Bright Sparks Childcare (Yorkshire) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited to attend this warm and friendly nursery. Staff and managers provide a welcoming and accessible environment in which children flourish. They form exceptionally effective relationships with children and their families. Children from all backgrounds are celebrated in authentic and meaningful ways. For example, babies join in with songs sung in Cantonese, while older children bring in traditional clothing and food to share with their friends from France and Romania. There is an ambitious and engaging curriculum, which captures all children's interests.

Staff in the nursery provide purposeful and meaningful experiences of the wider world to enrich children's experience of the world. For example, children share books and read stories over video call to overseas schools, enjoy litter picking and taking care of a garden in the community and learn about artists like Kandinsky and Mozart.

Independence is encouraged from an early age, with children participating eagerly in their daily routine. Young children sweep away and tidy up enthusiastically, and older children go to the shops to pick up vegetables and prepare them for their lunch. Children show a love of learning as they participate before lunch in fun dancing games. Staff support children to regulate with age-appropriate yoga and breathing exercises. Children respond exceptionally well to staff's enthusiasm and challenge. Children learn about the importance of oral hygiene and online safety.

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

• Leaders have ambitious outcomes for all children. The curriculum has a clear flow informed by the child's journey through the nursery and effective observation and assessment. This supports children to develop over time. For example, large floor mark-making activities are implemented with each age group, which are skilfully differentiated by staff according to children's needs and abilities. There is a strategic and consistent emphasis given to communication and language, which is highlighted as highly effective.
• Children show high levels of well-being and engagement in all age groups. Every area of the provision is planned thoughtfully and reviewed regularly by staff who are highly knowledgeable. Staff develop a love of learning in the children, who are actively engaged in independent learning and keen to participate and show what they can do to staff.
• Children are inquisitive and want to explore their ideas with staff. This is supported by frequent and highly effective interactions from the staff team. Staff respond to children in a consistent and strategic manner, asking purposeful questions. When children have a 'spark', staff extend the learning in a variety of ways spontaneously. For example, when children show an interest in reflection, staff follow their curiosity, reflecting letters onto the ceiling. Children then eagerly find the first letters of their names to join in.
• Children's behaviour and attitudes in the setting are exemplary. They remind each other of the expectations of their behaviour, encouraging each other to be kind and to listen. Staff support this through forming secure attachments and creating a consistent experience for children. Parents comment on how their children enthusiastically talk about and show what they are learning at nursery.
• Leaders embed a culture of reflective practice in their highly motivated team. Staff dynamically evaluate the activities they are providing. They share ideas freely and enthusiastically with each other and adapt their approach quickly to support children's learning. Staff consider the impact their teaching has on children and what is next for them. Specific interventions are quickly implemented for children who need extra support. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language.
• Staff are exceedingly positive about leaders and managers and reflect on the exceptional support they have been given for their well-being. Additionally, they reflect on the regular ongoing training and support they receive for their professional development. Newer members of the team describe how they are mentored regularly by more experienced staff. They receive accurate and meaningful feedback to help them evaluate their teaching and the impact on children.
• Parents are exceedingly complimentary about the nursery, describing how the managers and staff go above and beyond for the community, providing food and clothing banks and supporting families through exceptional circumstances. Furthermore, they describe the additional, targeted home-learning resources they receive for their children's next steps, such as story boxes to support communication and language development and challenges to support numeracy.