Burgess Hill Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome on arrival at the nursery. This helps them to feel a strong sense of belonging and creates a positive start to their day. Staff take them to the room for their age group, where they readily make choices about what they would like to do. Staff plan a wide range of activities and experiences, which they base on each child's developmental stage. This helps each child access a learning environment that is ambitious for all.

Babies enjoy sitting with staff, listening to stories and pointing out items in the pictures. They repeat the noises that animals make, such as squeaking like a mouse. Babies join in with singing nursery rhymes and use toys to indicate what animals there are on 'Old MacDonald's Farm'. Staff extend this by seeing if the babies can follow instructions to collect different animals from around the room. This encourages children's early speaking skills.

Toddlers show increasing small-muscle skills. They pretend to cut the fruit and vegetables in the home corner. They can identify the different foods and take great delight in making dinner for others. Older children use their imaginations to build structures from wooden blocks. They work together to make a rocket and staff are on hand to further enhance their learning. For example, they count the blocks and work out that they can add other resources to enhance their creations.

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

• The manager understands her role and responsibilities in ensuring that staff caring for children are, and remain, suitable. She is fully supportive of staff's development to enable them to continually improve their practice. There have been a lot of changes taking place at the setting, including renovations. This has, at times, been unsettling, but is now much improved.
• The manager plans an effective curriculum for all children. Staff gather information about children's development from parents. The manager has a clear intention for what children need to learn next to help them to make progress in their learning. Staff use this information to plan for children's learning as part of a sequence.
• Staff support children to manage their feelings and behaviours. They give children clear instructions to keep them safe and also to help them to understand the impacts of their actions on others. Staff give older children time to think though their course of action and support them to make good decisions.
• Staff know their key children's learning needs and what they need to learn next. However, staff are not always able to spend good periods of time with their key children to further develop bonds. Staff are sometimes too rigid in their roles during routines, and do not always think about the needs of the children at these times.
• Older children enjoy reading stories with staff, learning where a story begins and ends. They show that they are familiar with stories as they join in with parts of them, such as in 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. This supports children's literacy skills.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents comment that nothing is too much for the staff and that their children thrive at the setting. However, the provider does not always ensure that they communicate changes effectively. Staff provide information for parents about their child's day and development through an online system. However, staff do not always share information about how parents can help support their children's development at home.
• Even from a young age, children make connections between things. For example, babies know that another child has stars on their coat and point to the sky. This shows a clear link from one aspect to another. Staff praise them effectively for this understanding and knowledge.
• Toddlers and babies explore sensory resources and what things feel like to touch. Staff use words such as 'soft', 'bumpy' and 'rough' to introduce new words and extend babies' vocabulary. They introduce language such as 'squash', 'flatten' and 'zig-zag' and talk about the shapes they make with play dough. These interactions support children's communication and language skills.
• The manager has a clear knowledge of how to assess staff's practice and the quality of their teaching skills. She recognises that staff are effective role models not only for children but also for less-experienced staff. There are effective processes in place to support staff well-being. Staff comment on the manager's approachability and amendments to working practice when needed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the key-person system to ensure that routine tasks do not prevent high-quality interactions with children
• build on the partnerships with parents to include them more during times of change and share ideas for learning at home.