Bright Horizons Fleet Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and build strong bonds with each other and staff. They settle quickly in the nursery. Children engage in their learning generally well and demonstrate an awareness of the daily routine and what is expected of them. They behave well and demonstrate good manners. Children share and take turns and show compassion to their friends when they are upset. Staff act as positive role models.

Children's interests are well known, and staff use these well to build on children's development and self-esteem. For example, some children miss their parents when they are at work. They share how their parents use a computer or work in an office. A role-play office enabled children to feel closer to their parents and act out what they thought their parents did. Children used an actual keyboard and a cardboard box monitor to type their 'work' and took calls on a phone, while writing down their 'orders' on a notepad. Children show excitement during activities. Staff plan these well to support children's ongoing learning and development. Children experiment with paint and learn how mixing colours together creates new colours. They receive encouragement from staff to critically think and problem solve. For example, when considering what colours are made when they mix red and blue, or working out which materials, shells or corks, are lighter and heavier on the scales. Children, who speak English as an additional language or have other cultural backgrounds, are included well and their uniqueness is respected.

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

• The manager and management team share a clear vision of how they want to develop the provision with staff and parents. They keep a record of complaints, concerns and incidents and appropriately deal with these, using any action points to identify further improvements. As a management team they share lessons learned from other provisions in the chain to review and improve practice.
• Staff implement the curriculum well. The manager and her team monitor the effectiveness of this and identify areas for ongoing development. Staff display children's individual targets in each room, so these are available for any staff to refer to and implement. Regular professional development opportunities support staff to build on their skills. Staff identify how they undertake training to be able to better support the children in their care.
• Staff care for children in a welcoming and stimulating environment. The premises are safe and secure, with management and staff routinely risk assessing the environments children use. Staff keep an accurate record of how many children they have present to support them in keeping them safe as they move throughout the provision.
• Staff encourage children to engage in meaningful conversations and children, generally, make good progress in their communication and language skills. Children enjoy the outside area. They share how they like to see the birds using the feeders on the fence and how they think the bird has a nest in the nearby bushes.
• Children's well-being is promoted effectively by management and staff. Children enjoy plenty of fresh food, which is nutritious and meets their dietary needs. The on-site chef demonstrates a secure understanding of how to ensure each child has the appropriate food, and staff practices in the room reinforce this.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents speak highly of the staff and the information they share, both verbally and through the online application system. This helps them understand what their child has participated in during the day, what they have eaten, how their care needs have been met and targets for development. Parents appreciate the action taken by the nursery to keep in touch with them during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the newsletters they receive.
• Partnerships with other professionals are positive. Children with emerging and identified special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good support, overall. However, at inspection, the process for sharing information with other staff at the start of the day about children's specific communication processes was not effectively followed. This led to a communication plan not being consistently implemented between staff.
• Children enjoy a mix of adult-led activities and making their own choices of what they want to play with. Staff encourage children to attempt tasks for themselves. However, this is not consistently promoted between staff who, on occasion, help or give a solution before children have a chance to attempt it for themselves. At times, when children choose an activity, such as sand play, there are not enough tools available to enable them to fully engage. This led to some frustrations between younger children when they wanted the same spoon to dig with, leading to them disengaging from their play to wander around.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve arrangements for information sharing between staff, particularly at the start of the day, to ensure children's individual educational plan details are effectively shared and consistently implemented
• review the organisation of the resources available, such as during sand play, to enable children to fully engage in their play and enhance their learning even further
• develop consistency in how staff encourage children to build on their independence skills.