Bright Horizons Nursery Recognised for its Nurture Approach

Bright Horizons Cramond Early Learning and Childcare Day Nursery and Preschool in Edinburgh has been praised for their ‘warm, nurturing interactions with children‘ by the Care Inspectorate following its most recent inspection.

The nursery has received Grades of Very Good and Good with high praise for its unique approach to childcare. These grades illustrate assessment of the key quality indicators used to measure evidence of high-quality education for children. The nursery’s grades of Very Good reflect the major strengths observed to support these positive outcomes. This inspection result recognises the valuable experiences provided for children and underpins the commitment of the team to continue to strive for excellence.

Along with recognition for its care, play and learning, and the quality of its staff team, key comments from the report highlighted the benefits of the Bright Horizons Nurture Approach at Cramond. These included:

• “Children experienced caring, nurturing interactions with staff. Staff were quick to respond to children's non-verbal and verbal cues. As a result, children developed trust and had reassurance that they could depend on adults to identify and meet their needs.”
• “Staff skilfully adapted their approach to reflect children's different stages of development, for example staff used effective questioning to empower older children to consider what could help them to feel better and to assert their needs amongst their peer group.”
• “The service was committed to promoting a nurturing ethos and had introduced a comprehensive nurture-based programme to help achieve this.”
• “Observations of staff carried out by the management team highlighted warm, nurturing interactions with children. Team leaders were empowered to have courageous conversations with staff to develop staff self-awareness and the impact of their actions on outcomes for children.”

Lorraine, Nursery Manager at Bright Horizons Cramond Early Learning and Childcare said: “Our Nurture Approach puts children’s emotional wellbeing and development at the centre of our everyday practice. Our team provides opportunities for children for self-expression, to learn about their emotions and social interaction, recognising the key role that early brain development and attachments have on teaching and learning for young children. We support children to develop these valuable skills so that they can cope with challenges and build positive relationships with others as they learn and grow.”

The Nurture Approach consists of three key elements. These elements are of equal importance, and interconnect with one another to create a fully rounded developmental experience for all children.

• Holistic Learning – delivered through their unique Bright Beginnings curriculum
• Inspirational Teaching & Exceptional Care
• Emotional Wellbeing – delivered through their Nurture Model

The Nurture Approach puts children’s emotional development and wellbeing at the centre of the nurseries everyday practice recognising that children’s wellbeing and emotional development is key to all aspects of learning.

The Nurture Model professional development training programme was developed by Bright Horizons in the UK in partnership with clinical psychologist, Dr Sarah Mundy. It recognises and supports the unique developmental needs of the child focusing on healthy emotional development and indicators of wellbeing.

Research conducted by Bright Horizons Early Childhood team found that after completing the Nurture Model training programme, practitioners experienced increased confidence in providing the conditions for children to develop emotional health, a clear sense of identity and self-worth and the ability to recognise and manage emotions and deal with difficulties.

To find out more about Bright Horizons Cramond Early Learning and Childcare Nursery and how you can become a part of the team, you can find information on Bright Horizons website.

You can find the full report from the Care Inspectorate here.