Busy Bees Day Nursery at Hillingdon

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive at the nursery happy and excited to begin their day. They receive a warm welcome from the friendly and caring staff team.

This supports children to settle in quickly and they happily say goodbye to their parents. Children's independence and self-care skills are encouraged throughout the nursery. Younger children take on small tasks to develop their awareness.

For example, they know to take their plates and scrape any left-over food into the food bin after mealtimes. They learn about the importance of handwashing as they take part in activities where they wash the germs away. Pre-school children's indepe...ndence is progressed further, for example, as they learn to serve themselves their food and help to clean the tables before and after mealtimes.

They also take part in completing the garden risk assessment with the staff. They have their own clipboard and risk assessment papers to help them learn about how to keep themselves and others safe. Young babies are content and have a secure bond with their key person, who meets their individual care needs very well.

Babies snuggle into their key person for their milk feeds; this supports their emotional needs and confidence to develop. Children's behaviour is good. They learn about the nursery rules and boundaries and know what is expected of them.

Overall, children are kind and friendly towards each other. If children have any difficulties, they are supported by the staff to understand their feelings and that of their friends.

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

The manager is an ambitious leader and is very dedicated to supporting the staff team and truly wants the very best outcomes for the children and families.

She endeavours to ensure the environment is a happy place to come to work and recognises her staff's well-being is of utmost importance. This creates a supportive and caring setting where staff enjoy their work with the children.The manager and staff all have a good understanding of the nursery curriculum and what they want children to learn and achieve.

There is a strong focus on supporting children's independence and confidence to flourish. This has a good impact on children's personal, social and emotional skills.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well.

Staff have a good knowledge of the children and their needs. Key workers liaise closely with parents and other professionals and provide one-to-one or small-group sessions to focus on children's individual targets. This supports children to catch up in their learning and have early input to help their specific learning needs.

There is good support for children who speak English as an additional language, using signs and symbols and key words to enhance communication.Overall, children are engaged and motivated to learn throughout the day. Staff plan some innovative activities to support children's early writing skills.

For example, toddlers have great fun tracing over plastic film in the garden. Pre-school children are supported to be creative and to think about what they could draw. They look around their surroundings and draw the trees that they can see.

However, occasionally, some activities are too adult-directed and do not always support the younger children to begin to develop their own creativity.Overall, staff support children's communication and language well. Children take part in circle times and enjoy singing and story times.

Young babies take part and begin to join in with the action songs. Staff talk to children as they play. However, at times, they do not ask enough open-ended questions to encourage children to think and extend their language and vocabulary further.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were dropping and picking up their children at the front door. Since April 2022, parents have been allowed to re-enter the nursery and settle their child into their group rooms. Parents express how lovely this is to have direct communication with the staff and see where their children spend their day.

Partnerships with parents are effective. Parents are very complimentary about the inspirational manager and about how caring and kind the staff team is. They comment that they have seen significant changes since the manager started last year.

There are effective communication systems in place, such as the nursery online app which enables parents to see their own child's photographs and assessments. In addition, there are events such as coffee mornings and parents' evenings organised to share information.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff have a secure understanding of child protection procedures. They know what to do if they have concerns about children's welfare. They understand the procedures to follow if an allegation is made against a member of staff.

There are robust recruitment procedures to ensure all staff are suitable to work with children. Staff follow a comprehensive induction programme when joining the nursery and they have regular supervision meetings with the manager to discuss practice issues and training needs. The manager has established a good relationship with the local authority; she shares relevant information with them to ensure children are kept safe.

The premises are safe and secure. The front door is securely locked to ensure children are kept safe while in the nursery.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure staff consider when planning learning activities how they can extend children's communication and language with their questioning techniques so that it encourages children to think and respond fully nincrease opportunities for younger children to express their own creative and imaginative ideas in their art work or drawings.