Whitesmore Wise Owls Nursery

Live guitar music, mark-making with vegetables and pretend dentistry give Whitesmore Wise Owls Nursery a recognisable character in its September 2021 account of daily life. These were practical experiences: children made marks, listened, took turns and explored ideas through play.

At its September 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. The setting has capacity for 52 children aged 0 to 60 months in Fordbridge, Birmingham. The Good judgement and safeguarding assessment date to September 2021.

The early years foundation stage sets the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and adult guidance help children build skills across its areas of learning.

In September 2021, younger children experimented with cornflour, slime and paint, using vegetables to make marks. Children aged two and three joined movement activities accompanied by a guitar, then waited for a turn to try playing it themselves. Listening and physical activity came together in one experience.

Touchscreen tables and toys operated by remote control added opportunities to explore technology that September. Older children also acted out dental treatment using an oversized teeth model. Shared equipment gave them a reason to negotiate turns and cooperate.

Adults adjusted language activities to children's starting points in September 2021. With toy animals, some children identified initial sounds while others recognised animal noises. Brief individual teaching sessions offered another way to work on each child's next learning step. However, adults sometimes supplied help too soon, reducing children's opportunities to work out solutions independently.

In September 2021, key persons comforted babies who were settling into nursery and worked with parents around individual routines. Familiar routines and responsive comfort were part of the settling arrangements.

At the September 2021 inspection, Ofsted found that the special educational needs coordinator used observations and collaboration with families and other professionals to support children's development, and praised communication with parents. Suggested activities extended learning into the home, including collecting leaves and finding objects associated with wind.

Staff received supervision and training in September 2021, although professional development needed a sharper connection to improving teaching. That distinction matters: access to training alone was not enough to secure consistently stronger practice.

Chapelhouse Road, Fordbridge, Birmingham, B37 5JS is the nursery's address. It opens Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 6pm, throughout the year, giving families an opening window that spans the working day.

In September 2021, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four.

• Independent thinking. In September 2021, adults sometimes stepped in too quickly during activities. On a visit, ask how practitioners now judge when to help and when to let children try their own solutions.
• Teaching development. September 2021's improvement priorities included making staff training more effective in raising teaching quality. Families should weigh this alongside the practical learning experiences described above.

Whitesmore Wise Owls suits families seeking childcare for babies and young children, with weekday opening hours extending from early morning into the evening. Its September 2021 strengths were concrete: playful learning, individual attention and close communication with families. The balancing point was equally clear: children needed more room to solve problems for themselves, supported by better-targeted staff development.