Bumbles Orrell Park

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and confident at this nursery. Parents do not enter the nursery routinely, due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic safety precautions. However, children are warmly greeted at the front door. Children 'high five' and cuddle their key person. They feel safe and form strong bonds with staff. Staff identify that some children, including those born during the COVID-19 pandemic, may require more emotional support, when they first start at the nursery. Therefore, staff ensure children are given extra time when they first settle in and as they progress through the nursery. This helps to build children's resilience, so they are ready for their next stage of learning.

Children listen and behave well. Pre-school children laugh together as they energetically participate in a game of tag. They help each other up if they fall over. Their friendships and interactions with each other are developing well. Children's physical development is supported effectively. Babies develop their large-muscle skills, as they take steps to follow a giant ball and push their feet down onto tricycle pedals. They learn to manage risk as staff help them to climb safely on soft play blocks. Toddlers practise small-muscle skills, as they scoop sand and use paint rollers.

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

• Staff follow a broad and balanced interest-led curriculum for all children. The special educational needs coordinator supports staff to identify where extra help may be required and makes swift referrals for support from other professionals.
• Overall, staff know the children well and help them to make good progress. However, temporary cover staff and newer staff know children's individual needs and next steps in learning less well. This means, during freely chosen activities, they are less able to help build on what children already know and can do.
• Younger children look at picture prompt cards, which help to remind them to listen and to use 'kind hands'. Older children place picture prompt cards on an interactive 'promises board' and staff support them to think about and identify appropriate behaviour.
• Older children form a special committee to help make decisions about the nursery. They choose what is going to be on the healthy menu and decide where recycling bins should go. Children are allocated special helper jobs. This helps them to learn how to make important decisions, solve problems and to take pride in their surroundings.
• Staff promote healthy lifestyles for children. Daily yoga sessions and supervised tooth brushing are embedded into the children's routine. Children learn about how to keep their bodies healthy. They say they can 'feel their muscles' as they stretch and 'hear their breath' when they breathe out, as they make yoga poses.
• Staff build on what children know and can do, to help them develop their self-care skills. For example, babies are encouraged to find their shoes and fasten their coats. Toddlers independently access toilets within the play space and learn how to wash their hands. Pre-school children self-serve their food and pour their own water to drink at lunchtime.
• Children's literacy skills are developing well. Younger children listen intently to stories and songs. They are encouraged to babble and imitate animal sounds. Older children are encouraged to draw and form letter shapes and describe what they are drawing. Children have free access to a range of books. Many of the books include stories and information about people and lives different to the children's own. This supports children's developing understanding of the wider world.
• Pre-school children participate and try hard in all activities. However, as children become absorbed in what they are doing, staff sometimes interrupt and instruct them to move on to something different. At these times, children are not able to deeply engage in learning and develop deep concentration skills.
• Parents comment how reassured they are with the nursery's approach to settling children, when they first start and when they move rooms. They say they are pleased with the priority given to their children's language development. Parents appreciate the guidance provided by staff to support their children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support new staff and temporary cover staff to implement activities that support children's individual needs and next steps in learning
• refine the organisation of activities in the pre-school room, so that children reach deeper levels of concentration and engagement in their play and learning.