Busy Bees Day Nursery at Sittingbourne

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to come to this safe and nurturing nursery. They are greeted by friendly staff who engage positively with them throughout the day. Children receive lots of praise, which helps to boost their self-esteem and confidence in their abilities. They often play alongside their friends and enjoy singing familiar songs together and completing rhymes. Staff teach children to be kind to each other. Children praise their friends when they put their own coat on and help each other clean the table after snack time.

All staff have high expectations for children and provide activities based around their own interests, to engage them. Babies are confident and at ease in the nursery. They babble and kick their arms and legs with excitement, as staff play peekaboo with them. Toddlers immerse themselves in learning about different sea creatures, while matching toys to pictures. Older children show enthusiasm when exploring a parachute outdoors. They work as a team to solve how to use sticks to turn the parachute into a den. Staff support children of all ages to become independent. They even help staff to complete daily risk assessments, with the help of 'Safety Buzz', a bee teddy.

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

• Staff know each child well as an individual. They use effective assessment and planning to design activities that children will engage with. Staff often challenge them through extending the learning. For example, staff use a ruler with older children to look at how many centimetres high they can jump, when exploring who can jump the highest in the garden.
• Staff are good at planning a variety of activities that support each child to make progress. However, some staff lack the confidence to adjust the planning and amend practice when something doesn't go to plan. This can result in children being left out of learning or not making the most out of every learning opportunity.
• Staff encourage children's mathematical development effectively. Younger children confidently count the number of bubbles they can pop. Older children are encouraged to think about which lemon is the heaviest, when using weighing scales. Staff help children to identify and understand the concepts of size and quantity.
• The manager has placed an emphasis on communication and language following the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff speak to children clearly and use an abundance of questions to further their learning and understanding. They consistently introduce new words such as 'suction' and 'pearls' when looking at sea creatures, and 'acidic' and 'sour' when exploring lemons. However, at times, staff use too many questions and do not allow children the appropriate time to think and answer for themselves. This leaves some children behind and doesn't fully promote children's thinking skills.
• Children benefit from many opportunities to develop their independence and social skills in readiness for school. Babies are taught Makaton to express their needs. Older children learn how to put on their own coat, pour their own drinks and collect their dinner at lunchtime.
• Staff support the emotional well-being and development of children. The manager has used funding effectively to promote this. She provides story sacks, games and yoga mats for families to share at home with their children. This extends into children learning about supporting the local community, with a '30-day yoga challenge' to raise money.
• Leaders and the manager are proactive and committed to continually evaluate and improve practice at the nursery. Staff are well supported to access ongoing training, to support them in delivering a good standard of care and education to all children. All staff work well with the local authority adviser and external agencies, such as Sure Start, to improve their knowledge and understanding.
• The manager has built strong relationships with parents. She actively seeks the views of parents, staff and children, and then uses this information to plan improvements. Parents report that they feel included in the nursery. They say their children settle quickly and are happy to come in each day.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve staff's confidence in adapting their teaching and routines, to ensure all children are benefitting from the learning taking place
• support staff to further improve their interactions with children, to give children more time to think and respond to questions before the learning moves on.