Busy Bees (Durham) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a welcoming and nurturing environment for all children. They warmly greet children at the door. There are good settling-in procedures that are flexible to meet the needs of all children. Staff find out the needs of children and their home routines, which they follow in the nursery. Staff are caring and sensitive to children's needs. They provide reassurance and cuddles where needed, supporting children emotionally.

Staff help children to have high levels of confidence. Staff listen to children, and from a young age, children are confident to speak to visitors to explain what they are doing. For instance, when involved in an activity, children say they are squeezing the dough. The voice of the child is very important to management. They have developed a nursery council. This gives children the opportunity to have a say in what happens in the nursery. For example, staff have shown children the possible risks around the nursery and asked them to see if they can identify any risks. This helps children to stay safe.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. There is a strong ethos of caring and kindness from staff. They model respectful behaviour and use gentle reminders to help children understand the rules and boundaries. Children understand that when the bell is rung it is tidy-up time. Staff praise children when they do well, which supports children's well-being.

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

• Management is passionate about providing high-quality experiences for children and families. They know the children very well. They create a very stimulating environment and curriculum for children's learning. Staff have a clear view of what they want children to learn. They follow the curriculum through activities, and staff understand how to implement it in practice. Learning is appropriate for each child's stage of development.
• Staff's practice is closely monitored. Management observe them and conduct supervisions and annual appraisals with them. This is so their training needs and strengths can be identified. Staff's understanding is checked through questioning, such as their understanding of their key children. Any gaps in development are swiftly addressed.
• The nursery uses additional funding to support the individual needs of children effectively. For instance, they have bought in toys and resources to support children's communication and language development.
• There is a strong ethos with regard to staff's professional development. Recent staff training on communication and language has had an impact on how staff use books with children. Stories are read enthusiastically by staff, who fully involve children in what is happening on the page. For example, children talk about different birds on the pages and listen to the sounds that they make. They guess what is in the story bag when staff describe what they are feeling in the bag. Children are highly engaged in these activities.
• Self-evaluation helps to identify how practice can be changed for the better. For example, management identified that mathematics could be delivered more effectively to children. Appropriate training has been accessed. Staff are very knowledgeable about the new techniques that they use to help children understand and make sense of the numbers one to five. Children take part in lots of activities to embed this learning. For example, older children roll a dice and recognise how many spots it has up to five. When two dice are used, they learn to add the spots together on both dice.
• Overall, staff embed routines of the day well. For example, staff explain to children what is happening next, and children follow the routines for self-care when they wash their hands before mealtimes. However, mealtime routines in some rooms are not as well planned by staff. They are not consistently managed so that children are served straight away before they become restless.
• Overall, the nursery is well organised. Children have easy access to resources and make their own choices about what they want to play with. Furniture is set out to encourage early standing and walking. However, staff do not consider the space available to promote children in gaining and consolidating their first steps.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review organisation of lunchtime for older children, so that children do not wait too long to have their food
• support staff to review the organisation of the environment for younger children so that they have sufficient space to practise their emerging walking skills.