Busy Bee Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive on the love, care and endless patience and attention they receive from staff. This truly nurturing environment means that children settle quickly, are extremely confident and demonstrate a passion for learning. They competently set up their own play and explore concepts. For instance, children sort shells according to size. They put the larger shells in a deeper casserole dish, stating that these will take longer to cook. Children relish new challenges and demonstrate a determination to complete tasks. For example, children playing with plastic tubes and telephone handsets concentrate and trial different arrangements until they succeed in setting up a 'communication system'.

Staff are excellent role models and have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children reflect this in all they do. For example, older children demonstrate highly mature attitudes as they naturally include younger ones in their play, carefully explaining this so that they can join in meaningfully. The meticulous attention to routines and activities supports children in gaining a comprehensive awareness of healthy lifestyle practices. For instance, children pretend to sneeze, blowing glitter to highlight how germs travel if we do not cover our mouths. Children show a mature understanding of safety. When constructing obstacle courses, children assess how high the hurdles should be, taking account of their abilities and differing heights.

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

• All children make excellent progress. Managers implement a highly ambitious, practical curriculum that offers children rich learning experiences. They adapt this to reflect closely the needs and interests of each child. Managers support staff in identifying areas where children may require extra support or where they excel. They then plan challenging opportunities that support children to exceed in their achievements.
• Managers demonstrate their unwavering commitment to continuing to offer children and families the very best service they can. They show the highest regard for staff, showing them that they are truly valued. Staff report that they receive continuous support that aids them in fulfilling their roles and developing their practice.
• Staff have an excellent understanding of the individual circumstances of children. They provide highly sensitive support and use additional funding effectively to offer children further learning opportunities. Staff work closely with other professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and ensure that they have the support they need to achieve.
• Excellent staff skills and planning support children in developing their love of books. Staff read with animation and children are captivated. Children become so engrossed that they notice minute details, for example, exclaiming 'the wolf blew so hard that the fish came out of it's bowl!'. Staff ensure that children have opportunities to reinforce their knowledge. For instance, children explore materials as they make model houses associated with a story. They use these later when staff challenge them to remember the story without looking at the book.
• Staff fully appreciate their role in supporting children to develop their language and communication skills. Staff continuously involve children in discussions, successfully aiding them in participating appropriately. The excellent support from staff means that children have an extensive vocabulary and understand the intricacies of language. For instance, they laugh when staff say their names in 'wibbly-wobbly' fashion, quickly recognising the name and correcting the pronunciation
• Skilled staff make excellent use of spontaneous learning opportunities. For instance, they encourage children to consider the number of houses in a story. Children competently sequence the order in which the houses were built, quickly understanding positional numbering as they recognise that number one relates to 'first' and number two to 'second'. They eagerly build on this knowledge as they add further numbers.
• Children have numerous opportunities that support them in recognising differences. They help make displays which record their holiday destinations and places they would like to visit. They competently note the different languages, alphabets and traditions.
• Parents speak of the nursery and staff with the utmost warmth and praise, stating it is a 'haven of nurturing love'. They highlight the child-centred approach and the learning that is tailored to children's needs. Parents report that communication is excellent and they receive practical, personalised information that enables them to continue their children's learning.