Tree House Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children respond happily to the friendly, warm greeting they receive from staff and feel safe in their care. They interact positively with their friends and learn to manage their behaviour well. For example, when older children accidentally bump into a friend and fall down, they laugh together and help each other up again. Staff are keen to promote children's learning through their play. They have reviewed the planning of the curriculum and are now starting to establish ways to support children's more immediate interests in play. Staff provide related activities and help children to make good progress overall. Younger children explore the play resources with interest. They stamp their feet excitedly on an interactive colour mat and examine the patterns they make. They show curiosity in how a lid fits onto a pen and concentrate well taking this off and putting it back on again. Older children and their friends become absorbed pushing the toy diggers and trucks back and forth through crushed-up cereal. They enjoy drawing and begin to form recognisable letters and shapes. Parents comment that they are reassured by the procedures in place to help keep them and their children safe during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

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

• The management team has established a clear supervision process to help monitor staff practice and support their development. Staff complete a variety of training. For example, they have raised their understanding of ways to encourage children's early mathematical awareness through their play.
• Overall, the management team organises the day well to provide quiet and active times for children. However, the way that the older children's lunchtime is arranged does not encourage their independence skills well. In addition, although children show patience, they sit waiting at their lunch table for too long before being served their meal. Nonetheless, children enjoy healthy snacks and meals. Younger children like to help water the different fruits and vegetables they help to grow outdoors, including tomatoes, sweetcorn and French beans.
• Staff are caring and friendly. They recognise when children are tired. Children confidently approach staff for cuddles, which shows that they feel safe, and they settle down for a comfortable sleep.
• Parents comment positively about staff and say that they keep them well informed about their children's learning. Staff liaise well with parents and other agencies involved to support children's additional needs. Staff have discussions with parents about their children's likes, dislikes and interests to help them to settle in from the start. However, staff do not make as much use of information from parents about children's existing developmental abilities, to help them make their initial assessments of children's progress and identify more effectively what they need to do next.
• Staff promote children's physical development well. Young children learn to crawl or walk across gentle slopes and start to gain control of their balance. Older children are confident to jump down from a tree stump and land safely.
• Teaching is good. Staff understand their key children's interests and how they achieve best. They provide meaningful activities to encourage children's learning through exploration and investigation. Children talk eagerly about the insects and creatures they find outdoors. Older children show great excitement at finding a worm and a woodlouse. They tell a visitor that they saw a butterfly and it was blue. However, staff do not always make use of further resources to build on children's spontaneous ideas and interests more securely. For example, staff do not always help children to find out more information about the creatures they find and extend their language and literacy skills more effectively.
• Children develop positive attitudes to others and learn to take turns in their play. Staff help children to feel valued in the nursery. They help them to develop skills for the future, gain confidence and become active learners.
• Children explore the inviting play areas and wide variety of activities with interest, and make independent choices in their play. Younger children show delight when they press buttons and spin wheels to activate lights and music on colourful interactive toys. Older children collect leaves, twigs and bark to make their creations using the mud kitchen.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the arrangements for the older children's lunchtime to fully support their independence skills and reduce the time they wait to be served
• make more use of information about children's developmental starting points to support the initial assessments and planning of activities more securely
• develop further the ways staff monitor children's interactions in the outdoor play areas to fully support and extend their spontaneous interests and learning.