Busy Bees Day Nursery at Corby

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children love being in this setting and are very eager to get involved in all the exciting activities. Children are highly engaged in role play. They spend considerable time, for example, pretending to carefully add make-up and get dressed ready for a party.

Children are intrigued by the real fruit and vegetables available, touching, sorting and smelling them. They make rapid progress in their learning. Babies have lots of fun joining in as they rapidly learn new actions to songs.

Toddlers quickly improve their language skills and learn lots of new words. For example, they ask for 'more paint' and tell staff the...y have 'found dinosaur' in the sand.Children relish tackling activities that offer plenty of challenge.

Toddlers carefully watch what the staff do and then add their own paint to bricks to make printing patterns. Older children eagerly volunteer to be a helper. They help serve the dinners and work out how many more dinners they need.

Children cooperate well with each other. For example, they help their friends when dressing up and take it in turns to bury their treasure. Children learn to take responsibility for their own safety through exciting and thoughtfully planned activities.

They have lots of fun doing their own risk assessments and actively look for any hazards. They then add a tick to the picture when they have checked their room.

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

Staff add exciting things to activities that capture children's interest and extend their knowledge.

For example, babies happily use their senses to smell and taste the oranges and lemons while playing in the water. They take great delight in making huge bubbles with interestingly shaped items.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive highly skilful and sensitive support.

Staff make excellent use of observations and assessments to identify children who need help early. They are quick to put strategies in place to ensure children develop and make progress. For example, providing activities which enable children to improve their small hand movements.

Staff make children's language development a real priority. They display the words of the week so that parents can also use these at home. Children quickly learn the sign of the week, which is the same throughout the setting.

Children who speak English as an additional language soon become confident speakers. For example, they can tell staff about their picture, what they have drawn and the colour of the princess's hair.Children are enthralled with doing experiments by adding different things to water to see what happens.

Staff are skilful teachers; they ask well-thought-out questions which help children predict what might happen next. They listen carefully to what the children say and model words back to them, such as 'dripping' and 'whisking'. Children readily talk about number and quantity as they add two handfuls and ask for 'a little bit more'.

Staff are excellent at engaging parents in their child's learning. They have a great range of strategies that they use to involve parents. For example, parents love the verbal feedback they receive but are also becoming avid users of the setting's online applications.

Parents can upload their own observations about what their child is learning at home. They can also find advice on a wide variety of topics from toilet training to ideas for games when travelling.Children's behaviour is excellent.

Older children love being a monitor for the day and helping with different tasks. For example, giving out tickets so children know where to sit at lunchtime. Staff are highly sensitive to the needs of younger children and have an excellent knowledge of the things that excite and frustrate each child.

They are adept at tailoring strategies to suit individual needs, for example using signs and simple explanations. Young children quickly calm and willingly take turns with resources.Children experience lots of exciting opportunities to learn about other people and the community around them.

They regularly visit a local care home for the elderly and invite the residents to join in with their nursery activities. Children were delighted when the residents visited the nursery at Christmas. Staff thoughtfully plan visits from the local police and ambulance service to help children develop positive attitudes to others.

Leaders and managers are inspiring and always encourage staff to do well and improve their practice. Managers and staff constantly reflect on their practice and identify things they can do better. Staff speak very highly of the support they receive from managers and the wider organisation.

For example, they find access to the well-being helpline extremely helpful.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Children are exceptionally well protected in this setting.

The staff are very knowledgeable about the signs which may indicate a child is being abused. Leaders and managers make sure that any concerns are clearly recorded and reported immediately. Staff know the families they work with really well.

They are extremely vigilant about any changes and identify any problems quickly. Staff's understanding of their local community is also very good. They are very well aware of the issues and signs of radical or extreme behaviour that could influence children.