Bourne Valley Spotlight

From September 2008 we will be 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.

Our Summer Social was held on 6th June, we were lucky with the weather and enjoyed cream teas and pimms! The rooms were all open for family and friends to look around and staff were on hand for a chat and organising activities for the children.

Joining in the activities, can you hook a frog? Gathering in the playground for Pimms & Strawberry

It was also a very special occasion for our longest attending families, Emily will be leaving us at the end of term to move on to St Edmunds in Laverstock. Emily has been coming to Nursery since she was two and a half, an amazing nine years! We took this opportunity to celebrate this with her and her family and to wish her all the best in the future, but we are look forward to seeing her back at BV soon!

Emily receiving her leaving gifts, with her family - who will be greatly missed!

If you would like to do some voluntary sessions, we would welcome you to come in and help support lunchtimes (12.30-1.30) we currently have Mondays to Fridays available. If your child already has lunch and you help out we would refund the lunch session.

We are also keen to hear if you would be interested in going on our supply list. (an enhanced CRB would be required but we can process that for you.)

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 as 13 weeks in the Summer Term, 14 weeks in the Autumn Term, 11 weeks in the Spring Term. We divide each of these termly amounts over four months (M,J,J,A : S,O,N,D : J,F,M,A ) 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.

April 2008 to March 2009

Number of sessions per week1 2 3 4 5

Grant payable per term £112.45 £224.90 £337.35 £449.80 £562.25

Summer Term (13 wks).

Amount credited per month£28.11 £56.23 £84.34 £112.45 £140.56

SummerTerm(13wks).

Grant payable per term £121.11 £242.20 £363.30 £484.40 £605.50

Autumn Term (14 wks).

Amount credited per month£30.28 £60.55 £90.83 £121.10 £151.38

Autumn Term(14 wks).

Grant payable per term £95.15 £190.30 £285.45 £380.60 £475.75

Spring Term (11 wks).

Amount credited per month£23.79 £47.58 £71.36 £95.15 £118.94

Spring Term (11 wks).

Eg. I f you attend 3 sessions per week in May, June, July and August you will receive £84.34 credit per month, in Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec you will receive £90.83 credit per month, and in Jan, Feb, March and April you will receive £71.36 credit per month.

To register for the Grant 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.

These figures will be changing in April 09.

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.

The plan above shows a plan of the school, showing the location of the office and rooms, and the correct entrances to use for them. After School will be situated in the room above Purple Room, photos can be seen through Purple Room. Green Room and Yellow Room are now one room.

Here are some photos of the Nursery. (Unfortunately the click and view function is not working at present so please enjoy the photos below).

Feedback from Parents Exit Questionnaires.

When Parents leave Nursery we ask them to complete an Exit 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, Feedback from Exit Questionnaires.

‘All the staff have always been helpful and willing over the 5 years we have been using BV. The carefully planned topics have been well thought out and generated interest in learning new skills and stretching the children’s ability in all areas.’

‘Staff are very committed, friendly and approachable. Child activities – good variety, enjoyable and informative. Overall feel BV has provided my with a variety of skills which has given her an excellent start in life, many thanks.’

‘We were very impressed with the profile and leaving cards. Lots of information available to school and liaison with parents.’

'Well trained staff, good friendly attitude to child and parents. Excellent Childcare and Education facilities. Child centred environment and excellent curriculum.’

‘Keyworkers appear to take the responsibility seriously, rather than it just being a paper exercise. A real relationship is built up with the child.'

‘I have been impressed by details of each day’s activities – has demonstrated the high level of thought and planning which goes into every session.’ (Planning Board)

‘Attention to the individual child is excellent. You are obviously a happy team that works well together, this instils confidence. Everyone seems to really enjoy what they are doing. We are kept well informed about child’s progress.'

‘The personal style of management, inclusion of Parents, respectful attitude to children, caring staff and investment in staff training and the long service of staff is worthy of praise.’

‘The facilities and activities are wonderful, but I think the people deserve the highest praise. I have always been greeted warmly by all the staff, and I genuinely feel all of the caregivers are interested and care about my children. I feel I am leaving my children in warm, caring, experienced and enthusiastic hands.’

‘The social events give a real sense of involvement with Nursery, and demonstrate your commitment to the children and their families.’

‘It is wonderful to know that you are leaving your child with people he truly loves, to do activities he likes and will learn from. We had complete confidence in the Nursery and it was a treat to be able to drop my child off knowing he was happy and would have a fantastic morning.’

‘The staff are exemplary – I have nothing but praise for their polite, professional manner.’

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.

Room	Day	Timings
Green Room	Thursday	8am to 8:45
Blue Room	Monday	8am to 8:45
Purple Room	Wednesday	8am to 8:45
Office	Friday	1:30 to 2:30
Management Meeting	Tuesday	4.30pm to 5.30pm
Team Leaders Meeting	Thursday	4.15pm to 5.15pm

Room Meetings.

Room

Day

Timings

Thursday

Monday

Wednesday

Friday