Bright Horizons Abbeymore Day Nursery and Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are welcomed warmly into the nursery by staff. They happily leave their parents or carers and quickly settle into the nursery activities.

Children can select from a range of interesting activities and resources that broaden their skills. Staff use interesting topics or themes and build on the children's interests. Children are confident in choosing the direction of their play and to express themselves freely.

For example, as pre-school children retell a familiar story of 'The Gingerbread Man', they are enthusiastic to take on different characters of the story. They progress this activity outside and organise a... game to run as fast as they can and try to catch the 'gingerbread man'. Babies are mesmerised by music and different sounds, they stop, listen and dance as they hear staff singing familiar songs.

They show delight to join in nursery rhymes and love sharing books.Toddlers are curious and active learners. They enjoy acting out the story of a bear hunt with small figures, joining in with repeated phrases.

Children are excited and motivated to learn. Their behaviour is good and they have excellent relationships with staff and others. Young children develop independence and confidence as they willingly attempt to serve their own food, pour their drinks and put on their outdoor weather suits.

Outside, all children build resilience and develop their coordination and physical skills. They learn to negotiate obstacles when riding wheeled toys, they climb small structures and handle various tools and equipment.

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

Leaders and managers have worked hard to implement positive changes.

The newly appointed manager is passionate about the quality of service and has a clear vision for the setting. Leaders effectively support staff, families, and children to ensure their well-being. The manager and staff reflect on activities and events, to continuously improve and enhance the quality of the setting.

Staff plan a broad curriculum. Staff working with babies and young children support their emotional and care needs well. They provide a nurturing environment, where they engage children in their learning and early conversations.

Children quickly form strong attachments with their key person, who support new children and provide extra comfort and reassurance, if necessary.Staff spend quality time engaging with children. They take account of what the children know and enjoy, when planning for their continued learning.

Overall, staff support children to develop their communication and language skills well. For example, they ask questions to encourage children to talk about their play. However, during some group activities while the more confident children voice their ideas and knowledge, staff do not always consider how to encourage those that are quieter and less confident to talk and express themselves.

Books are accessible everywhere in the nursery. All children become enthralled as staff read stories with expression and joy. Babies turn the pages of books and feel the different textures on each page.

In addition, children benefit from the regular librarian visits for rhyme time and the nursery's lending library, to allow children to share books at home. This means that children are developing a love of books.Leaders complete regular supervision meetings with staff to review their performance, well-being and children's progress.

This ensures that children receive good quality education and care. Although employed staff receive robust training, support and effective opportunities to update their skills, leaders have not considered arrangements to include long-term agency workers to help support their well-being and opportunities to discuss their roles and responsibilities.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported.

Staff are highly effective in recognising concerns and supporting children. They complete work closely as a team to create individual support plans for children. Staff effectively liaise with outside agencies to fully support children and ensure they reach their full potential.

Partnerships with parents is a strength of the nursery. Staff ensure that parents are regularly kept informed about events and their children's progress. Parents are complimentary about the nursery staff.

They comment that their children are happy to attend and have settled into the nursery quickly. Parents say they have noticed many changes and comment that there is a positive 'community feel' to the nursery.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff are well trained. They have a secure knowledge of the procedures they need to take to protect children's welfare, including escalating any concerns to the relevant outside agencies. Staff know how to identify the signs that might indicate a child is at risk of harm, including signs of extreme or radical views.

Staff are confident to identify and raise concerns they may have about another member of staff. There are robust whistle-blowing procedures in place. Leaders undertake rigorous vetting, recruitment and induction processes to ensure all staff are suitable to work with children.

Staff deployment is effective. This enables staff to supervise children at all times, particularly during mealtimes, to keep them safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: consider more closely how to adapt group activities to ensure all children, in particular quieter children, fully engage and benefit from the learning opportunities nensure all staff, including long-term agency workers, receive robust support and monitoring to help them receive consistent guidance to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.