Busy Bees Day Nursery at Bexley Heath

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders of the nursery are clear about what they want the children to learn. They provide an inclusive curriculum that meets the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, all children who attend the setting make good progress from their starting points.

Leaders and staff get to know the children and their families well. They implement robust settling-in arrangements when children start attending, to help them to feel safe and secure. Babies benefit from consistent care routines and effective key-person arrangements, which help them to quickly settle in and become familiar with the learning environment.

Leaders and staff deliver the curriculum for physical development well. Young babies are supported to move around safely in the well-organised classroom, building on their large-muscle development. Staff teach two-year-old children how to climb equipment safely and develop their spatial awareness. Children learn to take age-appropriate risks and build on their curiosity while playing in the large garden.

Staff are respectful, while having clear expectations for behaviour and routines. They read books, explain to the children the importance of sharing, and encourage them to talk about how they feel. Consequently, children across the age groups behave well and display positive attitudes to learning.

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

• Leaders and staff use assessments well to monitor how well children achieve. They have identified that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on some children's communication and language development. Therefore, they have implemented various strategies, including a lending library where older children take books home to read with their parents. Overall, staff maintain positive interactions with children to help to extend their interest and learning further. However, at times, staff are not always proactive in encouraging children who use dummies as a comforter to take them out when they do not need them, so they can engage and participate meaningfully in learning experiences and further build on their speech and language development.
• Staff set high expectations for behaviour. They teach children to be kind and remind them of the expected behaviour boundaries. For instance, when children start to run indoors or throw resources accidently, staff go down to their level and explain why this behaviour is not appropriate. In addition, staff offer lots of praise throughout the day, which helps to boost children's self-esteem. This approach successfully builds children's confidence and independence.
• The manager and staff work closely with parents. Staff use the online system and face-to-face communication well to keep parents informed about children's care and learning. In addition, the staff seek and act on the views of parents to help to identify areas to improve. Parents are kept to date with staff changes and other welfare matters through emails. Parents report that they feel that their children are happy and well cared for, and know what the children have been doing each day.
• Children are self-assured and motivated to learn. Children show pride in their own achievements and those of others. For example, while creating a picture with small pegs, children give their friends a 'thumbs up' and tell them 'good job, it looks beautiful'. Children maintain positive concentration and focus throughout the day. Children are prepared well for their future education.
• Staff know the children well and can confidently explain how they are progressing and what they need to learn next. However, on a few occasions, they do not ensure that what they plan for each child to learn is implemented effectively. For example, staff are not always present to support some activities, even when they have identified that adult input is needed to help the children to build on previous knowledge and learn new skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to better understand and implement the curriculum aims for developing children's communication and language development so that all children make consistently good progress in their speaking skills
• improve oversight of the teaching and learning across the setting to help to ensure that staff plan learning experiences that are correctly matched to what children need to learn, to help close any learning gaps successfully and build on what they already know.