Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit Day Care of Children
Kilmodan Primary School Glendaruel Colintraive Dunoon PA22 3AE
Telephone: 01369 820 280
Type of inspection: Unannounced Inspection completed on: 23 February 2018
Service provided by: Service provider number: Argyll and Bute Council SP2003003373
Care service number: CS2003014653 Inspection report
About the service
The Care Inspectorate regulates care services in Scotland. Information about all care services is available on our website at www.careinspectorate.com
This service was registered with the Care Inspectorate on 01 April 2011.
Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit is a daycare of children service and is registered to provide care to a maximum of ten children aged 3 years to those not yet attending primary school.
The provider is Argyll and Bute Council.
The service operates from their own dedicated space shared within Kilmodan Primary School, located in Glendaruel, a rural area near Dunoon.
The service's aims include:
"To provide an education that places each child at the centre by providing a variety of opportunities for learning that will stimulate the child's imagination and interest, at the same time encouraging their intellectual development. This will enable them to become successful learners and equip them with the skills for life, learning and work laying a solid foundation for a prosperous and successful future".
We check services are meeting the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child (also known as GIRFEC), Scotland's national 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 parent(s) to work with the services that can help them. There are eight wellbeing indicators at the heart of Getting it Right for Every Child: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included (also known as SHANARRI).
What people told us
There were three children present at the time of inspection aged 3-5 years. During the inspection they had great fun sharing their views and experiences with us. They showed us where they climbed in the bushes and had created their own "wee portal" to get out, their mud kitchen where they had made and priced different pies and cookies to sell in their café, as well as, how they joined in with the older children to play "What's the time Mr Wolf" in the playground. We were able to see how much they enjoyed socialising and having snack together, the sensory experiences of their messy play and the challenge, excitement and adventure of being outdoors. Staff were warm, caring and attentive in their approach. Children were confident about approaching staff should they need any help.
The three parent/carers we spoke with were happy with the service their child received. They felt involved and well informed and commented positively about the skill of staff and the opportunities their child had been given to develop, learn and flourish. An issue was raised about the days when conditions were icy and the entrance to the school had not being gritted (prior to the start of the school day). This was fully discussed with the head teacher as part of the inspection. We were satisfied with the arrangements the service had in place to ensure the playground was safe for children to use, on the few occasions this had happened. Records also confirmed there had been no accidents in relation to this. The head teacher explained the one off blockage of the drains (that occurred due to the clearing of ice) had been dealt with on the same day by property services, with further work carried out over the longer term to fix the problem permanently.
Inspection report for Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit page 2 of 6 Inspection report
We also received two Care Standards questionnaires from the three questionnaires we distributed before the inspection. Everyone was happy overall with the quality of care their child received and felt the service had involved them and their child in developing the service and asking for their ideas and feedback.
Comments we got back included:
"This year we have received more in depth knowledge of our child's activities. Further insight would be welcome".
Self assessment
The service had not been asked to complete a self assessment in advance of the inspection. We looked at their own 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 5 - Very Good Quality of staffing not assessed Quality of management and leadership not assessed
What the service does well
Staff were using their skills and expertise to create an inclusive, nurturing environment where children and their families felt welcome, listened to, valued and respected. We were able to see the children present confident about expressing their thoughts, views and feelings and making choices and decisions about what they wanted to do and play with throughout the morning. Staff were supporting them well to plan, develop and create their own learning activities, spaces and experiences. As recommended from the last inspection, their toilets had been refurbished and were now bright, safe and pleasant for children to use.
Staff valued and had taken account of parents' knowledge and views of their child's development needs, interests and personality when, for example, planning their transition arrangements or gathering the information they needed to develop and review each child's personal plans with their parents. This was helping children to form positive relationships with trusted adults and feel valued, safe and secure.
As identified in their improvement plan, staff were embedding the GIRFEC national practice model in their work with children and their families. Staff spoke sensitively and knowledgeably about children's individual care, learning and development needs.
A personalised learning log framework was being used to track children's progress and celebrate their achievements, with a learning journey being regularly shared with their parents. They were focussing on developing children's numeracy, literacy and early language skills, with an online application "seesaw" introduced to support and further strengthen their links with home. Parents spoke positively about this development.
Inspection report for Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit page 3 of 6 Inspection report
Staff knew the importance of making carefully observed assessments, that were meaningful and reflected children's development and learning. This was to further support their planning, with next steps focussing on areas to extend children's learning and help secure and sustain their progress over time. As identified in their improvement plan, staff were linking children's developmental milestones to the experiences and outcomes from the curriculum for excellence. This was to evaluate and better reflect children's progress. Children were also creating their own floorbooks as part of their learning journey. This was enabling them to reflect and lead on their own learning and share their fun and progress with their families.
There was a clear focus on providing a dynamic, fun, stimulating and enabling environment both indoors and outside. Staff knew the importance of giving children the time and space to develop their ideas, flourish and be creative. As a result, we were able to see children having fun expressing themselves and using their imagination and ingenuity to explore, discover and experiment with a range of different materials, tools, natural and sensory resources.
Everyone had been involved in the design project for the construction of the new outdoor/indoor classroom which was nearing completion. We were impressed with the rich learning experiences the children had enjoyed at each stage of the project. For example, measuring and deciding its shape and height, problem solving and marking out its position in relation to the sun, as well as, discovering the different properties of soil and the construction materials used.
They were knowledgeable about our guidance "My World Outdoors" and spoke enthusiastically about the plans they had in place to further develop their outdoor play space, with open ended materials, resources and loose parts play, to promote children's independence and natural curiosity, develop their physical agility and help build their resilience. We discussed how our new guidance "Our Creative Journey" could also be used to help further support the development of their setting and children's experiences both inside and outdoors.
Staff knew the importance of managing risk positively to promote children's independence and empower them to make safe decisions, develop their knowledge and self-awareness, as well as provide opportunities for them to contribute more of their ideas and experiences to their learning. We discussed how implementing the balanced approach of a risk benefit model could further support children's learning, promote their independence and build their resilience, self confidence and enjoyment of risky play.
What the service could do better
We discussed the introduction of the new Health and Social Care Standards My support, my life. Staff knew about the new standards and were committed to implementing and embedding them into their practice to achieve the best outcomes they could for children and their families.
The head teacher confirmed once the ecruitmentr of the new classroom assistant has been completed, they will be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) as appropriate and within the six month timescale required.
Requirements Number of requirements: 0
Inspection report for Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit page 4 of 6 Inspection report
Recommendations Number of recommendations: 0
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 2 Feb 2015 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
18 Feb 2010 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment Not assessed Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership Not assessed
27 Nov 2008 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good
Inspection report for Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit page 5 of 6 Inspection report
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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This report is available in other languages and formats on request.
Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas.
Inspection report for Kilmodan Primary Pre Five Unit page 6 of 6