Willow Tree Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and engage confidently with staff, who know them well. They have formed strong attachments with their key person. This helps them to feel safe and secure. Children show kindness towards each other and they behave well. All children receive good levels of support and reassurance from the staff. This has a positive effect on children's confidence, behaviour and emotional well-being.

All children develop a good range of physical skills. They are given plenty of time and space to be active. For example, children balance and climb on the outdoor play equipment and enjoy steering a range of wheeled toys carefully around the garden. This helps children develop their physical coordination skills. Children enjoy listening to stories. Staff read to them individually, in small groups and in larger groups. Children develop a love of books as they recall rhyming sentences from well-known stories. Children with English as an additional language are supported well.

Children's mathematical development is supported well by staff. For instance, they encourage children to count objects as they play and point out different sizes and shapes in the environment. Staff sing number songs and rhymes to children. Children count securely and have a good understanding of shape and size.

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

• During the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, staff remained in contact with parents through regular calls. In addition, they provided activity ideas and recorded stories for the children to listen to. This helped to support children's learning and well-being. When the nursery reopened, staff noted some changes in behaviour and social skills. Staff have focused on helping children in these areas. For example, the use of reward charts and puppets and daily discussions on how children are feeling. This enables children to express themselves in the language of emotions. Children become confident and eager to learn.
• Overall, staff support children's developing language skills effectively. Children hear a wide vocabulary of familiar and new words, and are gaining the confidence to engage in meaningful conversations. Staff identify children who need extra support with this area of learning and plan accordingly. However, sometimes, staff do not grasp opportunities to join in with these children's play. This means some children do not hear as much good quality language as they could. This impacts on how swiftly some children can catch up with their peers.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. For example, they monitor development closely and provide specific activities to support children's development. Staff have developed strong partnerships with other professionals to ensure that children get the required levels of support.
• Children make good progress in their development.
• The manager has high expectations for the children. The curriculum they provide helps children to develop the skills they need for starting school. Staff help to broaden children's knowledge of the world around them and provide active experiences, such as taking the children into the local community. For example, children visit the library regularly to borrow books and visit forest school weekly.
• Staff benefit from regular supervision and support, developing their knowledge and skills. However, the manager recognises she is not yet monitoring staff practice closely enough to offer clear guidance to help develop their teaching skills further. For instance, through monitoring staff practice more closely.
• Relationships with parents are strong. Parents praise the staff team of the care that their children receive. They speak highly of the online application to keep them updated of their children's learning.
• Children are provided with healthy meals and snacks. Mealtimes are social occasions and children's independence is supported well by staff. For example, children pour their own milk or water and scrape their plates when they have finished their lunch.
• The manager is well supported by other senior staff members. Staff all comment how they are confident in approaching the management team and feel that their well-being is valued.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to use children's interests to offer the extra interactions some children need to make the best possible progress with their communication and language development
• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice so that they receive coaching support that helps them to further improve the good quality of children's care and learning.