Busy Bees Day Nursery at St Albans Hatfield Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish and thrive in this amazing nursery. They receive support from staff who nurture and encourage them. All children separate from their parents and carers happily and with ease. Older children self-register, choosing which coat peg to place their photo on. Younger children find their own belongings from their labelled pegs. This enables all children to have a sense of belonging from the time they start their journey at the nursery.

Children explore with awe and wonder in the inviting environment. Older children grate chalk and add it to a coffee pot, explaining that this is to make coffee. Babies find toy animals from a farm as staff sing 'Old Macdonald had a farm'. Children revisit previous learning to further embed their knowledge. For example, they look at a carrot top and can remember what vegetable it comes from and what they must do to remove it from the ground.

Babies enjoy a wide range of songs and rhymes. They sway back and forth during the singing. Older children retell stories they have previously heard. They use the book and props to aid their storytelling. This enables children to have excellent language and communication skills.

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

• The centre director has a commitment to ensuring every child reaches their full potential while attending the nursery. She has a curriculum that ignites children's interest to explore and show curiosity in their environment. She uses her professional knowledge to adapt the curriculum, ensuring this continually meets the needs of the children. This enables all children to achieve and make exceptionally positive progress.
• All staff show a great understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on children's development. They are particularly aware of delays in language and communication. Staff use their knowledge of the children to provide suitable activities to support them. For example, staff have set up a book library to enable parents and children to access books on a regular basis. Parents feel this is particularly beneficial to their children.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has a clear passion for her role. She ensures that relevant paperwork shows a precise understanding of children's needs. Meetings take place with parents and other professionals to produce targets. The SENCo ensures that all staff understand the plans and targets. This ensures that all children make excellent progress.
• Support for children who speak English as an additional language is exceptional. Staff show respect for all cultures. Children add their own photograph to flags from around the world to show which country their family originates from. All children have a strong sense of belonging.
• All children show superb concentration levels. Young children use their fine motor skills to add cereal hoops to sticks of uncooked spaghetti placed into dough. Staff sensitively adjust the activity when the children are ready to move on. They add leaves to the table and talk about hedgehogs. Children change what they are doing, snapping the spaghetti and making the dough into hedgehogs.
• Babies experience a highly positive settling-in process. Parents spend time with the key person. This ensures that staff have all relevant information before the child attends. There are no limits set on how many sessions it should take for a child to settle. Staff see each child as unique and requiring an individual plan to enable a positive settling-in experience.
• Parent partnership is a major strength of the nursery. Parents praise staff and talk about the exceptional progress their children make. They feel fully involved in the nursery through the parent-partnership group. Parents visit and share information about their own jobs. For example, dentists visit to talk about the importance of oral hygiene and cleaning teeth.
• Staff feel valued by the centre director and state that her door is always open if they have any worries. The centre director meets regularly with staff as a team and individually. The staff team works highly effectively together. This helps to provide a first-class learning environment for the children.