Bright Horizons Bickley Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Young children show strong bonds with their key person and enjoy lots of cuddles and support. Older children form trusting relationships with staff and learn to respect the needs of their peers. Children behave well and they feel safe and happy at the setting. Children build on their early literacy skills. Toddlers snuggle up to staff while they read stories. They keenly join in with the actions and sounds, and answer questions about what will happen next. For example, they respond to a story about vehicles by making sounds such as 'brum brum' and 'choo choo'. Older children use language effectively to communicate their ideas. They excitedly say that the pet snails were small and have now grown bigger and that they like to eat cucumber. The staff team has high ambitions for individual children and plans well to meet their needs. Children who speak English as an additional language and those who have fallen behind in their language development make good progress from their starting points. Babies develop their early walking skills and learn to balance, for instance while kicking and throwing balls. They step up on the small blocks, hold hands with staff and keenly join in saying 'ready, steady, go' as they jump down.

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

• Self-evaluation is effective, and leaders and managers take appropriate steps to address previous weaknesses. They monitor staff practice effectively through regular supervision meetings and have discussions with staff to identify and address any matters concerning their welfare.
• The curriculum is planned well to meet the needs of individual children, including those who need additional support. Staff share information effectively with parents, professionals and other settings that children attend, to plan and achieve common goals in children's learning and development. Children are prepared well for the next stages in their learning.
• Staff promote children's good health and well-being. Good systems are in place to meet individual children's dietary needs. Children enjoy relaxed mealtimes, where they are able to eat at their own pace and make choices of foods they want to eat. Staff provide opportunities for older children to learn about dental hygiene, and staff teach them how to keep themselves safe in the approaching winter months.
• The staff plan several activities to help older children learn about people's differences. Staff encourage them to ask questions and comment on their observations of people around them. However, during some related art and craft activities, staff do not plan the resources well enough to fully enable children to express their ideas.
• Staff promote children's independence and support children well to develop a sense of belonging. Staff help young children to learn to eat independently and to help themselves to water when they need to. Older children enjoy helping to set up the tables in preparation for lunchtime.
• Staff teach children about shapes and measures, for example as they fill sand into containers and make shapes. Through these activities, and in other ways, children build on their early mathematical skills. Children take turns well with their peers and use polite language in their interactions with others; for example, they say 'please can I have the star'.
• Older children join in familiar songs such as 'what is in the box'. They use language effectively to communicate their ideas. They say 'you have to shake the bell to make a sound'. Staff challenge their listening skills; for example, they teach children to differentiate between loud and quiet sounds.
• Most parents provide positive feedback about their children's time at the setting. Leaders and managers continue to evaluate their practice and identify further ways to continually strengthen the processes to share information with parents.
• Staff encourage older children's participation in group games. Children hide under the parachute, and they squeal with delight when staff lift the parachute and say hello to them. However, staff do not make the most of the outdoor environment to provide more challenging opportunities for older children to practise a range of physical skills, particularly for those who prefer to learn outdoors.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make the most of the outdoor learning environment, particularly for those children who prefer to learn outdoors, and provide more challenging opportunities for older children to develop their physical skills
• consider ways to fully support children's creativity, particularly to facilitate them to express their ideas through art.