Blossom Tree Childcare Centre Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children appear happy, confident and emotionally secure in the home-from-home nursery. Parents enter the rooms with their children on their arrival and are eagerly welcomed by enthusiastic and friendly staff. Children separate from their parents with ease and are eager to start their day.

Children listen attentively and respond well to instructions. They display good manners and show kindness to one another. Older children offer gestures of support as they place their arms around their friends for encouragement when they try vegetables at lunchtime. Children's behaviour is good.

Children display great attitudes towards learning. They eagerly engage themselves in stimulating and exciting activities that cover all areas of learning. Younger children explore with dough and search for gold and shells in sand. Older children play group games as they learn to follow rules and work as a team. Staff continually enhance the environment to build on children's interests and experiences at home. For example, they create a new, hospital-themed role-play area, with dolls and dressing-up outfits. Children are focused and eager to learn more.

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

• The provider and manager work closely together and are passionate about delivering a high-quality service to children and their families. They accurately evaluate their strengths and identify areas for development. Furthermore, they observe staff practice and hold regular well-being meetings. Staff say they are happy and feel well supported. As a result, most staff have worked at the nursery for many years and are dedicated to providing the best care and learning opportunities to children.
• In the main, the curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced. Staff get to know children well and provide activities and learning experiences that follow their current interests. However, some staff do not recognise when it would be beneficial to remind children of previous learning or check their understanding before moving them on, in order for them to build on what they already know.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well and are making good progress. Regular meetings take place with staff, parents and other professionals to set individual targets. These targets are monitored and reviewed continually. Sufficient adaptions are made to daily routines to ensure that all children are involved and included.
• Overall, staff interact well with children. They get down to children's level and use good teaching skills to ensure that their intent is successful. Staff model language and use skilful questioning. However, on occasion, children are not given enough time to test out their own ideas and learn through trial and error. This is because some staff are too quick to step in and solve problems for children.
• Children's independence skills are promoted well. For example, they pour their own drinks, scrape their food off their plates and stack away their cutlery after use. These self-care skills help to support children in readiness for school.
• Children gain a good understanding of the importance of being active and healthy. They run around in the outdoor environment and carefully manoeuvre large buckets of water from one place to another. Children learn about healthy food choices, the need to drink to hydrate their bodies and to wash their hands to wipe away germs. This provides them with a good awareness of how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
• Parents express their appreciation and delight with the quality of the nursery and the support that staff give to their children. They say that the nursery is 'nothing short of exceptional'. Parents commend the ongoing communication they have with staff regarding their children's development. They have regular meetings and, together, discuss achievable targets that their children can work towards at nursery and at home in order for them to make the best possible progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to further help children make connections to what they already know and can do within the curriculum
• encourage staff to provide more time within activities for children to sharpen their critical thinking skills.