Busy Bees Day Nursery at Lewes

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children thrive in this wonderfully nurturing, stimulating and inspiring nursery.

They develop high levels of confidence and self-esteem. Staff value children's individual differences highly and build strong bonds with them, helping children to feel particularly happy, secure and ready to learn. Children quickly gain the skills needed to be successful in the next stage of their education, including school.

Staff have high expectations for what children can achieve. Children of all ages engage very well in a wide range of exciting, inviting and challenging learning experiences. For example, older children delight in pla...nting their own flower seeds and show an excellent understanding of what the seeds need to grow.

They thoroughly enjoy choosing objects to draw and pay close attention to detail, proudly describing their pictures to staff. Babies are particularly confident and explore their safe and thoughtfully planned environment with great enthusiasm. They learn to walk, talk and express themselves from an early age and build loving and trusting early attachments with staff.

Overall, children behave very well and act with kindness, consideration and respect for others. For example, when a two-year-old had two toy elephants and another child said elephants were their favourite animal, they happily shared them so they both had one. However, on rare occasions, children are not fully supported to help them manage their behaviour and understand how their actions can impact others.

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

The inspirational manager leads her ambitious and dedicated staff team with passion. Together, they reflect closely on the children's experiences and learning and use extensive training and research to enhance the provision. They have recently focused on encouraging and inspiring children's curiosity by using more open-ended play resources and reacting quickly to children's interests.

For example, during the inspection, one child came into the nursery talking about wanting to splash in puddles as it was raining. Staff responded to this immediately, showing that they value children's ideas highly, and used a hose to fill puddles for children to explore.The manager and staff have in-depth knowledge of each child's development, personality and home life.

They create a unique, challenging and diverse curriculum for all children, aimed at encouraging a sense of awe and wonder in the world. For example, after finding out that some babies had not yet been to the beach, staff created experiences for them to explore sand and water together to replicate the seaside. Children benefit from a broad range of activities, such as 'wake and shake' sessions which get their bodies active and alert first thing in the morning.

Staff also use exciting 'shake and write' sessions to help children practise the movements and skills they will need for early writing. Children demonstrate their particularly strong early literacy skills as they write their names with great confidence from an early age.Staff are highly caring, nurturing and attentive to children's individual needs.

They foster an incredibly positive and supportive atmosphere, where all children feel loved and cherished. The environments for each nursery age group are closely linked, which helps children move through the nursery smoothly. Staff work hard to make children feel as settled and secure as possible and create an atmosphere where children's unique personalities are truly celebrated.

Parents are overwhelmingly appreciative of how the nursery goes 'above and beyond' for their children, such as by introducing an exciting lending library. Partnerships with parents are a strength of the nursery and a key focus for staff and leaders.Overall, staff are strong and influential role models and provide children with clear messages to support their good behaviour.

They warmly praise children's efforts and good behaviour and celebrate their achievements with great enthusiasm. Subsequently, children develop high levels of confidence in their own abilities. However, during the inspection, some two-year-old children were not fully supported to understand how their actions were affecting others and the need for additional safety awareness when playing outside in the rain.

Despite this, there is a strong focus on outdoor play and children delight in exploring the spacious and adventurous garden. Children of all ages are active and demonstrate strong physical skills, such as when carefully walking along balance beams and climbing trees.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager gives safeguarding high priority and ensures all staff attend thorough training. She regularly tests staff on their knowledge, including how they would report any concerns about a member of their team. Staff fully understand how to identify the signs that may mean a child is at risk of harm, including those children who may be at risk from extreme views or behaviours.

They know the appropriate procedures to follow to record and report these concerns. The manager and staff successfully teach children how to keep themselves safe online, using stories that are age appropriate.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: noffer fully consistent support for two-year-old children to ensure they learn to manage their own behaviour and safety and understand how certain actions can affect others.

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