Busy Bees Day Nursery at Carshalton

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm and welcoming environment and children arrive happily, ready to start their day. They confidently explore the activities on offer, such as exploring sand or making marks with paint brushes and water outside. Staff engage well with children and support and extend their play. Staff are highly responsive to children's interests and needs and plan activities based on these. For instance, children delight in going on a 'bear hunt' in the garden. Staff act out the different parts and all children excitedly join in, moving in different ways. Children develop a positive attitude to learning and listen well to staff.

Children are happy and settled and enjoy their time at the nursery. Effective transition procedures ensure that children build secure attachments with staff. Leaders and staff have a good understanding of their curriculum and how children learn. Staff confidently talk about children's individual interests and what they want children to learn during activities. They plan a range of exciting activities to support and extend children's learning. For example, staff plan play dough activities for children to develop their hand-eye coordination. Children delight in using different tools, such as scissors, rollers and cutters.

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

• Leaders and staff regularly reflect on their practice, looking at what is working well and what could be improved. They collect feedback from parents through regular questionnaires and the parent partnership group and make positive improvements to the nursery.
• Staff know the children well and closely monitor their development. They follow an ambitious curriculum, demonstrating what they intend for children to learn and how they will implement it. Staff quickly highlight and address any gaps in children's development to ensure all children make good progress.
• Staff have access to a wide range of training opportunities to further develop their practice and knowledge. For example, recent training around the nursery's curriculum has led to staff being more confident in how children learn and how best they can support them. As a result, all children make good progress and are well prepared for the next step in their learning.
• Staff follow good procedures to support children's understanding of healthy lifestyles and understanding of dietary requirements. Children understand what food is good for them and what they can eat and confidently discuss this with their peers. Children also enjoy a range of physical activities, such as sports sessions, and spend a lot of time in the well-resourced gardens.
• Overall, parents are happy with the nursery and state their children enjoy attending and have good relationships with the staff. However, leaders and staff do not always keep parents up to date with changes within the nursery.
• Staff are effective role models for behaviour and set clear expectations for the children. For instance, older children follow golden rules and remind each other of them. As a result, children are kind, considerate and learn to share toys and resources.
• Leaders support staff effectively and value their well-being. They complete regular peer-on-peer observations and mentor and coach staff to develop their practice. Staff also have access to a wide variety of support schemes, such as mental health advice and discount vouchers to support them outside of work.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively. They work closely with parents and other professionals to meet children's individual needs and create individual education plans to support their development.
• Staff support children's early communication skills effectively. For example, with babies they talk clearly and slowly and describe what they can see or what they are doing. With older children, staff encourage them to repeat key words and introduce new vocabulary to develop their language skills. For instance, children enjoy making marks in flour. Staff encourage them to use words, such as big, small, wide and narrow, to describe the marks and shapes they make.
• At times, transition times between activities in some rooms are not organised as well as possible. Children sometimes become disengaged and lack interest in what they are doing.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to develop communication with parents so they feel up to date and involved in the nursery and their children's learning
• review how transitions between activities are organised to ensure all children stay engaged and do not lose interest.