Busy Bees West Ealing Day

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and excited to explore in this inviting and nurturing nursery. They benefit from the secure attachments they build with staff. For example, children arrive at nursery with big smiles, and their key persons greet them with cuddles. This helps children to feel safe and excited for the day ahead.

Staff are positive role models and have high expectations of children's behaviour. They model positive interactions, which helps children to solve problems. For example, younger children explore with staff how the trains can stick together by using magnets. Additionally, staff support children with the expectations for their behaviour. They model how to look after the environment and help children to tidy up the resources when they are finished playing. Staff positively praise children's achievements and efforts. This all helps to build children's confidence and grow positive attitudes towards their learning.

Children benefit from a curriculum that enhances their independence skills. For example, older children can pour their own water and use cutlery to cut up their food. Younger children can wipe their own noses and wash their own hands. This supports children's growing understanding of good personal hygiene skills.

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

• Staff speak clearly to children. They surround the children with language as they play. Staff provide children with the words for the objects they point to. For instance, staff use lots of rich descriptive words as they describe the different objects that children play with. Most children communicate well as they express their ideas and thoughts.
• Children learn about their local and wider community. Younger children have the chance to visit the local amenities. Children learn about others who might need help. They collect food and take it to the local food bank. Staff are planning to visit the nearby care home with the children and join in with activities with older people.
• Staff are skilled at identifying children who need additional support and provide sensitive and personalised assistance. This helps children to feel secure, valued and included. Staff work closely with other professionals and parents to meet children's learning and care needs to ensure that they make progress to their full potential.
• Parents are happy with the care, support and education their children receive. They say that they would not choose any other setting for their other children or younger siblings. Parents describe the staff as 'kind' and 'flexible' in supporting children and their learning at home. Staff offer parents ideas on how to promote children's speech development and social skills.
• Staff plan challenging outdoor activities that promote risk-taking with careful supervision. They know when to step in and when to allow children to problem-solve independently. This helps to build children's resilience, self-esteem and physical abilities. For example, staff encourage children to balance on tall beams while holding a rope or complete a flexible obstacle course.
• The learning environment is inviting and there are lots of exciting resources that are easily accessible to children. Staff plan enjoyable activities that children are keen to take part in. However, at times, group activities are not organised well and children lose interest and do not stay engaged in their learning. This limits children's ability to fully benefit from the intended learning outcomes.
• Staff support children's imaginative play well. They know that some children have younger siblings at home and set up the home corner with appropriate resources to enrich children's experiences. Children role play all aspects of caring for a baby. They pretend to feed, change and place the dolls down to sleep.
• The provider has a clear vision for the nursery. Newly recruited staff benefit from an induction that helps them understand their responsibilities. Overall, the provider supports staff well in developing their teaching skills by providing supervision and facilitating training to gain recognised qualifications. However, some newer staff are at the beginning of their journey in childcare and require further support to ensure consistently high-quality interactions across all age groups of children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review how group activities are planned and organised to ensure that all children are fully engaged to extend their learning opportunities further
• improve the monitoring of staff's practice, and provide additional training and support where needed, to make sure that all children benefit from high-quality learning experiences.