Bright Horizons Royal Earlswood Day Nursery and Preschool

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders create an inclusive environment where staff know each child and their individual needs and circumstances well. They recognise the importance of enabling all children to participate, learn and develop. Staff complete regular observations to assess children's progress and changing needs. Leaders use this information to review the impact of support and identify further action. They use additional funding appropriately, providing resources and experiences based on children's individual needs. Staff make adaptations to support children with barriers to learning or wellbeing. They take appropriate steps to ensure that feeding procedures are adapted based on individual children's needs. They take care to understand these needs and ensure that all staff know and understand how best to support each individual child.

Leaders have a clear vision for how best to reduce barriers to learning and/or wellbeing. They value partnerships with families and external professionals. They use these partnerships to influence appropriate support and create action plans to bring about improvement. For example, they have introduced a 12-week Makaton sign language training programme. Staff have the knowledge, but need support to build their confidence and use the sign language consistently in order to enable all children to access the same learning.

Staff recognise that children have different starting points and develop at different rates. They provide appropriate activities to build children's knowledge and skills. However, they do not always provide the most effective, targeted support to help children reach their full potential. For example, staff move activities to lower surfaces to make them more accessible, but do not always use the tools they have been provided with to maximise each child's individual learning and development.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have developed an appropriate curriculum that supports all children to make progress across all areas of learning. For example, children develop their physical development through climbing, riding on bikes and using the tree swing. Staff promote mathematical language during water play and provide opportunities to play card games that develop numeral recognition. Staff build on children's interests and use these to enrich planned activities. For example, children show a keen interest in hedgehogs. Staff adapt the planned activity to incorporate this, and children create their own clay hedgehogs. Children build their small-muscle skills and language development as they excitedly share their experiences.

Leaders monitor the quality of the curriculum and teaching through observations, reflections and supervisions. Staff demonstrate secure curriculum knowledge, but do not always take every opportunity to promote the curriculum in practice. Leaders have an action plan to embed the curriculum consistently, which is currently in its early stages.

Leaders recognise that staff do not yet consistently use all tools and resources available to them. They are taking steps to encourage staff to use a wide range of resources to support children's learning and development, including the environment itself. For example, leaders have recognised that the tree house in the forest school area is not currently being used as frequently as it could be. Leaders have ensured that this space is usable and adaptable, as well as allocating resources to encourage literacy and the development of emotional regulation.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children typically make progress from their individual starting points and develop the knowledge and skills they need for their next stage of learning. For example, younger children learn to recognise and manage their personal needs, such as by blowing their noses. Older children develop the skills they need to support their self-regulation of emotions.

Children show increasing confidence and independence across the setting. They are engaged and motivated and show positive attitudes to learning. They develop important life skills through experiences such as using real tools and learning about fire safety during supervised forest school activities. Children dig in the mud, learn about animal characteristics through stories and develop skills to make marks using different-sized chalks.

Children typically collaborate well with others and develop social skills that positively impact their learning, development and wellbeing. For example, they build on each other's ideas as they excitedly share their personal experiences, showing interest in and connection with each other.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention

Leaders have high expectations for children's behaviours. However, they recognise that staff do not yet consistently follow or implement the intended approach. This results in inconsistent experiences for children. When unwanted behaviour occurs, staff do not take the opportunity to teach children the skills they need to manage their behaviour and influence more positive choices going forward. For example, when children argue over a toy and take it from each other, staff take the toy and ask the toy how it is feeling. This models emotional wellbeing and kindness, but it does not teach children why this behaviour is not appropriate. When this toy is then given back to the children, the unwanted behaviour resumes. As a result, children do not consistently develop the skills needed to behave appropriately or understand the setting's expectations.

Leaders promote attendance and punctuality by sharing the attendance policy with families when children join the setting. Generally, children's attendance is consistent, and they arrive in good time to enjoy all aspects of their day. Leaders take steps to support children with barriers to their learning, wellbeing or attendance by making reasonable adaptations to support and encourage their attendance.

Staff are kind, caring and respectful towards children. However, they do not always model these behaviours when speaking to other staff. Leaders recognise this and take immediate action to reduce the impact on children.

Staff get to know children's individual needs and circumstances. This helps them build positive relationships from the start. Staff praise positive behaviour and use encouraging language. This supports children's confidence and positive attitudes to learning. Children generally enjoy playing alongside others and building on their ideas. Leaders and staff also share key information about the setting's context, policies and procedures, such as about the importance of attendance through the attendance policy.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders and staff prioritise children's welfare and wellbeing. They have established appropriate policies and practices that staff understand and typically follow. They gather relevant information about children and their families. Staff then use this information to provide appropriate support, such as to help children access new opportunities or manage transitions.

Children are welcomed by caring staff who provide opportunities for play, learning and social experiences. Children also benefit from the unique forest school area and learn to challenge themselves. Staff consider children's individual needs and make some appropriate adaptations. For example, staff recognise when children need space and when they need comfort or support to manage their concerns. They respond to each child's needs in the moment. This supports children to build positive relationships with staff.

Leaders have established clear hygiene practices, which are appropriately carried out by staff. They are adapted to meet the individual needs of each child. Staff support children to become increasingly independent with their personal care and to make healthy choices. Children's individual routines are considered, and staff take steps to ensure that they use sleep and feeding routines as an opportunity to build warm bonds with babies and children.

Staff use mealtimes to promote good manners, social skills and healthy development. They encourage conversations that children enthusiastically join in with. For example, when children share that eggs come from the supermarket, staff discuss and develop activities to support children in identifying where the eggs originated from. They identify misconceptions and help children develop their understanding of healthy food.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have a secure understanding of the setting's context, strengths and priorities for improvement. They have suitable oversight of the quality of provision and identify gaps in staff knowledge and understanding. They create clear, prioritised action plans and provide appropriate support to address these gaps. Some actions are in their early stages, including work to embed a consistent approach in terms of behavioural expectations. Leaders recognise that their vision for high-quality provision is not yet consistently implemented by all staff. They understand that this is an important next step to ensure consistent outcomes for all children.

Staff typically feel well supported. Leaders provide appropriate professional learning opportunities and monitor their impact through observations and supervision. They use this to provide targeted support and consider staff workload. However, some systems are overcomplicated, such as the system for identifying children's next steps, and not always implemented successfully to provide highly impactful support as promptly as possible.

Leaders build positive relationships with families from the start. They gather important information before children begin and maintain communication to understand their changing needs and circumstances. They work closely with external professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those known or previously known to children's social care and those with other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing. Leaders review these partnerships and identify the positive impact they create for children. Leaders show a willing attitude to continue to strive for improvement.