Woodburn Day Nursery
Falkirk

20 January 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. Where applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good practice in the centre.

Contents

1. The centre
2. Particular strengths of the centre
3. Example of good practice
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their centre community?
7. Does the centre have high expectations of all children?
8. Does the centre have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?

4. How well do children learn and achieve?

Children are happy, well behaved and most are forming friendships. Children in the toddler rooms are well settled and secure in their environment. Staff encourage them to be sociable and interact appropriately with other young children. Children aged three to five years are polite, considerate and most listen well to staff and to each other. They are able to take turns and are learning to share toys.

A strong focus on citizenship is evident in the nursery, and staff and parents hold regular events. Children are regularly involved in activities which help them to keep healthy, for example ball and parachute games and Scottish country dancing. Some children benefit from a session of football training with Falkirk Football Club. Children have been recently involved in a national poetry competition and had their poems published in a book.

Most children aged three to five years are making good progress in listening and talking. They can take part in short conversations and follow instructions well. They listen with enjoyment and respond enthusiastically to stories, songs and music. Some children can use books to find interesting information. Most children can recognise their name in print and some are beginning to write it. However, children are not making enough progress with early writing skills. The majority of children can identify and use simple numbers during play experiences and in counting games. They can sort, match and group well. Most can recognise some shapes and patterns and can count within ten. However, children’s learning about capacity through regular water play is less well developed.

Curriculum and meeting learning needs

Staff working with children under three years plan using Birth to Three guidance. They interact very well with them and encourage communication and social skills. The playroom is calm and relaxed and staff organise purposeful and enjoyable activities. Staff working with children aged three to five years provide a broad and balanced curriculum. They meet regularly to plan children’s learning using the experiences and outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence. Staff need to provide more challenge for children in their learning and thinking. They enable children to develop early literacy and numeracy skills within activities. Children do not yet have enough opportunities to develop their early writing skills, play with water and develop their imagination and creative skills through art and craft. Staff need to provide a permanent writing area in the playroom which is available to children at all times. Children find out about living things through science activities including planting vegetables, feeding the birds and investigating worms in their outdoor composter.

They explore and investigate sound using a good range of percussion instruments. They regularly enjoy singing and role-play.

Staff provide children with a good range of regular, energetic activity outdoors which extends their physical skills.

Staff know children well and are responsive to their individual needs. They provide a caring and supportive learning environment. They use praise to encourage children and treat all children equally. They need to provide more activities which help children to think. Staff record regular observations about children’s experiences and routines and share information with parents on a daily basis. They consult children and involve them in the planning process. Staff meet regularly to plan together and also with the part-time teacher on a weekly basis. They do not yet use this information well enough to plan children’s learning. Staff know their roles in identifying children who require additional assistance with their learning and provide them with effective support.

5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?

The nursery has strong links with parents and the local community. Staff keep parents well informed about the work of the nursery through helpful newsletters. They provide parents with an annual written report about their children’s progress. Staff work effectively with officers from the education authority and value their regular support. There is a caring and supportive learning environment with effective support for children with additional needs. Staff have formed useful partnerships with a wide range of agencies to help children improve their learning. Colleagues in health, speech and language therapy and educational psychologists provide staff with regular helpful information to support children’s learning. Pupils from the local high school make productive visits to the nursery as part of their work experience. Staff have successful arrangements to support transitions from the nursery to primary school. Teachers from local primary schools visit the nursery and share approaches to supporting children’s learning.

6. 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. Children can see the changes that they have helped bring about through their work with Eco-Schools Scotland and Health Promoting Schools. Staff are committed to the nursery and to Improving experiences for children. They have worked well with the manager to identify areas to improve. They are all involved in planning changes to the nursery. Positive outcomes of the nursery’s improvement plan include working with secondary and primary pupils in the area. Staff feel supported by the local authority and have benefited from effective on-going training which has lead to improvement. The manager and staff need to continue to develop approaches to monitoring and evaluating the work of the nursery.

7. Does the centre have high expectations of all children?

Staff treat children with respect and are sensitive to children’s personal needs. All children are treated fairly and equally. Staff are committed to building positive relationships with children and families. They have an appropriate awareness of child protection procedures and know how to keep children safe and well. Staff display children’s art work and photographs of children’s learning activities effectively. Child and family achievements are also attractively displayed and encourage family pride in the nursery. Children are provided with a healthy snack and are encouraged to be independent during this time. They are able to spread using knives and wash their hands before handling food. Children take part in the tooth-brushing initiative.

8. Does the centre have a clear sense of direction?

The recently appointed nursery manager has worked productively to bring changes to the daily routines and further develop the curriculum. She is hardworking and committed to continually improve the work of the nursery. She has appropriately identified aspects for improvement and has begun to plan and share these improvements with staff. She is aware of current developments within the early years sector and continuously reflects upon their impact within the nursery. The manager and staff regularly take part in training and self-directed study to enhance their knowledge.

9. What happens next?

We are confident that, with support from the education authority, the nursery 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 nursery and the education authority will inform parents about the nursery’s progress in improving the quality of education.

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 Woodburn Day Nursery.

We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the centre.

Managing Inspector: Gill McKinnon
20 January 2010

When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.

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

Footnote

1. Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers and carers who are relatives or friends