ABC Nursery
Alloa
Clackmannanshire Council
10 November 2010
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.
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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
ABC Nursery was inspected in September 2010 by HMIE on behalf of
both HMIE and the Care Commission as part of the integrated
inspection programme. The centre caters for pre-school children aged
from birth to five years. It is registered for 90 children attending at any
one session. The total roll was 110 at the time of the inspection.
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2. Particular strengths of the centre
•
Relationships between staff, children and families.
•
The ethos of the nursery.
•
Well-behaved children.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Babies respond well to staff interactions and are settled and happy
with the routines. Children aged two to three are growing in
confidence. They are learning to make choices from a range of
activities. Children aged three to five play well together. They can
cooperate, share toys and take turns. Most children are settled in
nursery routines and feel safe and secure in their learning
environment. Children are beginning to plan some aspects of their
learning. They have some opportunities to take responsibility and are
developing their independence.
Children are becoming more knowledgeable about recycling materials.
They talk enthusiastically about caring for their stick insects, giant
snails and goldfish. They enjoy eating a variety of healthy foods for
snacks and are increasingly aware of the importance of hand washing.
Most children aged three to five are making satisfactory progress in
their development and learning. They can follow instructions
confidently and engage happily in conversations with their peers and
with adults. They share their ideas well by talking about what they are
doing. Children have a range of opportunities to use their language
skills in other areas of the curriculum. Most children can recognise
number symbols to six, and a few can recognise numbers to ten. They
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enjoy creating and recording numbers in a variety of ways. Children
need to take part more regularly in mathematical investigations and
problem solving activities.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff working with babies, toddlers and children under three use
national guidance to plan learning opportunities for children. They
provide a limited range of natural materials which help to stimulate
children’s senses. Children enjoy playing and experimenting with
these materials. Staff working with children aged three to five are
using the outcomes and experiences from Curriculum for Excellence to
plan children’s learning. Tasks, activities and resources meet the
learning needs of most children.
Staff make regular use of the garden grounds for energetic play,
environmental investigations, and scientific/sensory explorations and
imaginative play opportunities. They visit places in the local area to
help children develop an awareness of the world around them. Staff
promote children’s artistic and expressive skills well through painting
and drawing and role-play. There now needs to be a clearer focus on
developing children’s literacy and numeracy skills in all areas of the
curriculum.
Staff have very positive relationships with children and their families.
They make observations of children’s learning and keep written
records of their broader achievements. Staff need to further develop
the use of their records when planning to provide the right level of
difficulty and challenge for all children. Staff have developed strong
links with other professionals and support agencies.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff work closely with parents to ensure they meet the care and
welfare needs of children. They provide parents with helpful written
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information on children’s learning twice per year. The nursery uses
local authority guidance to share information on children’s learning
with receiving primary schools. Staff now need to strengthen their
links with local schools and nurseries to better support children’s
learning. There is scope to involve parents more in contributing to
information in children’s profiles and to identifying what they will learn
next.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
centre community?
The ethos within the nursery is very positive. Staff work well together
and are keen to build a strong staff team following recent
reorganisation of staff teams. Staff are consulted about new
developments and their opinions and ideas are valued by senior staff.
Staff have successfully improved some aspects of the work of the
nursery. Parents and children could be more involved in commenting
on the quality of provision.
6. Does the centre have high expectations of all children?
Staff are very caring in their interactions with children. They make
regular use of praise to recognise children’s successes in the nursery
and at home. Children’s behaviour is very good. They are well
mannered and polite to each other and to staff. Staff know what they
need to do to keep children safe. The arrangements for tracking
absences need to be reviewed. Staff need to raise their expectations
of what children can achieve. An appropriate complaints procedure is
in place and known to parents.
7. Does the centre have a clear sense of direction?
The manager demonstrates a continual commitment to improvement.
She has worked with staff to produce an improvement plan which
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identifies areas for improvement. These include an emphasis on
improving children’s learning and self-evaluation. There has been
some success in taking forward these areas. The manager with
continued support from the education authority will be able to deliver
the improvements which are outlined in this report.
8. What happens next?
We are confident that the centre will be able to make the necessary
improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a result, we will
make no more visits in connection with this inspection. The centre and
the education authority will inform parents about the centre’s progress
in improving the quality of education.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the centre
and education authority.
•
Improve further the very youngest children’s experiences and their
opportunities to explore and investigate a wider range of natural
materials.
•
Improve the level of challenge, choice and progression in children’s
learning.
•
Improve arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the work of
the school.
•
Improve the policy for monitoring absence.
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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 ABC Nursery.
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
satisfactory
good
satisfactory
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the centre.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
satisfactory
good
At the last Care Commission inspection of the centre there were two
recommendations and no requirements. All recommendations have
since been addressed.
Managing Inspector: Wendy Davidson
10 November 2010
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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.
You can also contact the Complaints Coordinator, Headquarters, Care
Commission, Compass House, Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY,
telephone 0845 603 0890.
Crown Copyright 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education