Treetops Prestbury Road

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The manager and staff provide stimulating play spaces indoors and outdoors, which encourage children to explore, experiment and learn.

Staff build caring relationships with children. Staff working with the babies provide support and comfort when babies are tired, rocking them to help them go down for a nap. Toddlers use their imaginations well outdoors.

They pretend to put out fires, create a fire engine and make a hose with the plastic blocks. They notice what is going on around them, commenting on what they see and showing that they understand about keeping safe. For instance, they tell staff that the builders workin...g on the house next to the nursery should be wearing their hard hats, as they are up high.

Indoors, pre-school children create 'stables' for the toy horses. They show care and consideration for each other, passing wooden blocks to others and saying 'please' and 'thank you'. Staff support children extremely well when they have disputes over toys.

They discuss feelings, remind children about being kind to others and help children to share the play spaces. Children readily return items to their friends and accept that they must wait for their turn. They are rewarded with praise from staff for being kind and sharing well.

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

Across all the different children's age groups, staff encourage children's communication and language. Staff working with the babies read simple stories using good intonation to capture children's attention. Toddlers join in with songs and rhymes, remembering repeated refrains well.

Pre-school children talk excitedly about what they are doing, recalling the big bad wolf from the story about the little pigs as they build 'houses' with plastic blocks. All children, including those who are learning English as an additional language, talk well.Activities are planned based on what the staff know children need to learn.

For example, children do leaf paintings, build with blocks outdoors and watch as staff make play telephones with cups and string for them to use in the role-play area. The children enjoy these activities. However, they are sometimes pitched above the children's learning level or are very structured.

Children do not have the chance to make things or the freedom to explore for themselves and, sometimes, activities miss the learning intention.Young children are confident, capable learners. Staff in the baby room place favourite toys on tables, low level shelves and the floor.

Babies excitedly explore the room, crawling and pulling themselves up to stand as they seek out the toys. They show curiosity, develop physical skills and explore their environment.Children engage well with the different activities and are keen to join in.

For instance, when older children are doing leaf painting, they choose paint pots from shelves in the messy-play area. However, staff are sometimes too keen to offer help. For example, they take over putting children's aprons on and tell them what colour they will get when they mix paints together, instead of letting children try for themselves first.

Staff talk with children about what they are doing and ask questions. At times, they tell children answers before letting them think or solve problems independently.Partnerships with parents and other professionals are good.

Key persons share information with parents about children's time at the setting. They use different ways of communicating with parents, including talking with them at drop-off or collection times and using online systems with photographs and descriptions of what children do. Parents comment that the staff are approachable and they feel that staff listen to and help them.

Staff seek help when they notice gaps in children's development and provide support in the setting and ideas to help parents continue children's learning at home. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There have been some staff changes since the last inspection and during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The manager has good systems in place for ensuring the suitably of staff. She makes sure that she has completed the relevant checks and provides induction and ongoing support to develop staff's professional skills and knowledge.

Staff know and understand how to respond to and refer concerns about the welfare of children. They carry out risk assessments, reducing or removing potential hazards to keep children's play spaces safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure that planned activities for children's learning and development are age appropriate, allowing children to participate effectively and to explore and learn in their own ways make sure that interactions with children are clear, supporting them to further their thinking, ideas and problem solving and to keep trying.