Bright Horizons at Trafford

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this wonderful setting. Staff are highly skilled at supporting children to talk about their own feelings and the feelings of others. When children talk about feeling sad, other children and staff ask how they can help. Children offer a hug and a song. The staff team speaks a variety of different languages. Staff use their skills to encourage children who speak English as an additional language to engage in conversations in their home languages. Staff share their own cultural experiences with children. This supports all children to feel represented, respected and ready to learn.

All children benefit from an inspiring curriculum. Staff understand how to motivate children to learn by seeking their opinions to shape the experiences they offer. Children show real excitement as they share their knowledge of Van Gogh and create their own interpretations of his work. Children develop a thirst for knowledge and ask to learn more about artists. All children make excellent progress.

Staff have high expectations for all children. They are fully aware of the impact that their own behaviour has on children and consistently model respectful behaviour. Staff have taught children to play collaboratively and to value each other's opinions. Young children take turns to post objects and smile as the container fills up. Older children work together to make ramps for their cars. They politely ask each other if they can have a turn and cheer as their friends' cars 'go fast'. Children's behaviour is exceptional.

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

• The inspirational leaders continually evaluate the quality of the nursery. They seek the views of staff, children and parents to make continuous improvements. They have a clear vision and accurate oversight of the quality of practice in the nursery. Leaders provide staff with targeted training and feedback on their practice. This ensures excellent quality across the nursery.
• Staff complete meticulous assessments of children's learning to identify when they may benefit from additional support. The nursery's special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works effectively with other agencies to give children and families the support they need. She ensures the curriculum is accessible to all children by overseeing the support that is in place. The SENCo is integral in ensuring all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make excellent progress in their learning.
• Staff's interactions with children significantly promote children's communication and language skills. Staff provide puppets and, as babies pick them up, staff sing the song and pause to allow children to join in with the words. They provide babies with family photos. As babies find these in the room, staff encourage them to engage in animated discussions about their family members. Staff who work with older children consistently ask questions that promote children to think. Children demonstrate excellent conversational skills.
• Children spend lots of time accessing and sharing books with staff and their friends. Staff read to children in a way that excites them and brings enjoyment. Even the youngest children turn pages and point to pictures with excitement. Staff understand how to sustain children's engagement with stories by providing props to allow children to act out stories in their play. Following reading 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea', children eagerly retell the story and use props to make 'tea' for staff. These experiences instil a love of early reading and help to support children's communication and imagination skills.
• Staff utilise every opportunity to support children's mathematical development. Children demonstrate their knowledge that they have been taught about numbers. They add candles to dough 'cakes' and count up to 10. Staff encourage children to think about what size piece of cake they would like. Children use words such as 'gigantic' and 'massive'. When children make a 'watch' with craft materials, staff encourage them to add numbers and children confidently say it is 'nine o'clock'. Staff support children to make exceptional progress and to develop a positive attitude to mathematics.
• Children show tremendous levels of independence and self-care skills. Staff encourage older babies to find and put on their own coats from their pegs. Older children are encouraged to help to clean tables before mealtimes and to competently use cutlery. Staff have taught children to pour their own drinks and sweep up sand as it spills. These experiences help to build children's self-confidence.
• Leaders have developed remarkable relationships with parents. They have established an effective two-way flow of information through daily discussions, information sharing on an app and parents' evenings. Parents receive an abundance of information about how to support their child's development at home. Parents state that these exceptional relationships have helped their children to make excellent progress with their development since they have started attending.