Brightsparks Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff in the nursery offer children a warm welcome. Families are greeted with smiles, and children settle quickly. Activities are imaginative, which helps children to concentrate and be more motivated to learn. Children play in bright and clean rooms. Resources are well considered and accessible for children.

Leaders create a feeling of support and nurture, and there is an emphasis on partnership throughout the nursery. Staff know children well, each being able to describe their key children with certainty. Children benefit from good attachments to staff. They show independence and have the confidence to try new things. Staff offer children genuine praise and reward for their positive behaviour. This motivates children and promotes their well-being.

Staff work hard to include all children. For example, children take part in enrichment activities with outside providers. They learn sign language through song and rhyme, which helps their communication and language development. Children practise their football skills, which helps to develop their physical skills, balance and coordination, as well as their social development, such as team-building and turn-taking.

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

• Staff provide thoughtful activities across the nursery to develop children's learning. However, not all activities follow children's interests and fascinations or have a clear intent. This results in an emphasis on an adult-led curriculum that follows themes. This means that some opportunities for exploring children's individual interests and extending their learning are lost.
• Staff strengthen children's speech and language development by repeating words to them and introducing new vocabulary. They encourage children's reading and literacy skills, such as with books and mark-making materials. Children sing familiar songs and rhymes daily. This helps to embed their listening skills, which are needed for later literacy skills. However, staff do not consistently give children time to think or process information.
• Children's independence and school readiness are promoted. They take part in activities to practise holding a pencil and develop their concentration. Children put on their coats and shoes and use cutlery well.
• Staff have high expectations for children's positive behaviour. This is shown in clear and consistent rules across the nursery. Children know what is happening through the routine and use visual timetables to understand what is happening next. This helps to settle children and makes them feel secure in a predictable environment. Children learn to respect their friends. For example, they know to be quiet after lunch so that young children can sleep. Staff role model positive communication and manners.
• Children are nurtured and well cared for. Staff show affection and warmth towards all children, giving them confidence to try. Older children learn about their feelings and emotions, such as when using a 'worry monster'. Staff assist children to identify and put a label on their feelings. This helps children to develop empathy and understand their emotions.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language are supported well. Staff gather information from parents and outside professionals to ensure that children's needs are met. Staff learn keywords from children's home languages to help communicate with them. Positive relationships with parents, regular team meetings and good communication means that information is shared across the nursery and staff know children well.
• All staff have key children. New staff are supported by more experienced colleagues to complete observations and create children's next steps in learning. Staff have ongoing training, which helps to secure their knowledge of child development.
• Leadership and management are well established. Staff feel supported and happy, which leads to a positive environment for children. Leaders focus on putting plans in place to enhance the nursery further. For example, they make information accessible to all staff by creating bitesize information sheets and suggesting podcasts to listen to.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• follow children's interest and fascinations more closely, to extend their engagement in their learning further
• support children to think and be creative, such as by using language for thinking and allowing them processing time.