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Riverside Day Nursery
121 Cholmeley Road
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 3LR

Tel No.
0118 966 5040

Ofsted Report

Ofsted Report January 2008

• Children benefit from healthy and nutritious meals and snacks. These are prepared and cooked on the premises.
• Meals are served individually to children.This means staff are able to recognise and respond to the childrens individual appetites
• Healthy drinks options are provided of water at regular times throughout the day to ensure children get sufficient to drink. Children can develop socila skills as they sit together to eat meals and snacks with staff
• Children benefit from activities to promote their physical skills, e.g playing on fixed climbing equipment and on ride on toys, action games and going out for local walks .
• All children enjoy daily fresh air as they play outside, e.g the babies sleep in prams outside and the older children use the outside area regulary.
• The needs for babies are accommodated well. They follow their own routines. Staff recognise their needs for comfort and reassurance and respond appropriatley.
• Older children are able to rest and sleep as they need to as mats are brought out, although most follow the nursery routine of an after lunch nap.
• Children learn good personal hygiene, they regulary wash their hands and toothbrushes and paste are provided for children to clean their teeth.
• Records to support childrens good health are in place, staff are fully aware of childrens health needs, such as allergies and medical conditions
• Comprehensive accident records are in place which ensure parents are well informed. An appropriate number of staff are First Aid qualified. First Aid boxes are readily located and the contents are regualry checked. This ensures children's minor accidents and injuries are appropriatley treated 

Inspection Outcome: Satisfactory

• A warm welcoming environment is provided by the nursery with photographs, posters, childrens art work and notice boards displayed throughout the setting. 
•  Children gain a sense of belonging as they have named pegs and storage pockets for their belongings.
•  Children benefit from a good range of toys and equipment which meet their needs. These are well maintained through regular checks and cleaning
• The nursery have appropriate safety equipment in place, such as socket covers and safety gates. Children are kept very safe through the secure entry system to the nursery. This ensures only authorised people are able to gain entry.
• Staff develop children's awareness of their own safety, e.g not standing on chairs as its dangerous and not running indoors
• Staff have a suitable understanding of their responsibilities to safeguard children. They have good access to child protection procedures in all areas of the nursery. This promotes the appropriate management of any concerns which may arise

Inspection outcome: Satisfactory

• Children are happy and settled at the nursery. Good relationships have been established between children and with staff. Staff overall interact well with children, encouraging their involvement in activities.  
• Children benefit from a good range of activities and play experiences which they are able to choose from, such as role play in the home corner, exploring and investigating with clay and sand and using their creativity at the easel painting. This enables them to make choices and decisions for themselves
• Children being cared for in the baby room enjoy warm caring relationships with the staff. Staff understand the childrens needs very well in this room and provide age and developmentally appropriate activities and experiences.
• Children have space to develop rolling, crawling and walking skills. Children who are becoming confident in taking steps are taken outside with push along toys and walkers on a one-to-one basis to practise and develop these skills

Nursey Education

• The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. Staff provide comprehensive plans to encourage children learning and development. All staff participate in contributing to the plans with ideas and suggestions.
• Children show generally good progress in learning letters and numbers which are supported by staff and activities. Staff encourage children to recognise letter names and sounds and words the initial letter links to. Staff support the childrens understanding between the differences between capital and lower case letters
• Children listen well and participate in singing songs and rhymes enthusiastically. This develops their language skills. The book corner has a good selection of fiction aand factual books which are rotated regualry encouraging children interest in books
• Posters and art work are used well in the setting to encourage childrens awareness of number, shape, letters and colours
• Children learn about the world around them through group time discussions about the weather and day, month and date which is then displayed visually for children to aid understanding
• Children use large and small physical skills through out the day, e.g outside in the play area and moulding clay, cutting with scissors and using glue spreaders
• Staff support childrens mathematical understanding through asking them to count and observe differences. Everyday routines are used to support counting the number of children
• Children have access to information and communication technology, such as calculators and an ICT area was being set up at the time of inspection

Inspection outcome: Satisfactory   

• They celebarte different festivals and religious dates, e.g Chinese New Year and Easter. This promotes their understanding and acceptance of other people and their lives who are different to themselves. Childrens spirtual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered.  
• The nursery gain very good information regarding childrens cultural, religious and individual needs from parents, e.g staff in the baby room obtain very detailed information about the childrens routines, comforters and provide the same bottles used at home
• The nursery provides suitable care to children with learning difficulties or disabilities. And are aware of taking appropriate action where there are concerns and putting into place individual play and learning plans for children
• Parents are kept informed through letters, notice boards and staff feeding back to them verbally about their child's day and general progress
• Curriculum plans are displayed on notice boards which parents can access

Inspection outcome: Satisfactory

Organisation

• The leadership and management is satisfactory. Staff are well qualified with most staff holding level 3 childcare qualifications. The manager, deputy and committee members regulary to communicate and discuss and agree operational procedures.
• Room meetings and full nursery staff meetings are held on a regular basis.
• Overall the staff work well together as a team. Staff have suitable understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
• All required paperwork is in place, such as policies and consents from parents.Most aspects of documentation is good with accident records being particularly comprehensive and well informed of these through receiving a copy of the report

Inspection Outcome: Satisfactory

• Ensure the required staff ratio is maintained at all times
• Ensure activities and routines are appropriate for the children, particularly with regard to rest times, using the book corner for a large number of children and using the outside area
• Develop good hygiene routines and ensure cross-infection is minimised in regard to hand washing routines, staff wiping childrens noses and the serving of food
• Develop behaviour management strategies that are consistant and appropriate to manage individual childrens challenging behaviour.
• Maintain childrens individual development records to ensure they are kept up to date and use these records to plan for the next steps in the childrens learning
• Evaluate the curriculum to promote staff understanding of childrens learning and development
• Develop systems to encourage parents to be actively involved with their childrens eduaction and promote their access to their childs development records

Overall Outcome: Satisfactory