Busy Bears Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The caring staff are responsive to children's needs. Staff source toys that they know children enjoy, to help them to settle on arrival. Staff take time to talk to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to clearly explain what is happening now and next. This helps to prepare them well for any changes to their routine. Children are happy and safe in this home-from-home nursery. They are sociable, confident and independent individuals.

Staff promote children's learning and development well. They help babies to learn how to use their senses to explore materials, such as different-textured cereals. Babies babble, smile and move their whole bodies in response to the sounds that they hear. Young children show how they have developed their confidence and physical skills as they successfully move across various surfaces, such as a bridge. They get excited when staff link phrases from well-known stories, such as 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff', to the activity. Older children work together as a team to complete more complex tasks. They quickly work out how to transfer water from one tray to another, using a pipe. Children who speak English as an additional language enjoy listening to stories and songs in their home languages.

Children demonstrate a good awareness of how to keep themselves safe. For example, children instantly select a hard hat and put this on before they start to build a 'tree house' in the construction area outdoors. Children are kind and considerate to others. When tasting strawberries, children know to take one piece at a time, so that everyone receives an equal share.

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

• Leaders value their staff team. They provide regular support to staff, to help to enhance their good practice. Leaders have significantly reduced the amount of paperwork that staff complete, to enable them to spend more quality time with the children. This is helping staff to develop a greater understanding of children's individual needs and interests and contributes to the well-matched learning experiences that they provide.
• The knowledgeable staff are proactive in sourcing early help for children with SEND. They liaise closely with parents and other professionals and thread advice into targeted learning plans. This helps to close any gaps in children's learning. Children enjoy their one-to-one sessions in the appealing and calm sensory room. They develop the ability to concentrate for longer periods, such as when watching fish swim up and down in a bubble lamp.
• Leaders understand the local context of the nursery and the children and families who attend. They take children to visit places of interest, such as the beach, fire station and local parks. This helps to enrich children's life experiences and builds on their knowledge of people and communities beyond their own.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff exchange information with parents on a daily basis to keep them informed of their children's learning and progress. They provide enjoyable learning ideas, such as minibeast hunts, to help parents to build on their children's skills at home. Parents report that the nursery has a very friendly and welcoming feel.
• Overall, staff promote children's communication and language skills well. For example, during stories, staff draw children's attention to new words, such as 'starve' and 'delicious'. They ask children to think about what these words mean and, after a short while, some children offer accurate definitions. However, during various sensory experiences, staff do not give children time to think and respond to the questions that they ask before they step in and give them the answers. This does not support children to build on their communication and language skills.
• Relationships between staff and children are positive and respectful. Staff speak to children in a gentle and friendly manner. They encourage children to use their 'kind hands' and 'kind words' during play, to help them to adopt a 'kind heart'. Staff make good use of any funding. They pair less-confident children with a 'buddy' during play. This helps them to socialise more freely with others.
• The well-qualified staff complete a wide range of training to promote children's safety and welfare. Leaders have introduced a new training programme that aims to support staff to extend their good knowledge and understanding of the curriculum. However, this is in the very early stages and requires further embedding, to enhance staff's good teaching skills to the very highest levels.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to offer consistent opportunities for children to process their thoughts and respond when they are ready, to build further on their good communication and language skills
• continue to focus professional development opportunities on enhancing staff's knowledge and understanding of the early years curriculum, to help to extend their good teaching skills.