AJJ'S Nurseries T/A Bizzie Bees

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time in nursery. They choose equipment and activities that interest them, helping to trigger even more ideas and games. Babies are captivated by the familiar songs staff sing. They join in, using tuneful sounds, and quickly learn to make actions with their arms during the songs and rhymes. This helps babies establish the foundations for communicating with others and forming sounds needed to begin to build recognisable words. Older children are delighted when staff lead a group game about a wolf telling the time. They carefully count their footsteps before squealing with excitement when they are chased back down the garden. Through their games, children learn to take turns, follow instructions and strengthen their muscles through physical movement. They build on their expanding vocabularies through the introduction of exciting and uncommon words and phrases used in the traditional rhymes and chants.

Children are confident and curious and are keen to join in adult-led activities. They work out how they can connect poles together to construct a house. They watch others to see how they can solve the problem before having a go for themselves. Staff support children, asking questions that encourage them to work out what might help them to join the poles up.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• The attentive staff spend time with children in small groups and on their own to help them settle into the nursery. They quickly get to know what children like and enjoy and ensure toys and equipment reflect these interests. Through reassurance and encouragement, children build positive bonds with their key person and other staff. This helps children to settle and feel safe in the nursery.
• The owner, who is also the manager, values continual reflection and improvements in the nursery. For example, she has recently strengthened the way in which staff supervision meetings are carried out and recorded. This helps to ensure that support and coaching have a positive impact on the care and education children receive.
• Children behave well. They are occupied in meaningful play and activities and show consideration towards others. Staff ask children to vote for the game they would like to play. Children listen to the choices before putting their hands up when their preference is called again. Children understand that even if their choice was not the most popular, there will be other times for them to play that game. Consequently, children begin to learn about democracy and respect.
• Parents are involved in the decisions made as to when children are moved from one group to the next. Children spend progressively longer periods of time in their new room, helping them get to know their new key person and different environment. This contributes to children's continued confidence and progression in learning as they smoothly move through the nursery.
• There is a good balance between adult- and child-led activities. This contributes to the wide range of experiences children have in the nursery. However, at times, staff do not consider how to use the space they have most effectively. For example, babies do not always have sufficient space to crawl and explore without restriction. Older children are sometimes gathered in more confined areas of their rooms for group activities, limiting their ability to be highly creative during action and movement games.
• The friendly staff enthusiastically interact with children. However, initially, staff do not build on what children already know and understand to ensure they are consistently challenged in their learning.
• Staff do not always take personal responsibility to help ensure that daily routine tasks, such as tidying, are carried out in a timely manner. Leading on from this, children are not always encouraged to tidy away unused toys and resources. This contributes to children's varying attitudes towards respecting possessions and equipment.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• organise the environment more effectively to provide sufficient spaces for babies and children to maximise opportunities for learning and self-expression
• support staff to add suitable challenges to children's play and explorations that build on what they already know and understand right from the start
• review how and when routine tasks are carried out to ensure they are effectively completed, setting good examples for children to follow.