Bright Horizons Bexleyheath Day Nursery And Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff build secure and trusting relationships with children. They work well with parents to help ensure that children's needs are met. As a result, children feel safe, secure and settle well into the nursery. Children arrive at the setting feeling happy, ready to play and learn. They are confident, self-assured and independent.

Leaders are clear about what they want the children to learn and why. For example, leaders have designed a curriculum with a sharp focus on nurturing children to become emotionally secure and resilient as they progress in their education. Staff are gentle towards the children and build respectful relationships with them. Children are sociable and their behaviour is exceptionally good. They are highly considerate of each other and play extremely well together.

Leaders set high expectations for all children, including those identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders and staff work very closely with parents and outside agencies to implement robust support plans for these children to help ensure that the curriculum meets their needs.

Staff in the pre-school room prepare children well for their next stage in learning, including starting school. They teach children who have mastered the concept of counting to solve simple addition and subtraction problems using objects. They challenge the children further to write down their answers. Some children can easily identify and write their names. Children are highly motivated and display a positive attitude to learning.

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

• Leaders are committed to provide the best quality care and education to all children. They ensure that the curriculum is challenging and broad to help ensure that children develop secure foundations for their next stage in learning. Despite leaders being very clear in how they want staff to implement the curriculum aims, not all staff follow the same approach to ensure that all children receive consistently high-quality teaching to help them make even better progress in their learning and development.
• Leaders and staff are fully aware of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had and continues to have on some children's development and learning. They have prioritised and strengthened opportunities to develop children's spoken language development. Staff introduce children to new vocabulary and sentences through conversations, songs and stories. Older children use new words that they have learned, such as 'gigantic' and 'enormous' while looking at different sizes of stones. Younger children enjoy singing rhymes that they are familiar with and listening to stories.
• Staff encourage children to be kind and to develop good friendships. They encourage children to play with and alongside their friends, throughout the day. Staff use mealtimes to foster social relations and independence skills. For example, after children have finished eating, they pick their friend's place mat and find them to come and have lunch. Children are encouraged to serve their meals, empty leftover food into a bin and clean their faces before going off to play. Children fully understand and follow the routines without being prompted.
• Children behave well and show genuine kindness to others. For example, toddlers help their friends who are learning to ride a bike by giving them a gentle push so they can move. Older children work together as a team. Staff are highly skilled in supporting children to understand the expected behavioural boundaries. They encourage children to share, take turns and talk about how they feel. Children are respected and given a voice in the nursery.
• Support for children with SEND, and those who may be at risk of falling behind, is extremely good. Leaders and staff are quick to implement specific and personalised support to ensure that these children's needs are met. They work effectively with parents and other professionals to ensure that the transition from nursery to school is seamless.
• Arrangements for the supervision and training of staff are good. The management team carries out regular room observations and supervisions to monitor staff's practice. However, some weaknesses in staff's practice have not been fully addressed. For example, on some occasions, staff are not always attentive to children's individual needs, particularly in the toddler and baby rooms. That said, the management team is keen to implement clear, targeted plans to support individual staff to help ensure consistently high-quality care and education across the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve oversight of the teaching and learning across the setting to help ensure that the curriculum aims and implementation are securely embedded
• enhance staff supervisions and provide targeted support for individual staff to precisely address minor inconsistences in staff's practice, and to help raise the overall quality of care and education to the highest level as possible.