Bright Horizons Hove Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy, safe and secure in this welcoming nursery. Staff pride themselves on the effective settling-in process. As a result, children separate easily from their parents and are excited for the day ahead. Children exude confidence through the role modelling of staff and the amount of effort they place on supporting children's emotional development. Children feel valued and respected in all aspects of their care and development. For instance, staff consistently speak to babies about what they are doing in the room and involve them in their self-care. Children behave very well. They are building high levels of empathy and warmth in making friendships and recognising the needs of others. Staff support children to discuss feelings and find solutions to problems together. This helps children to develop important skills they require for their future learning.

Staff know the children well and use information they gather when they first start to fully support children to build a strong sense of belonging and attachments. Children quickly develop independence in all aspects of their learning, such as accessing resources or dressing and feeding themselves. Staff support children to build an early understanding of making healthy choices in the food they eat. For example, during snack time older children talk about the ingredients and vitamins contained with certain foods.

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

• The manager and deputy manager form a strong leadership team. Alongside the devoted staff team, they have worked tirelessly towards fulfilling the recommendation and actions set at the last inspection. As a result, the quality of all areas of the nursery has significantly improved. For example, regular observations of staff practice now take place in all rooms to support staff in providing quality learning opportunities for all children. Staff benefit from individual supervision meetings and regular training, for instance specialist baby training and leadership skills.
• Children make good progress. Staff carefully watch their development and plan challenging next steps for children's learning in line with their own interests. Children who are funded and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are provided with targeted support to help them to succeed to the best of their ability. For instance, quieter areas with sensory resources have been introduced, to support children to have time away from the busy environment.
• Staff recognise the importance of children having access to the outdoors to build on their well-being and physical development. For example, older children have lots of space to run and jump and take calculated risks in their play. However, although babies and younger children have regular access to a smaller garden each day, the current planning for this area does not provide as many highly stimulating play and learning experiences.
• Partnerships with parents are a particular strength of the setting. Parents value the individual attention and high level of care each child receives. There is a constant two-way flow of communication and as a result, they feel included in their child's development and the next steps that are planned for their learning. Parents enjoy the special times when they are invited into the nursery, such as parents' evening, or to share a book in their home language.
• Staff place an importance on supporting and encouraging children's communication and language. Children are given time to answer questions asked of them to build on their increasing vocabulary. Older children learn about different colours during an activity. They explore with a variety of shades such as 'teal' as they mix a range of paints. Babies happily babble and use their increasing range of words as they point to characters they recognise in a book.
• Children are eager and enthusiastic learners. They immerse themselves into the planned activities and display increasing concentration skills. For example, older children use light boxes and tablets to create vibrant pictures to support their range of impressive literacy skills. However, some resources available for younger children do not fully support their creativity. For instance, staff provide very small pieces of paper, which limits mark-making opportunities and inhibits the range of movements much younger children use in their play and learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen planning to further develop the outdoor area, to provide babies with more varied and stimulating learning experiences
• review resources used to more fully support younger children's creativity, exploration and movement in mark-making opportunities.