Enabling Environments: Under-Threes - Room at the top

Babies have been described as 'the most powerful learning machine in the universe', yet in many nurseries their emotional and learning needs can be overlooked. In a drive to focus more on babies' individual care and development needs, Westwood Nursery, at the University of Bath, has embraced reflective practice and put self-evaluation at the heart of its practice.

The nursery first embarked on achieving the Bristol Standard (see box) and one year into the process was invited by its local authority - Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) - to embark on its newly launched Baby Quality Scheme.

Like similar evaluation tools, the Baby Quality Scheme requires a nursery team to reflect on current practice, identify areas to be developed and agree a series of targets over a manageable timescale. To help with the process, the BANES scheme provides a self-evaluation grid linked to the EYFS and requires nursery teams to keep a reflective journal.

During the first year of the scheme, settings receive considerable support from the BANES Early Years team, who come in to train staff and carry out joint observations. Nurseries also attend regular cluster training meetings with other settings with baby rooms where practitioners can discuss what they are doing and share ideas. Twenty-six settings in all have signed up for the scheme.

Hilary Lucas, leader of the baby room at Westwood Nursery, where children range in age from six months to two years, says, 'The scheme has been a fantastic way of reviewing our practice and enhancing the learning environment.

'It treats the children as individuals and it is not stressful to complete as you work on the projects until you feel they are complete - there is no time limit. I feel it has been of huge benefit to the children, staff and parents. It really makes you think about things in a different way.

Particularly useful, she believes, was the comprehensive reflective diary, with photographs and observations, that the setting compiled during the scheme.

'It is a valuable record of the changes, and having it in diary form shows the progress and improvements we have achieved. We make changes all the time and now we can visually see the work we do and how we have improved the children's learning.'

Welcome too, she adds, were the cluster training meetings. 'Over the year, all our baby staff have been to these clusters and have brought back ideas that we use with our children.

'Having training aimed solely at babies has been brilliant. In the past, babies have been overlooked and training has been hard to find.'

IMPROVEMENTS

At the start of the scheme, staff decided to focus on three elements, starting with improving the garden area.

'We put screening up to give the children more privacy. We also put a drainpipe up on the fence which they can roll balls down or pour water down. We put in a box for digging with compost as we don't have any earth in the baby garden area. It wasn't a major overhaul but it has made a huge difference to the children's environment,' says Ms Lucas.

The second element they focused on was Makaton. Westwood is a very multicultural nursery as it cares for the children of many international students who attend Bath University. These range from Turkish, Chinese, Danish, German and French to Polish and Italian. Many of the children start with no English and Makaton can be a big help initially for these children. A sign of the week was introduced and the children were given signs to take home to share with their parents.

The third element was photographs. 'Children love looking at photos and they are great for their language development, so we put up photos of all the children and we now have a book of photographs of the baby's day at nursery so that parents can use this to help with the settling in process. The book is introduced during the home visit and kept at home for the first few weeks. This has helped the babies and their parents to familiarise themselves with the baby unit,' adds Ms Lucas.

Other changes include:

- intoducing story boxes. 'It started when a parent told us her son didn't want to leave his Thomas trains in the car. So, I sourced items from charity shops and car boot sales and built up a collection of Thomas trains, books and jigsaws,' says Ms Lucas. 'Using the story box has helped develop his speech and language, and his parents are so happy with the progress made.'

- creating a cosy corner and drawing area that includes a variety of decorating items.

- starting 'songs of the month' sheets, on the request of a parent - the sheets, with lyrics and actions, are given to parents monthly to take home and share with their children.

- enhancing resources in the main baby room. Parents helped stock a technology basket with equipment such as old laptops, telephones and remote controls. 'The babies love this basket,' says Ms Lucas.

'We have now started to plan the next stage of the scheme and we are choosing our next improvements. One is to enhance the nappy changing area to ensure that this will also be a learning experience. We are planning to put pictures up and have resources hanging from the ceiling to distract and entertain them.'

SUCCESSES

As for the overall benefits of self-evaluation, the University of Bath childcare services manager Pauline Young concludes, 'Participation in both the Bristol Standard and Baby Quality Scheme has strengthened our partnership with parents and improved team communication. Practitioners approach challenges and problem-solving with confidence and successful efforts are recognised by everyone.'

In May last year BANES assessed the nursery's provision using Infant and Toddler and Early Childhood Environmental Scales (ITERS and ECERS) inspection. The provision attracted high grades, though also provided the nursery team with some reflective points for improving their service further.

Then in quick succession came a string of awards recognising the team's hard work. In June, the nursery became the first to receive the BANES 'Baby Quality Award'. In July, it received a BANES award for its commitment to integrated working with agencies, supporting children with specific needs who attend the setting. In September it completed the final year of the Bristol Standard and in the same month it received an Outstanding Ofsted report.

'The Baby Quality Scheme provides evidence for Ofsted of good leadership and management through self-evaluation,' explains Ms Young. 'It shows the ability of the setting to assess its own strengths and weaknesses, the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation and the extent to which the setting is committed to promoting positive outcomes for children.'

Self-evaluation will remain a priority for the nursery. 'The development of quality is about a process - it is dynamic and shifting, a continuous seeking for improvement,' adds Ms Young. 'We are looking forward to participating in the Toddler Quality Scheme when it is launched by BANES.'

More Information

www.bristol.gov.uk/page/bristol-standard

www.crec.co.uk/EEL

THE BRISTOL STANDARD

The Bristol Standard is a framework that enables settings to reflect on and develop improvements in all aspects of their practice.

The scheme is based around ten dimensions of quality that have been borrowed, with permission, from the Effective Early Learning (EEL) project. These are:

• Supporting play, learning and development
• Observation, planning and assessment
• Values and aims
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Partnerships with parents and the local community
• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Relationships and interactions
• Leadership, management and staffing
• Play and learning experiences
• The physical environment.

Its three-year cycle involves one year of 'in-depth' scrutiny of practice and improvement followed by two years of 'light-touch' reflection.

The standard helps practitioners to work through the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in a systematic way, as the documents have been closely linked and cross-referenced.