Flying Start Day Nursery Barnesmead

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children have a 'flying start' at this exceptional setting. They arrive excited and very happy to start their day. Staff are passionate about ensuring that all children feel loved and cared for. New babies immediately settle. Staff plan a highly ambitious curriculum, providing children with rich experiences and opportunities. Younger children delight in using language such as 'symmetry', 'cocoon' and 'chrysalis' to explain to their friends all about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Older children are enthralled when making bubble mixture together, explaining how the 'glycerine' makes the bubbles expand.

Staff promote children's positive attitudes to their learning very well. They are excellent role models. Children's behaviour is exemplary. They immediately help at the end of an activity to tidy up. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are provided with very high-quality support. Children who were non-verbal when they started are now confident talkers. Children who needed support to balance and walk are now confident movers. Staff are dedicated to ensuring that all families are highly valued and included. For example, families record songs and rhymes in their home languages. These are shared across the setting so that all children can learn about and enjoy them. Staff read books in Spanish to babies to help them hear words in their own language. All children flourish and thrive.

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

• Children's behaviour is excellent. They immediately join in with a rhyme after lunch. When it is finished, they go immediately to get their comforters and walk to the sleep room. This promotes their confidence and independence exceptionally well. Older children are incredibly polite and well mannered. Children talk passionately about caring for the setting's pets following 'Pet Week', where they brought their own pets in. They talk about making sure they are well looked after and loved.
• Staff are dedicated to ensuring that all children demonstrate high levels of emotional well-being. Children delight in sharing their 'family books' with their friends, talking about their different families. This supports children's understanding of others very positively.
• Children talk animatedly about recent outings and trips. They excitedly recount going to the greengrocers to buy fruit and vegetables with 'their own money' and using them to make their own snacks. Children delight in talking about the library next door, which is open 'just for them'. As well as broadening children's understanding of their local community, these experiences support children's understanding of literacy and numeracy very well.
• Children with SEND make excellent progress. Staff are dedicated and determined to ensure that all children access the support they need. They are highly trained to deliver sessions to support specific needs. For example, children sustain very high levels of concentration during 'bucket time', supporting their listening and attention skills.
• Babies are incredibly well supported. Staff meet their individual needs exceptionally well. For example, babies with significant medical needs are offered individualised plans and support to ensure they settle well. Staff work incredibly closely with families to ensure they share information most effectively.
• Leaders and managers are passionate and proactive. They are committed to ensuring that practice and provision are of the highest quality. They seek out effective support from the local authority and collaborate very closely with their sister setting to support continued improvements. Funding is used to prioritise gaps in learning. For example, specialist teachers provide additional sessions to support children's needs. Leaders are highly reflective and evaluative of their provision. They have ambitious plans for the future.
• Leaders and managers prioritise staff's well-being and workloads. They ensure that staff are incredibly well supported in their roles and are highly qualified and well trained. They liaise effectively with local colleges and universities to support students. Leaders have developed their own training packages to ensure that staff are confident and have access to high-quality professional development.
• Communication with parents is excellent. Parents are exceptionally well supported by staff. For example, leaders seek parent feedback regularly. They provide evening and weekend sessions to support parents to extend their children's learning at home. Parents talk highly of the warmth, love and care their children receive and the significant progress their children have made in their learning and development.