Bright Beginnings Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and managers have devised a curriculum that helps children to develop a good range of skills to support their future learning. The ongoing monitoring of children's progress from their unique starting points helps each child to achieve. Potential gaps in children's development are swiftly identified. Staff implement focused, personalised learning plans and make referrals for external support when needed. This ensures that children with special educational needs and/disabilities are supported to catch up with their peers. For children who speak English as an additional language, staff support their communication skills through a range of strategies. These include signs, gestures and objects. Children feel valued as staff play songs in their home language.

Effective settling-in procedures, support children to feel safe and secure. The continual exchange of clear information about each child, results in their needs being met. Staff encourage children to learn how to share, take turns and develop good behaviour and social skills. Staff teach children about sustainability, which includes growing and cultivating plants and vegetables. Initial experiences for younger children focus on them exploring compost and developing their physical skills as they fill and empty pots. Pre-school children's learning is extended as they learn what plants need to grow and flourish. They plant seeds in pots of soil, water them, and place them in the sun. Children confidently explain how to care for the plants to help them successfully grow.

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

• Leaders and managers are committed to supporting staff's well-being as well as their continuous professional development. They are committed to maintaining good-quality care and learning for all children.
• Babies are supported to develop their core strength and stability to support their progression with movement and motor skills. They are encouraged to learn to sit, crawl, pull themselves up to stand, and walk. They are also provided with opportunities to develop their physical skills and coordination when playing with puzzles or making marks with the chalks.
• Staff spend a lot of time using simple language with two-year-old children. They help children to associate words with objects or movements. They also repeat unclear words back to children and use Makaton signs to help to increase their vocabulary.
• Books are purposefully chosen for the learning opportunities they can provide, linked to the curriculum. However, when staff advise children that it is story time, there is no expectation for them to participate in this valuable experience. While some children choose to listen to the story, others choose not to and are allowed to play elsewhere. This results in staff not consistently supporting all children to learn to listen attentively and respond to familiar stories and rhymes.
• Children are continually supervised, especially when moving between different areas. This helps to keep them safe. Children aged under three are taught how to safely navigate the stairs under the direct supervision of staff. They further practise these skills as they learn how to navigate small steps on the indoor and outdoor slides.
• Staff plan interesting activities to help children to develop a range of skills and knowledge. Each child's key person understands their needs and abilities and supports them to build on their prior knowledge. However, there are times when staff do not notice quieter, more-reserved children who choose to stand on the edges looking in. This results in some children not consistently engaging in the range of quality experiences offered.
• While children choose which of the planned activities to participate in, they have fewer opportunities to freely access other experiences and resources. This means that children are not always able to fully explore and develop their own play.
• Partnerships with parents are warm and welcoming. Parents feedback very positively and report that their children thoroughly enjoy attending. The continual exchange of information with parents about children's individual progress and future learning experiences, helps parents to continue to support their learning at home.
• Older children use natural resources and recall prior learning when they use their imagination to create a nature 'soup'. They are encouraged to follow simple recipe sheets as they add flowers, herbs and water. Children confidently use a variety of tools to squash and squeeze the ingredients. When children are happy with their creation, they carefully help each other to pour it into containers.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide consistent opportunities for children to listen attentively and respond with comprehension to familiar stories, rhymes and songs
• support staff to implement consistent routines that include more time for children to freely access resources of their choice alongside those that have been planned for them
• clarify how staff will more-effectively identify and encourage quieter children to engage in the quality experiences provided.