Bourne Valley Spotlight

A celebration of exceptional achievements of apprentices, learners and employers across the South West'.

Below is the award standing we received during the ceremony held at Sandy Park, Exeter on Wednesday 2nd June 2010.

We had a wonderful day on Saturday 19th June at the village fete, we had princes, princesses, knights, dragons and even a ogre on or walking behind our 'Castle Float'!

Can I thank all families, friends and staff who help create such an excellent atmosphere on the day and some great costumes!

We were also awarded first prize in the large float category, well done everyone!

Many ducks set off but only a few made it to the finish line (only 4 little ducks came home!)

As part of Bourne valley nursery School’s spring celebrations parents and their children took part in a sponsored toddle waddle and duck race to help raise awareness of meningitis and funds for the Meningitis Trust, the UK’s leading charity working with families affected by the disease. Toddle Waddle is one of the meningitis Trust’s annual fundraising events, which has raised over £2.3 million to-date.

Having worked with children for more than twenty years Gaenor knows how important it is to be aware of Meningitis, which still kills more children under the age of five in the UK than any other infectious disease.

Gaenor says, “We really wanted to do something which would help make a difference and raise awareness, as well as money – a Toddle Waddle is a fun way to do both! One of the highlights of the evening was when Monty the duck delighted the children as he joined in with the actions for a number of songs including ‘five little ducks’ before leading the way to the river for the duck race. We had over fifty families join in and a great time was had by all!’

The Toddle Waddle down to the river for the 'Duck Race' The Winners with Monty the duck!

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We had a fantastic day raising money for the STARs appeal. The children were invited to come in dressed in sparkly clothes, and all the staff dressed up as well.

Whilst having lots of fun with the children we also wanted to educate the children about how the STARs appeal helps lots of other children. This is a charity very close to our hearts at Bourne Valley as we have had parents and staff who have had their beautiful babies prematurely.

Each of the rooms had the babies out to play with, and staff role modelled caring for them. We bathed them, fed them and kept them safe. We enhanced this by making the home corners into hospitals and having the medical equipment available.

We also added 'sparkles' to the play dough, made glitter bottles and cooked star shape biscuits.

During the morning the whole nursery gathered in the playground and added stars to the 'magical wishing tree'.

Throughout the session the children were asked to think about their own wishes and made their own stars. We then made the tree into a wishing tree; we hope everybody enjoys looking at what the children wished for. We also sang, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, ‘Miss Polly had a Dolly’ and ‘When you wish upon a Star’.

We would like to say congratulations to ‘Woodlands’ who won the prize for the 'sparkliest room'. Everybody across nursery made a huge effort and enjoyed wearing their sparkles- also a big thank you to parents for some fantastic outfits!

Finally we would like to thank families for all their generous donations- we have raised over £80 so far for the STARs Appeal.

Here are some photo's of the day, we will be uploading each of the rooms sparkle day photo's soon!

Mimi carrying the head and here's the finished snowman with the Bourne Valley team!

Each Key Person completes observations on the children in their group. A spontaneous observation is something the child has done, using their own initiative throughout their play. These are recorded if it is a ‘wow’ moment, something initiated by the child you have seen that the child has not done before. At the end of the observation we plan a ‘next step’, this is planned to enhance the child’s learning further, in an area they are naturally interested in.

This observation is then placed in your child’s learning journey. The learning journey is a working document that records your child’s development over the time they spend at nursery. We also include photographs, the children’s work, speech they have shared and annotate the entry. Please add to this if you wish, (Wow sheets are available) you are welcome to take it home to share with your child and other family members, please ensure it is back on site fore your child’s next session.

This observation is linked to the curriculum. It is linked in an area and documented so we can see what we need to plan to help the individual child progress.

This is the ‘next step’ from the spontaneous observation, being implemented. We plan the activity and record the aims we are working towards. As this activity is completed it is written as a focus observation and then put in your child’s learning journey. We evaluate this activity and plan another ‘next step’ if necessary.

Every room has continuous provision that is developmentally appropriate. This is a variety of resources, ranging from 3-6 activities in all areas of the room. The children have access to these at all times and can help themselves. The 12 areas set up permanently in each room consist of:

From the children’s spontaneous observations we plan an ‘Enhancement’ to go in every area (above) of the room. Again, using these observations we will place a new item into the area, that is already of interest to the child, it is proven practice that if a child is interested they will continue to learn. These enhancements are reviewed regularly and clearly identified by ‘stars’ on the drawers.

Again this lead comes from the child initiated learning and the spontaneous observations. Learning stories become the theme that the adults enhance through activities. For example, if a group of children are enjoying dressing up as policeman, the learning story may become, ‘People who help us’. This would then continue to be the rooms learning story for as long as the children are benefiting from the theme, this will be clearly displayed on our parents’ boards so you can contribute if you wish.

At Bourne Valley Nursery we work on Phase one of the letter and sound curriculum, this curriculum will continue throughout primary school. Every day we complete an activity linked to this curriculum. If you want to find out how you can support your child with this please speak to your child’s Key Person.

From September 2008 we started working with the new Early Years Foundation Stage, which covers from birth to the end of Reception Class at School (5yrs). We will keep you up to date on how we will be using this curriculum and any changes it will create. We have been on several courses about it and are very excited about how we will implement it in a way that reflects our beliefs about child development.

All these courses have been held by Osiris Educational in London and have all been excellent, we will share with you the main areas that relate to us soon.

The dfes has lots of information on their website 'www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs/' about the Early Years Foundation Stage including a 'Parents Pack'. Below are a few pages from this site, which give you an initial introduction. We will change these pages when the site is updated to share more information with you.

Here are some quotes from various sources regarding the importance of play that you may also find interesting;

‘Play is an essential part of every child’s life and vital to their development. It is the way children explore the world around them and develop and practice skills.

Play is a generic term for a variety of activities, which are satisfying to the child, creative for the child and freely chosen by the child. Children’s play may or may not involve equipment or have an end product. Children play on their own or with others. Their play maybe boisterous and energetic or quiet and contemplative, light hearted or very serious.’

‘Play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child…… Play can be fun or serious. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them, elaborating all the while a flexible range of responses to the challenges which they encounter.’

‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’

‘ Play should be about children having fun and learning to manage risk through adventurous activity. This is an essential part of child development and important to the future health of the nation.’

Feedback from Parents Exit Questionnaires.

When Parents leave Nursery or when their child moves room we ask them to complete a Questionnaire to help us evaluate our service, here are some of the general comments made by Parents that we thought you might like read:

Parent Comments from Questionnaires August 2008.

Blue Room Exit Questionnaire, as your child moves through to Purple Room.

‘Blue Room was very welcoming when we started Nursery; it made settling in very easy.’

‘The individual Teams are always attentive to the children and their feelings.’

‘Genuine enthusiasm of keyworker & staff in team being committed to what they do.’

‘Very caring and reassuring to child if they’re not having a good day.’

‘Good Team feel. The ‘adult’s’ seem to communicate well as a team and this is reflected in the feedback from my child’s day – if one adult doesn’t know what my child’s been doing, they ask another.’

‘Even though I only get to see keyworker on 1 of the 4 days contact has always been good either through use of diaries or parent chats. Level of detail has always been really good.’

‘All the Blue Room staff are enthusiastic, approachable, knowledgeable and make coming to nursery a fun experience for our child.’

‘A very large, colourful room with lots of interesting play areas (and natural daylight!).

‘All the keyworkers are fantastic – they know all the children –really well.’

‘10/10 – keep doing what you are already doing – you are doing a fantastic job – I can go to work fully confident that my daughter is in excellent hands.’

‘There’s always plenty for him to do which leaves him very tired but very happy at the end of the day.’

‘On Parent’s Evenings and other social occasions we have always had lots of support and time from our child’s keyworker.’

‘I am pleased that outside space is used effectively and frequently’.

‘I don’t always have time to look at the parent boards during drop off/ pick up but other methods are very effective and give us a clear idea of our child’s life at nursery, whilst making us feel part of the ‘Bourne Valley’ network!’

‘I always leave my child feeling confident that he will be cared for very well and I don’t need to worry!’

‘Staff are kind, enthusiastic, caring and the children love them! They have a sense of humour!’

‘Activities are varied and stimulating. They are given freedom and choice but things are also well organised. And the most is made of the outdoor time which the children thrive on.’

‘Even if keyworker is not available, the others always know what he has been doing – communication is very good.’

‘You make use of every available space and seem to spend as much time outside as possible – which is important.’

‘To change it (our service) would take away from the warm environment that we all love.’

Bourne Valley Exit Questionnaire, when your child leaves Bourne Valley

‘Love the days when we turn up and the playground has been decorated for a seasonal event or social occasion – never dull, always looking forward.’ PR

‘Very nice staff and good choice of hours.’ PR

‘Interested in it’s staff as well as children. A safe, happy, adventurous environment/ community – always changing and improving it’s ‘offer’ for it’s young people, their parents and it’s staff.’ PR

‘Very welcoming and friendly, put our minds at rest straight away.’ PR

‘Friendly, fun, colourful, playful, caring, supporting, celebratory, imaginative.’ PR

‘I love the fact everyone is so friendly that all the staff know every child and their habits.’ PR

‘Will definitely send number two here!! The best start I could have wished for my daughter.’ PR

‘Lovely position, garden and playground area always look child friendly, imaginative & appealing.’ PR

‘The smell from the kitchen is always enticing! Warm cheese scones, baked potatoes, cowboy pie – mmmm!’ PR

‘We realise we haven’t had a parent/keyworker session but that is a reflection on our confidence that ……. has been happy. The educational stuff like formal parents –teacher feedback can wait til primary school and well being, socialisation, play, fun learning and a safe environment matter more at Nursery stage.’ PR

‘Out child considers many of the staff to be her friends which is a huge compliment to their care, professionalism and sense of humour!’ PR

Outside every room there is a ‘Parents Board’. This has information about most recent Ofsted investigations, the staff that work in the room and a brief paragraph about their qualifications and experiences. Also found on these boards are ‘white boards’ this has feedback written daily. Please help yourself to ‘Wow’ sheets to add to your child’s learning journey. The Learning story for your room will also be displayed on the board so parents can contribute if wanted. We also add posters and notes to these that are relevant at that point in time so please check them for updates.

We hold a family social at least once every term. At this event we have all the rooms open and work/photos up on display. We invite anyone who would like to attend, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbours and really embrace the family atmosphere. It’s really nice to mingle with other parents and see what your children achieve during the time they spend with us.

We have themed days for many events throughout the year, including Patron Saint days, such as St Patrick’s Day. We also embrace other cultural celebrations such as Chinese New Year and Davali. At some points throughout the year we also do fund raisers for charity, including ‘Children in Need’ and ‘Red Nose Day’.

Around about mid June, Winterbourne hold a village fete. We often join in with this and have lots of fun joining in dressing up to a theme and decorating a Float accordingly. Our most recent float was ‘Toy Story,’ please see the website for photos.

Each room arranges parent’s evenings at different times, letters will be sent to you when this opportunity arises in your room. This is a great chance for you to drop into nursery between ‘5.30-7.00 pm’ and have a chat to your Key Person/ other parents whilst your child is safely tucked up in bed!

These are available all year, and it is the parent’s opportunity to initiate a chat with their child’s Key Person at a convenient time. These chats may be ‘touching base’ or sharing the ‘Learning Journey’ or you may wish to discuss any problems or new ventures you are going to start such as ‘toilet training’. At Bourne Valley, we believe that your child will thrive and achieve if their boundaries are consistent in every setting they attend so please do not hesitate to arrange a chat with your Key Person as and when you would like.

This is a working document of your child’s development whilst at Bourne Valley and captures key learning moments. It is available for you to have at any time. We encourage parents to add ‘Wow’ sheets and photographs to build the link between home and nursery. These are then shared between the child and their Key Person, as we want the children to be involved in their own journey.

Also our club runs for the private school holiday dates (please call to confirm dates/timings)

1st & 2nd September 2011 at St Nicholas Primary School & Winterbourne Primary School.

The Nursery Education Grant.

The Term after your child's third birthday you will be entitled to the Nursery Grant. The amount of Grant depends on the number of sessions you do and on the length of the term.

Each year you are entitled to 38 weeks worth of grant, this is divided up over the year (Summer Term, Autumn Term and Spring Term). We divide each of these termly amounts over four months (May,Jun,Jul,Aug : Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec : Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr ) during the year to credit you a regular monthly amount. This then reduces your monthly fees.

If you are term time only and do not attend in August this months grant will be credited onto July's invoice (a double credit). If you do 5 sessions a week (mornings or afternoons) you will get the maximum grant available.

To register for the Grant (Free Entitlement) you must sign a 'Headcount Form' in the Office each Term (we will put up signs when we receive this form from County). You grant is calculated on the permanent sessions you are doing that week. You can change the number of sessions you claim for termly at this time.

You can claim a maximum of 15 hours a week but you can only claim 10 hours over 1 day, 12.5 hours over 2 days and the full 15 hours must be over 3 days.

Room Meetings.

As I am sure you will appreciate the time each room spends in their weekly meeting is a very valuable time used to make decisions to benefit the teams, rooms, parents and most importantly the children at Bourne Valley. This is why we would like to keep interruptions of this valuable time to a minimum so we have included a timetable to inform you of the times. If you have information you need to pass onto your child’s Key Worker when you drop off then if you tell the earlies member of staff we will pass the relevant information onto the Key Worker after the meeting.

We would appreciate your co-operation and understanding to aid the smooth running at nursery.

Bourne Valley Nursery School, After School and Holiday Club opened in April 2001. It operates from a converted village school in the village of Winterbourne Earls, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The nursery serves a wide local area.

There are currently 175 children on roll. This includes 53 funded three-year-olds and 29 funded four-year-olds. Children attend a variety of sessions.

The setting currently supports children with special needs and who speak English as an additional language.

The nursery opens five days a week all year round, apart from two weeks at Christmas, and operates from 08.00 until 18.00.

Twelve full and part-time staff work with the children. They all have relevant childcare qualifications or are working towards a recognised early years qualification. The setting receives support from the Wiltshire Early Years team.

At Bourne Valley Nursery School the provision is of high quality and children are making very good progress towards the early learning goals.

The quality of teaching is very good. The well-trained staffs have an excellent understanding of the foundation stage of learning and plan a wide range of interesting and exciting activities that extend and challenge the children. The planning used is very good and promotes all the learning areas, but some learning interventions are not shown. Staff plan very well for each child’s individual progression which ensures the needs of all the children, including those with special educational requirements, are met.

Staff encourage children to be polite and to behave well. They praise their good behaviour and offer rewards such as stickers. They are skilled at encouraging children to consider the feelings of others. The nursery is very well resourced both indoors and outside The pleasant outdoor areas allows children to develop their physical skills very well.

Staff assess the children’s progress against the stepping stones using Wiltshire’s Building blocks system. These are used to plan for children’s next steps in their learning. Parents are encouraged to add their information to these assessments.

The leadership and management in the nursery is very good. The strong team of staff are committed to training and are encouraged to develop their individual skills. The setting has regular staff and room meetings. Termly reflection meetings allow staff and management to evaluate and monitor the provision offered.

The partnership with parents is very good. All planning is displayed on the room notice boards, keeping parents informed about what the children are learning and activities planned. They are encouraged to be involved with the children’s learning y taking book bags or contributing items connected to the different topics. Parents are also able to find out more about the provision from the nursery’s own website.

The staff provide excellent activities to encourage the children to explore and investigate. For example, they made a sensory area for children to explore lights and reflection. This was then extended because the children were so interested, to include looking at shadows and silhouettes and making a shadow theatre.

The planning is very good. It is simple to understand and promotes all areas of the curriculum very well. The planning is attractively displayed in each classroom so that the parents are able to see what children are learning about and be involved in the activities. Staff base the activities they plan on each child’s individual learning needs.

The nursery ensures that children with special educational needs are included into the setting and their needs are appropriately met. The special needs co-ordinator records the children’s progress in the nursery and shares these records with parents and other professionals as necessary.

The attractive and very well resourced outside areas are well used well. Children are able to run and move freely, to climb safely, to play imaginatively and to observe growing plants and trees.

The strong leadership and management is very evident in the efficiency of the setting. Staff are valued and encouraged to develop. Both staff and the management team reflect on and evaluate the provision they offer and are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

· The provision of tools and resources that encourage the children’s mark making.

At the last inspection two points for consideration were offered. The setting has made very good progress in meeting these. The first asked that any work which is kept to show children’s progression and achievement clearly shows this. Children’s work in their building blocks assessment files is appropriately dated and includes a commentary on the work, completed by the keyworker.

The second was to increase opportunities for the children to recognise and to learn to write their own names, by ensuring that these are clearly visible on their work and that where appropriate staff encourage children to write their own names. At this inspection children were seen writing their own names and mark making marks as appropriate. Staff encourage children to label their own work and use a variety of different methods to encourage name recognition.

The children are very confident and understand the routines of the nursery very well. They are well behaved. Staff encourage politeness and reward children’s good behaviour with praise and rewards. Children are able to take turns and help each other, they are learning to be sensitive of others feelings.They happily help tidy up when asked. Childen are able to take care of their own personal needs, for example, put on their coats for outside play or pour their own drinks at snack times.

Most of the children are confident speakers and are able to explain their ideas and thoughts in words very well. They enjoy circle time, show and tell, and can sit quietly and listen to each other. Well planned activities are used to introduce new words to the children; they talk about reflections, silhouettes and shadows. They enjoy stories and are learning to use books for reference as well as enjoyment. The resources provided in the mark making area to engage children’s attention are limited.

The wide range of resources and activities available encourage children to explore shapes, sizes and to make patterns. In water and sand play they are filling different shaped containers and finding out about capacity. They enjoy being elephants, balancing on string using the rhyme to learn to add on numbers. They can count to ten and beyond very confidently. Children use construction toys such as the marble run to solve simple problems, and when cooking use descriptive words for quantity.

The excellent planned activities and topic work promote the children’s opportunities to explore and investigate the world around them. Children enjoy a sensory area where they are handling torches, looking at lights and shadows. There are displays of spring flowers and tadpoles. Plants are grown in the garden allowing children to observe the natural world around them. The children use the computers very confidently, the programmes available support children’s learning in other areas.

When outside the children have access to very good resources for climbing and balancing which they use very confidently. They climb on, over and under apparatus. They use wheeled toys, a parachute and ring games to learn a sense of space and they can manoeuvre toys safely. Children use different malleable materials, including playdough, sand and clay. They handle tools, for example the computer mouse, scissors, glue spreaders and spades with confidence and increasing control.

Children are encouraged to explore colour, materials and texture in two and three dimensions, with the many different resources provided. They paint freely and skilfully and have made good representations of spring flowers. They play musical instruments to explore sound patterns and listen with interest to Chinese music playing while they investigate Chinese resources. They are provided with different stimuli to encourage role play, including drama sacks, homeplay and dressing up clothes.

Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered appropriately: Yes

The provision is acceptable and is of high quality. Children are making very good progress towards the Early Learning Goals. The next Inspection will take place in three to four years time.

There are no significant weaknesses to report, but consideration should be given to the following:

· The inclusion of learning intentions for adult led activities in the daily planning

The registered person must draw up an action plan within 40 working days of receipt of this report showing how the key issues detailed above will be addressed. The action plan must be made available to all parents, and to the Local Authority if required. An evaluation of the action taken will form part of the next combined inspection.

Garden	Malleable
Maths/Fine Motor	Books/quiet area
Creative	Mark Making
Water	Construction
Sand	Fine Motor
Role Play	ICT

Room	Day	Timings
Sky Room	Wednesday	4.15pm to 5.15pm
Ocean Room	Friday	8am to 8:45am
Woodlands Room	Thursday	4.15pm to 5.15pm
Office	Friday	1:30 to 2:30
Management Meeting	Wednesday	2pm to 3pm

Highly Commended

Bourne Valley Nursery Schools Ltd

Room Meetings.

Room

Day

Timings

Wednesday

Friday

Thursday

Friday

Highly Commended
Bourne Valley Nursery Schools Ltd
Bourne Valley Nursery School’s approach to Apprenticeships is to treat apprentices as valued employees from their first day. Based near Salisbury, the business provides a supportive induction programme and an individual mentor who produces a professional development plan that is closely monitored via one to one sessions. Aiming to retain their apprentices into permanent employment, the nursery enjoys a 100% success rate with all those who complete the first eight weeks of their Apprenticeship. Considered a valuable tool for professional development, the system of ‘plan, do and review’ is embedded into Bourne Valley practice on many levels - whilst developing an apprentice into their new role, existing employees are encouraged to consolidate and review their own roles and procedures. The nursery does its best to be flexible to individual requirements – altering attendance times, for example, to suit bus timetables and accommodating driving lessons as much as possible to encourage greater independence. Five apprentices were taken on during 2009 and all have accepted permanent positions.