Bright Horizons Tingley Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff implement a unique and tailor-made curriculum that is specially designed to inspire and motivate children. Children demonstrate that they are highly confident and imaginative in their play. For instance, they independently access water, use soil and natural ingredients during outdoor play games to create imaginary 'crumble' from their favourite story books. Children benefit from enhanced, focused play and learning activities that help to shape their understanding of their natural world. This includes using magnifying glasses to look for insects. Staff introduce rich language to children and ask questions as children play. This helps to build on children's excellent thinking skills. Young babies explore a valuable herb garden environment with different scents and textures. Children's exploratory skills and learning are sequenced throughout various ages and developmental stages of children.

Staff are superb role models. They show enthusiasm and excitement as they read books. They use stories and characters to help children to regulate their own emotions. For instance, children join in with stimulating large-group activities using boxes to create a large scale version of a friendly, colourful monster from their favourite story book. Babies show that they settle in very quickly and have a strong attachment to the staff that care for them. They cuddle into staff and gaze at them while talking and listening to songs.

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

• The manager works alongside staff in each nursery room to ensure that the highly ambitious curriculum for children is meticulously embedded into practice. She completes detailed practice observations and supervision sessions with staff that help them to evaluate their own practice. High-quality training is identified through a tailor-made learning programme and specifically targeted to help to extend staff's already excellent interactions with children. This is demonstrated through the remarkable progress children make in preparation for their future learning.
• Partnership working with others is a key strength of this inviting setting. Parents share their experience and offer exceptionally high praise for staff. This includes how staff attended specific training to meet their child's individual needs, introducing sign language and picture cards into the setting to enhance their child's communication skills. There is very regular communication and partnership working with parents. This includes a rich and inviting lending library to help to promote shared reading with parents and children at home. Parents are invited into the setting for parents' evenings and talk confidently about the setting's curriculum, what their children are learning and how this is continued at home.
• There are stringent risk assessment procedures in place to help to ensure children's safety. Children use the setting's mascot, called 'Candy Floss', who has been designed by children to help them to identify hazards in the environment. Children learn quickly about the rules of the setting and look after each other. Managers and staff are vigilant. Very regular monitoring systems are in place to review accidents and incidents to help prevent them from reoccurring.
• Children show concentration and fascination as they play. They become immersed in their learning and explore properties of items, such as ice. They use tweezers to pick up blocks of ice and talk to staff about what might happen when heat is added. Children work together to join large scale ramps and tubes. They use different objects to predict how fast they will go down the ramp. Older children show deep levels of engagement as they join in with exciting science experiments. They make predictions in their learning and guess the weights of objects as they develop an understanding about which items float and sink during water play games. This helps to promote children's scientific and mathematical development.
• Children are physically active in their play. They climb, balance and coordinate movements during their play and learning. They develop an excellent understanding of the importance of being healthy and follow high standards of hygiene practices. The setting's nursery cook provides nutritious meals for children who, in turn, show enjoyment as they learn to serve themselves and help one another. This helps to develop children's independence and readiness for school.