Ofsted Inspection
The Centre and its community:
Gamesley Early Excellence Centre provides a range of learning opportunities for children and adults. It serves a close community that is determined to succeed despite facing difficult challenges. The Centre offers: childcare (respite care for under-threes); a nursery; family support; before and after school clubs; holiday play schemes; adult education with crèche facilities; toy libraries and advice and training to others working with young children. The Centre helps a significant number of children with special educational needs (SEN).
How successful the Centre is:
The Centre fully merits its 'excellence' status. It is very well run and extremely effective in providing high quality services for children and adults. The teaching is very good. From low beginnings children do very well so that they reach at least the standards typical for their ages by the time they move to primary school. The Centre gives good value for money.
The Centre’s main strengths:
The Centre makes an excellent contribution to the community and enriches the lives of children and adults.
The head of Centre and department leaders provide very good leadership and management and this is the key to the success of the Centre. They co-ordinate high quality education, childcare and support services which seamlessly blend together to benefit everyone. Team working is very strong and there is real enthusiasm to strive for even better standards. The Centre's capacity to do even better is very good.
Teaching, care and support are highly effective. Children are challenged to do particularly well in social, creative and early reading and writing skills. Adults are also very well provided for. Parents gain great confidence in helping their children learn and in joining courses that lead to qualifications and employment.
The Centre's links with parents are excellent. Education is viewed as a shared responsibility. This partnership is very fruitful and makes an effective contribution to children's learning at the Centre and in the home. The parents' meeting and questionnaires reveal that overwhelmingly there is very high regard for all aspects of the Centre's work. Children too express their enjoyment and satisfaction with all they do at the nursery.
Minor areas where improvement is needed:
- the analysis of data and records to promote even higher achievement
- the governing body's understanding of the weaknesses of the Centre.
Nursery Education Summary:
| Standards - in relation to the early learning goals in the six areas of learning | From a generally low baseline the children do very well overall and reach the expected standards for their ages in: communication, language and literacy; mathematical development and in knowledge and understanding of the world. In physical, creative and personal, social and emotional development they exceed the expected standards. |
| Teaching and learning | Very good. The staff work extremely effectively as a team. They know the children well and plan excellent activities to meet their needs. There is very good emphasis on learning through play. Children find learning fun, and do very well. |
| Personal development | Very good. Children are eager and involve themselves enthusiastically in all that the Centre offers. They love coming and attendance is very good. Children behave very well and show high levels of independence. |
| Curriculum | Very good. The curriculum is exceptionally well planned and meets the needs of children of different abilities. It is broad, balanced, stimulating and interesting and includes all the areas of learning for the Foundation Stage. Excellent resources are used well to enrich children's experiences. |
| Care | Very good. The Centre is a very caring community, which provides effectively for the welfare, health and safety of children. Good records and data are kept to track children's achievements but the analysis of them needs refinement. |
| Links with parents and community | Excellent. Parents are made very welcome. Parents and staff work together effectively to get the very best out of the children. |
| Provision for children with special educational needs | Very good. It is very effectively organised so that children who require special help are identified quickly. Their needs are reviewed regularly with parents. |
| Leadership and management | Very good. The vision given by the head of Centre and department leaders is strong. Ways of checking teaching and learning are secure. The work of the governors is sound and they are committed to the success of the Centre. They are less secure in monitoring the Centre's effectiveness. |
Other aspects of provisional summary:
| Aspect | Quality of provision |
| Respite care for under-threes and family support | Very good. There is very well organised provision based on good knowledge of the children's and families' needs. The staff are friendly, sensitive and supportive and this goes a long way to helping families overcome difficult circumstances. |
| Before and after school clubs | Very good. Children receive very good supervision and interesting activities in a relaxed and social atmosphere. They are picked up from home or school and brought to the Centre allowing parents to work or attend training courses. |
| Adult education with crèche facilities | Very good. The provision is going from strength to strength, with active leadership, very good teaching and hardworking staff. The availability of flexible childcare facilities widens the participation of parents who would not normally be able to take part. As a result they benefit personally and increase their employment chances. |
| Toy library | Very good. It is well organised, bright and cheerful. It resembles a toyshop. Children's eyes light up as they choose good quality toys to take home. |
| Advice and training to others working with young children | Very good expertise is shared with childminders, playgroups and schools in the area. Practical guidance is given and innovative ideas are followed through. |
| Holiday play scheme | Not inspected. |
You can read the whole report at the Ofsted website.