Providing Inspection Services for
Department of Education
Department for Employment and Learning
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Inspection of Poppins Day Nursery, Moira,
Co Down
(DE Number: 4CA-0378)
A Report by the Education and Training Inspectorate
October 2001
INTRODUCTION
1.
Poppins Day Nursery is a privately operated preschool education centre. At the time of the inspection, a
total of 16 children attended the centre; all were in their
pre-school year.
2.
The inspection is part of a programme to ensure
that appropriate standards of education are provided in
centres receiving funding as part of the Government’s
expansion of pre-school education. All of the centre’s
pre-school places are funded through the expansion
programme.
3.
The inspection provided opportunities for the
parents to express their views about the centre. All of
those who responded were satisfied or very satisfied with
the centre’s provision.
THE QUALITY
PROVISION
OF
THE
EDUCATIONAL
4.
The centre is bright and attractive; good use is
made of the children’s artwork, photographs and interest
areas to create an inviting environment. The staff have
worked hard to make the best use of the available space
to create distinct learning areas. There is a settled,
caring atmosphere; relationships between the staff and
the children are good. The children are well behaved
and co-operate readily with the staff.
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5.
Communication with the parents is good; a
booklet, regular newsletters, and an open day are
designed to encourage the parents to play a role in the
education of their children. The parents are encouraged
to contribute to the work of the centre by collecting
items for art or by sharing a skill. In addition to the
informal meetings at the beginning and end of the day,
the staff plan to meet the parents individually to discuss
the children’s progress and achievements.
6.
The staff are clear about the procedures to adopt
in order to implement the centre’s written policy on child
protection. The policy is made available to all the
parents. Some additional aspects of child protection
practice now need to be considered and included in the
policy in order to ensure that the centre's arrangements
are comprehensive.
7.
The staff prepare weekly plans, and plan also for
the longer-term development of topics and themes. In
this planning, the staff identify some appropriate aspects
of learning which they intend to promote. They do not,
however, focus clearly enough on the broad potential of
the play activities for extending the children’s learning
and development in all areas of the pre-school
curriculum. Inadequate attention is given to ensuring
that the play experiences progress over the year, meeting
the children’s differing needs.
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8.
The daily timetable provides a satisfactory period
of uninterrupted play during which the children choose
freely from the range of activities. The routines for
snack time promote the children’s independence and
social skills. When the weather permits, the children
have daily opportunities for physical play outdoors.
Appropriate time is given to an enjoyable story session
with the whole group.
9.
The staff join sensitively with the children in
play; they recognise the importance of developing the
children’s social skills and promoting emotional well
being. They are supportive and caring, and foster
strongly the children’s self-esteem.
During the
inspection, there were many instances when the staff
provided sustained support, which fostered successfully
the children’s language and learning.
On these
occasions, the children were encouraged to observe and
to think, and there was valuable discussion about the
play. Some of the interaction is, however, less sustained
and productive, and on these occasions, opportunities are
missed for promoting learning.
10.
The centre’s programme fosters effectively the
children’s personal, social and emotional development.
There are satisfactory opportunities for learning in most
of the other areas of the pre-school curriculum. The
points which follow illustrate specific aspects of the
programme:
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
The children appear confident and are developing
independence. Most of them can co-operate with
others and are learning to share and take turns.
Some of the children persevere with activities,
displaying a good level of interest and
concentration.

There is appropriate development of the
children’s fine manipulative skills as they use
small tools and items of equipment. There are
limited opportunities for them to engage in
energetic play using a range of large equipment
to promote, for example, co-ordination and
balance. In order to extend appropriately this
aspect of the programme, there is a need to plan
more effectively for, and make better use of, the
outdoor play area, and to provide additional
resources.

The children display an interest in painting and in
using imaginatively the range of materials in the
creative art area. Their artwork is displayed
attractively.
Although there are some
opportunities for singing, the staff need to
provide a wider range of well-planned musical
experiences for the children.
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
Many of the children are developing listening and
conversational skills. They respond with interest
during the story session and some engage well in
role play. Through the appropriate use of name
cards, most of the children are beginning to
become aware of the printed word and some
recognise their own names. The staff need to do
more to promote a wider use of books throughout
the session and to foster the children’s interest in
experimenting with marking and writing as part
of their imaginative play.

The staff often use appropriate mathematical
language when participating in the children’s
play and promote an interest in counting and
recognising shapes. Through talking about daily
routines and seasonal events they introduce ideas
related to time.
Some of the children’s
experiences are not exploited fully to foster their
awareness of early mathematical ideas; for
example, better use should be made of play in the
house area and the routines at snack time, to
encourage the children to match, order, and
sequence.

There are suitable opportunities for the children
to develop an awareness of early ideas related to
science and technology. They observe, explore,
and select materials as they take part, for
example, in play with sand and water, and in
creative art activities. They are developing some
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important skills such as cutting, sticking, pouring
and building. The children are learning to care
for their environment.
Appropriate topics
introduce ideas related to the seasons and to the
local community.
11.
The staff have made a suitable start in developing
their approaches to monitoring, recording and reporting
the children’s progress. Thoughtful observations of the
children’s achievements are recorded. They share with
the parents information on the children’s learning. The
staff now need to consolidate and develop further their
methods in order to ensure that adequate information is
recorded on each child's progress and that key areas of
development are monitored closely. They need to link
the assessment information more clearly to the planning
in order to ensure that the children's differing needs are
met.
12.
Although the centre has made efforts to establish
contacts with the local primary schools, the links are
under-developed. The staff ensure that records of the
children’s achievements are passed to the appropriate
schools.
13.
The centre opened just over a year ago; there is
evidence that, within this period, the two staff have
worked hard, and have made significant progress, in
developing the educational provision.
They work
together as a team to plan and implement the
programme, and seek to refine and improve on their
methods. They value the support provided by the
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centre’s early years specialist who has focused on
appropriate areas for development. In order to address
the issues raised in this report, the staff require more
appropriate opportunities to meet together in order to
plan and evaluate the necessary developments.
14.
The quality of the accommodation is satisfactory.
The room is bright, attractive and well maintained.
Storage space is limited. There is an enclosed outdoor
play area. Although there is an adequate supply of basic
equipment, additional resources are needed, particularly
for constructional and role play, physical development,
and music, in order to support the implementation of a
broader and more extended programme.
15.
The strengths of the centre include:

the warm and caring atmosphere;

the quality of the learning environment;

the children’s good behaviour;

the links with the parents;

the promotion of the children's personal, social
and emotional development;

the staff’s hard work and the progress made in
developing the educational provision.
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16.
The inspection has identified some areas
which require action.
In addressing the most
important areas, the centre needs to:

improve the quality of the planning in order to
ensure that the learning potential of the play
activities is identified clearly, and that all aspects
of the pre-school curriculum are developed
appropriately;

ensure that the staff are consistently effective in
exploiting all the opportunities for promoting
learning;

develop further the methods for monitoring and
recording the children’s progress, using the
assessment information to ensure that the
children’s differing needs are met.
17.
Overall, the quality of the educational provision
in this pre-school centre is satisfactory but improvements
are needed in the areas identified if the needs of the
children are to be met fully. The staff should draw up a
plan to address these areas.
The Department’s
Inspectorate will monitor the progress being made.
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 CROWN COPYRIGHT 2001
This report may be reproduced in whole or
in part, except for commercial purposes or
in connection with a prospectus or
advertisement, provided that the source and
date thereof are stated.
Copies of this report may be obtained from
the Inspection Services Branch, Department
of Education, Rathgael House, 43 Balloo
Road, Bangor, Co Down BT19 7PR. A copy
is also available on the DE website:
www.deni.gov.uk
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