Busy Bees Day Nursery at Northampton, Riverside

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are eager to start their day at this welcoming nursery. Staff spend time with children and get to know them when they first start. This helps children to settle quickly and form reassuring bonds with staff. Staff provide a calm environment and implement simple routines to create a safe and consistent experience for children. Children take part in learning experiences that have been carefully planned to meet their developmental needs. For example, babies enjoy using spoons to scoop lemons out of the water into containers. This helps them learn the skills that are needed to use a spoon at mealtimes. Toddlers strengthen their hands as they squeeze and roll play dough along to music. Pre-school children are learning to problem-solve and work as a team as they build structures with large construction pieces. Staff are close by to offer support. For example, they suggest that children widen the base, so it is easier for them to reach and will prevent it from toppling on them. This helps children learn to manage potential risks and keep themselves safe.

Children learn to behave well. They learn what staff expect of them because staff provide them with simple rules and boundaries to support their good behaviour. Staff gently reinforce these rules throughout the day. Consequently, children play cooperatively with their friends and are learning to share and take turns.

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

• Leaders and managers have worked hard since their last inspection to make improvements. They have sought support from the local authority, which has successfully impacted their practice and provision. The nursery now offers good-quality care and education, and staff are committed to continuing this in the future.
• The curriculum successfully builds on what children already know and can do to help them reach the next steps in their development. Staff report they are supported well by the provider, and the curriculum training they attended has increased their confidence, enhanced their knowledge and developed their skills. This means children benefit from good-quality interactions that promote their learning effectively.
• Children benefit from a language-rich environment. Staff sing songs with children throughout the day, introduce new words during play and use visual aids to help children's understanding. This helps children, particularly children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language, to be good communicators.
• Staff ensure that they implement fun and engaging activities. For example, they provide toothbrushes and toothpaste, so children can practise brushing the toy dinosaurs' teeth, helping them to learn about oral health. However, staff are less confident using spontaneous opportunities to develop children's play and extend their learning.
• Staff work positively with outside agencies to ensure that children with SEND receive individualised support at the earliest opportunity. They ensure that children are included fully in all activities and experiences. Leaders spend additional funding effectively to enhance their provision and provide additional support to meet individual children's needs.
• Inside, the staff plan an engaging environment that interests and excites children. The environment offers appropriate challenges to support children to develop a positive attitude toward learning and ensure that children are engaged. However, staff plan fewer learning opportunities outdoors. This does not fully support children who prefer to learn outside.
• Children of all ages develop an enjoyment of books. Staff provide a wide variety of books that is readily available to children. They use this to build on children's knowledge and plan activities that help engage children in the story. For example, children feel the textures of mud, grass and twigs as they follow the story being read. Staff pause as they read stories, so children can say key phrases aloud.
• Partnerships with parents are excellent. Parents give the utmost praise to the staff. They feel extremely involved and very well informed about their children's learning. Parents state their children are thriving and are making excellent progress. Staff provide resources for parents to build on their children's learning at home. For example, parents can borrow tailored home-learning packs. These are regularly made to help children with new events, such as having a new baby.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently extend and challenge children's learning during spontaneous play
• strengthen the curriculum for outdoors so that children's development is promoted more effectively across all areas of learning.