Quality Assurance Report
Sandringham Nursery
March 2016
Thank you to all parents, children and staff who contributed to our
questionnaire. Your feedback is very much appreciated and helps us identify
areas to make further improvements and ensure standards of care at
Sandringham Nursery remain high.
Our staff, activities, daily information and care provided
Parental comments about our staff, activities offered, information on the
child’s day and care provided, were very complimentary. Here are a few
examples of what you told us …..
‘Really happy with the level of care received, never have to worry and total
confidence in all the staff. Would highly recommend this nursery to anyone’
‘Our compliments to all your staff for being so enthusiastic and caring with our
little ones!’
‘Our child is happy in nursery and learning a lot’
‘I really enjoy the information chart I get everyday and that the ladies take the
time to talk me through my child’s day’
‘My child is learning new things at nursery that I haven’t seen at home. I’m
very happy with the range and type of activities that he takes part in at
nursery’
‘The team at Sandringham have made my return to work much easier than
expected’
‘Thanks for the regular emails which tell us about the activities planned’
‘Thank you for taking such good care of our little girl. All the staff at
Sandringham are wonderful – always extremely helpful and friendly. My
daughter loves going to nursery and we couldn’t be happier, knowing that she
is in such a fun, warm and caring environment. Thank you!’
Curriculum planning and parent consultations
Following parental requests for weekend parent consultations, sessions are
now held on a Saturday. This ensures they run smoothly and don’t overlap
with the nursery day. During the sessions, we offer parents individual
appointments to discuss their child’s progress. Parents commented that they
enjoyed seeing the children’s files. The Parent Consultations were well
received and rated as ‘Outstanding’ by over 60% of the parents.
We were pleased to receive feedback showing all parents were familiar with
the Early Years curriculum and monthly activity planning carried out at
Sandringham. Activity planning was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by over 70% of
parents and the regular planning emails were very much appreciated.
Food Menu
Comments about the food menu included
‘We are very happy with the healthy range of food provided’
‘A wide variety of food is provided that is healthy and nutritious’
‘Very happy with the food and staff helpful with dietary requirements’
‘Always given healthy snacks’
‘Our child enjoys meal and snack times and the staff are very conscientious
ensuring vegetarian food is provided for our child’
We had an individual request for more low sugar breakfast cereals. However,
we do currently offer a range of low sugar cereals. Our breakfast menu
consists of: Cornflakes, Multigrain hoops, Malt Wheat, Porridge, Weetabix,
Toast & Butter.
Another request was to include more foods from other cultures. We have
suggested to our cook to trialling a few new dishes such as stir-fry noodles and
Cuban style rice with red and black beans.
We received another individual request for serving less cake and more fruit.
Please feel free to speak to your child’s key worker if you wish to make an
exclusion from the menu. If you have specific dietary requirements for your
child, please put these in writing so that our dietary checklists are kept up to
date.
Children’s Questionnaires
At Sandringham Nursery we are child centred and therefore include children in
our questionnaire. The pre-school children were asked a range of simple
questions regarding their favourite activity; they were also given a range of
facial expressions on paper and asked to circle how they felt about their meals.
In addition, one of the questions asked the children if there was anything they
don’t like about nursery. In the baby and toddler groups there are always a
selection of activities available for them to choose and the evidence of empty
plates demonstrated they enjoy mealtimes.
Favourite activities and children’s comments
‘I enjoy the hungry caterpillar story’
‘I like playing with food toys and drawing’
‘My best is chicken dinner. I eat it all up’
‘I like sausages with mash and peas’
‘I like playing with everything. I love toys’
‘I like playing hairdressers and dressing up’
‘I like having breakfast with my friends’
‘I like playing with my friends’
‘I like my best friends and laptop time’
Things children don’t like at nursery
‘I don’t like pasta’
‘I don’t like seeing spiders’
‘I don’t like the hairdresser’s clips’
Staff Questionnaire
The emphasis of the staff questionnaire was to ensure we are continually
improving the quality of the nursery environment for the children to enjoy,
learn and achieve.
All groups were asked the following questions:
1. How do you allow the children to choose their own resources?
2. Does the environment look exciting from children’s eye level?
3. Are there any additional resources required to deliver the activities?
4. How can we involve children in designing the play areas?
5. How often is the equipment checked?
Staff responses were very positive. Within the nursery, we encourage children
to voice their opinion. We do this by involving them when planning activities
and ask what they enjoy most. During freeplay, we encourage children to
choose the toys they would like to play with. In the baby rooms, a range of
toys are set out and we carry out regular observations to determine their
preferences. Our downstairs front room has a low level display board at the
children’s eye level which enables them to display their own work.
Staff from all groups were asked if there were any additional resources
required to enhance our activities. The following items were requested and all
of them will be implemented over the next few weeks.
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Sensory resources, treasure basket items and different textured toys.
Extended range of dressing up equipment for all ages
New home corner role play equipment with resources
A range of different sizes play balls
A cosy book corner
Interactive wall play panels
Low level playtable for train track and vehicles
Within the two babyrooms, gated doorways rather than closed doors