Busy Bees Day Nursery at Leeds Guiseley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this nurturing and exciting nursery. The learning environment provides interesting opportunities for children to play and explore. Children receive daily opportunities to play and develop their physical skills in the spacious and well-resourced outdoor area. Staff deploy themselves well to offer high-quality interactions for children.

The activities and experiences that staff provide for children motivate them to think and be creative. For example, staff challenge older children to draw detailed pictures of their houses. They support toddlers to develop their confidence to balance on beams and logs in the outdoor area. Staff support children to learn about artists and recreate their art, or find out about pollution in the sea. Children show very high levels of engagement. They fully immerse themselves into their play and, as a result, their behaviour is exemplary. Children show their ability to work together and cooperate with others. They know and follow the routines of the nursery exceptionally well.

Leaders and staff place a strong focus on expanding children's vocabulary. Staff support children to learn about a book, rhyme and word of the moment. They provide repeated opportunities and experiences for children to revisit and repeat new knowledge and vocabulary. As a result, children learn new ambitious words, such as 'habitat' and 'transport'. Babies show that they are quickly learning new words, as they say, 'ball, car, leaf, basket' and other words. Older children use interesting words in their daily conversations with staff. They spontaneously use words, such as 'rhubarb, pistachio' and 'clock tower'. Parents and carers comment that their children become increasingly confident with their communication skills.

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

• Staff carry out regular progress checks on children. This helps staff to identify what children need to learn next, or if a child may have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders decide the overall development goals for each room in the nursery. Staff review these goals and adapt their planning for children's learning, to meet the needs of each group of children. This ensures that the learning experiences for all children, including those with SEND, are tailored to meet their needs.
• Leaders and staff have experience of working with external educational and health professionals. This includes speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Leaders and staff have access to an in-house SEND team within the organisation. Consequently, staff are supported well to provide targeted care and education for children with SEND.
• Leaders and staff use additional funding to purchase resources, such as story sacks and 'talking buttons'. Staff use these resources to promote children's communication and social skills, and ensure that disadvantaged children continue to close any gaps in their learning.
• Staff support pre-school children to take part in focused group sessions in the summer term. This helps to develop children's listening and concentration skills to prepare them for starting school. Staff use these sessions to support children to build relationships with their future classmates. Parents say that this approach helps their children to be ready to move on to the next stage in their education.
• The nursery uses an app to share activities that parents can do to support children's learning at home. Leaders have set up a lending library to allow children to borrow books to nurture their love of reading. Parents are overwhelmingly appreciative of the care and support given to their children. They report that children build strong bonds with the staff. Parents say that staff meet children's needs exceptionally well.
• The nursery benefits from a highly qualified and experienced team of staff. Staff have received training and support to put in place a new curriculum. Leaders are focused on ensuring that professional development for staff remains a high priority. The new leadership team is dedicated to promoting staff's good levels of well-being. This results in a staff team who feel valued and motivated to provide outstanding care and education for all children.
• The provider previously notified Ofsted about a breach to the requirements for information and record-keeping. This means that the provider met their legal responsibility to notify Ofsted of significant events. The provider has taken appropriate action to put this right. Staff have received further guidance on the policies for confidentiality. Leaders have followed their internal procedures in relation to breaches of the nursery policies. All other aspects of leadership and management are outstanding. There is no further impact on children's safety and well-being.