Willow Tree Daycare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at this warm and welcoming nursery, where staff greet them individually with genuine care. They take time to gather important information from parents, ensuring each child's needs are understood and met from the very start. Each child is assigned a key person, ensuring consistency in their care and support. As a result, children settle quickly and form strong, trusting relationships with staff and their friends.

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at the nursery and demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning. Staff demonstrate a strong understanding of each child's individual needs and interests. They create enabling environments filled with stimulating, purposeful activities that ignite curiosity and sustain children's interest. For example, children recall actions to a favourite book, pretending to go on a bear hunt in the outdoor forest area. Staff interact with children warmly and respectfully, fostering a calm atmosphere where children feel happy, safe and emotionally secure.

Children's behaviour is positive. They understand and follow the expectations of the nursery. Staff model respectful interactions and use frequent praise to reinforce expectations. Children cooperate well, share resources and help tidy away activities. They show kindness towards their peers and respond positively to gentle reminders. This supportive environment fosters children's confidence, self-control and respect for others.

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

• The provider has reviewed and strengthened the setting's safeguarding and accident policies and procedures. She has trained all staff to ensure these procedures are implemented more consistently. Staff now have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in maintaining children's health and safety.
• Children's independence is consistently promoted. They learn to manage their own care needs, such as toileting and washing their hands, with staff offering gentle guidance when needed. Children are encouraged to make choices about their play, set up the tables for lunchtime and serve their own food. Staff use these opportunities to build children's confidence, problem-solving skills and sense of responsibility, preparing them well for the next stage in their education and eventual move to school.
• Overall, staff skilfully support children's communication and language development. They engage children in meaningful conversations, model clear speech and introduce new vocabulary during play and activities. Daily story times, songs and rhymes help children develop listening and attention skills.
• However, some staff allow children to spend longer than necessary with their dummies in their mouths. This limits their opportunities to practise using the words and phrases they are hearing and learning.
• Staff actively promote children's healthy lifestyles through daily routines and activities. They provide nutritious meals and snacks, encourage regular handwashing and teach the importance of good hygiene. Children enjoy daily outdoor play, developing physical skills and a love of being active. Staff talk about healthy food choices, and children actively help to plant and grow their own vegetables. This helps children to build positive habits that support their long-term health and well-being.
• Partnerships with parents are highly effective. Staff build strong, trusting relationships through regular communication and genuine warmth. Parents receive regular updates on their child's progress, experiences and individual next steps, both in person and online. This collaborative approach ensures parents feel valued and well-informed, enabling them to support and extend their child's learning at home.
• Leaders are passionate and committed to continual improvement. They provide strong support to the team and promote an open-door policy, which helps staff feel valued and listened to. Staff attend regular meetings with leaders and have access to opportunities that enhance their professional development. However, monitoring of teaching is not yet fully embedded across the curriculum, leading to occasional inconsistencies in teaching quality. For instance, staff sometimes ask younger children questions but do not allow sufficient time for them to respond.
• Staff take children's heritage into account when planning activities and make the most of the opportunities provided by their rural setting. For example, they plan experiences around the farming calendar and offer plenty of hands-on learning, such as petting horses and observing crops grow and be harvested by tractors. In addition, staff actively promote children's understanding of diverse cultures and communities, helping them learn about people, families and communities beyond their own.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to implement additional strategies for reducing dummy use, further enhancing children's communication and language development
• strengthen current monitoring and staff observations to place greater emphasis on improving teaching quality, ensuring it is consistently of a high standard.