Bushey Gan Nursery and Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children make good progress in a lively, welcoming and engaging environment. They know what is expected of them and help to manage their own care needs.

Children become thoroughly motivated to explore resources, such as magnets. They explore the magnets and talk about how magnets 'attract' and 'repel', and find out what they 'stick' to. Children enjoy joining in familiar songs.

They follow the actions to a song about shapes. They make connections by linking shapes to things in everyday life, such as a triangle becoming an ice cream cone or a hat. Younger children enjoy exploring the sensory feel of materials, such as s...and.

They dig and scoop in the sand, and talk about what is happening, saying 'the sand is on my arm'. Staff who work with children are ambitious about children's abilities and plan activities that underpin their good progress. For example, children talk about the changes that have taken place to an egg that they left to soak in vinegar.

They compare this with another egg, identifying that the soaked egg is 'rubbery' and that its shell has gone. Staff remind them of the meaning of the word 'dissolved'. Children are enthusiastic to share their experiences with visitors.

They explain in detail what they are going to do next. This demonstrates their understanding of everyday routines.

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

The manager has a strong oversight of the setting.

She provides a broad range of training to staff and encourages them to continue to develop their knowledge and practice. For example, staff who have attended training on helping children's speech development have shared this with the wider staff team. The staff can have informal meetings with the manager at any point, and regularly discuss safeguarding matters and any concerns they may have.

However, they do not always have regular opportunities to review their practice in relation to the quality of teaching.Staff clearly enjoy working with the children and understand their needs well. They use songs successfully to help manage times when children move between different areas of the nursery, or to denote different times of day.

This helps children to know what is expected of them and also supports their language development as they hear sung and spoken words. Older children are beginning to successfully link letters and the sound they make as staff promote their literacy development. Children can identify the first letter of their name and staff echo the sounds they make to help embed this knowledge.

At times, some group activities are not as well managed as others. For example, children sometimes have too many resources and this can distract them from what the staff member is showing them. Occasionally, in their enthusiasm to introduce new learning, staff sometimes talk over each other, which means that it can take longer than necessary to explain an idea to the children.

Staff report that they enjoy working at the nursery and feel well supported by management. They understand the importance of offering each other support and feedback. Regular staff meetings help staff to share practice, and talk about any issues they might be facing.

Children enjoy lots of opportunities for physical play to stretch and grow their muscles and increase their control of their bodies. They kick a ball and shout 'I am kicking' as they play with the group. They show increasing control as they run and change direction, skilfully dodging obstacles to avoid running into others.

Staff work closely with parents of children they care for. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have made increasing use of online communication to enable all parents to have enough feedback about their children's development. Parents praise how staff keep in touch with them and state that they receive lots of useful information about their children.

Children enjoy exploring stories with staff, who bring the characters to life as they read in a lively tone of voice. Children use puppets to help them act out the stories they know and to make up new adventures. This helps to develop their literacy skills.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have attended recent safeguarding training, which helps them to continue to identify potential signs of concern. They are knowledgeable about potential signs and symptoms of abuse and are confident to identify these.

They understand the procedures to report concerns about children or about adults working with children, both within the nursery and externally, to relevant agencies, including concerns about senior members of the team. Staff follow procedures to help protect children and supervise each other closely.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop further the programme of supervision of staff who work directly with children, to improve their teaching to the highest level review the planning and delivery of group activities across the nursery, particularly when staff are introducing new learning, to help staff engage all children equally at these times.