Busy Bees Day Nursery at Bitteswell

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Pre-school children enter the nursery eager to tell key practitioners what they have been doing at home. Toddlers, who are sometimes reluctant to enter, are distracted by practitioners who excitedly tell them of the great range of play on offer. Babies show they feel confident as they hold at their arms to their key practitioner and wave 'bye' to their parent. Practitioners have a good understanding of how to support children's learning. They work closely with parents to ensure the support they provide is reflective of children's interests as well as their stage of development. Consequently, all children make good progress.

Children enjoy accessing a wide range of interesting and exciting learning experiences. For example, two- to three-year-olds enjoy exploring mud and sand in the tough spots. They dig and search for laminated worm pictures and show good small-muscle skills as they use large tweezers to pick them out. The children explain to visitors how practitioners help them to make their own wormery and show them the 'wiggly' lines the worms make.

Children learn to manage risks. Pre-school and two- to three-year-olds risk assess the garden each morning to check for any potential hazards. Practitioners help them to think about how they know the garden is safe and how to minimise risks. Children are encouraged to become skilled in managing their own needs, such as blowing their nose, washing their hands and using the toilet independently.

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

• Children of all ages show good physical skills. Pre-school children skilfully run in and out of cones, showing good coordination. Two- and three-year-old children ride small, wheeled toys with ease and younger toddlers and babies carefully climb onto low-level chairs and move easily in the well-organised play spaces.
• The curriculum is carefully considered and planned effectively by a well-qualified team of practitioners. They ensure they link activities to what children can do and need to do next. Practitioners use 'inspirational' information, shared by parents, to help embed and build on children's skills and knowledge. For example, children learn about animals after discussions about a visit to the zoo. However, some practitioners do not always fully understand what they want individual children to learn from activities.
• All children are offered a healthy and well-balanced diet and have good access to the outdoors. Children learn how much food should be on their plates and the different range of food groups they should have. Practitioners use mealtimes to help support good eating habits. However, sometimes they do not consider the age or stage of development of the children. For example, babies and very young toddlers are given cutlery they are not yet ready to use, such as children's safety knives. This leads to children reverting to using their hands to feed themselves.
• Children are very well behaved and show a positive attitude to learning. All practitioners have high expectations for children's behaviour and help children understand how to follow rules. For example, when children squabble over a toy, practitioners come down to their level and remind them of the importance of sharing. Children are given time to finish what they are playing with before having to tidy away or move onto the next activity. As a result, relationships are positive across all age groups and between children and practitioners.
• Partnership with parents and carers is a real strength of this nursery. Parents speak with genuine fondness and respect about the practitioners and manager. They compliment them on their positive attitudes and their ability to help their children make good progress. Parents talk about the many ways their children's learning is shared with them and how well they are supported to continue learning at home.
• The manager has a clear vision for the nursery that she shares with her team, to ensure the best support, care and education are offered to children. She is a good role model and works hard to help practitioners to be the best they can be and to enable them to deliver the curriculum in the most effective manner. The manager offers regular support and supervision to all practitioners and sets targets to help them build on their good practice. Training, such as food hygiene, is offered to all practitioners along with a range of other short courses to develop their skills further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen practitioner's teaching skills in order to help them have a better understanding of how to support individual children's learning during activities
• provide younger children and babies more support to help them feed themselves independently using appropriate cutlery.