The Glasgow Academy - Kelvinbridge Kindergarten Day Care of Children
Colebrook Street Glasgow G12 8HE
Telephone: 0141 334 8558
Type of inspection: Unannounced Inspection completed on: 31 January 2018
Service provided by: Service provider number: Glasgow Academicals War Memorial SP2003003598 Trust
Care service number: CS2008187699 Inspection report
About the service
This service was previously registered with the Care Commission and transferred its registration to the Care Inspectorate on 1 April 2011.
The Glasgow Academy - Kelvinbridge Kindergarten is one of several services operated by Glasgow Academicals War Memorial Trust. The service operates from purpose built premises in the West End of Glasgow. The service is registered to provide early education and childcare to a maximum of 48 children in their pre-school year. The service operates during term time only. There are currently 38 children accessing the service.
The service is in partnership with Glasgow City Council to provide pre-school education.
Included in the service's aims and objectives is to "ensure children feel secure in a caring environment."
We checked the service was meeting the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), Scotland's nationals approach to improving outcomes and wellbeing for children by offering the right help at the right time from the right people. It supports them and their parents to work with the services that help them. There are eight wellbeing indicators at the heart of GIRFEC: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.
What people told us
On the day of the inspection visit there were 34 children present at the morning session. All children stayed for lunch with 18 remaining for the afternoon session. We observed happy, confident children who were fully engaged in a range of learning experiences. Staff's approach to the children was nurturing and caring, offering support and encouragement when needed. Children told us they liked coming to kindergarten and what their favourite activities were. Comments included:
"I like playing with the dinosaurs."
"I like to go outside to play."
"My favourite is making dinosaur shapes with the playdough."
"I just love doing everything."
"Building things in the construction area is my favourite."
"I love playing with the magnets."
We sent 16 care standard questionnaires to the service to distribute to parents/carers of children who used the kindergarten. Six were returned before the inspection. We had the opportunity to speak with a further six parents during the inspection process. Both verbal and written comments were positive and confirmed that parents were very happy with the quality of care their child received. Parents particularly praised the staff for the way they cared for the children. Parental comments included:
"Our child joined Kindergarten recently and in his short time the staff have worked very hard to settle him."
"The staff are excellent and very professional but caring and kind at the same time."
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"The area is large but well zoned which allows kids to move between areas that have been designed to encourage the children to use and develop different skills and attributes."
"There is a focus on experimental learning and the kids very much direct the topic work."
"In addition to more traditional education resources the kids and staff often up cycle everyday objects in the most wonderfully imaginative way - it is a testament to the service that we as a family tried out many of the wonderful activities at home."
"Staff are professional and a wonderful support to the children."
"This is a brilliant service and the staff are very welcoming and supportive."
"If you have any concern they will do their best to help."
"Staff are really great and keep you updated about how your child is progressing."
"I love the play and stay sessions as you get to see what your child is learning during their time at Kindergarten."
"My child really enjoys attending and is making very good progress."
"The kindergarten is very much part of the whole school and a great deal of work goes on ensuring a smooth primary 1 transition."
Self assessment
The service had not been asked to complete a self-assessment in advance of the inspection. We discussed their improvement plan and quality assurance paperwork. These demonstrated their priorities for development and how they were monitoring the quality of the provision within the service.
From this inspection we graded this service as:
Quality of care and support 5 - Very Good Quality of environment not assessed Quality of staffing not assessed Quality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good
What the service does well
Management and staff had created an inclusive, nurturing environment where children and their families felt welcome, listened to, valued and respected. Their child centred approach meant children were extremely well supported and encouraged to achieve their potential. It was clear from our observations that children had developed very trusting relationships with staff and were confident and happy to approach them if they needed support.
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The service had embedded the wellbeing indicators from Getting it Right for Every Child into their everyday practice. Staff displayed a very good knowledge and understanding of children's needs including any health needs. Staff had accessed information to ensure they were equipped to meet children's medical conditions. In conjunction with the parents and health professionals they had developed detailed procedures which staff would follow if needed. To ensure every child felt included and could participate in all activities, management and staff researched alternative resources for making playdough and baking.
As part of their health and wellbeing focus the children had the opportunity to take part in a range of activities including outdoor play, physical exercise, yoga classes and the daily kilometre. This approach helped children to stay healthy, active and included.
The service has systems in place to review aspects of practice and identify future developments. For example: through their improvement plan they highlighted that they would further develop their outdoor area. This included a new all-weather surface, planting area, story area and a shed which was used as an outdoor classroom. A previous boat shed separated the children attending the nursery from the children attending the kindergarten. This barrier has been removed which means that the children from both services can play together. This has had a positive effect on the transition process.
Another focus of the improvement plan was reviewing transition arrangements. Nursery children spend time in the kindergarten every week which helps to familiarise them with the environment, staff and rules. Play and stay sessions were in place for parents and children moving from nursery to kindergarten. This will be offered this year to children and parents starting at the service from other establishments.
To assist the transition to school the kindergarten leading library was moved to the Prep 1 breakout area. This allowed the children to regularly visit this area and access the cloakroom and toilets they would be using when at school. They visited the dining hall to help them get used to their new lunchtime routine. This approach to transition helped the children to feel safe, responsible, respected and included.
What the service could do better
There were no significant areas for improvement identified during this inspection visit. Through our discussions with management, we feel they and staff are well placed to make further progress on the areas they had identified in their improvement plan.
Requirements Number of requirements: 0
Recommendations Number of recommendations: 0
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Complaints
There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com.
Inspection and grading history
Date Type Gradings 25 Feb 2015 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
27 Nov 2012 Unannounced Care and support 6 - Excellent Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
25 Mar 2010 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment Not assessed Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership Not assessed
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To find out more
This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our website.
Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action when things aren't good enough.
Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service.
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Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas.
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