Bright Horizons Wembley Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy to learn at this warm and inviting nursery. Staff and leaders get to know families well and quickly establish what impacts a child's day. Staff talk and interact with children positively and know children well. Children build strong bonds with staff. Staff listen when children talk and extend their conversations. This helps children to have a sense of belonging in the nursery and have the confidence to engage in learning. Children play cooperatively together. For example, when they jump on the stepping stones in the garden, they understand they have to wait for their turn to keep them safe. When children display any unwanted behaviour, staff quickly resolve issues through discussions about children's feelings and emotions. This helps children to understand the impact of their actions and have a good attitude to their learning.

Leaders and staff create an environment that promotes children's engagement in and enthusiasm for learning. The curriculum supports children's individual needs and ensures that every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, reaches their full potential. For example, in the garden, children love to explore growth and nature. They look for leaves and compare sizes and colours, noticing how the weather creates changes in nature. Staff use lots of different vocabulary as children share their findings and teach children new language.

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

• Leaders are ambitious for every child to make good progress. They provide a secure settling-in process, which helps to identify children's starting points in development and inform plans of how to engage children. Children's learning is based on what children know now and what they need to know next.
• Leaders ensure that staff have regular supervision and team meetings. This is so their training needs and strengths can be identified. This helps to develop consistent practice. Staff share that they complete regular training to upskill their knowledge. Leaders are aware that they need to strengthen systems to fully embed staff's teaching and have plans to extend the systems in place to strengthen staff's practice further. Staff appreciate the open-door policy and feel valued by leaders.
• Children build good communication skills. Staff sing to babies when they change their nappies and make sure they hear stories to build their language. Staff talk to children throughout the day and extend language so children learn a range of vocabulary. Staff support children who speak English as an additional language well, such as by learning key words from parents. They provide dual-language books so that all children are included and learn to become effective communicators.
• Children build their physical development through a sequence of learning within the nursery. Babies use low-level climbing equipment to learn how to manage steps, crawl and build their confidence. They develop their small finger muscles by learning how to squeeze and roll play dough. In the garden, children jump, hop and run. They happily ride tricycles, which helps to build their gross motor skills.
• Children have a wide range of learning opportunities. Staff provide activities to excite and engage children in play. For example, children enjoy playing with plastic building blocks to create robots. Other children use their imaginations and play doctors and nurses. They recall their previous learning by sharing the importance of checking their temperature. Children display confidence in their learning and are kind to their friends. They enjoy sharing their experiences with each other and behave well.
• Children build independence skills from a young age. They learn how to tidy up after themselves. For example, when young children notice water has spilled from the water tray, staff encourage them to use paper towels to help to make the floor safe. Before mealtimes, children demonstrate that they have learned the skill and routine of washing their hands. During meals, some children serve themselves food, while younger children learn the skills to develop this.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery and the staff. They appreciate the regular communication, which helps them understand what their child is learning. Parents share that staff are kind and nurturing. This reassures them that their child is safe.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to strengthen the systems in place for monitoring and developing staff's practice in all rooms to raise the quality of education to a consistently high quality.