Busy Bees Day Nursery at Horsham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This is a large nursery where every child is valued and respected. Parents praise how well staff working across all age groups know their individual children. There is a very welcoming atmosphere and children settle quickly. Those who found it harder to return to nursery following the COVID-19 pandemic have been supported well. Staff help children to understand their emotions and talk about how they are feeling. This helps children to understand why they might feel unsettled and they approach staff happily for comfort and reassurance.

Children enjoy an exciting range of activities which promote their learning and help them to make good progress. The children who need extra help with their learning are supported especially well. Leaders use funding well. They make sure staff are appropriately trained and clearly understand how to support every child.

Children move from one age group to the next with ease as staff plan for this well. Staff share relevant information and involve parents in preparing children for change. Each child's character and learning preferences are considered carefully with parents when deciding which room children move to next. For example, some parents prefer the smaller groups if their child is less confident or has a quieter disposition.

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

• Leaders make sure that babies and children develop the skills they need to support their future learning. Since the pandemic, staff have worked hard to promote children's language skills. They have attended relevant training. There is now a strong focus on helping babies to develop an interest in learning new words through their favourite nursery rhymes. Staff working with older children continue this well. They help children learn how to put words together and use language as they recreate stories, play with puppets and sing songs.
• Children benefit from well-planned activities each day which capture their interest and build on their knowledge and skills. For example, the children's interest in the story character 'Super Potato' led to children planting their own fruit, herbs and vegetables and watching them grow. This activity helped children show a positive interest in healthy eating and raised their awareness of where some food comes from.
• Children behave well and develop a good understanding of right and wrong. Staff act as positive role models and offer children high levels of praise, reassurance and emotional security. Any minor disputes between older children are quickly resolved. Two-year-old children show in their play and actions how they understand they must share the buckets and spades with their friends.
• Overall, teaching is good. Staff offer relevant challenge and help children to practise the skills they have already learned. However, during the day, staff do not make use of occasions such as mealtimes to further develop children's learning. For example, not all staff use mealtimes to extend children's speaking and listening skills or encourage their problem-solving abilities. Staff also do simple tasks at these times that children could attempt for themselves.
• The nursery is managed by a competent manager who knows her team well and is respected by staff and parents. She has a very precise view of the quality of practice and knows exactly where further developments can be made.
• Children are prepared well for starting school. The development of 'the Academy' has played a positive part in helping children to develop the skills they need to be ready for the school routine. Leaders work closely with local schools to make sure children are ready to move on. Parents praise how well nursery staff prepare their children and how quickly they settle in when they start at school.
• Children's choices are, generally, respected well by the staff and they have the freedom to decide what they want to do or which activities they choose. However, at times, staffing arrangements mean that children who are happily playing outside are told they need to go in, so other children can go out. Leaders recognise this is not necessary and that staffing arrangements can be adapted to ensure mixed-age groups of children can play safely outside together.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further improve teaching by using routine times, such as snack and mealtimes, to maximise children's learning, particularly in terms of promoting their independence, extending speaking and listening skills and helping children to practise using their mathematical skills
• review the deployment of staff to make sure children's choices in learning are prioritised and their play and exploration is not interrupted unnecessarily.