Bovan Creek

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children show real enjoyment and enthusiasm when they arrive at this vibrant and nurturing nursery. Staff provide children with lots of meaningful learning experiences, both indoors and outdoors. Additionally, children have opportunities to learn and explore within the wider community.

For example, they walk to the nearby city centre and enjoy trips to museums, libraries, the nearby cathedral, and the fire station. Children learn about people in their community, through visits from professionals who share details of their occupations, such as the police. Children seek support from adults and they are praised for their achieveme...nts.

Staff are nurturing and quickly identify children's emotions to ensure that they are supported in the right way. Staff obtain relevant information from parents about children to help support the settling-in process. This helps to build strong relationships between the staff and families in their care.

Staff find out about children's interests, likes, and dislikes, and any other important information that they need. This helps children feel safe and secure from the very beginning when they first start at nursery.

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

The youngest children are happy in the learning environment and have strong attachments with staff.

Babies enjoy joining in with songs and rhymes. They point to small-world farm animals as they make the corresponding noises, such as 'quack, quack' and 'oink, oink'. Staff provide space for toddlers to move around and explore resources independently.

Pre-school children enjoy exciting and engaging resources which help them with their early literacy and numeracy skills. The provision for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities is good.Leaders are committed to giving children the best start in their early education.

They are constantly evaluating and improving their curriculum and have considered what children should learn. Leaders are clear about the need to make sure new staff fully understand how to embed the curriculum intentions in everyday practice. At present, further improvements are needed to ensure that teaching is always matched to children's abilities and what they need to learn next.

Support for children's personal development is a real strength of the nursery. Staff focus clearly on developing close bonds with babies and children. Older children are taught words to identify and describe their emotions by staff.

They learn to share and take turns and are taught to understand that their actions may have consequences that affect others. Staff help children become self-assured and able to make relationships with their friends.There is a strong focus on vocabulary to ensure all children leave the nursery equipped with important communication and language skills.

Staff hold conversations with children, introduce new words and use strategies to help children communicate. They ask children questions to invite them to share what they know. This gives staff the chance to assess children's understanding during an activity.

At times however, some staff do not pick up on opportunities that will extend children's curiosity and deeper thinking skills during the activities provided.Parents share that they can see the progress their child has made in their learning and development. Staff gather key information with parents about their children's daily care routines.

Leaders are consistently reviewing this in order to further improve the effectiveness of partnership working with parents.The manager ensures that she gets to know all new staff members and can accurately identify their strengths and any development points. Staff benefit from regular supervision meetings where they help to identify the nursery's strengths and any areas to further improve.

Staff work together well as a team. For example, they have weekly staff meetings, share information each day and ask each other for help when necessary. Staff share that they feel well-supported as a result.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: further embed the nursery curriculum through well-planned, high quality teaching experiences that are consistently matched to children's abilities and what they need to learn next nensure staff with less experience fully understand how to extend and challenge children's levels of interest, curiosity and thinking skills to help them become active, independent learners.