The Learning Tree Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The management team are duly focused on planning a broad curriculum to help ensure all children make good progress. Effective use is made of additional funding. For example, a range of home learning packs have been created to support children to continue their learning at home. Parents express these are incredibly valuable. Staff are duly focused on monitoring children's progress. When gaps in learning are identified, swift action is taken to implement measures to help children progress. This is further supported by the effective partnerships with professionals who are involved in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Staff have developed warm relationships with children. For example, they sing to younger children to let them know it is time to have their nappy changed. The impact is that children are happy to have their care needs met. Older children behave well. Staff teach them valuable skills to enable them to play cooperatively. For example, children know how to use sand timers when they want to use a popular resource. They are motivated in their learning as staff praise them when they share, or they are being kind to one another. Staff value children's unique cultures and encourage them to share their home languages. Older children are proud to tell the inspector where they are from. They are confident to share key words in their home language. This supports children to feel a sense of belonging.

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

• Managers demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of child development. They plan a curriculum that is adapted to accommodate all children's individual needs. For example, staff use visual timetables and cards to support all children to understand the daily routines. Children are confident to use visual aids to express their care and learning needs.
• Managers provide staff with regular opportunities to engage in training to support their professional development. They provide ongoing supervision for staff and have systems in place to monitor the quality of teaching. However, these are yet to be embedded to ensure all staff consistently deliver high-quality learning experiences. For example, some younger children are not always taught how to use resources to develop their skills to the highest level. The impact is that some children lose interest in throwing and catching games.
• Children are developing good self-care skills. This is because staff teach them to develop independence. For example, both younger and older children are confident to peel and chop their own healthy snacks. They can help themselves to drinking water as staff teach them how to use the water dispenser. Children are developing positive hygiene practice as staff teach them about the importance of handwashing.
• Staff plan effective challenges in the outdoor learning environment to help children develop their larger physical skills. The impact is that children are confident to climb apparatus, ride scooters and balance on wooden planks. Most children use equipment appropriately. However, on occasions when children do not comply with safe rules, staff do not consistently discuss the impact this could have on their welfare.
• Staff place due emphasis on supporting children's speaking skills. They read to children and encourage them to sing. Small-group activities are effective in developing children's listening and concentration skills. For example, children are delighted to engage in 'bucket' time. Staff pull various items out of the bucket and share these with children. Staff model clear language and give them time to learn the meaning of new words. For example, children understand the word 'splat' and that it rhymes with 'mat', when staff show them how real foam can 'splat' on the 'mat'. Children protest when the session ends as they are having fun.
• Staff are focused on children's emotional well-being as they check in with them during circle time sessions to see how they are feeling. Children demonstrate they are happy with a unanimous thumbs up. Older children tell the inspector that they love to come to nursery as they have lots of friends to play with.
• Parents express they are extremely happy with the care and education their children receive. They value communication systems, which they say keeps them informed about topics and what children are learning. They comment on effective systems to let them know if their child has had an accident during the day. Parents value guidance from staff to support their children's behaviour at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice to more precisely identify where staff need further guidance to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level
• build on staff's positive teaching of safe behaviours so that all children are consistently supported to understand rules and boundaries.