Buzy Bee - An LEYC Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show excitement as they attend this nursery. They laugh as they take part in activities that allow them to be creative. Staff build meaningful relationships with children that support their well-being. Children initiate conversation with key adults, showing their familiarity and comfort with staff. Children settle quickly, following a thorough settling-in process that is flexible to suit families' requirements.

Children demonstrate positive behaviour and can follow instructions. Staff use gestures and visual cues to contribute to the children's understanding of what they expect from them. The staff offer children a compact but well organised outdoor area, with opportunities for physical development. Children engage in a range of learning experiences, including riding on scooters, using large rollers on the wall and balancing on wobble boards. Children throw beanbags with staff, who teach them how to hold their hands correctly to develop their catching skills.

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

• Staff implement a curriculum and planning process that sufficiently considers children's next steps in learning. Staff use the gaps they identify to inform weekly experiences they plan. Children are eager to join in with experiences and make appropriate progress through all areas of the curriculum. The process is overseen consistently by senior staff.
• There is a particular focus on mathematics at this nursery. Staff deliver learning that is progressive throughout the different age groups. For example, children in the baby room play with shape sorters and different-sized sensory resources. While older children count animals and make shapes out of play dough. Staff encourage children to recognise colours during their play. This helps children to build on their existing mathematical knowledge.
• Staff interactions with children are positive. Staff engage children, and consequently, they are excited to join in with stories and singing with actions. However, sometimes, staff do not always ask open-ended questions to challenge learning further or give children enough time to respond to questions. This means that there is room for children to develop their communication and language skills even more.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive support from staff who are knowledgeable about their requirements. For example, adaptations are made to routines so that children's preferences are met, and progress is being made towards individualised targets. Staff work with external agencies to ensure that specific advice is acted on. The curriculum for all children is ambitious.
• The staff at this nursery plan learning experiences for children based on their current interests. This ensures that children are building on what they already know and can do while at nursery. Having said this, staff could add to children's experiences even further through providing opportunities for learning in the wider community to enhance children's life experiences even more.
• There is an open-plan baby room and toddler room, which allows children to move freely between the two. This means children can access a wide range of resources. However, sometimes, older children are not given enough opportunity to engage in more focused learning. For example, younger children throw the books and pencils over the floor while others are trying to read or mark make. This can be distracting for older children and can sometimes hinder their learning.
• Children demonstrate independence skills during the day. They are taught how to put on their own coat, and even the youngest children find their own shoes from the shoe bucket. Children in pre-school serve their own lunch and scrape their plates after they have finished. Children require minimal support to wash their hands and go to the toilet independently.
• Parents speak positively about the care and support they receive from leaders and staff. They are grateful for advice regarding any additional needs that staff identify and how proactive they are with support for children. They also comment on high levels of communication and how children are ready for their transition to school when they leave the nursery. Information is shared with parents through 'key-person catch-ups'.
• Leaders have effective oversight of the nursery and are enthusiastic about improving the impact on children's progress. They can recognise areas for improvement in both practice and quality of provision. Staff have regular supervision meetings with leaders, and their well-being is considered.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to challenge children's learning further to develop communication and language skills even more
• reflect on ways to add to children's wider experiences to ensure that they are equipped with the life skills they need to be ready for their next stages of learning
• review the organisation and use of the open-plan baby and toddler room to ensure that all children's learning needs are being met.