Bluebells Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting happily and separate from their carers with ease. They build close bonds with their dedicated key person and other staff. This enables children to feel safe, happy and enjoy the time they spend at the nursery.

Children are highly motivated and thoroughly enjoy their play and learning. Their behaviour and attitudes to learning are excellent. Staff provide challenging activities that children eagerly take part in. For example, pre-school children successfully have a go at piecing together a train track. Through talking to each other and turn taking skills, children achieve what they set out to do. Children benefit from a range of opportunities to develop their physical skills. They have access to a large outdoor play area, which can be arranged to support the older and younger children. Children enjoy exploring the garden looking for different insects. They use binoculars to help them on their bug hunt. This helps to develop their understanding of the wider world and their awareness of living things.

Staff have high expectations of what they want children to achieve, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff are very aware of the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children and are extremely sensitive to this. Children's communication and language have been a strong focus. Subsequently, children are confident communicators and show high levels of self-esteem.

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

• Staff know what their key children can do and what they need to learn next. Support for children with SEND is excellent. Leaders ensure that additional funding that is accessed for children is used well to target children's specific needs. All children make good progress in relation to their individual starting points.
• The management team develops an ambitious curriculum for all children. Managers have clear intentions for children's learning that are well informed and sequenced. In the main, staff are clear about the wider learning intentions for children. However, these are not always successfully implemented during activities and interactions with children.
• Staff use effective questioning to support children's interests, in the moment, to provide them with new teaching opportunities. For example, during children's play with construction blocks staff challenge children to think about how they can move their rocket structure. Together, they consider if it is strong enough to be moved and wide enough for the children to fit in. Children develop excellent critical thinking skills.
• Children learn useful skills in readiness for starting school. They concentrate well and follow instructions as they use a knife to butter their bread for sandwiches at lunchtime. However, due to the lack of organisation at lunchtime, staff are not deployed effectively to support children during this time. This results in children waiting for longer periods than is necessary and missing out on intended learning opportunities.
• Children learn about the importance of healthy lifestyles and good oral health. For example, they talk about the importance of brushing their teeth in the morning. Staff use the younger children's interest in dinosaurs to explore how to brush teeth. Children practise the skills required to enable them to brush their own teeth.
• Independence is promoted very well for all children. They find their coats and skilfully put them on. Older children fasten their zips themselves, while younger children need some guidance from staff. Children learn to manage their self-care routines independently. They wash their hands on arrival at the nursery and before and after mealtimes. This also enables children to develop a sense of good hygiene.
• Managers have high expectations of their highly qualified staff team. They provide access to a wide range of training courses to help staff support the children's learning and development. For example, staff have recently completed training to support children's speech and language development. Staff now use effective strategies to enable children to progress in the language development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to fully understand the curriculum so that they consistently recognise the learning intentions of activities
• review the organisation of daily routines to ensure that the length of time children spend waiting does not have a negative impact on learning and development.