3 Bears Nursery
@ Linwood
Renfrewshire
15 June 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects centres in order to
let parents1, children and the local community know whether their
centre provides a good education. Inspectors also discuss with
centre staff how they can improve the quality of education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the head of centre and
staff about the strengths of the centre, what needs to improve,
and how they know. We use the information they give us to help
us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we
go into playrooms and join other activities which children are
involved in. We also gather the views of parents, staff and
members of the local community. We find their views very helpful
and use them together with the other information we have
collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the
quality of education in the centre. We describe how well children
are doing, how good the centre is at helping them to learn and
how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and children work together and how they go about
improving the centre. We also comment on how well the centre
works with other groups in the community, including services
which support children. Finally, we focus on how well the centre
is led and how all staff help the centre achieve its aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the centre,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns from parents and staff. We will not provide
questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns are so
small that they could identify individuals.
1
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers and
carers who are relatives or friends
Contents
1. The centre
2. Particular strengths of the centre
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their centre
community?
6. Does the centre have high expectations of all children?
7. Does the centre have a clear sense of direction?
8. What happens next?
1. The centre
3 Bears Nursery @ Linwood day care of children was inspected in May
2011 by HMIE. The centre caters for pre-school children aged from
birth to five years of age. It is registered for 57 children attending at
any one session. The total roll was 72 at the time of the inspection. It
provides a breakfast club for children aged from five to 12 years.
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2. Particular strengths of the centre
•
Friendly children across the nursery who are enjoying learning.
•
Caring staff team who have developed positive relationships with
children and parents.
•
The effectiveness of the manager and staff in developing the
nursery, resulting in improved services for children and families.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the nursery, children are very friendly and enjoy a range of play
and learning experiences. Babies and children under two are relaxed
and confident. They use their own sounds to talk to each other and
are gaining confidence in movement. Toddlers aged two to three can
choose to play in different areas of the playroom and are developing
skills of working together, taking turns and sharing books and toys.
Children aged three to five are making friends. They are becoming
more confident in sharing their interests and choosing their activities.
Most children can learn to concentrate for longer periods on all of their
activities to extend their learning. Staff need to be careful to give them
time to complete activities.
Children are learning to become responsible citizens through caring for
their environment. They confidently engage in play outdoors,
exploring and investigating. As part of this, they have helped to
improve the nursery garden. Children know how to keep themselves
healthy and enjoy daily energetic play, fresh air and exercise. Children
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achieve success in raising funds for the nursery and charity. They
enjoy helping with routine tasks in the playroom and take pride in
being given responsibility for doing so.
Children aged three to five are proud of their achievements and are
making good progress in their learning. They enjoy talking with staff
and are getting better at listening and responding to their friends. Most
children enjoy listening to stories. They talk about favourite books and
can retell familiar stories to others. Almost all children recognise their
name in print and enjoy writing in their play. Children are developing
an understanding and confidence in early mathematics through play.
They recognise shapes, patterns and colour and are able to sort and
match objects. They are interested in counting and numbers. Most
are becoming confident in counting within ten.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff working with children under three take good account of national
guidance to plan interesting and appropriate learning experiences.
They provide good opportunities for children to learn through their
senses. In the three to five playroom, the curriculum provides a broad
and balanced range of experiences, based on learning through play.
Staff have made good progress in improving children’s experiences in
line with Curriculum for Excellence. They are gaining confidence in
using the experiences and outcomes to take forward children’s
learning. Staff are improving their approaches to promoting literacy
and numeracy across the curriculum. The curriculum is enriched by
visits to places of interest, for example to the local supermarket and to
the museum.
Across the nursery, staff know children well, and meet their needs
effectively. Through consultation with parents and careful observation,
staff make sure the care routines of younger children are well met.
Staff working with children aged three to five work hard to match
activities to the learning needs of most children. As part of this, they
take good account of children’s varying patterns of attendance when
planning activities. Staff record useful observations of children’s
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progress in their ‘learning profiles’ to help children celebrate their
achievements. However, they need to develop further their
approaches to planning to take fuller account of individual needs and
interests. Activities do not always have the right level of challenge for
some of the older children. Staff are aware of their roles in identifying
children who need additional help and seek support from appropriate
agencies when required.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Parents are very positive about the nursery and are happy with the
level of care provided for their children. Staff recognise that they need
to continue to involve parents in their children’s learning. All staff
welcome the effective support they receive from the parent company.
They take part in developments within the nursery and company
initiatives in, for example developing Curriculum for Excellence and
Pre Birth to Three guidance. Staff highly value the regular guidance of
the local authority teacher. A flexible programme of induction helps
children to settle into, and move across stages of the nursery
comfortably. Staff are continuing to develop transition arrangements
with primary schools to help children build on what they have learned.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
centre community?
When planning improvements within the nursery, staff ask children and
parents for their views. Staff, parents and children are involved in
improving their nursery. Parents feel the service the nursery offers
has improved continuously over time. Staff support each other well
and work together in improving the nursery. They have received
training on developing practice. They are keen to develop their
knowledge and take forward new ideas. An improvement plan is in
place and all staff implement its priorities well. They now need to
ensure they have a clearer direction evaluating new initiatives in the
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curriculum. Children are beginning to talk more about their learning
and this is helping them recognise their own successes.
6. Does the centre have high expectations of all children?
Staff create a very welcoming atmosphere in the nursery. They value
children as individuals and celebrate their achievements meaningfully.
As they take increasing account of children’s interests, staff realise
that they need to continue to raise their expectations of what children
can achieve in their learning. Most staff encourage children to take
turns, share resources and play cooperatively but a few children do not
always manage this. Children have opportunities to celebrate festivals
throughout the year. Most staff interactions are effective and support
children, particularly in group situations. Staff are confident in the
approaches of the centre to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all
children.
7. Does the centre have a clear sense of direction?
The recently appointed nursery manager has been successful in
making the nursery a place for children to enjoy learning. She is
committed to providing quality learning experiences for all children.
She works closely with the owners to develop and improve the
nursery. Together, they ensure that all staff work within the company
aims and values which set out clearly what they want the 3 Bears
Nursery @ Linwood to be like. The manager has created a positive
sense of teamwork. Staff feel they receive very helpful guidance and
have a good understanding of future priorities for nursery
improvement. In taking account of these, the nursery has the capacity
to continue to improve.
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8. What happens next?
As a result of the good quality of education provided by the centre, we
will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The
centre and education authority will inform parents about the centre’s
progress as part of the authority’s arrangements for reporting to
parents on the quality of education.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the centre
and education authority.
•
Continue to take account of Curriculum for Excellence and
Pre Birth to Three guidance in developing the curriculum further.
•
Further improve the approaches to meeting children’s learning
needs to ensure all children are challenged.
•
Build on the approaches of self-evaluation monitoring processes,
with a focus on learning and teaching, to support further
improvement.
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Quality indicators help centres, education authorities and inspectors to
judge what is good and what needs to be improved in the work of a
centre. You can find these quality indicators in the HMIE publication
The Child at the Centre. Following the inspection of each centre, the
Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three important quality
indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish centres are doing.
Here are the evaluations for 3 Bears Nursery @ Linwood.
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the centre.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
Managing Inspector: Sheona Moore
15 June 2011
7
good
good
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a
different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to
comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service
for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the
line will not connect you to a member of staff.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education