Bridgewood Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happily at this welcoming nursery.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, children are greeted by staff at the door before waving goodbye to their parents. They develop warm and affectionate relationships with staff, which helps to build their self-esteem and confidence. All children feel confident and content to explore the activities that are on offer and make choices about what they want to play with.

Babies enjoy shaking maracas and tambourines as staff sing nursery rhymes, excitedly saying 'again' to repeat. Outside, children enjoy learning how to blow bubbles. Staff skilfully show children how to blow hard ...and softly to make the bubbles.

They talk about bubbles floating away, higher and upwards. This builds on children's language skills.Children are developing their early mathematical skills.

They join in counting games with excitement as they learn to match numbers to quantities during adult-led activities. Staff introduce children to mathematical language, such as 'too many'.Children benefit from being cared for by staff who want them all to achieve the best possible outcomes.

For instance, when staff identify children who may need some extra help to meet their full potential, they promptly adapt the curriculum. This means that all children progress well and enjoy their time at the nursery.

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

The nursery adopts a curriculum that is based on the children's interests and needs, designed to give children the knowledge they need to succeed in the future.

Staff focus on communication and personal development to help children interact with others. Leaders monitor children's learning to ensure that they are making good progress from their starting points. Support plans and targets are put in place to support children while referrals are made to external agencies.

Staff promote language development well. They engage children in conversations, model language well and use clear pronunciation as they introduce new vocabulary, such as 'juicy' and 'delicious', when tasting melon at snack time. Children's vocabulary is expanding as they communicate their own wants and needs.

Staff use their good teaching skills as they play alongside children. They challenge children's abilities and check their understanding of what they are being taught. Staff extend children's learning with good questioning and give children time to think about their responses.

This means that children have plenty of opportunities to practise their developing problem-solving skills.All children have a key person as required. However, on occasions, senior staff are not fully effective in ensuring that staff have a detailed understanding of their key children's individual learning needs.

This impacts on staff's ability to precisely plan for each child's learning.Children develop good manners and behaviour. At mealtimes, staff model saying 'please' and 'thank you', which younger children repeat back.

Children frequently receive clear messages about boundaries and expected behaviour as they play. For example, in pre-school, children recall the rules of the garden before going to play outside. Children understand the rules and how to keep themselves safe.

Children learn about healthy lifestyles, including good oral health. They thoroughly enjoy eating the fresh fruit snacks and healthy meals prepared for them. After lunch, children brush their teeth and staff support parents to register with their local dentist.

Overall, children develop independence through daily routines and activities. They put on their coats and shoes and wash their hands. At mealtimes, younger children learn to feed themselves while older children learn to peel the lid off their yoghurt pots.

Parents and carers compliment the 'family feel' of this nursery. They note how their children are eager to attend and say that they feel well informed about their progress. This helps them to understand their child's day and how to support their learning.

Staff report high levels of well-being and enjoy being part of a supportive, committed team. Leaders carry out regular supervision sessions with staff to discuss safeguarding concerns, training needs and areas for development. However, supervision sessions do not always focus on developing the knowledge and skills of individual members of staff.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.All staff know how to safeguard children. They can identify when a child may be at risk of harm and know who to refer to.

They have good knowledge of all aspects of safeguarding, including radicalisation, female genital mutilation and grooming. Additionally, they know how to report concerns about the suitability of staff who work with children. The manager ensures that staff's safeguarding training is up to date.

Robust recruitment and induction procedures ensure that staff are suitable to carry out their roles. The manager takes effective steps to ensure that agency or short-term staff have the knowledge they need to keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen support for staff to fulfil their key-person responsibilities, ensuring that they have the knowledge they need to confidently plan for and meet children's individual learning needs develop staff monitoring and training programmes so that they more precisely help staff to build further on their existing good teaching skills.