Tall Trees Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and content at this friendly, welcoming nursery. Staff are very caring and help children to feel secure. Leaders and staff are committed and have high expectations for children. They provide a well-organised curriculum and staff give a clear focus to helping children gain a secure foundation for learning and become confident and ready for school. This helps all children to make good progress from their starting points.

Toddlers develop their fine motor skills very well. For example, they become absorbed trying to thread dried spaghetti through the holes in a colander. They have fun exploring colour and texture when painting with brushes and shape cutters. Babies watch with fascination at the bubbles floating around them. They smile and reach out to try and catch them. Pre-school children develop very good listening skills. They are confident to ask questions, such as when learning about the different pets their friends have. They carefully draw circles and lines in the mud outdoors to make a smiley face and say, 'It has two eyes and seven smiles'. Children show kindness to others and share well. They use good manners and ask their friends politely to pass the water jug to them at mealtimes. Staff praise children often for their efforts and help them gain a good sense of self-esteem and emotional well-being.

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

• Leaders are supportive of staff and, together, they aim for continuous improvement. For example, staff have raised their awareness about forest school activities to provide children with different play experiences. This led to children enjoying learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and using woodworking tools with staff to make a model of a butterfly.
• Children become confident communicators. Staff are skilled at extending their discussions and introduce more complex vocabulary. Pre-school children use words such as 'intestine' or 'oesophagus' when learning about their bodies. They enthusiastically join in with the repeated refrains of a favourite story and anticipate what happens next as, together, they excitedly say, 'It's a bear!' Babies enjoy their nursery rhyme songs and show interest as staff name the colourful pictures in a book. Toddlers confidently use three- and four-word sentences in context. They point to a picture and say, 'It's a flower'.
• Leaders and staff continually monitor children's achievements and identify how to close any gaps in their development. Staff recognise children's individual ways of learning and, overall, support their good progress very well. However, at times, leaders do not monitor staff deployment and practice as well as possible. For example, to ensure all staff motivate and engage babies in meaningful learning activities that encourage their next steps of development consistently well.
• Staff promote children's early mathematical awareness very well. Pre-school children use numbers of personal significance and say, 'I am four and will be five next.' They develop their critical thinking skills, such as when categorising their friends into groups according to the pets they have. Toddlers start using numbers confidently in their play and say, 'there are two heart shapes' on their painting.
• Parents state that their children love going to nursery and are making very good progress. Parents comment that staff keep them well informed about their children's activities. They speak about feeling reassured with how staff manage children's transition to each room in the nursery.
• Children develop their imaginations very well, overall. They talk about the 'mud paint' and 'hot chocolate smoothies' they make using earth, water, and leaves. They make a duck's nest with twigs and use small apples for the duck's eggs. However, at times, staff do not consider providing further resources to extend children's learning even more effectively. For example, to ensure children have more choice of resources that support their interests and build on their spontaneous ideas and learning consistently well, such as in the outdoor areas.
• Children behave very well. Staff keep clear, consistent expectations and help children to respect others. This supports children to play cooperatively and happily with their friends.
• Staff promote children's personal development effectively. Children gain very good practical life skills. For example, they serve themselves healthy meals at lunchtimes. Staff encourage babies to start feeding themselves. All children have daily exercise and learn how to take safe risks in their play. Staff teach children about keeping their teeth healthy. Pre-school children know they have molars and learn how to brush their teeth and keep them clean.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice, with particular regard to the deployment of staff working with the babies, to ensure children's next steps of development are supported consistently well
• make more use of resources to support and extend all children's spontaneous ideas and learning even further.