The Bush Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children come into the nursery confidently. They settle quickly with the caring staff, who talk to them about what they have done at home and encourage them to join in with activities. Children have secure relationships with the staff, coming to them for cuddles and reassurance or to share their achievements. For example, children are keen to look for leaves and sticks in the garden to bring back to make shakers. They then take these shakers to other staff and proudly describe what they have just done. Children engage enthusiastically with a wide variety of activities, both inside and outside. Children show curiosity and become absorbed in their play. Staff encourage children to learn about their emotions by talking with children about how they feel.

The nursery remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The manager kept in touch with the families of children not attending at this time and sent parents ideas of activities that children could do at home. Parents are complimentary about the nursery and comment positively on the progress that their children are making. Parents value the communication from staff, which keeps them updated on what their child has been doing and how they can further support learning at home.

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

• Children enjoy sharing books and stories with staff and with each other. For example, children choose their favourite books and take turns to 'tell' the familiar story to each other using the pictures. They are learning to handle books carefully and turn the pages or lift flaps with care.
• Children show enjoyment as they join in with favourite songs and rhymes. They take turns choosing from the song cards and say what nursery rhyme it is before joining in singing. Children tell staff about different verses of the songs that they sing at home.
• Staff know children well. They know children's interests and use this knowledge to plan activities that will engage them and build on what they can do. Children join in enthusiastically with activities and talk to staff about what they are doing. However, staff do not always extend activities to challenge children further.
• Children are encouraged to count and develop an understanding of number through counting in books and rhymes. Older children talk about numbers and count confidently. For example, older children place large number tiles in order from one to 10 to make a hopscotch game.
• Children generally behave well. Staff use strategies to support children's positive behaviour, such as distracting children or giving them responsibilities to focus on. At times, staff are not consistent in following through with the boundaries they have set. This can result in some children not always understanding the expectations of the setting.
• Children proudly show structures that they have made and place these on the windowsill to show to their parents later. Children talk enthusiastically about their work, explaining that the triangles on their picture are a person's legs or that the shaker they have made is to take to the fayre.
• Staff encourage children's independence skills. For example, children are supported to pour their own drinks and put on their own coat and boots to go outside. Children are supported to make choices, such as whether they want milk or water to drink and what fruit they would like at snack time.
• Staff talk to children about where the food they are eating comes from and introduce children to new healthy foods. For example, children are shown cape gooseberries and staff explain the difference between yellow 'sweet' fruit and green 'sour' fruit. Staff encourage children to unwrap the fruit and identify whether it is ready to eat before trying one.
• The manager links with local schools to support children in their transition to school. For example, staff display uniforms from the schools that children will be moving on to, encouraging children to become familiar with the uniform.
• The manager identifies training that would benefit staff and develop their practice. Staff implement ideas they have gained from training, such as developing the outside area.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend children's learning even further by providing suitably challenging activities for all children to meet their individual learning needs
• be consistent with behaviour management techniques so that all children understand and can follow the expectations of the setting.