Bright Horizons Astley Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Managers are ambitious for children. They have developed a curriculum that promotes children's 'confidence, curiosity and builds their love for learning'. Staff plan activities for children to explore and investigate. For example, children are delighted as they roll a mixture into a ball. They watch in wonder as the mixture becomes runny and drips from their fingers. Children are absorbed in their play and they develop positive attitudes to learning.

Managers and staff have created ample opportunities for children to develop their physical skills. These are sequenced well to promote progress as children move through the setting. For example, babies practise their first steps and toddlers master walking up ramps and climbing through tunnels. Older children become skilled at climbing, balancing and using wheeled toys. Children are busy and they behave well. For example, they turn-take independently and they speak to each other using lovely manners.

The key-person system is well embedded and staff work hard to build secure bonds with children. As a result, children arrive happily and they run into the welcoming arms of staff. Children feel secure and ready to learn.

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

• Managers and staff receive regular support for their well-being and professional development. For example, managers encourage staff to consider their career progression. They work hard to identify appropriate opportunities to develop staff's interests and aspirations. This supports staff's motivation to further develop their good delivery of the curriculum.
• Partnership with parents is a strength of the nursery. Staff regularly speak with parents to plan children's next steps in learning, and parents say they feel fully involved with their children's care. In addition, managers have developed innovative ways to support parents to continue children's learning at home. For example, parents say that the recently introduced book-lending library has helped their children develop a 'newly found love of reading'.
• Generally, staff know children well and are responsive to their individual needs. For example, the curriculum is planned and implemented with a clear focus on children's learning. However, the quality of teaching is not embedded securely and consistently across the setting. Less experienced staff do not always focus their interactions on building children's knowledge, to help all children achieve as much as they can.
• The nursery plans the curriculum to include teaching children to respect and care for the world. For example, staff help pre-school children to grow healthy vegetables. The children are delighted when their home-grown produce is used to prepare their meals. Additionally, the manager has developed a clothes recycling area for families to use. Staff also talk to children about recycling. These experiences help to build children's understanding of their natural environment and how to care for the earth's resources.
• Staff understand the benefits of building children's speech. Communication and language are generally well supported. For example, staff working with older children routinely introduce new and interesting words, such as 'investigate' and 'submerge'. However, sometimes, staff do not give younger children the time they need to respond or take turns in conversation. On these occasions, children's thinking and speaking skills are not maximised.
• The passion and drive of both the manager and the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), is clear. They are skilled at identifying any gaps in learning and they work tirelessly to ensure that children receive effective and timely support. As a result, children with SEND make significant progress.
• Children benefit from the close working relationships that the nursery has forged with other agencies. For example, leaders have made strong links with schools. As a result, teachers from local schools visit the nursery to meet children and to learn about their progress. This helps to prepare children for their next stage of learning.
• The skilled staff encourage children to question and problem-solve. For example, they ask children to consider what might happen if they put various items in water. Children make predictions before they experiment with the items. Staff extend children's learning further, asking the children to consider what might happen if the items are dropped from a height. Children have a wonderful time as they investigate. They are developing the thinking and reasoning skills needed to support their future learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase support for less experienced staff, to help embed teaching securely and consistently in all rooms, particularly in babies and toddlers
• support staff to allow time for younger children to think and respond in conversation, to help enhance their thinking and speaking skills.