Bright Horizons Leeds Day Nursery And Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff are dedicated to ensuring children's safety and well-being. For example, staff use a mascot to help children to learn about how to keep themselves safe. They share information with parents and carers about online safety. This supports children to learn how to be safe both in and out of the nursery. Staff build positive relationships with the children that they care for. They spend time getting to know children's likes, dislikes and interests. This supports children to become self-assured and happy learners.

Staff provide learning opportunities for children that promote their curiosity and build on their prior experiences. For instance, staff know that some children have recently visited an aquarium with their families. They support children to name and find out more about the sea creatures that they have previously seen. Staff use herbs and flowers from the garden to enhance children's learning in the play dough area. They support children to explore the inside of fruit. Children use their senses to describe what they can see and smell. Staff encourage children to be creative. Children observe pieces of art by famous artists and make their own versions. Staff offer praise and encouragement to support children to learn new skills, such as using scissors or child-safe knives. The stimulating environment and positive interactions from staff ensure high levels of engagement from all children. This, in turn, supports children to develop positive attitudes to their learning.

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

• Each room in the nursery has a written statement outlining their aims for children's different stages of development. For example, there is a strong focus in the baby rooms to support and nurture babies' relationships with their key persons. Staff in the toddler room focus on helping children to build their communication skills. They support children in the pre-school room to learn how to manage their own self-care needs and develop a love of books. Consequently, children leave the nursery confident in their own abilities. They become well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Staff carry out regular assessments of children's progress. They know the next steps in learning that their key children are working towards. Staff use this information to plan suitable learning opportunities for children. This helps children to continue to make progress towards and meet their developmental milestones.
• Staff consider the vocabulary that they want children to learn when planning the learning environment. They use varied opportunities throughout the day to read stories and sing songs with children. Children join in with repeated words and actions. This supports children to learn new words and helps them to grow their speaking and listening skills
• Children who are new to the nursery attend settling-in sessions. This helps them to get to know staff and feel secure in the care of their key person. However, on occasion, several new children attend these sessions at once and need higher levels of support from their key persons. At these times, other staff do not deploy themselves effectively when working with the rest of the children. This has an impact on their ability to consistently meet the learning and care needs of all other children.
• Parents comment positively on the nurturing and friendly staff team. Staff make and provide learning packs for parents and children to take home. They tailor these packs to meet children's needs, interests, and recent experiences. This supports parents to work in partnership with staff to build on their children's prior learning.
• Leaders use additional funding to provide sensory resources and focused time with staff to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They work closely with the local authority SEND team. This ensures that children receive swift and appropriate support. Children with SEND make good progress and are happy and settled at the nursery.
• The nursery has undergone recent changes to the management and staffing team. During this time, the leadership team has continued to monitor staff practice and ensure oversight of the nursery. They have plans in place to continue to support newer and less-experienced staff. Leaders continually review the nursery provision. For instance, they recently made enhancements to the nursery outdoor space. As a result, the quality of the provision and staff practice continues to develop and improve.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation and deployment of staff during settling-in sessions for new children, to ensure that all children's learning and care needs continue to be met at these times.