Beaming Stars Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children are happy, settled and confident at the nursery. Staff have a high expectation of children's capabilities. As a result, children eagerly engage in the motivating activities that staff plan for them. Children have a keen interest in vehicles. They go on to excitedly move vehicles with pens attached to them to draw tracks as they play. Babies are engrossed in playing with animals and enjoy sharing a book about the farm. Children play happily together and establish friendships and enjoy each other's company. All children behave well and are polite and kind.

Children develop a good understanding of healthy lifestyles. For instance, they talk about the benefits of eating healthy foods. Children develop good physical skills. For example, they climb and balance on stepping stones and balancing beams. Babies develop their hand-to-eye coordination. For instance, they confidently thread pipe cleaners through the holes of a colander. Children develop a good understanding of people's similarities and differences outside of their own experiences. They learn about other countries and cultures. For example, children talk about the traditions of Chinese New Year and other festivals, such as Holi and Diwali. Staff use additional funding effectively to meet the individual learning needs of children. For example, they have purchased books to help children to understand their emotions.

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

• Staff establish secure and trusting relationships with children. They get to know their individual personalities well, including their likes and dislikes. This helps children settle quickly into the setting as they happily engage in activities that staff carefully plan for them. Children have a good sense of belonging and positive levels of well-being. Staff support all children to make good progress. This includes those who speak English as an additional language. For example, staff learn and use simple key words, such as 'goodbye', in Russian.
• The manager closely monitors the good quality of education and care that staff provide. She routinely observes staff teaching children and provides them with helpful feedback to support their performance. All staff work together well to evaluate their practice. For example, at the end of each day, they discuss what children enjoyed and what they could do differently next time. Staff use their findings to support their future activity plans.
• Staff are keen to continue to build on their skills and knowledge and attend regular training. They have made good use of recent training to support children to understand how to manage their feelings. For example, they have introduced a quiet, calming area where children are encouraged to go if they feel overwhelmed.
• Overall, staff support children to develop some good communication skills. Babies enjoy singing activities and staff provide older children with a running commentary as they interact and play together. However, at times, staff do not ask interesting questions or give children the time they need to think through their answers. This does not fully support their communication and language skills.
• The manager and staff establish positive relationships with parents. They keep them fully involved and informed in their children's learning and development. Staff regularly share photos of children's achievements. They share activity ideas with parents to enjoy at home with their children. This includes drawing and cutting activities, games and books.
• All staff build and maintain good partnerships with other settings children also attend. For example, they routinely share children's progress and next steps in their learning. This helps to provide children with a good and consistent link between the two settings they attend.
• Overall, children are engaged and motivated to learn throughout their time at the nursery. They have a positive attitude towards learning. However, at times, staff are too quick to solve problems for children. For instance, when a child asks to put more water in a flour mixture, staff suggest that this would make it too wet and sticky and to use flour instead. Therefore, children are not consistently given time to be able to explore if their own ideas will work and solve the problem if they are not successful.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's practice in creating more opportunities to challenge children's thinking, and encourage children to solve problems and come up with their own ideas for themselves
• review and improve support for staff to develop their questioning techniques, to further encourage children's communication and language abilities.