Beehive WB Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly greet children and offer them a hug, which children accept with open arms. Key persons spend valuable one-to-one time with children who need focused speech and language support, and they listen to those who find changes in the routine difficult. For instance, they provide empathetic and reassuring responses to help children to feel safe and secure in new situations.

Staff know all the children well. They use baseline assessments to identify their starting points and build a curriculum that considers children's interests, backgrounds, languages and what they need to learn next. Staff attend specific training, use communication toolkits and encourage parents and carers to complete assessments in their home language. This helps staff to outline any gaps in children's development. External professionals positively comment on how well staff take on board any advice given to support children's developmental needs.

Staff positively encourage children's behaviour through praise and gentle guidance, such as reminding them that 'sharing is caring'. They ask permission to join in with children's play and respect their need for space. Staff introduce to children different ways of using resources, such as how to hold and draw around a shape. They give children time to process this and have a go themselves. This increases children's confidence in their learning.

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

• Leaders carry out weekly staff observations to detect areas for development and often include themselves in ratios during busy times of the day. This ensures children are well supervised and promotes staff well-being.
• Staff complete written progress checks for all children, which they share with parents. However, systems for managing the two-year-old progress check are not organised well. For example, staff do not have a clear oversight of when the most useful point is to provide a summary, aligning with health checks where possible.
• Bilingual staff talk to children in English alongside their home language. They encourage children to repeat words and use them in context, such as saying 'press' and 'poke' when manipulating the play dough. However, when children make mistakes in their learning, staff do not always correct them. Furthermore, some staff's interactions can cause children confusion, as the information shared is not always clear.
• Children have opportunities to develop their social skills and imagination. For instance, they act out real-life scenarios in the role-play area, such as sitting at the table pretending to drink and eat. They twist the wooden tap and place their cup underneath, patiently waiting for it to fill. This shows children's understanding of the world and how things work.
• Staff positively extend children's play by asking open-ended questions to gather their thoughts and ideas. For example, they encourage children to name the puppet that they are playing with and discuss its likes and dislikes. This gives the puppet a persona and helps staff to know how to play that character, following children's lead.
• Staff use visual routines and ring a bell to indicate to children a change in the routine. However, some transitions between routines have an impact on children's learning and play. For example, when preparations are made for some children to go home, others become distracted and have to wait for staff interactions. Furthermore, fixed routines do not always support children's play to come to a natural end.
• Children benefit from trips to the local library, where they take part in group singing and story sessions. They show a love of reading as they independently select books of their choice, turn the pages and share the context with their peers. They say 'the end' as they close the book. This demonstrates children's emerging literacy skills.
• Risk assessments are in place to promote children's safety during outings. For example, staff provide children with hi-vis vests, encourage them to hold a safety rope and give instructions about road safety. This helps children to understand how their safety is to be maintained.
• English is being learned as an additional language by many parents. Therefore, staff use various strategies to promote effective communication. For example, they provide parents with daily feedback in their home language and translate documents where possible. As a result, parents understand what their children are learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the arrangements for completing the progress check at age two, encouraging parents to share the written summary with their health visitor, aligning with health checks where possible
• strengthen teaching so that any misconceptions in children's understanding are addressed, and children receive clear information
• consider how to better organise routines to minimise disruption to children's learning.