Barney Bears Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and display a good sense of belonging at the nursery. They benefit from a warm and welcoming environment that helps them to feel safe and secure. Staff are positive role models and provide support and encouragement to help children to engage in a broad range of activities. Children receive clear and consistent messages about kindness and sharing. As a result, children behave very well and have a growing understanding about expected behaviour.

Babies form good bonds with staff and enjoy exploring sensory activities. For instance, they show curiosity as they experiment with fake snow and enjoy exploring new words, such as 'snowman' and 'star'. Babies also hear new language when participating in a range of action songs. Toddlers show good levels of motivation as they enjoy writing letters in glitter and discussing the sounds in their name. This helps to support their early literacy skills. They also show a keen interest as they explore the differences between land and sea animals when discussing different habitats. This helps to foster children's understanding of the wider world.

Pre-school children display a positive approach towards learning and particularly enjoy mathematical activities. For instance, they enjoy counting planets and identifying the correct numbers that correspond. They also have opportunities to explore resources from the seaside, such as sea shells and moss, and staff encourage them to explore what sounds different objects begin with.

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

• The nursery's curriculum is designed to support children to make progress across the different areas of learning. Staff have good systems in place to assess children's development when they start. They then use this information to plan tailored next steps for individual children to help them to move forward in their learning.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive high levels of support. Staff work closely with a range of professionals to provide consistency in their care and education. This is a real strength of the setting.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about diversity and different backgrounds. For instance, they participate in 'Culture Day' activities when they dress up in traditional clothes, share food from home and dance to cultural music. This helps children learn about lives different to their own and learn respectful attitudes towards others.
• Children have frequent opportunities to develop their physical skills. For instance, they show good coordination as they balance on crates and ride around the garden on wheeled toys. They also have fun using metal detectors, which help to develop their exploratory skills as well as their physical well-being.
• Staff promote the importance of good oral health. They provide children with opportunities during the day to brush their teeth. They also engage in training and have regular conversations with children about food choices that help their oral health and overall health.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff share information with parents in a number of ways. For example, through daily verbal discussions and by sharing photographs and updates on an online learning app. Parents state that they feel well informed about their children's learning. They also express that staff know their children well and are kind and nurturing.
• The manager is committed to providing good quality care and education for all children. She is reflective and makes accurate evaluations of the setting. She has a good overview of the nursery's strengths, and areas that need further enhancement. Staff receive ongoing monitoring and support with their roles and there is a good programme of professional development in place.
• The quality of education is good overall. However, at times, some staff working with babies do not maximise the opportunities that arise to extend their language skills and learning to the highest level.
• Overall, interactions across the nursery are positive and support children's learning well. However, on occasions, staff do not always give children enough time to process and respond to questions in order to promote their thinking skills to a higher level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff who work with babies to extend their language skills and learning to an even higher level
• strengthen staff interactions across the whole nursery to provide children with more time to process and respond to questions, to further develop their thinking skills.