The Hive Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff work well together to provide a warm home-from-home environment where children thrive in their development. Staff spend time getting to know children and their families well before they start. This enables them to gather appropriate information to support new children to quickly settle in. Children show that they have built strong bonds with staff by the way they engage confidently with them. All children, including the newest, readily join in during group activities, which helps them to engage well in their learning.

Children show curiosity as they explore their learning environment and staff follow children's interests to provide them with targeted support to extend their learning. For instance, when children notice bugs and spiderwebs in a tray, staff use this opportunity to talk with them about insects. They encourage children to think about how to care for the insects and to recall what they know about them. Children confidently share their thoughts and ideas, which helps them to remember and embed what they have previously learned, and to engage in back-and-forth conversations.

Staff support children to show positive behaviour. For instance, staff role model how they want children to behave, such as saying 'please' and 'thank you' when they ask children to complete tasks. Staff also praise children at appropriate times, which helps them to identify what positive behaviour looks like.

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

• Leaders plan an engaging curriculum that supports all children to make good progress. Staff regularly track children's development, which helps them to identify what they have learned and what they want them to learn next. This enables staff to plan for children's continued learning.
• Leaders have established a long-standing, close-knit team who work well together. Staff are supported by leaders in their well-being and professional development. For instance, they have regular meetings and they complete relevant training. This helps staff to develop their practice.
• Staff consider ways to teach children mathematical concepts. For example, they successfully incorporate mathematics into daily routines. This includes encouraging children to think about different sizes as they dig holes for their pea plants. Children show their knowledge of these concepts as they talk about how big they will make their hole. This enables children to begin to use mathematical language.
• Children behave well. They engage in their learning with good support from staff. For example, they spend time making sandcastles. Staff support them to do this, such as showing them how to fill and pat the buckets when they turn them over. Children display a sense of pride when they see their creation. They also frequently show kindness towards each other, such as offering their friends a ball to play with and giving younger children toys during group activities. Staff recognise and praise this positive behaviour, which helps children to learn how they are expected to behave.
• Staff support children to become independent learners. For instance, they regularly revisit experiences, such as gardening activities. Children enjoy growing plants and learning how to take care of them. This enables them to become familiar with these routines and they begin to complete tasks on their own. Children enjoy filling up the watering cans independently and they spend time watering the plants. This helps children to learn to do things for themselves. However, on occasion, staff do not give children time to respond when they give them an instruction to follow. This results in staff intervening too quickly and completing these tasks for children. At these times, children do not benefit from being able to process what has been asked of them so they can follow the instructions themselves.
• Children are supported to develop their physical skills. For example, they have access to different climbing equipment to suit the various ages and stages of development. Staff recognise when to step in to support children to use the equipment, which helps them to learn to manage risks for themselves.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents love the home-from-home feel of the nursery. Staff know all the children well, and parents are able to speak to any member of staff about their child. The care and nurture that staff provide enables children to thrive in their development. Staff communicate effectively with parents. They keep parents informed of their child's progress and give them ideas for home learning. This enables children to receive consistent support in their development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff practice to allow children sufficient time to process and respond to instructions and enable children to do things for themselves