Busy Bees at West Ealing Baby

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The committed manager and staff share the highest expectations and aspirations for all children. Together, they implement an exceptionally well-designed curriculum that helps children to continuously acquire knowledge and skills. Activities are planned at precisely the right level for children's age and stage of development. Children demonstrate exceptional levels of involvement in the activities that staff prepare for them. They become incredibly absorbed in their learning and sustain their concentration for prolonged periods.

All staff know the children extremely well. Parents comment that staff care for children as if they were their own. Staff who care for the youngest children recognise their non-verbal cues. For example, staff respond to children who point, and name the objects to help children develop their language. Staff support children to understand their feelings and learn to manage their own behaviour. Staff are excellent role models for children. Consequently, all children behave well and the atmosphere in the nursery is calm and relaxed.

Staff in the nursery implement highly effective strategies to ensure that children are kept safe while eating. Food is checked and double checked before being served to children to ensure that no child encounters food to which they may be allergic. The manager has implemented a system of staggered lunchtimes that enable higher levels of supervision for children while eating. All staff have completed specific training on how to reduce the risk of choking. All food is cut up in line with the latest guidance. When children are weaning, staff carefully coordinate the introduction of new foods with parents, and seek written consent before doing so. Children learn to be independent from an extremely early age. They learn to feed themselves and help to find their own nappy when it is time for a change.

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

• The manager is highly reflective of practice and, as a result, the quality of the nursery continually improves. For example, seemingly simple changes to the organisation of mealtimes have meant that children are now highly supervised. Mealtimes are homely events where the caring staff have time to encourage children to eat their vegetables.
• Relationships between staff and children are very respectful. For instance, staff always prepare children for a nappy change, and encourage them to become involved by finding their own nappies. Great care is taken to ensure that children's individual needs are met. At sleep time, children are able to find their own bed because it has their picture on it, with information on the reverse side for staff on how children prefer to be settled to sleep. Staff are alert to changes in children's home life and understand when they may need greater support to manage their feelings. They help children to resolve feelings of frustration with sensitivity, patience and kindness.
• Staff have an excellent understanding of how to support children's learning. They access a wide range of training opportunities, which they then implement in their practice. For example, following training on children's play patterns, they organised resources in the garden for children who are interested in carrying objects from one place to another. Staff act on information they receive from other professionals involved in the care of children. For example, they implemented activities to encourage babies to stand. Staff speak very highly of the support they receive from their manager and the way in which she demonstrates strategies to help them improve their practice.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills remarkably well. They use singing, action rhymes and stories as part of everyday practice. The manager has implemented a book and song of the week, and has noted the positive impact this has had on staff practice. She describes how the curriculum for communication and language improved as a result. Children demonstrate a love of books, which they independently access throughout the day. High-quality back-and-forth interactions between children and staff, who know them well, help children to remember their prior learning. For example, staff understand children's non-verbal cues and respond to their requests to sing a song from a previous session.
• Partnerships with parents are extremely good. Parents receive regular updates about their child's development through an online app, and have frequent opportunities to meet with their child's key person. Staff in the nursery provide excellent support for parents to continue their children's learning at home. For example, they run toilet-training workshops and provide resource bags of examples of first underwear. Parents are highly complimentary about the nursery. They state that the staff in the nursery help their children to become confident and curious learners.