Bright Sparks Day Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

'No child must fail' is a shared principle that underpins practice across the setting and reflects leaders' strong commitment to meeting every child's needs. This shared ethos is well understood by staff. Through a bespoke assessment process, leaders and staff identify individual needs early, with tailored support in place from the outset and reviewed regularly.

Staff deliver inclusive learning experiences and adapt their support effectively to meet children's individual needs. They use ongoing assessment and a strong understanding of children's development to remove barriers to learning, ensuring that all children are fully engaged, supported appropriately and able to succeed and make good progress.

Leaders place a high priority on staff development and demonstrate informed use of any additional funding to strengthen practice in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. Training, such as on the use of Makaton, is shared effectively across the setting so that all staff benefit, ensuring consistent implementation to support children's communication and language development.

Parents recognise rapid progress in their children's development, particularly in speech, language and confidence. Clear communication, regular contact with key persons and tools such as the 'learning passport' help parents understand next steps and support effective partnerships with parents.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders and staff have developed an ambitious, high-quality curriculum that is broad, meaningful and rooted in children's interests and developmental needs.

Leaders ensure that progressive planning and teaching of skills across the 7 areas of learning are fully embedded to make a significant difference to babies and children. Staff provide opportunities for children to learn and understand the world around them, through exposure to a language-rich environment, high-quality conversations and impactful role modelling. This has a significant positive impact on children's communication and language development and skills, including for children who speak English as an additional language.

Teaching is purposeful, adaptable and skilfully delivered. Staff consistently provide high-quality teaching experiences that support and enhance children's learning, including children with special education needs and/or disabilities and those that face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing. Age-appropriate learning opportunities are capitalised across the setting, and, where teachable moments occur, staff swiftly progress learning through actively responding to children.

Progress is monitored effectively, and children are encouraged to tackle well-identified next steps with high expectations, enabling knowledge and skills to develop over time. Staff plan and deliver engaging activities. For example, babies enjoy listening to nursery rhymes and songs and are encouraged to clap and sing along. Younger children develop their mathematical language through play, for example comparing the size of 'ice cream' scoops. Older children develop their listening skills as they pot plants and learn how to loosen the roots to absorb water for them to grow.

Staff assess and adapt learning through suitable questions and children's responses. They use varied approaches, such as sensory circuits, tailored adult support and Makaton, to ensure that all children can access the learning. This enables children to have the best possible start to their learning journey.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children benefit from staff's high expectations for their learning and development. Babies develop their physical skills effectively, showing determination and resilience in the early stages of walking, encouraged by staff to pull themselves up and continue independently, strengthening their core and leg muscles.

Children demonstrate curiosity about the world around them. Younger children explore a range of healthy food when making a 'vegetable soup'. Older children learn about physical changes to leaves through scientific investigation and sensory exploration. They are fascinated when they observe how the texture and smell of the leaves change when they are crushed.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other barriers to their learning benefit from targeted support and early intervention. This means that all children make sustained progress in their learning and development from their starting points and develop secure foundations for future learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Staff consistently provide a warm, supportive and nurturing environment in which clear and ambitious expectations are understood by children. A positive culture of behaviour is evident, shaped by leaders who set clear standards and foster trust. This enables children to confidently manage their feelings and develop an understanding of their emotions.

Warm, positive relationships are fostered through the thoughtful matching of key workers' strengths to the individual needs of children. This approach results in strong, secure bonds with staff who know and understand the children in their care exceptionally well. Consequently, children feel safe, comforted and emotionally secure, enabling them to develop confidence.

Routines are fully embedded across the setting, including through transition and mealtimes. These are carefully thought out to develop children as independent members of the community. Children arrive calm, settled and ready to fully participate in the day's activities.

Staff provide a wealth of opportunities for children to work collaboratively, demonstrate kindness and practise turn-taking. For example, children help one another clean the toy car, sharing the cloths and waiting patiently for their turn. Minimal staff intervention is required, as children consistently show high levels of respect, cooperation and patience, which is noticed and highly commended by staff.

Leaders promote regular attendance and punctuality, working in partnership with families who require support and offering flexibility, such as adapting session times to suit individual children's needs. This ensures that children can benefit from the setting's routines and learning experiences.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders prioritise children's welfare and wellbeing throughout the setting, ensuring that children are happy and healthy and feel safe and ready to learn. Leaders and staff fully understand the needs of the children who attend and work proactively with parents to support these needs, both at the setting and at home.

Hygiene routines are well embedded. Children wash their hands before and after snack, lunch and messy play. Children demonstrate growing curiosity about how to maintain cleanliness. For example, they show interest in the hand sanitiser and are able to explain how it is used to reduce germs and keep them healthy.

Leaders and staff provide well-balanced, nutritious meals for children. Leaders plan weekly healthy menus to ensure variety of choice. Leaders and staff work collaboratively with families to ensure that children are bringing healthy food into the setting.

Routines for sleeping are highly effective. Staff's robust knowledge of safe sleep practice is evident, and babies are gently soothed to sleep in a calm, nurturing environment.

All children benefit from plenty of physical development opportunities. Older children climb, ride bikes and develop their fine motor grip. Younger children strengthen the fine motor skills in their hands as they squeeze water spray bottles in the soil while planting seeds. Babies confidently crawl, independently sit and pull themselves up to stand and walk.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders have a clear vision for the setting, providing purposeful direction that drives high expectations and consistent practice. Their broad and detailed understanding of child development filtrates through the setting and is shared effectively with staff, resulting in consistently superb practice.

Collaborative working with external professionals drives improvement, supported by leaders' commitment to reflective practice and continuous improvement. Support for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, is timely, and regular reviews mean that provision is suitably adapted and the level of support effective to ensure that children make strong progress.

Leaders' in-depth understanding of the setting and the local area is evident in the design and planning of an inclusive curriculum that builds progressively on what children know and can do. Learning experiences are carefully planned with children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who face additional barriers to learning and wellbeing, in mind. This ensures that all children are fully included, well supported and able to engage confidently. Leaders expertly consider funding to ensure that it is consistently used to meet the needs of the children.

Considerable thought is given to how parents are supported to further enhance their child's learning at home. Leaders and staff have a detailed understanding of children's lives and of what parents value in relation to their child's learning and development. This enables parents to feel confident and comfortable in sharing concerns and keeping the setting updated with relevant information. This strengthens partnership working and ensures that children's needs are supported effectively.

Staff are well supported within their roles and have regular supervisions to discuss professional development, wellbeing and next steps for improvement. Staff wellbeing is a clear priority, and leaders promote a positive culture of teamwork and mutual support. This contributes to high morale and effective practice across the setting.