The Learning Tree Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff build secure and trusting relationships with all children. On arrival, staff keenly welcome children and help them to settle quickly. Young children jump up and down with great excitement. They are eager to start their busy day of play and learning at this well-established, community-based pre-school. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and emotionally secure.

Leaders design a broad and ambitious curriculum across all areas of learning. Leaders and staff know that not all children arrive with the same experiences as others. Overall, they plan many opportunities to help enhance children's learning, meet their individual needs and give them the best start to their early education. For example, staff provide many opportunities for children to look at a wide range of books indoors and outdoors. They encourage children to take books home so that they can continue learning at home while sharing books with parents and carers. This helps to promote children's love of books and early reading skills very well.

Staff have high expectations for all children to help them behave well and have positive attitudes to their learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are extremely well supported. Staff swiftly identify gaps in children's learning, and provide specific support so that all children make good progress.

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

• Leaders share their high expectations and values among the well-established, long-standing staff team. They have an ambitious vision for the pre-school. Leaders and staff consistently review and reflect on practice and the quality of education to ensure positive outcomes for all children. Staff use funding to support all children who need extra help, including those with SEND.
• Leaders develop good relationships with staff and they place a very strong focus on their well-being. For example, leaders have encouraged staff to reduce workloads and to 'plan in the moment'. However, this has led to minor variations when planning the curriculum. For example, staff do not precisely plan what they want some children to learn next, to consistently meet their individual learning needs.
• Staff engage with parents and other professionals very well. Parents speak highly of leaders and staff. They confirm that they are invited to termly parents' meetings with key staff. This helps to keep them fully informed about their children's learning and how they can further extend learning at home. Leaders keenly engage with local authority advisers and welcome training opportunities to help to develop their skills and knowledge further.
• Staff implement a curriculum that focuses on supporting children's communication and language skills to a high level. They provide a language-rich environment. For example, staff promote conversations with children as they join them in imaginary play, and very skilfully help to develop their attention and listening skills, such as during circle time. Children scream and giggle with delight at a range of objects that help to gain their attention.
• Children consistently engage in the enjoyable and challenging experiences provided. For example, they concentrate as they hammer tiny pins and brightly coloured wooden shapes to cork boards. Staff encourage children to work out how to fix lengths of wood together and create spiders from dough, sticks and googly eyes. Staff frequently praise children for their efforts to help promote their self-esteem.
• Children benefit from lots of fresh air and physical exercise throughout the day. Staff are very good role models. They help children to play safely as they play and learn together, and staff promote their positive behaviour. Children listen to and enthusiastically follow instructions. For instance, staff call out 'ready, steady, go' and 'stop' as they point to pretend traffic lights. Children show a positive attitude to their learning and behave very well.
• Overall, staff support children's confidence and independence well. For example, they encourage children to pour drinks and select fruit at snack time. However, this is not always consistent among staff. For example, there are times when staff wipe children's noses and unwrap their packed lunches. This does not consistently encourage children's self-help skills to the highest level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen curriculum planning to consistently and precisely meet children's individual learning needs
• help children to develop their self-help skills and independence even further.