Partou Magic Tree Day Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at nursery. They arrive happy and eager to get involved in the activities on offer. Children settle well and transition smoothly between the rooms as they get older. Children develop positive relationships with their key person, which helps them thrive. Children behave well and develop good social skills. Staff are good role models for children. They teach children about behaviour expectations and help them to understand and regulate their own feelings and emotions. Children get on well together, and they play cooperatively with one another.

Children make good progress in all aspects of their learning and development. Staff are enthusiastic in their teaching, and the newly appointed manager leads them well. The manager works hard to keep staff morale high and ensures that all children benefit from good-quality care and learning.

Leaders and staff deliver a curriculum that builds on what children already know and can do and focuses on what they need to learn next. Staff have a clear understanding of the skills and knowledge that they want all children to develop in readiness for starting school. Children show good engagement in activities and play. They make their own choices and focus well. Babies benefit from opportunities to climb, sit and cruise around to enhance their physical skills. Toddlers explore with their senses as they play outdoors in mud and with water, and pre-school children are creative and imaginative in their play.

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

• Committed leaders help staff to provide good-quality learning experiences for children. Leaders have addressed the actions raised at the previous inspection. Leaders reflect well on strengths and areas to improve, and there is a good focus on continually improving the quality of care and education. Leaders prioritise areas for further development accurately, and there is a strong emphasis placed on continually building on staff knowledge and skills.
• Staff provide safe and stimulating environments for children. They plan experiences and create play opportunities based on children's interests that cover all areas of development and enable children to work towards their next steps in learning.
• Children of all ages have experiences that support their language skills and extend their vocabulary. Children are keen to engage in conversation with their friends and staff. However, there are some occasions when staff ask children questions but do not always give them enough time to think in order to respond. As a result, on some occasions, children do not have opportunities to speak and engage in deeper conversations. Despite this, children show that they have a good command of language, and they continue to make sound progress, including children who speak English as an additional language.
• Staff use a range of effective teaching techniques to develop children's early mathematical skills. For example, they sing colour songs as children mark make and help them identify the colours of the rainbow in their drawings. Staff skilfully take opportunities as they arise spontaneously in play to extend children's mathematical knowledge, particularly with regard to colour, number and mathematical language.
• Staff know the children well and generally support their learning effectively. They use their knowledge of children and their assessments to plan activities and experiences for them that help them make progress. However, during some interactions, staff do not extend or adequately challenge all children's learning. At times, interactions are too short, and children do not receive enough further extension to their learning.
• Staff support children well to have healthy lifestyles. Children enjoy spending time playing outdoors. They enjoy regular fresh air throughout the day and engage in activities outdoors that keep them active. Staff teach children good personal care skills, and children learn to be independent in many aspects of their self-care from a young age. For example, they serve their own food and drink, clean their own hands and faces and put on their own shoes.
• Parent partnerships have improved since the last inspection. Parents are complimentary about the care and education their children receive. Overall, they feel well informed about their children's progress and comment that staff take time each day to tell them about their child's day. Leaders have started to enhance partnership working with parents further. For example, staff give parents tips and advice on the use of dummies and potty training.
• The staff team benefits from regular supervision, and the manager is effective in supporting staff to develop their professional knowledge and skills. Staff make good use of opportunities and training to continually improve their practice.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's questioning techniques to allow children time to think and respond during conversations to further extend their language skills
• make the most of all opportunities to follow children's lead and provide extension opportunities that offer even more challenge to support children's learning so they can reach their highest potential.