Lime Tree Day Nursery (Thrybergh)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children learn to be happy, independent and confident communicators in this nursery. For instance, staff support three- and-four-year-old children to build strongly on their language and problem-solving skills as they investigate and discuss their pictures and leaflets about the chicken eggs in their incubator. Children show an understanding of how the chicks will grow and develop and that they need warmth to do so.

Children make strong and consistent progress from their individual starting points in development during their time with the engaging and thoughtful staff. They are very well prepared for the next stage in their education and development, including starting school. Staff teach children to play together purposefully, to listen to each other and feel confident to express their thoughts and opinions. For example, two-year-old children plan together to make their large cardboard box tower 'even taller and stronger'.

Children are safe and secure. They rise to staff's high expectations for excellent manners and friendly, social behaviour. Children build their independence, such as through selecting and organising their own activities and tidying away after themselves. Parents and carers comment on the wide vocabulary, strong mathematical skills and love of learning their children acquire in the nursery.

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

• At the centre of children's learning is the rich development of their communication and language skills. The well-trained staff skilfully introduce children to a rich vocabulary built on their interests and increasingly wide knowledge of the world. They consistently help children to use their emerging language skills through carefully considered questions, such as 'I wonder how' or 'What do you think will happen?' Staff encourage children to ask each other questions as they play.
• Staff bring learning to life through developing children's love of books, rhymes and songs. They systematically build on children's knowledge and appreciation through the many opportunities to share, repeat and investigate well-chosen books of the week. By the time children are aged three and four years, they re-enact favourite stories with puppets and role play with a thorough understanding of the language used, the sequence of events and the emotions of the characters.
• The leadership team is highly ambitious to ensure that every child achieves their full potential before moving on to the next stage in their learning. Senior staff support their colleagues through sharply focused and extensive training to build all aspects of provision. They consistently enrich the well-planned curriculum through, for example, regular visits to other nurseries and joint training events.
• Staff ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other vulnerable learners receive robust and carefully targeted support. They work well with a wide range of other professionals, such as speech and language and inclusion specialists, to carefully plan and promote all aspects of children's learning. Leaders make good use of additional funding to, for example, develop staff's skills and develop learning opportunities.
• Staff help children to develop a deep understanding of number and early mathematical language. They support children to accurately match quantities of numbers to their counting to five, for example, as they use puppets and model animals to act out their large repertoire of counting songs. Children identify that if one animal has four legs then two animals have eight legs.
• Staff consistently extend children's awareness of their world through many imaginative experiences and through the careful selection of books and songs. Children build memorable experiences as, for instance, they visit older people to sing songs in a care home or learn about handling money on their many visits to shops to buy ingredients for their baking and snacks or the soap for their role-play car wash.
• Staff plan for and support children's independence and positive personal development, behaviour and attitudes. They are consistently mindful of children's immediate personal and emotional needs and use smiles and praise to reassure them and build relationships.
• Staff build strong working partnerships with parents, who positively recommend the nursery. Parents receive detailed and thorough information on their children's progress and useful guidance to build on this at home.