Bright Horizons Chelsea Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have good relationships with each other and staff. Children new to the nursery settle quickly as staff offer lots of cuddles and support which helps them feel safe and secure. Many siblings attend, creating a family atmosphere. Children follow the daily routines well and understand the expectations of their behaviour that help keep them safe. For example, they keenly help tidy away toys after use, line up and walk sensibly downstairs to the garden. Children are well behaved. They actively learn to share and take turns during play, benefitting from encouragement and praise from staff. This creates a calm and positive environment in which children thrive.

Children enjoy group story and song times. Babies snuggle in while looking at picture books with staff. Older children take turns to use puppets and lead the actions which other children copy while singing the familiar songs and rhymes enthusiastically. Older children develop their literacy skills well. They show a positive interest books and use them independently, making good attempts to follow the story line. They develop good early writing skills as they make marks and letters on notepads, pretending to write lists during role play activities.

Children develop good physical skills while using play-dough. They copy staff's actions and make balls and snakes. Staff demonstrate how use a range of hand-held tools including scissors. As a result, children have lots of fun chopping the dough and making patterns. All children's physical skills are further enhanced while running around and using a range of equipment in the outside play area. Older children show good coordination as they throw and catch balls. Babies and toddlers enjoy climbing and using wheeled toys.

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

• Leaders, managers and staff work cooperatively as a team. Leaders and managers understand the challenges of staff recruitment and find solutions to ensure the key person system is effective so that children benefit from consistency of care.
• Parents comment that their children are getting on very well and talk about their friends. Staff share information about their child's day and progress, such as new words their child has said. However, they have fewer opportunities to come into the nursery to discuss their children's progress in more detail. Parents share information about children's learning at home and take books home to read with their children. They comment that their children have made good progress, especially with their language skills as they are now 'super-talkative'.
• Children who use English as an additional language make rapid progress in the communication and language skills. Staff discuss children's use of home languages with parents and make individual photo books that children enjoy using.
• Staff engage children in meaningful conversations very well. They encourage children to talk about their thoughts, feelings and experiences. They sing lots of songs, use puppets, pictures and props which fully enhance all children's communication and language skills effectively.
• Staff help children develop their understanding of the world through activities relating to festivals and celebrations. This enables children to learn about their differences and similarities in a fun way, for example, participating in creative activities, dressing up in traditional outfits and tasting different foods. However, staff could do more to help them learn about the community in which they live and enhance the learning environment so that it fully reflects the rich cultural diversity of the children attending.
• Mealtime procedures have been reviewed and improved to ensure children's specific dietary needs are met. Staff are embedding the new routines well and this is closely monitored by managers.
• Children enjoy relaxed mealtimes where they talk about the foods they like with staff. Children develop their personal independence while making choices of the foods they like to eat, and younger children are encouraged to feed themselves. This helps children develop positive eating habits.
• Staff know the children in their care well. They identify children's individual learning needs and interests and plan a good range of activities across all areas of learning. Good systems are in place to monitor children's progress and staff take prompt action to support children who have additional needs. As a result, all children are making good progress in their learning and development and are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the curriculum for understanding of the world, to enhance the learning environment to reflect the rich cultural diversity of the children attending, and find ways to further extend their learning experiences about the community in which they live
• extend opportunities for parents to come into the nursery, to further strengthen the key person system and information sharing about children's progress, including the progress check when children are aged two.