Busy Bees @ Anstey Park

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a varied curriculum that enables them to make good progress. They support children well to make choices and decisions during their play. Staff consistently make children's learning fun and exciting. Consequently, children feel happy and safe and are motivated active learners.

Staff are positive role models, particularly in the way they communicate with children. They provide a calm learning environment that enables children to concentrate well during their play. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They talk with parents and use the same methods that parents use to help children learn to manage their emotions and feelings, which provides continuity.

Children develop a range of physical skills. Staff provide a variety of activities that develop children's mobility, control and balance. For example, children eagerly learn to ride wheeled toys down a low graduated slope. They develop strength in their arms as they use brushes to paint on a shower curtain suspended from a fence in the outdoor play area. Children have good opportunities to explore the local community and understand the world. Staff regularly take children on outings to woodland areas where they climb on fallen tree trunks and act out stories, such as going on a bear hunt.

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

• Staff consistently enter into the spirit of children's play and extend their learning and development. For instance, they inspire children to use their imagination and to learn about number, weight and size as they handle pumpkins in a play shop. Children 'buy' pumpkins from their friends and talk together and with staff about the cost.
• Staff consistently talk with children and encourage them to respond. For instance, when children play with toy cars and a garage, staff introduce words such as 'repairs', 'mechanics' and 'ramp' to develop children's vocabulary. Children develop a strong interest in books. They concentrate well while listening to stories and confidently join in with the parts they remember.
• Staff consistently help children to achieve what they set out to do. For instance, when children decide to use modelling dough to make a 'dragon', staff explain and show them how to form parts of the dragon's body. Staff then give children time to do this for themselves. Children learn to manipulate the dough and are proud of their achievements.
• Overall, staff provide children with interesting activities that inspire them to learn. They know all the children well, join in their play and use children's individual interests to extend their learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive good support on the whole and make good progress. However, on occasion, staff do not consider how to help all children with SEND benefit fully from the full, broad curriculum to extend their experiences further.
• Children behave well. Staff teach them to be kind and helpful. For instance, children offer to help tidy up and patiently explain to their friends how to use keys to unlock play padlocks.
• The manager and staff work well in partnership with parents to meet children's individual needs. They send monthly newsletters to parents with information about activities and outings. Staff meet with parents each term to discuss their children's progress and next steps to support continuity in their learning and development.
• Parents spoken to during the inspection are happy with their children's care and learning. They say that the staff are amazing and that they are very warm and friendly and make secure connections with their children. Parents also like that the staff take their children on lots of outings in the local community.
• Children gain many useful skills in readiness for moving on to school. Staff encourage their independence well. For example, children wash their hands and find and open their lunch boxes at mealtimes. They learn to put on their coats and wet-weather playsuits before playing outdoors. However, on occasion, staff do not pay as much attention to building links with the schools that children move on to to help children settle well and feel emotionally secure when they start.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and improve activity planning to provide an even broader curriculum for all children with SEND to further support their good progress
• strengthen procedures to help all children move smoothly on to the next stage of their learning, including school.