Bright Horizons Caterham Burntwood Lane Day Nursery and Preschool

Inclusion: Needs attention

Children who face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing do not receive consistent support to enable them to reduce gaps in their development. Leaders and staff are swift to identify when children would benefit from additional support. They create support plans and generally work well with specialist agencies involved with children's specific individual needs. Children overall enjoy their time at nursery. However, leaders do not ensure that staff implement agreed strategies consistently well. This results in some children spending long periods playing on their own, with little to no interactions from staff. This does not ensure that all children receive targeted support that enables them to reach expected developmental milestones. Additionally, leaders have not established effective partnership working with other settings that children attend, which does not enable them to have a clear overview of children's development and any support that they may be receiving. When children who face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing are supported well, they enjoy conversations with staff. They share their thoughts and ideas, which helps them to build on their communication skills.

Leaders have secure knowledge of additional funding that children may be entitled to and they work with parents to support them to access additional funding. Leaders are aware of how funding can be used to support children's ongoing development.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Leaders do not ensure that the staffing arrangements meet the needs of all children, including those who face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing. For example, at times, they do not take sufficient steps to ensure that they meet qualification ratio requirements. There is a broad curriculum that is shared with staff, however, there are inconsistencies in how this is implemented, which means that not all children benefit from teaching that supports their learning. This results in variations in the quality of interactions and teaching that children experience. For example, more experienced staff provide children with meaningful dialogue during their play. Younger children enjoy naming different animals, and staff provide age-appropriate clues that help them to remember the animals that are less familiar to them. During these moments of high-quality interactions, staff ensure that they correct any misconceptions that children may have, such as making sure that they know the correct names for each of the animals. However, some children spend long periods playing on their own or wandering aimlessly around. At other times, staff do not organise themselves well to ensure that children continue to receive effective support during the implementation of the daily routines. This does not enable children to consistently benefit from teaching that supports them to build on their knowledge and skills.

Leaders and staff do not always make best use of available spaces, and some rooms have large numbers of children confined to one space. This impacts on the noise levels in these rooms, making it difficult to hear what children and staff are saying. This reduces opportunities for high-quality interactions. At these times, children do not receive consistent support to build on their communication and language skills. Although leaders have identified many of these weaknesses and developed an action plan, this has not yet been implemented.

Children throughout the nursery benefit from regular access to books. Children, overall, enjoy opportunities to listen to stories being read by staff. This helps to support their love of reading and build on their early literacy skills.

Achievement: Needs attention

Overall, children make progress in their development and are prepared for the next stage of their learning, including their move to school. However, children do not receive consistent support from staff to build on their knowledge and skills. Children enjoy taking part in group activities, such as playing a game of snakes and ladders. They learn to take turns with their friends and develop their mathematical knowledge as they count the number of spaces on the board. However, some children, including those who may face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing, do not benefit from meaningful interactions from staff. This results in some children playing frequently on their own and not spending any time being supported by staff. This does not ensure that children receive targeted support to help them achieve their individual next steps.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention

There are variations in the support that staff provide to children to enable them to manage their behaviour. This does not ensure that children receive consistent messages about how they are expected to behave. Although staff praise children when they show positive behaviour, such as playing well with their friends, they do not always respond to incidents of poor behaviour. For example, when children throw soft toys up in the air and run around the room, staff either do not intervene or are slow to step in. Additionally, the organisation of daily routines, staffing arrangements and the learning environment do not fully support children to behave well. For instance, at times, staff are all preoccupied with setting up for the next part of the day. This means that children, including those identified as requiring additional support to regulate their feelings, are not consistently supported by staff to remain engaged and maintain a positive attitude towards learning.

Children generally develop warm and trusting relationships with staff. When staff interact well with children, they enjoy opportunities to engage in cooperative play. For example, they spend time playing board games with their friends, and staff support them to take turns. At these times, children are supported to tolerate delay and interact well with others.

Leaders implement effective attendance procedures. This includes working closely with parents to ensure that absences are communicated. Leaders have policies in place to follow up on unexplained absences, to promote their safety and welfare.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

Leaders have not supported staff to implement routines consistently well to ensure that they fully meet children's needs. For instance, staff are not always well prepared for the next routine in the day. They also do not always communicate well with each other or step in to support, to ensure that the routines flow seamlessly. This results in children experiencing delays, such as when they want to go to sleep or eat their food. This also means that, at times, children have limited opportunities to engage in purposeful learning while waiting for staff to finish setting up.

Despite these weaknesses, children generally show that they have secure attachments with staff. Most children engage confidently with staff, such as showing them a family of caterpillars that they have made with the play dough. Staff also take steps to promote children's welfare and wellbeing. For instance, staff complete training in relation to keeping children safe during mealtimes and sleep times. Staff ensure that they check children's dietary requirements and stage of weaning to ensure that the food is safe for children to eat. Staff also ensure that children are well prepared for outdoor play, such as applying sun cream before going outside. Staff encourage children to regularly drink water. They set alarms to remind older children that it is time to hydrate themselves, and they enjoy gathering around the water station to pour their drinks. This helps children to learn to look after their bodies.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

There are breaches to requirements that impact on children's safety, wellbeing and development. Leaders within the nursery and within the wider organisation have not ensured that concerns about children's safety and welfare are reported in a timely manner. Additionally, leaders do not identify weaknesses in practice in relation to how safeguarding matters are managed. This does not enable them to bring about change to ensure that those dealing with safeguarding concerns are fully aware of the procedures they must follow.

Leaders do not have a secure understanding of the requirements of registration. Although they work in partnership with agencies providing targeted support for children, they have not ensured that an effective 2-way flow of information sharing has been established with other settings that children attend. This does not enable them to have thorough knowledge of these children and ensure that they work together so that children receive consistent support in their learning. Leaders also do not ensure that staffing arrangements consistently meet children's needs and they are slow to rectify breaches in relation to qualification ratio requirements. This impacts on the quality of teaching and interactions, which does not fully support children to build on their knowledge and skills.

Staff report that leaders place a high value on their wellbeing, and they regularly check in with them. They complete mandatory and additional training, which goes some way to strengthening the quality of their practice. As such, staff enjoy working at the setting.