Bright Sparks Private Day Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome when they arrive at the nursery. Babies enjoy close contact with staff as they sit on their knees to share a book. Staff use a calm and nurturing approach to support the babies' emotional development. They smile as staff turn the pages of a book and gaze at the images that staff are pointing to and naming. Staff are helping babies learn that pictures and text have meaning.

Older children have opportunities to develop their dexterity and strengthen their finger muscles, ready for writing when the time comes. They learn how to move their wrists to pour water from one container to another and develop their pincer grip as they pick up grains of rice. Children learn from staff how to safely use scissors to snip cardboard, remembering to keep the blades away from their fingers.

Staff play fun games with children to help develop their listening and attention skills. Children listen carefully to sounds that staff play on a recording. With help, they take turns to identify what they hear, prompted by looking at picture cards. Children recognise the sound of a fish gurgling in water. Staff extend children's knowledge of fish by telling them the picture they are looking at is a goldfish.

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

• The management team and staff have devised a curriculum influenced by research, their knowledge of what children need to learn, and children's current interests. They gather information from parents about children's lives at home and use this to plan relevant activities to extend children's learning and build on their prior experiences.
• Staff accurately assess children's development. They work quickly to determine what children already know and can do when they start at the nursery. Staff use this information to plan individual learning goals for children. Their assessment of children's development is ongoing and includes a focus on progress made every few weeks. Staff work well with specialist services to support children with gaps in their learning and development. They regularly share information with parents, and parents say they feel well informed about their children's learning.
• Staff help children learn through a variety of ways. For example, they plan focused adult-led activities to teach children new words, such as 'forget', through sharing a favourite children's story. Staff successfully support children's positive behaviour development as they play alongside each other. For instance, staff respond with 'yes please' and 'thank you' as they exchange toys with children, which role models polite manners.
• Staff support children to learn about what makes themselves and their families unique. They invite parents and children to fill a 'culture box' with items that represent themselves. Staff use these items to talk about children's lives at home and celebrate what makes them special. For example, talking about the jobs their parents do. Staff explain that these items help to spark discussions with children, which promotes children's communication and language development.
• Staff provide children with healthy home-cooked meals and opportunities to exercise. They organise football sessions and running clubs to help children develop their physical skills and understand the benefits of being active. The management team also support the staff in accomplishing their health goals. This creates a culture whereby health and fitness are embedded into children's lifestyle choices.
• Staff follow a daily routine that includes opportunities for children to eat, rest and play. For the most part, staff manage these well. That said, staff's organisation and arrangements for some daily activities do not fully support children's individual care and learning needs. For example, while staff supervise children while they eat and meet their care needs, staff do not always offer quality social interaction because they need to complete tasks elsewhere.
• The management team offers staff relevant coaching, training, and support. For instance, through their role-modelling of techniques to support children's speech development. The management team arranges for outside agencies, such as speech and language therapists, to share their knowledge and skills with staff. This helps to develop staff's practice. However, they do not always monitor staff's practice precisely enough to ensure the staff are consistently using their learning in their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and adapt the organisation of routine daily activities so that children's individual care and learning needs are fully supported throughout
• develop further ways of monitoring staff to ensure the coaching and training they receive is implemented in their practice.