/ Providing Inspection Services for
Department of Education
Department for Employment and Learning
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Inspection of Ballyduff Nursery Group,
Newtownabbey
(DE Number: 3BB-0139)
A Report by the Education and Training Inspectorate
January 2005

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

Name of pre-school centre: / Ballyduff Nursery Group
Address: / Knockview Road
NEWTOWNABBEY
BT36 6TT
Management Type: / Voluntary
Date of inspection: / 20 January 2005
Date of previous inspection: / 14 May 1999

1.Details of Children

Total number of children: / am session / pm session
  • attending the pre-school centre
/ 23
  • in their immediate pre-school year
/ 13
  • funded by Department of Education
/ 13
  • qualifying under DE admission criteria 1 & 2
/ 5
  • with a statement of SEN*
/ 0
  • without a statement but receiving therapy or support from other professionals for SEN
/ 0
  • with English as an additional language
/ 0
  • who left in previous school year to attend reception provision within a primary school
/ 0
Attendance:
  • percentage attendance** of funded children for the previous school year
/ 82%

*Special Educational Needs

**Calculated from the date when the intake was complete

2.Details of Staff

Number of: /

Full-time

/ Part-time
Staff, including leader / 3
Staff holding recognised childcare qualifications / 3
New appointments within previous 12 months
Number of: ***
Students / 2
Trainees / -

*** Total placements since September of current year

3.Details of Sessions

Duration of morning session / Duration of afternoon session / Number of days open in previous year
4 hours / - / 183

4.Parental Questionnaires

Number issued to parents:

/ 13
Percentage returned: / 23.1%
Number of written comments: / 0

Introduction

1.Ballyduff Nursery Group is accommodated in Ballyduff Primary School. The children come mainly from the surrounding area.

2.In their response to the inspection questionnaire, the small number of parents who responded expressed a high level of satisfaction with the centre’s provision.

The Quality of the Educational Provision

3.There is a friendly, caring atmosphere in the centre. The staff provide a secure, supportive environment which helps the children grow in confidence and independence. The playrooms are set out with a wide range of resources and are enhanced with photographs and examples of the children’s drawings. The children are generally settled and well behaved. At times, a few children still require adult support to share agreeably and to play productively.

4.The centre is developing an effective programme of liaison with parents.

5.The centre has a suitable written policy on child protection which is shared with the parents. The staff need to update their training in child protection.

6.The staff work together to plan the programme and they are making some useful evaluations of the children’s responses. The planning incorporates a good range of themes and topics and identifies some of the learning to be developed in aspects of play. The staff should continue to develop the planning in order to outline more clearly how the activities provide increased challenge and progression over the year and take account of the children’s differing needs.

7.The children’s snack time is organised informally and provides opportunities for the children to develop independence and to acquire early mathematical and social skills. The children have regular opportunities for physical play, singing and a group story. Although the timetable provides short periods of free play during which many of the children are engaged productively in activity, the session as a whole is fragmented. The staff need to review the management and organisation of the activities in order to promote more opportunities for sustained play and to meet the children’s differing needs.

8.The staff give the children continuous support during play and often engage the children in valuable discussion about their activities and experiences. Their involvement is sensitive and purposeful. During the inspection, there were occasions when members of staff encouraged the children to think, observe and solve problems.

9.The range of activities provided offers satisfactory opportunities for learning in most areas of the pre-school curriculum.

  • The staff encourage the children to be independent, to share materials agreeably and to take account of the wishes of others; much praise is given for their achievements. The staff are alert to those children who need additional support to develop their social skills and are quick to offer appropriate guidance.
  • The staff ensure that the children have some regular opportunities for energetic play. Further attention needs to be given to the planning, management and the use of resources, in order to enable the staff to implement a physical play programme which offers greater challenge and progression throughout the year. The children are developing their abilities to control small tools such as scissors and pencils using a wide range of tools and equipment.
  • The children’s abilities to express their ideas creatively are developed effectively through the use of a wide range of materials. There are frequent opportunities for informal singing and music-making; the children have acquired a repertoire of rhymes and songs which they clearly enjoy.
  • The staff make good use of the play opportunities to develop the children’s conversational skills and use appropriate questions to extend and develop language and learning. At times the children browse in the book area and show an interest in books, early marking and experimental writing. The staff should do more to foster an interest in books by incorporating them more fully into aspects of play and develop further the quality and range of books available for the children.
  • Some appropriate aspects of early mathematical learning are incorporated incidentally into the play and necessary routines. Early scientific ideas are developed through play with sand and water. Good use is made of seasonal and environmental topics to extend the children’s knowledge of, and interest in, the world around them. The staff make use of a range of visitors to the centre to enhance the children’s experiences.

10.The staff are developing an appropriate system of assessment. They are building up individual profiles of the children’s achievements which are used to inform the parents about their children’s development. The staff should continue to develop their assessment by linking it more clearly to the planning in order to ensure that the children’s differing needs are met.

11.Valuable links have been established with the adjoining primary school to which most of the children will transfer.

12.The leader has been in post for a very short period of time. There is a developing sense of team spirit: the staff have worked hard to develop the provision and display a willingness to develop their practice further. The regular meetings ensure that all the staff participate in decision-making by planning the programme and evaluating the work. The leader has identified appropriate areas for review and development. The staff value the support of the management committee and the appropriate guidance given by the centre’s early years specialist.

13.The quality of the accommodation is good. There is ample space to provide a wide range of activities. The staff plan, appropriately, to review the layout of the play areas to provide optimum opportunities for the children to access the full range of materials. The centre has use of the primary school hall, school library and a small enclosed outdoor area. The quality and range of resources is adequate.

14.The centre was open for 183 days during the previous school year. This falls below the number of days required as a minimum quality standard for groups receiving funding as part of the pre-school programme.

15.The strengths of the centre include the:

  • friendly, caring atmosphere;
  • sensitive and purposeful involvement of the staff in the children’s play;
  • satisfactory opportunities to learn in most areas of the pre-school curriculum;
  • good links with the adjoining primary school;
  • hard-working staff and their progress in developing the work of the centre to date.

16.The inspection has identified areas for improvement. In addressing the most important of these areas, the centre needs to:

  • improve aspects of the organisation and management of the day in order to promote more opportunities for sustained and concentrated play and to meet more effectively the children’s differing needs.

17.There are strengths in some important aspects of the educational and pastoral provision in this pre-school centre. There are also areas that require improvement if the needs of the children are to be met fully.

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 CROWN COPYRIGHT 2005

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Copies of this report may be obtained from the Inspection Services Branch, Department of Education, Rathgael House, 43 Balloo Road, Bangor, CoDownBT197PR. A copy is also available on the DE website: