Busy Bees Day Nursery at Perivale

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery is managed and led well. Children are safe and well cared for in the nursery. There is a clear and precisely implemented curriculum for children's personal, social and emotional development. This provides children with a strong foundation for building secure attachments, respectful relationships and a positive sense of self. From a young age, children quickly develop strong bonds with staff. As they move through the nursery, these relationships continue to grow, and children begin to understand and express their emotions. By the time children reach the pre-school room, they are brimming with confidence and self-assurance. They are kind and thoughtful friends to one another.

Staff ensure that all children, including those who may need additional support, benefit from an ambitious curriculum. Leaders and their dedicated staff team act swiftly to ensure that children receive the professional support they need. They have a deep understanding of each child's needs and plan the curriculum accordingly. For example, their motto 'Bee Curious' lies at the heart of their approach. Children are engaged in their learning, eager to lead their own play and make good progress. Staff are strong role models and help children to understand the expectations around their behaviour. Throughout the day, staff talk with children about the routine, what is happening next and what this means for them. This helps children to feel valued and included, while also promoting a sense of familiarity and security.

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

• Staff promote children's independence. For instance, they give children time to manage tasks for themselves. Staff offer and provide support to children when needed. Children learn to put on their own coats and change their shoes. They manage their own care needs. For example, children visit the toilet and wash their hands before eating. They learn about healthy lifestyles, such as through discussions and choosing healthy snacks.
• Children develop their large- and small-physical skills effectively. They use a variety of resources and equipment to help them to develop control, balance and coordination. For example, children confidently ride scooters outside and negotiate different levels of an obstacle course.
• Staff create fantastic opportunities to further enhance children's understanding of the world. Children follow instructions well and successfully plant sunflower seeds. They engage in discussions about what they need in order to grow. Children explore real fruits and vegetables too, observing their colour and features. This helps them to build on their life experiences.
• All children benefit from the strong settling-in procedures. Key persons work closely with parents and carers from the very start, with a focus on understanding the needs of each child and their families. As a result, all children, including babies, are happy, content and responsive to the learning opportunities available.
• Staff promote children's developing mathematical knowledge well. Younger children enjoy joining in with singing number rhymes. Older children enjoy counting and matching animals' stripes and spots, then matching them to the correct animal.
• Leaders and staff work well together to ensure that children are kept safe. The premises are secure and subject to frequent risk assessments. Staff are confident in how to respond to a safeguarding concern and know how to follow the nursery's procedures for reporting accidents. Children are well cared for and their safety is prioritised.
• Staff are enthusiastic and consistently speak to children as they play. They speak directly to them, talk slowly and use lots of repetitive language. This helps to widen children's vocabularies. Staff consistently give children plenty of time to respond to questions. They use singing, songs and stories as part of everyday practice.
• Parents are very complimentary about the nursery. They attribute their children's good progress, particularly in developing confidence, social skills and speech skills, to staff. However, staff do not always fully support parents to help accelerate children's acquisition of toileting skills at home.
• Leaders recognise the importance of valuing staff's well-being. Staff say they enjoy working at the nursery and feel very supported. The provider implements a programme of supervision and training to help develop staff's practice and knowledge. However, they recognise that there is scope to extend and embed the current strategies to help staff to develop their teaching skills and practice, to a consistently high level across the team.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• work more closely with all parents to share strategies to help accelerate children's acquisition of toileting skills
• embed the current systems for monitoring and coaching staff, to extend individual staff's practice and to provide feedback to support staff in delivering the curriculum even more effectively.