Bright Horizons Basingstoke Copper Beeches Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are well cared for in this welcoming and inclusive nursery. They benefit from strong relationships with their key persons, who meet their individual needs well. Babies demonstrate impressive physical skills. They climb and balance with increasing skill and agility, benefitting from the range of newly acquired resources. Staff plan opportunities for children to become involved in cultivating vegetables and use these opportunities well to support children's understanding of healthy lifestyles, including in cooking activities in the designated children's kitchen. Children enjoy interesting outings into the community, such as walks to the park.

Staff promote children's love for books well. They have created comfortable storytelling spaces across the nursery, including in the garden. Toddlers snuggle on staff's laps and become captivated by staff's animated portrayal of their favourite fictional characters. Babies explore themed interest boxes, linked to a much-loved story about zoo animals. They use their natural curiosity to explore items in the box while staff extend children's vocabulary, such as naming the sounds animals make.

Staff place a priority on helping children recognise and manage their feelings. They implement effective strategies to help children regulate their emotions, including through the provision of comfortable, calming spaces for children to relax outside of a busy room. Children behave well and take responsibility for tidying away the toys.

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

• Leaders, including the nominated individual, early childhood specialists and the manager ensure effective oversight of the quality in the nursery. They hold an accurate assessment of areas for future development, with a focus on supporting children's learning and well-being to the highest level. There is a demonstrated culture of identifying and addressing weaknesses, which includes acting on the views of others, such as the local authority and parents. The designated safeguarding lead demonstrates exceptional professional curiosity around the identification of risks to children. This includes when children are not receiving their full entitlement to early education.
• The experienced manager is a confident leader, who supports the staff team well. Staff benefit from regular training, effective supervision and peer support to improve their personal effectiveness. This includes staff who are working towards recognised qualifications and those who are supported to take on specialist lead roles. Training is used to good effect. For example, training aimed at igniting children's curiosity and imagination has been successful in supporting children's motivation at activities and has led to an increase in their concentration.
• Inspection report: Bright Horizons Basingstoke Copper Beeches Day Nursery and Preschool 2 19 February 2024
• Leaders have devised an ambitious curriculum, which accurately identifies priorities for children's learning. This includes a strong focus on supporting babies to gain confidence in their physical skills and for older children to progress towards being ready for the move to school. However, staff are not fully confident in using what they know about what children still need to learn and linking this to activities to support children's next steps. Nevertheless, children gain enjoyment and value from activities that reflect their interests and capture their attention.
• Staff are highly skilled at promoting children's communication and language. The early language lead practitioner successfully supports staff to raise children's achievements in early language development as a priority. Staff model language well, including through descriptive commentary and use of simple signing for younger children. Older children eagerly join in with small-group games designed to support their listening skills. Well-placed and timely support is offered to children who show a delay in communication. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language, quickly become confident communicators.
• Children with identified special educational needs and/or disabilities receive effective support. The special educational needs coordinator establishes strong working relationships with other agencies, including through securing additional funding and completion of assessments. Staff implement a bespoke curriculum that meets children's individual needs successfully.
• Staff promote children's health and emotional well-being effectively. Children benefit from a familiar routine that offers a sense of predictability and security. They learn the importance of following robust hygiene routines and are well supported to develop their self-care skills. Staff engage children in meaningful activities that deepen children's understanding of other cultures.
• Partnership working with parents is a strength of the nursery. Parents speak very highly of the staff team. They highlight the value placed on recognising the whole family from the beginning of their journey at the nursery. Staff provide a wealth of information to support continuity of learning at home. This includes through parent workshops aimed at promoting early communication or at a family cooking session. This effective collaboration supports new children to settle well and contributes successfully to children's continued good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• Inspection report: Bright Horizons Basingstoke Copper Beeches Day Nursery and Preschool 3 19 February 2024
• embed the curriculum, increasing staff confidence in identifying more precisely the curriculum intentions.
• Inspection report: Bright Horizons Basingstoke Copper Beeches Day Nursery and Preschool 4 19 February 2024