/ Providing Inspection Services for
Department of Education
Department for Employment and Learning
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

Inspection of Little Rainbows Playgroup
Maghera, Co Londonderry
(DE Number: 3AB-0525)
A Report by the Education and Training Inspectorate
November 2005

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

Name of pre-school centre: / Little Rainbows Playgroup
Address: / 189 Glen Road
MAGHERA
Co Londonderry
BT46 5JN
Management Type: / Voluntary
Date of inspection: / 21 November 2005
Date of previous inspection: / N/A

1.Details of Children

Total number of children: / am session / pm session
  • attending the pre-school centre
/ 16
  • in their immediate pre-school year
/ 14
  • funded by Department of Education
/ 10
  • qualifying under DE admission criteria 1 & 2
/ 0
  • 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
/ 96%

*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 / - / 2
Number of: ***
Students / 1
Trainees / 0

*** 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
2½ hours / - / 190

4.Parental Questionnaires

Number issued to parents:

/ 14
Percentage returned: / 64%
Number of written comments: / 2

INTRODUCTION

1.Little Rainbows Playgroup is located in the grounds of Fallaghloon Community Hall, in the lower Glenshane Pass area, Maghera. The children come mainly from the surrounding area.

2.The parents, staff and management group were given opportunities to express their views about the centre through confidential inspection questionnaires. In their response, the parents and management group expressed a high level of satisfaction with the centre’s provision. The responses have been taken into account as part of the inspection.

THE QUALITY OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROVISION

3.There is a settled and caring atmosphere in the centre; relationships between the staff and the children are good. The children are friendly and well behaved; some firm friendships are developing. The staff have worked hard to create an attractive and stimulating learning environment in the playrooms, which are enhanced by topical displays and examples of the children’s work.

4.The staff have established an effective programme of liaison with the parents. They are kept informed about the centre’s events through monthly newsletters and information boards, which are updated frequently. In addition to the good opportunities for daily informal contact, the parents are invited into the centre on three occasions to discuss their children’s progress with the staff.

5.The centre has a policy on child protection which is shared with the parents; additional information about the centre’s procedures needs to be included in the written policy and the parents’ information leaflet. The staff have identified appropriately this aspect of work as an area for further staff training.

6.The staff are developing a collaborative approach to their planning and are beginning to take greater account of the children’s individual interests and abilities, and to evaluate the programme. The planning outlines a broad, balanced programme for the children, and offers satisfactory to good opportunities for learning in most areas of the pre-school curriculum. Planning should be developed further to ensure that the learning to be promoted and the role of adults are identified clearly, and that the activities provide progression and increasing challenge throughout the year.

7.The daily routines, particularly the early session of uninterrupted play, provide frequent opportunities for the children to make choices and to explore freely the full range of activities. The staff need to improve aspects of the organisation of the daily timetable in order to ensure that the time available is used effectively for concentrated and productive activities to enhance the children’s learning.

8.The staff are caring and supportive and show an awareness of the children’s interests. Their involvement is sensitive and often purposeful. During the inspection, there were many examples of very effective interaction between the staff and the children, which promoted the children’s learning.

9.The centre’s programme promotes effectively the children’s personal, social and emotional development, their creative awareness and language development. The points, which follow, illustrate specific aspects of the programme.

  • The children are relaxed and happy in the playroom. During the inspection, there were many instances of good co-operative play when the children worked well with others and shared materials agreeably.
  • The staff plan some appropriate opportunities for physical development in the secure outdoor play area which is, however, limited in space. Further attention needs to be given to the use of resources, in order to enable the staff to implement an appropriate outdoor physical play programme which offers sufficient challenge and progression throughout the year. There are regular opportunities for the children to develop good manipulative skills using a range of small tools, materials and equipment.
  • The children engage in a wide range of activities, involving a variety of materials, to develop their creative ideas and skills. During the inspection, the children clearly enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with a range of scrap materials. The children’s paintings include representations of familiar aspects of their world and show attention to detail.
  • The children have frequent opportunities to develop their interest in books. During the course of their play, many of the children turn readily to the adults to ask them to read to them and they engage in purposeful discussion of the story. Many of the children show an interest in experimental writing as part of their imaginative play. There are regular opportunities for singing and music-making which develop effectively the children’s abilities to use percussion instruments and their awareness of pitch and rhythm.
  • The staff make good use of the play sessions to promote the children’s early mathematical understanding. The children are gaining appropriate ideas associated with number, shape and size.
  • The children learn about the living environment by growing seeds and bulbs and by their participation in nature walks as part of the centre’s educational visits. Good use is made of seasonal and environmental topics to extend the children’s knowledge of, and interest in, the world around them. The children have regular opportunities to explore the properties of water, sand and dough. The staff provide a varied range of materials and items of interest for the children to handle, observe and investigate; they have identified appropriately the need to provide more opportunities to develop the children’s technological awareness.

10. The staff operate a key-worker system and observe regularly the children’s responses to play. Thoughtful observations of the children’s achievements build into detailed individual records which are used to inform parents of their children’s progress. Recently, the staff have begun to use the outcomes of the observations to inform the planning of the programme in order to meet more fully the needs of individuals.

11.The staff report that a valuable programme of liaison has been established with a local primary school. This enables the children to visit the year 1 class and allows the leader of the pre-school centre to discuss with the year 1 teacher the children’s progress. Transition records are completed for the primary school to which the children transfer.

12.The leader has been in post for under a year; she is caring, hard-working and manages the centre effectively. The leader generates a strong sense of team-spirit and there is a sound foundation of skill and dedication among the staff to enable the centre to develop further; a detailed development plan identifies appropriate areas for improvement. The regular meetings with the early years specialist ensure that there are appropriate opportunities to plan and evaluate the work of the centre. The management group and the staff have made good progress in developing the provision.

13.The quality of the temporary, mobile accommodation is satisfactory; the centre is attractively presented and well maintained. There is an adequate range of resources which the staff should continue to update in order to support the implementation of a broad programme of play.

14.The strengths of the centre include:

  • the welcoming and caring atmosphere;
  • the good working relationships at all levels;
  • the appropriate period of uninterrupted play and the many instances of concentrated and productive activity;
  • the satisfactory to good opportunities for learning in most areas of the pre-school curriculum;
  • the development of effective links with the parents;
  • the effective leadership; and
  • a strong sense of team-spirit among the staff.

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

  • develop further the overall planning, particularly the short-term planning, in order to help the staff to exploit fully the learning potential inherent in the play activities, and to ensure that the educational programme progresses appropriately over the year; and
  • review and improve the organisation of the outdoor play provision.

16.There are strengths in many 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 2006

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, CoDownBT197PR. A copy is also available on the DE website:

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