Bumblebees Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this welcoming and inclusive nursery. Staff greet children with warm interactions. This helps children to settle quickly and feel safe and secure. Children develop extremely strong attachments with their key person. The manager and staff keep children's well-being and enjoyment at the centre of everything they do. They talk to children in a calm and respectful manner, gently reminding them about the need to share and take turns. Children are developing an awareness of their emotions and are caring towards each other.

There is a wide range of interesting and inviting resources, both inside and outside. Children are very familiar with the nursery's established routines and they move freely from one area of learning to another, just as it interests them. They show good levels of concentration and are eager to learn. For example, children thoroughly enjoy tracing over shapes. They talk to staff, naming the various shapes. Staff continually praise the children, which successfully promotes their self-esteem. A board displays the children's artwork and encourages them to feel confident in their own abilities. Children make decisions about their play and learn to manage their own personal care needs. They quickly become independent. Children have lots of fun at the nursery and quickly gain the skills they need for their future learning.

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

• Partnership with parents is a real strength in this nursery. Parents are extremely complimentary about the care and education that staff provide for their children. Parents feel well informed about their children's progress as staff keep them up to date with regular parents' meetings. Parents enjoy the regular homework activities provided. These enable parents to continue their children's learning at home.
• Key-person relationships are effective in supporting children to develop strong attachments with the staff who care for them. Staff interact with children in a calm and reassuring way, staying close and offering support when needed. For example, staff read stories in small groups and encourage the children to recite the story. These relationships and experiences help the children to develop a positive attitude to their learning.
• Managers have a strong vision for the nursery. They have designed a creative curriculum for children to help prepare them for the next stages of their learning. Managers have considered what children need to learn and they plan activities that match their interests. This encourages the children to enjoy learning while playing. For example, the older children have an interest in worms. Staff engage the children in using worms created from pipe cleaners to draw letters in the flour and say the sounds they represent. The children show good awareness of sounds as they engage in the phonic activity.
• Leaders have an accurate view of what is going well and what needs to improve. Staff comment that they feel well supported by the passionate management team. The managers provide staff with professional development training, and all staff receive regular supervisions. However, these are not always targeted accurately enough on supporting staff to identify specific targets to improve their teaching practice.
• Children have many opportunities to develop their small-muscle skills. They confidently use tweezers, chop fruit and explore daily play dough activities, where they follow instructions to squeeze and roll the dough. The children are developing the skills needed to prepare them for early writing when they transition to school.
• The experienced special educational needs coordinator knows the children in the setting well. All children make good progress. There are effective systems in place to support children and their families when referring to external agencies. However, staff do not always identify the opportunities throughout the day to practise the key skills that the children need to close gaps in their learning.
• Communication and language provision is good. Leaders work closely with local schools in identifying how communication can be supported further in the nursery. Staff spend lots of time talking to the children. They introduce new words, such as 'rhombus' and 'cocoon' while identifying shapes and reading stories.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to use opportunities throughout the day to practise key skills with children, to support narrowing gaps in children's learning
• strengthen the arrangements for the supervision of staff, to identify clear targets that support them to further enhance their teaching skills.