Treehouse Children's Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a welcoming environment, greeting children with warmth and genuine interest. Children build strong, caring bonds with staff, helping them to feel valued and creating a smooth, positive start to the day. Staff encourage children's independence and self-care skills. They teach children routines, such as putting their belongings away, changing their shoes and finding their name card to self-register on arrival. Staff guide and support children with practical skills, such as learning how to pour their own drinks at snack time.

Staff have created a quiet area where they teach children calm breathing techniques. The morning welcome song encourages children to share how they are feeling, helping them to identify, understand and process their feelings. Activities such as these help to support children who struggle to regulate their emotions. Children's behaviour is good. Staff consistently model calm behaviour and praise children's positive choices. This creates an environment where children understand the rules and overall expectations.

Leaders have developed structured activity plans that build on children's existing knowledge and skills. Combined with staff's understanding of children's interests, these plans enable staff to deliver consistently high-quality teaching.

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

• Staff teach sign language throughout the day to support communication. This, together with vision boards, gives children the tools to help them express their wishes. For children who need additional support, sign language can bridge language barriers, helping them to communicate with staff and their peers. Staff share these signs with parents, ensuring continuity between the nursery and home. This allows parents to reinforce what children are learning at the nursery. The consistent use of sign language also boosts children's confidence and supports their language development. Staff use recording buttons to capture words in children's home languages, supporting communication for those with English as an additional language. This approach helps children to feel understood and valued.
• The curriculum offers small-group, adult-led activities. Children enjoy taking part and make good progress. Staff take time to explain the activities, so children understand and learn how to follow instructions. Children are keen to join in as they learn mathematical concepts, such as adding and taking away.
• Overall, children display high levels of engagement in activities, such as when they create firework paintings and explore colour mixing. However, some children wait for prolonged periods for their turn, exceeding what could be reasonably expected given their age and current developmental level. This makes it challenging for them to stay focused and fully enjoy the activity.
• Leaders are dedicated to supporting the diverse community they serve. They demonstrate a strong commitment to providing all children with high-quality early years experiences that lay a solid foundation for future learning. Early years pupil premium funding is used to help cover additional staff costs for children with higher levels of need. Through discussions with staff, the funding is also used to purchase resources tailored to individual children's needs.
• Staff plan and organise the outdoor environment effectively. They set up resources for nature hunts with charts to help children identify their findings. Staff use playtime to build children's social skills and promote safety. For instance, they teach children to extend their arm and say 'stop' if they want to prevent others from knocking down their tower. On the trampoline, children learn how to bounce safely by keeping their feet in the centre and holding the handlebars in the middle to avoid slipping. Staff also encourage cooperative play. They support children as they learn to share resources and interact positively with peers.
• Parents express how pleased they are with the nursery. Staff involve families in their children's learning through shared targeted plans. This enables consistent support between home and the nursery. Parents report that their children are happy attending the nursery. They comment that the progress their children are making is due to the staff's supportive efforts.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• adjust the organisation of activities to minimise long wait times for children who struggle to focus for prolonged periods.