Busy Bees Day Nursery at Dorking Westcott Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children, including those who are new, settle well at this outstanding setting. They are very happy and secure and build excellent relationships with staff, who all know their key children exceptionally well. Children show an excellent knowledge of the daily routines. Older children help to set the table and younger children wait for their friends to come and join their play after mealtimes. The younger toddlers help to clear up for lunch and they practise new-found skills such as drinking from an open-top cup. Staff warmly and enthusiastically celebrate children's success and perseverance. This promotes children sense of achievement to extremely high levels.

Toddlers concentrate at their chosen play experience for extraordinary periods. Staff are highly skilled in developing and enhancing these moments. For example, an activity that began from making marks with sticks transformed and extended into using dried flowers to make different marks. Children showed immense interest in smelling the flowers, showing that this was something they had learned previously. Staff encouraged children's language skills by introducing new words, for example describing the fragrance as 'verdant' and 'fresh'. The nursery ethos is based upon providing a home-from-home environment where children can thrive and flourish. There are extremely high ambitions for the curriculum for all children.

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

• The manager is extremely passionate and knowledgeable in her role in leading the nursery to be as high quality as possible. There are extremely clear procedures in place for staff to seek and gain information from parents about their child's level of development. Therefore, the manager has an exceptionally clear intent for what children need to learn next. Staff are excellent in implementing the intent for the curriculum. For example, a staff member in the toddler room gave very simple support to enable children to resolve a minor conflict. Staff are highly secure in their knowledge that children must fully grasp a concept and practise the skill before moving them on.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language is excellent. The special educational needs coordinator is extremely passionate about her role. She shows a precise knowledge of those children needing extra support and the importance of working in partnership with other professionals. This allows all children to make the best possible progress in their learning.
• Staff manage children's behaviour in extremely effective ways and understand the level appropriate for differing ages of children. Staff use distraction techniques to great effect to completely promote positive reinforcement rather than negative to successfully entice babies to a purposeful activity.
• The manager ensures that partnerships with parents are excellent through highly effective communication. She fully recognises parents as educators who know their children best. Parents comment very positively about the staff team and the homely environment.
• Pre-school children gain an excellent understanding of equality while also exploring people from history. For example, following on from celebrations of International Women's Day, children recall learning about Amelia Earhart. Staff then planned a highly intriguing and effective role play experience to build on this, exploring roles such as that of a chef.
• Babies become completely enthralled in activities with staff. For example, they squealed with delight as they clapped their hands while holding the foam. They then watched in awe and wonder as the foam splattered over staff and themselves. Staff use each opportunity to engage with children, including to introduce new vocabulary.
• Toddlers show excellent skills beyond their years. For example, they have superb pincer grasps, enabling them to use thin pencils with immense skill. Children have learned this over time and have also practised this intently. This is due to the highly skilled staff team, but also the extremely well-planned environment.
• Children develop very good physical skills and relish being in the garden. Staff adapt the physical environment in accordance with babies' and toddlers' ever-changing individual needs. For instance, they strategically place furniture and equipment. This enables babies to practise their new-found skills of pulling themselves to a standing position.