Busy Bees Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive eager to see their friends and greet staff enthusiastically. They develop good communication skills. Staff continually introduce new words and use them in context to help children expand their vocabulary. Children enjoy listening to stories. They freely engage with staff, responding to their questions with increasingly more complex and longer sentences. Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They independently explore and engage in a wide range of activities. Children use their experiences from outside the setting and their imaginations in role play. For example, they drape material around each other to represent hairdressers' gowns. Children pretend to straighten each other's hair before using a mirror to show their 'customer' what they have done.

Staff provide children with endless emotional support. They are constantly on hand to praise their efforts and perseverance. Children feel valued and behave well. Staff identify children's interests and use these in their planning to help spark children's curiosity. This helps children to make good levels of progress. The curriculum is ambitious and continually supports what children need to learn next. Staff have a good understanding of when to step back and allow children to solve problems for themselves and when to support them. This helps to motivate and engage children in their learning.

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

• The management team and staff have addressed the actions and recommendations from the last inspection. Staff provide children with consistent guidance to help them learn to regulate and manage their own behaviour. There is a secure key-person system. Children know who to turn to should they need reassurance or support. Interactions between staff and children are warm and genuine.
• The curriculum is ambitious and planned effectively to enable children to continually build on their knowledge and skills. Required assessments, such as the progress checks for children aged between two and three years, are completed. This enables staff to identify and plan good levels of support to address any emerging gaps in children's development. Consequently, children are ready for the next stage in their learning and school when the time comes.
• Children learn about the importance of drinking water, especially in the hot weather. They are reminded to wear sun hats outside. Staff provide children with a healthy and nutritious breakfast and snack. However, lunchtimes are less successful in supporting children's understanding of healthy eating. Some foods offered are not as nutritious and balanced as other meals and snacks.
• Partnerships with parents are well developed. Daily information sharing between staff and parents help to support continuity in children's care and learning.
• Parents spoken to shared how happy they are with their children's development and the good progress they are making over time.
• The management provide staff with regular supervisions. Daily discussions, while staff set up and then later pack away, are used to reflect on what went well and areas to improve. However, some daily routines, such as handwashing and the organisation of mealtimes, are less well organised. Staff do not effectively plan the transition between different activities to keep children consistently engaged.
• The intent of the curriculum to support children's personal, social and emotional and their communication skills is evident throughout the setting. Staff make good use of children's current interests to provide spontaneous activities. For example, children and staff work together to pretend to bake a cake. Staff use actions and related language to lead the children through the steps required. Children talk excitedly about what they are doing. Once 'cooked', they proudly share their freshly baked cake with their friends and staff. This helps children to learn to work together and supports their social and personal skills.
• Staff complete mandatory training and access to online courses to help develop and extend their practice and knowledge. Partnerships with other professionals help staff to tailor support for children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps children to make good levels of progress.
• Staff build good links with local schools. 'Meet the teacher' events help staff to share information about children with the relevant teacher prior to the start of the new term. This helps to support continuity in children's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide clear and consistent messages to children to help them learn about healthy lifestyles and choices about food
• consider ways to adapt the curriculum, particularly during routine activities and mealtimes, to keep all children consistently engaged and settled.