Bright Horizons Wish Park, Hove, Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and enjoy their time at this nursery. They receive warm welcomes from friendly staff as they arrive, eager to start their day. They confidently explore the welcoming and well-planned environment. Staff organise this to incorporate children's individual curiosities and as such, children are motivated in their play and learning. Children form strong bonds with the nurturing and approachable staff who know them well. This positively supports children's emotional well-being, including those who have recently started attending the nursery. Children develop their skills across a balanced curriculum, which prepares them well for their next stage in learning.

Leaders have taken the necessary steps since the last inspection. There are robust procedures in place that ensure any child protection concerns are referred in a timely manner, in line with local safeguarding partnership guidance. All staff are vigilant about safeguarding children and understand their roles and responsibilities, which helps keep children safe.

Staff are consistently positive role models to all children. Consequently, children's behaviour is good. They show kindness as they initiate and join play with their friends. Staff provide appropriate explanations if they ask children not to do something and explain the potential consequences. Children listen and respond well. This supports children's growing understanding as they learn right from wrong and begin to recognise how to keep themselves safe.

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

• Leaders, alongside their staff team, have a clear and ambitious vision of what they want children to achieve. As a result, they plan and deliver a well-thought-out curriculum. Staff provide meaningful experiences across all areas of the early year's foundation stage. Staff know what skills children have learned, what they want to teach them next and why. They provide appropriately challenging experiences to develop children's resilience. Staff understand the importance of continually building on skills children have already learned, preparing them for future success.
• Generally, children's communication and language skills are supported well. For instance, babies have opportunities to hear clearly spoken, repetitive language, alongside gesture and exaggerated facial expressions. Older children are encouraged to develop their conversational skills by sharing their own thoughts and ideas. Children have opportunities to hear an abundance of new words as staff provide a language-rich environment. However, on occasions, staff use complex new words like 'pollinate' and 'hydrate' but do not provide any explanation of them. As such, children are not always fully supported to learn the meanings of new words in context to develop their understanding. Despite this, children are making good progress in their language development.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive the prompt and targeted support they need. Staff use their knowledge of each child to put personalised plans in place to consistently support children. Staff understand the importance of working closely with parents and external professionals. As a result, children with SEND make good progress.
• Children have opportunities to be involved in smaller group activities. For instance, they enjoy playing musical statues, and singing familiar songs with gusto. However, group times for the younger children are not always as well organised as they could be. This does not always fully support children's continued attention and engagement in their learning during these times.
• Leaders and staff place a strong emphasis on supporting children's independence. Children learn new skills to help them do things for themselves. For instance, staff encourage children to self-serve food and drinks from an early age. Children develop a good sense of pride in what they can do and gain confidence as they transition through the rooms.
• Staff celebrate diversity in the nursery. For example, staff follow children's own curiosities about differences they may notice in others. This is skilfully extended through a range of activities, incorporating multicultural resources as children learn about new countries and traditions. This approach helps foster an appreciation for individuality and encourages children to embrace the diverse society they live in.
• Leaders place a strong emphasis on parental partnership. As a result, parents are highly complementary of the care and learning their children benefit from. They value the regular communication they receive about their child's day, ongoing development, and how they can further support learning at home. The nursery also offers advice to parents in support of children's life events and developmental milestones.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently introduce appropriate explanations of new words to help children fully understand these in context as they broaden their vocabulary
• review the organisation of small group times for the younger children to ensure they can consistently engage and remain focused in their learning.