trusting relationships which contributes to their sense of belonging. Children make active decisions about their play, making choices as they develop their confidence and self-esteem. They develop an acute awareness of the needs of others as they help each other and learn to share and take turns. They play confidently alone and socially and ask for appropriate help if required
The setting is held in high esteem by parents who express their total satisfaction in the care their children receive