Tots Treehouse Day Nursery LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children eagerly enter the nursery and are warmly greeted by staff. The friendly staff team form close relationships with children and offer support when needed. The curriculum is varied and enables all children to make good progress from their starting points. Staff provide activities that capture children's imagination and develop a love for books and stories. For example, they re-enact a favourite book, 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' as they stumble trip through the big, dark forest. Staff provide effective support for children's developing social skills. For example, at circle time, staff help children to learn the names of their friends and the staff.

Children gain a good understanding of healthy lifestyles. Staff encourage them to follow good hygiene routines, such as regularly washing their hands and encouraging them to make healthy food choices. During snack time, children have discussions with staff about the fruits they are eating and comment how these are good for them. Children are developing good levels of independence. They pour their own drinks and attempt to take off and put on their shoes. Children enjoy physical activities and fresh air when playing outside. Staff offer good support to help children understand their emotions, and how to manage these. Children behave well. They benefit from the frequent praise staff give them and show pride in their achievements.

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

• Managers and staff know what they want children to learn. They continually monitor children's progress and identify what they need to achieve next. Children show a positive approach to learning and are extremely eager to explore. This means that they acquire the skills, attitudes and abilities to prepare them for the next stage of their development or school.
• Staff's interactions with children are good and they promote children's communication and language development well. However, at times, staff ask children questions and present lots of information in quick succession. Children are not always provided with enough time to think and respond. This limits their opportunities to think and share their thoughts and ideas.
• Children have many opportunities to develop good physical skills. They run, balance and climb on different equipment. For example, they enjoy making their way through the obstacle course, rummaging through the ball pool and jumping on the bouncy castle provided to celebrate the last day of term.
• Staff provide a variety of activities to develop children's fine motor skills. For example, they peel the backs off stickers when making animal masks. Children use paintbrushes to make marks in the garden using water. This helps them to build the muscles they need for early writing.
• Children understand familiar routines, and staff have high expectations for all children. This results in happy, active children, who have a positive attitude to learning. However, staff do not consistently encourage the quieter or less confident children in large-group activities to share their ideas and knowledge.
• The managers and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Links with parents and other professionals who support children with SEND are strong. Children make good progress in relation to their starting points. Managers carefully consider how to spend any additional funding children receive to meet their individual care and learning needs.
• There are good partnerships with parents. Staff communicate well with parents, providing them with information about their children. Staff provide ways that parents can extend children's learning at home and work with them to help children achieve milestones.
• The managers lead their team well in a programme of reflective practice and ongoing improvement. Staff benefit from a good range of opportunities to help keep their knowledge and skills up to date. They attend training and participate in regular staff meetings. They have introduced several initiatives to support children's learning, such as the 'lending library'. This promotes children's love of reading. Children also experience a range of extra-curricular activities, including football coaching and storytelling drama sessions.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when to give children more time to process their thoughts and ideas when responding to questions
• develop further strategies to encourage quieter or less confident children to contribute more to large-group times to support their communication and language development further.