Bright Horizons Stoke Newington Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and settled in this welcoming environment. They develop close and trusting bonds with the staff, who have a caring and friendly manner. This helps to create a good foundation for children's future development. They smile as they arrive at the provision and settle quickly into the routine.

Children are enthusiastic and excited to see what activities they can join in with. They have built strong friendships and enjoy playing with one another. They explore playing indoors and outdoors and have lots of opportunities to develop their physical skills. They enjoy running, jumping, learning to balance and playing with balls. They use spades, jugs, pencils, tongs and scissors to develop their hand muscles. This helps them to be well prepared to practise their early writing skills.

Children behave well and demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning. Staff are good role models to children and have high expectations of children's behaviour. There are clear rules, boundaries and routines in place. Children show respect for their environment and others by tidying up their toys before moving on to the next activity.

Children enjoy books and listening to stories. Toddlers share stories with one another, turning pages and commenting on what is happening. Older children use their imagination to re-tell stories to one another using puppets. They develop valuable social skills for the future.

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

• The curriculum is well planned and sequenced. Staff regularly observe and track children's progress. They plan exciting activities based on children's interests. Any gaps in learning are quickly identified and appropriate support put in place. The curriculum is challenging and children are well prepared for next stages of learning.
• All children have good independence and self-care skills. Staff teach children to learn tasks such as dressing, going to the toilet and washing and drying their hands independently. Children are confident at putting on their coats, shoes, gloves and hats. Older children skilfully do up buttons and zips. Staff use opportunities such as mealtimes to teach children how to use cutlery safely. Children remind one another to cover their mouths when coughing and use tissues to clean their noses.
• Children are motivated and curious to learn. They take opportunities to develop and extend their own play. Older children have an interest in dinosaurs and can name their favourite dinosaurs such as 'Stegosaurus' and 'Tyrannosaurus'. They work together to make a home for them to live in out of blocks, discussing how tall and wide it should be and what food they will need to have to eat. Toddlers enjoy splashing and using cups and jugs to pour and fill water. However, some staff lack knowledge on how to support this further which sometimes limits children's experiences.
• Staff are sensitive to children's needs and support their emotional well-being effectively. They help children to manage their emotions by talking to them, reading stories and using family photo albums to settle and help children to feel secure. Children say they feel happy at the nursery and enjoy playing with their friends but miss their parents. Staff reassure children it is okay to be happy or sad and that it is important to talk about their emotions.
• Staff interact warmly during care routines, such as nappy changes and washing hands. They make eye contact and sing songs. This helps young children to feel safe and secure.
• The manager and staff have high expectations of children and work hard to achieve the best outcomes for the children they care for. They work with parents to address any concerns about children's learning and development. All children, including those with special education needs and or/disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress in relation to their starting points.
• Parents talk positively about the setting and say that they can see how their children have progressed since starting, for instance, in developing their independence skills and speech. They talk highly of the staff and the work they do to support their children. The manager has introduced an online system to share information. Parents like this and have commented that it has brought them closer to sharing information on their children. However, parents say they would like more opportunities to contribute to their children's learning.
• Staff are well supported by the leaders and managers. Induction, support and training opportunities enable staff to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff's knowledge so that they are able to recognise and implement the characteristics of learning in children's play and be able to build on this
• strengthen partnerships with parents so they are able to further contribute to their children's learning.