The Learning Tree Kindergarten & Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and thrive at this friendly nursery. Their emotional security is prioritised. Children settle into nursery life quickly and establish strong attachments with the warm and caring staff team. Babies babble and smile as staff interact with them tenderly. They freely and curiously explore the sensory properties of sound. For example, babies bang wooden spoons on a range of different surfaces. Staff extend their learning and introduce other objects for them to bang. This helps to sharpen babies' listening skills as they learn about volume, pitch and rhythm.

Children behave well across the setting and understand the nursery's expectations of conduct. For example, children must climb several flights of stairs throughout the day to access the garden, sleep room and dining room. They listen carefully to staff when they are reminded of the rules to keep themselves safe. They take it in turns and wait patiently for their friends to go on to the next step before following in a sensible way. In addition, children develop strong leg muscles, coordination and physical endurance.

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

• Staff know the children well. They plan a broad curriculum and introduce them to a range of experiences. Parents talk positively about the education their children receive and say they are kept well informed of their progress. They are involved in their children's learning journey and are supplied with regular activities to help them continue their education at home.
• Additional funding is used in a variety of ways for pre-school children. For example, staff have focused on raising children's literacy skills. They have developed a 'lending library' for children and introduced sessions from a professional storyteller, to captivate and fuel children's imagination and listening skills.
• Children develop a genuine love of books as they listen to familiar stories such as 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. Staff are engaging and encourage children to re-enact parts of the story in their play. Children work well together to construct a bridge and assume roles. They join in with repeated refrains and squeal in excitement when the troll appears. Children practise narratives and build rich language relating to the story.
• Staff provide many opportunities for children to build their understanding of the world around them. They enjoy learning outside the nursery, visiting areas of interest within their community. For instance, staff take children to farms to harvest pumpkins and strawberries, which helps them to understand where food comes from. Furthermore, children discover the natural world and frequently walk to the local woodland with staff. They see the bluebells and wild garlic growing in spring. This helps children to obtain an understanding of the variations in seasons.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are very well supported. They benefit from small-group sessions to help them catch up and make progress in their learning. The special educational needs coordinator works closely with families and other professionals to develop strategies and build individual plans for children. As a result, children are prepared well for the transition to school.
• The leadership team has sufficient overview of the nursery. Leaders have identified strengths and areas for further development. For example, the younger children are working towards being more independent at serving themselves during mealtimes. The well-qualified management team is keen to keep improving and aims to offer high-quality early education. However, systems for monitoring the quality of staff practice are not firmly embedded, to raise the already good teaching skills to a higher level.
• Generally, staff support children's communication and language development well. However, where children speak English as an additional language, some staff do not know the child's home language. This means that they cannot use this information to support their communication skills and personal development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice so that it focuses more specifically on developing staff's teaching skills to an even higher level
• support staff's awareness of any additional languages that children speak or hear at home and consider how to use this information to support children's development.