Bright Horizons Hertford Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled and demonstrate secure attachments to the stable, dedicated staff. Children arrive happily and confidently separate from their parents to start their day. Children are emotionally well prepared for change. They have a thorough transition when moving rooms, ensuring they do this with confidence, and pre-schoolers are well prepared for their move to school. Staff know the children well. They tune in to their current interests and use these when planning activities and the learning environment. Staff are interested in what the children have to say and give great value to the children's voice, offering them choices and treating them with great respect. The children learn from staff and model this back, behaving very well.

Children have frequent opportunities to exercise and play in fresh air. For example, young children learn to crawl through a tunnel and older children run, climb and learn how to pedal trikes. Children have plenty of opportunities to appreciate the living things around them as staff encourage them to look for minibeasts in the bug garden. Staff provide children with a range of sensory experiences daily, which children delight in. Young babies explore oats with spoons and older children investigate sand and water-play opportunities. Staff give children ownership of this play, allowing them to choose how they wish to play in the water. This boosts children's self-confidence and self-esteem.

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

• Staff develop children's speech and language skills effectively by reading stories and singing songs and rhymes. For example, young toddlers take part in a daily movement-to-music session, where they wiggle, stretch, jump and clap. Older toddlers take part in a game to discover what is in the box and talk about the different animals that they discover.
• Relationships with parents are strong. Parents report effective communication with staff. Parents know what their child's next step in learning is and comment that staff listen to their views, support families and work as a true partnership.
• Children develop literacy skills. Sharing and reading books is an important part of learning in each of the different age-range rooms. For example, young babies learn to turn pages in board books and are encouraged to touch sensory parts of the books, and older children listen attentively and join in enthusiastically as staff read to them.
• Staff encourage children to notice the awe and wonder of the natural world. Children plant seeds and grow their own sunflowers. They also have a herb garden and grow their own fruits and vegetables. This encourages the children to take care of growing things and helps them to understand about healthy eating.
• Children learn about healthy lifestyles. They take part in cooking and baking activities in their 'science kitchen'. For example, children have recently cooked the potatoes they have grown to eat for their tea. Children learn about the importance of oral hygiene as they take part in activities to learn how to brush their teeth effectively.
• Children have opportunities to develop mathematical understanding. For example, staff offer children rulers and tape measures to measure how tall their sunflowers have grown. Children record these numbers on clipboards. Younger children join in with the number rhyme '5 little speckled frogs' and start to learn early counting skills.
• Staff report that they feel well supported by management. They have regular supervision meetings and feel their well-being is a priority. All staff take part in mandatory training and additional training is tailored to individual staff needs.
• Children are well prepared for their next stage in learning. In the pre-school room, children take part in imaginative play in their 'school' role-play area and are learning to do up buttons and zips on their new school uniform. This helps to boost their self-esteem and self-care skills and helps prepare children for change.
• The nursery has recently introduced a new curriculum, which is still being embedded. At times, the planned learning intention of the activities is not clear, and staff cannot always precisely evaluate what progress children have made. However, interactions are positive and staff are skilled at supporting children to access learning opportunities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to embed the curriculum to ensure it is clear what skills and knowledge children are learning through planned activities and play opportunities.