Baddesley & Grendon Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Leaders do not have effective recruitment procedures in place to ensure that staff working at the pre-school are suitable.

Risk assessment is poor. Environments are cluttered and staff do not remove potential hazards to children. This compromises the safety and welfare of children.

Staff inductions are not thorough enough to ensure that staff are fully informed of the pre-school's policies and procedures and their duty to safeguard children. Leaders do not effectively share information about children with other staff when they start. This means that staff are unaware of children's specific learning needs to help ...them plan for children's learning from the start.

That said, staff respond well to children's emotional needs. Children seek out staff for reassurance and a cuddle as they settle into the pre-school. Children enjoy their time in the garden as they ride scooters or balance on the stepping stones.

They play chasing games together and build friendships. However, during some activities, children can become overly excited. For example, as they explore water in a tray, they begin to throw it.

Staff are not consistent with how they manage this, and sometimes ignore negative behaviour. This does not help children to understand behavioural expectations.

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

Leaders have not informed Ofsted of changes to the manager of the pre-school.

They do not demonstrate a sound understanding of what needs to be notified to Ofsted.Leaders do not implement robust recruitment procedures. They do not carry out the necessary suitability checks to ensure that staff are deemed suitable.

Leaders do not maintain accurate Disclosure Barring Service records, and have not followed their safer recruitment policy with vetting checks. This means that leaders cannot be assured of staff's suitability to care for children.The induction process for new staff is not effective.

Not all staff are confident in their understanding of the policies and procedures in place, with particular regard to the safeguarding policy. Although staff are aware of the possible signs that a child may be at risk of abuse, some staff do not know the procedures to follow to report any concerns. This compromises the welfare of children.

Risk assessments are ineffective. There are risks in the environment that, at times, go unnoticed by leaders and staff. For instance, fire exits are blocked and fire doors are difficult to open.

There is broken equipment that children can access. At times, children wander around with toys in their mouths. Staff are not vigilant enough and do not ensure that they are removed for children's safety.

This compromises children's safety and well-being.Leaders gather information about children when they start at the pre-school.However, this information is not always effectively passed on to staff to ensure that they are aware of possible developmental delays.

This means that staff are not fully aware of what support they might need to put into place to help children make the best possible start in their learning and developmental journey.Staff do not receive appropriate supervision to help them in their roles. Leaders acknowledge that this is an area for improvement and have identified areas for development with staff practice.

At times, staff stand around and supervise children's play but do not engage in children's learning to help them to develop their knowledge further. Despite leaders acknowledging this, they have not taken sufficient action. Children do not benefit from high-quality teaching, which limits their progress in learning.

During group activities, staff encourage children to sit and listen to stories together. However, when some children display disruptive behaviour, staff do not manage this effectively. As a result, children continue to be disruptive.

This impacts on other children's learning, and those who are initially focused become distracted and disengage from the story.Parents comment that staff are kind and caring. Staff share updates on what their child has been enjoying during their time in the pre-school.

Children enjoy exploring the magnetic shapes. They create houses for their toy animals and talk about which of theirs is the biggest. This introduces some mathematical concepts into their learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.There is not an open and positive culture of safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date improve leaders' understanding of what changes must be notified to Ofsted 27/09/2024 ensure that relevant checks are completed and records of these maintained to confirm that staff's suitability to work with children has been considered 27/09/2024 implement effective induction arrangements for staff to ensure that they understand the pre-school's policies and procedures, with particular regard to reporting procedures for any safeguarding concerns 27/09/2024 improve leaders' and staff's understanding of how to risk assess the environment and potential risks to children, to ensure that these are minimised 27/09/2024 ensure that there is effective communication between leaders and staff when children start at the pre-school, so they can fully plan for and support children's individual needs 27/09/2024 improve the arrangements for staff supervision to identify any training needs to help coach and mentor staff and raise the quality of teaching 27/09/2024 implement effective strategies for managing children's behaviours so they know and understand what is expected of them.

27/09/2024

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