Olive Tree Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the nursery happy and eager to begin their play. They form secure relationships with the kind and caring staff team. Older children take responsibility for their belongings. They are beginning to recognise their name and quickly hang their coat and bag on their named coat peg. Children benefit from healthy and nutritious meals and snacks prepared by the on-site cook. They have daily opportunities for fresh air and exercise. Children have fun as they play outside in the well-resourced garden. They excitedly climb on age-appropriate apparatus and ride on wheeled toys.

Children behave well and display good manners. They play cooperatively together and develop early friendships. Young children are learning to share and take turns. They display high levels of concentration. Young children explore textures, such as dough. Young children develop strength in their hands in readiness for early writing as they mix and knead the dough. Older children independently manage their self-care. They learn to use the toilet by themselves and remember to wash their hands afterwards. Babies are settled and content. Staff quickly recognise when they are beginning to get tired or hungry. Babies sleep peacefully in comfortable surroundings. They receive lots of cuddles from staff throughout the day. This helps them to feel emotionally secure and confident to explore their surroundings.

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

• The manager and the provider strive to deliver high-quality care and education to all. The manager meets regularly with staff to discuss their practice. She supports them to complete online training around their interests and key professional development needs. However, the manager is yet to effectively monitor all aspects of staffs knowledge and skills and identify areas where they may need further support to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level.
• Staff provide children with a broad curriculum. They seek information from parents about children's previous learning when they first begin to attend. This helps staff to effectively plan for children's learning from the outset. Staff make regular assessments of what children know and can do. They use this information to plan what children need to learn next. Children make good progress in their learning.
• Good settling-in procedures ensure children are ready for the move from home to the nursery. A well-established, key-person system supports children to form strong relationships with staff. During induction, staff invite parents and children to attend the nursery for short periods to get to know them and become familiar with the surroundings. When children move on to their next room, key persons spend time with their key children in their new room. They introduce them to staff and share information about children's individual learning needs.
• Staff effectively support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They speak with other professionals to share information and plan together to move children with SEND forward in their learning. Children with SEND make good progress from their starting points.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff share information with them about their children's care needs and achievements in a range of ways. They speak to them at drop-off and collection times, send digital messages and add photos and assessments to children's online learning records. This helps parents to continue and extend their children's learning at home. Parents speak highly of the staff and are happy with the care and education their children receive.
• Staff effectively support children's communication and language skills. They engage them in meaningful conversations as they play. Children talk about their favourite vegetable as they make pizza for lunch. Staff introduce descriptive words, such as 'sticky', as young children explore flour and water. They sing songs, use single words and associative sounds to support the youngest children's emerging speech.
• Staff provide children with meaningful activities to support their understanding of some cultural celebrations. For example, they make cards for Diwali and Mother's Day. However, staff are yet to provide children with broad enough experiences to fully support them to develop their understanding and appreciation of diversity in the world around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen ways to monitor staff practice and their ongoing knowledge and skills to further support them to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level
• provide children with even more experiences to help them develop a better understanding and appreciation of diversity in the world around them.