Bright Horizons St John's Wood Day Nursery and Preschool

Inclusion: Urgent improvement

Expectations for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are poorly managed by leaders, which means that not all children have access to an ambitious curriculum to meet their individual needs. Leaders have only recently taken appropriate action to identify and assess some children's needs to begin to reduce barriers to learning. However, support from the local authority and other health professionals is either not accessed quickly enough so that meaningful interventions can be put in place to fully support learning or not accessed at all. Children with SEND are not always identified correctly. This means that not all children's needs are fully known or supported. Leaders have not ensured that staff have accessed specialist support to raise their teaching to an effective standard and make adaptations to meet the needs of every child.

Children's next steps are inconsistent and sometimes poorly considered. They do not focus on what children need to learn next to close the gaps in their learning. These weaknesses have a negative impact on children with SEND in terms of both their learning and wellbeing.

Curriculum and teaching: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have an ambitious curriculum for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders do not ensure that teaching is consistent in every room, in particular the baby and toddler room. This means that not every child, including those with SEND, has access to individualised learning to support their development.

Children do not make enough progress. Leaders do not ensure that teaching is delivered to a high standard throughout the nursery to build on children's knowledge and skills. For example, during play, there are times when communication and language are not promoted to support children's vocabulary. Children who speak English as an additional language have visual cards to support their understanding. However, staff do not make best use of these and, as a result, children are not supported to link words with objects. Furthermore, although babies hear nursery rhymes being sung to them, staff sing quickly so babies are less likely to pick up on the language they hear. There are times when children do have some considered activities, such as learning about nature. Staff ask children questions, such as 'What does soil feel like, how does it smell and can you describe the spider?' However, teaching is not typically like this across the nursery.

Children hear numbers and repeat these during play, and learn mathematical language, such as 'big' and 'small'. Children enjoy playing outdoors using trikes and climbing and balancing, which helps to build core strength.

Achievement: Urgent improvement

Some children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, do not make sufficient progress in their development. Children cannot access high-quality learning experiences because the curriculum is not broad enough and does not cover all areas of learning. Furthermore, it is not consistently embedded in every room. Expectations for all children are not ambitious enough and, as a result, children do not reach their full potential.

Not every child is prepared for their next stage in learning, including the move on to school. This is because the leaders lack oversight of the curriculum planning and do not ensure that this is implemented in practice. Teaching is not adapted to meet the needs of children. As a result, children's achievement is limited.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have a clear oversight of how behaviour is managed in every room. Boundaries are not always consistent, which leads to children not learning what is expected of them. Due to weaknesses in the curriculum, some activities do not sustain children's interest or motivate them to learn.

Staff do have routines in place, such as reminding children to wash their hands before mealtimes and encouraging them to sit and listen to a story. However, there are times when activities have not been thoroughly thought through to meet children's individual needs. As a result, some children become bored and display unwanted behaviour, which is not effectively managed by staff. This does not create a positive learning environment for children. In addition, not all children are taught consistently how to manage their feelings and emotions, which again results in poor behaviour.

There are some positive interactions and relationships between staff and children. Children regularly share their achievements with staff exclaiming, 'I've done it!' when completing a task. Staff praise children's efforts.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Urgent improvement

The key-person system is not effective enough for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff know the children, but the buddy key-person system has not been embedded. As a result, not all the staff know the children's individual needs well enough to be able to support their emotional wellbeing.

Staff do not have consistent strategies to support children who have difficulties regulating their emotions. They are not fully aware of what they can do to help children begin to calm themselves. In addition to this, hygienic sleep practice is not always followed in the baby and toddler rooms. Bedding is not clean or stored appropriately to prevent the spread of infection. Also, sleep routines are not well established to support children's sleep needs. For example, there is not always a sleep mat available when children are ready to sleep. Children do receive well-balanced meals and snacks to support good nutrition.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have sufficient oversight of the nursery to ensure that safeguarding is robust and procedures embedded. This is despite a recent action being raised by Ofsted relating to safeguarding policy and procedures. Leaders have ensured that staff have completed safeguarding and childcare training, but some staff still do not have the required level of knowledge to ensure they are able to follow safeguarding procedures correctly, which leaders have failed to recognise.

Recent changes identified by leaders to improve teaching has had some impact within the pre-school room. However, this is not consistent throughout the nursery. Leaders do not ensure that all staff to child interactions are of a consistently high quality and that teaching is well targeted to build on children's knowledge and skills. As a result, children do not achieve as well as they should from their starting points on entry to the nursery.

Leaders have not ensured that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive sufficient support. They do not seek the necessary advice or guidance from other professionals in a timely way. As a result, children's individual needs are not consistently met to help them reach their full potential. Leaders do not ensure that effective hygiene practice is being followed by staff, especially regarding sleeping arrangements. Leaders have introduced new staff supervision processes. However, these are not embedded to ensure staff receive support to improve practice and deliver consistently high-quality teaching in all rooms.