Bright Horizons Columbus Courtyard Day Nursery and Preschool

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff provide all children with a range of opportunities for adult-led activities and independent play. Children explore well-resourced play areas, such as their base rooms, a sensory room and a large play area located inside the building. Across the nursery, children are challenged in their learning and access resources to initiate and extend their own play.

Staff skilfully took the opportunity to teach toddlers about fire safety after a recent outing where they saw local firemen. Staff and children display strong bonds with each other, and younger babies delight in interactions with the caring staff. Staff working with babies... have a calm and attentive approach towards them.

Partnerships with parents are effective and a secure two-way flow of information is maintained with them. For example, older toddlers enjoy an activity called 'my safe place'. They enter large cardboard boxes with a torch light to look at photos from home that are displayed inside the box.

This enables children to talk to each other about their family and home life. The managers and staff take the necessary steps to ensure the safe return of children to nursery after the COVID-19 pandemic. They maintain strict hygiene procedures, and parents are kept fully informed about their children's routines through an electronic diary and their child's key person.

Children enjoy a range of opportunities to develop their physical skills. They exercise and enjoy activities such as climbing on frames, playing with sand and ball games. They also enjoy daily outings in the fresh air and visits to local parks and playgrounds.

Staff extend activities from the nursery to the outside world. In general, children are happy and behave well. They are playful and eager to learn.

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

Staff are dedicated in welcoming children to nursery after the COVID-19 national lockdown. They work with parents to plan settling-in sessions that ensure children comfortably return or start at nursery. Staff take account of the limitations that children had during the lockdown and increased opportunities for them to socialise and enjoy outings in the local community.

This helps children to become more social, explore where they live and be prepared for life in modern Britain.Staff plan routines to meet children's personal needs. During meals, children develop their self-care skills and independence.

They feed themselves, pour their own drinks and help staff to set up and clear away. Staff are good role models for the children. They sit down and eat with them, while talking about the 'yummy' food and healthy eating.

Staff kindly help children with their sleeping. They use the same strategies as parents at home with cuddles and comforters. Staff monitor sleeping children very closely to ensure that they are safe.

A number of children speak English as an additional language and some speak two or three languages at home. However, staff do not provide enough opportunities for these children to develop or use these languages at nursery to celebrate their backgrounds and support their speech development.Teaching is good.

Staff in most rooms provide children with an ambitious curriculum to promote the next steps in their development. However, staff do not always allow enough time for younger children to think and respond independently to their requests. They respond to their own questions themselves.

For example, older babies were building cars using plastic blocks and staff asked if they could add a block to the models. Before babies replied, staff added the block to the model and babies became upset. Children are asked to take toy animals out of a bag and imitate their sounds.

However, staff do not give time for children to do it and quickly do it themselves. Children do not always have time to share their ideas and wishes during play.Children behave well and most staff are consistent in their approach to managing their emotional development.

There are procedures to work as a team with parents to provide children with a consistent approach to boundaries from home and nursery. However, there is capacity to further support the pre-school children in learning to take turns, be kind and share toys with one another during play. There are a number of children being assessed for additional support regarding their speech and behaviour.

These children are new to the nursery, which shows that staff promptly identify that they need further support to have their needs met.The manager supervises and monitors staff's practice. She identifies their next steps to further develop their teaching, and staff attend a wide range of training to learn new skills.

Staff work well together and with the management team to ensure that every child has a good start in life.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff prioritise children's safety through effective risk assessment of play areas, equipment and resources used with children.

They closely monitor children to ensure that they are safe. Staff understand the potential signs that may indicate a child is at risk of abuse. They know how to make referrals to local safeguarding services and understand the steps to take should they become concerned about others working with the children.

The management team works with secure recruitment systems and keeps ongoing checks on staff to ensure their suitability to work with children. The managers and staff remained in touch with families and children during the COVID-19 lockdown.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: take reasonable steps to provide opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning, to support their language development at home and their learning of English nallow younger children more time to think and act upon staff's requests during activities so they develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things provide further support to pre-school age children so that they learn to play cooperatively, take turns with others and form friendships with one another.