Busy Bees Day Nursery at St Albans Bernard Street

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive eagerly and receive a warm welcome when they arrive at nursery. They are confident, settle quickly and begin to explore a wide range of activities and toys. It is clear that staff have friendly and caring relationships with children and know them well. This means children are happy and secure to learn.

Children become deeply engaged and have fun making lemon shortcake biscuits. Their communication and language skills are enhanced as they learn new words, such as 'grating, squeezing' and 'juicing' when mixing the ingredients. They use different physical skills as they master how to press, push down, and turn a lemon to grate and make juice. Children focus and concentrate during a sand-play activity. They take turns to count items and negotiate who will hide them in the sand. Their friends enthusiastically search for the items, counting them into a bucket and calculating how many they still must find. Younger children enjoy exploring technical toys, pressing buttons, and anticipating what might pop up next. Children of all ages enjoy being active and benefit from the well-resourced outdoor areas. They become motivated and creative learners, supported by staff to use their interests and imagination as they water paint the fencing. Children involve each other in their ideas and chatter happily.

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

• The manager and staff get to know children and families well. They gather important information from parents when children first start to attend. This helps them organise a curriculum that promotes children's individual learning from the start. Staff know the skills and knowledge they expect children to learn and develop over time. They regularly assess children's progress, which helps them to plan for what children need to learn next. Additional funding is used appropriately to provide resources that support children's progress.
• Staff follow children's interests. Overall, the activities staff provide support children to develop skills in different areas of learning. However, sometimes, staff do not recognise when children loose interest and become bored with an activity. For example, younger children do not understand the connection between a storybook and the planned activity.
• Children are well behaved. Staff support children's behaviour well and act as excellent role models. They speak clearly, so children understand what is expected of them. For example, they encourage children to take turns and to be patient and polite to each other. Children follow instructions and receive an abundance of praise and encouragement from staff. As a result, children display positive levels of confidence and self-esteem.
• The manager supervises and supports staff effectively through regular supervision and team meetings, and observations of staff practice. Staff are able to build on their knowledge and can access bespoke online training, which enhances their practice and supports children's learning.
• Staff promote children's independence, well-being and healthy living. Children, including toddlers, know the daily routines and put on their coats before going to play outdoors. Staff gently remind children to wash their hands before meals and after using the toilet. Although children learn about their self-care, there are times when staff do not remind children about spreading germs, such as blowing over food that others will eat. The cook prepares well-planned, nourishing meals and snacks in line with children's dietary needs. During lunch time, children confidently cut up their food using a knife and fork. However, staff serve the food and do not consistently allow children opportunities to further develop their independence skills.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Staff use an online application and face- to-face communication to keep parents informed about children's progress and their care. Parents speak highly of the manager and staff. They comment how happy their children are. Parents value the regular information and ideas for them to help with their children's learning at home.
• Children enjoy quiet times to listen to stories and develop their love of books. They are captivated as staff read familiar stories. Children gain literacy skills as they recognise and repeat familiar rhyming words, and anticipate what happens next.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the planning of adult-led activities to support and develop children's learning
• enhance learning opportunities for children to consistently develop their independence skills and extend their knowledge about health and hygiene routines.