Blossom Tree Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and thoroughly enjoy their time at the nursery. Key workers quickly get to know children and relationships between staff and children are strong. Children settle in well, and the settling-in processes are flexible and tailored to meet the individual needs of children.

Staff work closely with parents to find out about each child's life outside of the nursery and to ensure that they offer a continuity of care from home. Staff demonstrate respectful interactions with children, which helps children to feel safe, relaxed and valued. Children are highly motivated and eager to take part in the stimulating activities... on offer.

For example, children enjoy planting their own vegetable seeds in the allotment and learning about where food comes from. The nursery is fully inclusive, and all children make good progress in all areas of their learning and development, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those in receipt of early years pupil premium funding. Children are confident communicators, and they benefit from the high-quality communication and language teaching they receive from staff.

Children learn positive social skills and make friends easily. Staff manage behaviour consistently well. They are good role models, and they offer good support to children to help them stay within the boundaries and follow the nursery expectations and rules.

Children eat freshly cooked nutritious meals. They explore raw ingredients and talk to the chef about how they make meals and the nutritional value of what they are eating.

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

Leaders and staff have devised an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum that supports children's progress and helps children to develop a good range of skills to support their future learning, including for those with SEND.

Staff use effective observations and assessments to find out what children already know and what they need to learn next as well as what interests them. They use this knowledge to plan the exciting curriculum.Staff prioritise children's communication and take every opportunity to develop children's language skills.

For example, staff use basic sign language in their daily interactions with all children to support children's speaking skills, and they engage children in conversations and talk to them about what they are doing as they play.Staff regularly take opportunities as they arise to count with children and introduce mathematical concepts, such as comparing size and quantity and identifying colour and shape.Staff acknowledge children's emotions and feelings and soothe them effectively at times when they struggle to regulate their own emotions.

However, staff are yet to consistently teach children the language of feelings and do not always help children to develop the vocabulary they need to independently express how they are feeling.Staff help children to be ready for school. By the time they leave the nursery, children have a wide range of key independence skills they need for the future.

In addition, leaders have used funding to purchase resources to help prepare children for school, such as branded uniforms for children to practise getting themselves dressed.Overall, staff promote early literacy skills well throughout the nursery. They carefully choose songs, stories and rhymes to incorporate into the curriculum to enhance children's knowledge and skills.

Pre-school children explore poetry with interest, and young children bounce and clap excitably during singing sessions. However, occasionally, during free choice playtimes, the delivery of the literacy curriculum is not as effective as staff's attention can be fleeting during interactions due to interruptions. This does not support children to focus deeply on the activities, and the valuable learning opportunities at these times are lost.

Children enjoy lots of fresh air, and staff plan carefully for these spaces to ensure that those children who prefer to learn outdoors access activities and experiences that support their learning and development across all areas.Staff work in partnership with parents to share tips and ideas of ways in which they can extend their child's learning at home. Parents are invited into the nursery regularly for different events, such as Mother's Day afternoon tea.

Parents are fully complimentary about the care and education their children receive.The manager provides staff with regular support and supervision, and staff are supported to develop professionally. Staff morale is high, and the nursery is a happy environment for all.

The provider recently reviewed systems for headcounts and the arrangements for children moving between the indoors and outdoors, following an incident that they notified us of and took swift action to deal with.Staff complete effective risk assessment, and all staff complete mandatory training, including safeguarding and first aid. Staff and leaders have a good knowledge of child protection matters and know what to do if they have concerns about the welfare of a child in their care.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop further ways to develop children's emotional literacy, with particular regard to teaching children the language of feelings, so they can share how they feel with others to aid them in understanding and managing their own feelings in the future review ways to reduce interruptions in interactions, particularly during free choice times when children choose to engage with stories and singing, to promote children's literacy skills and further enhance their learning experiences.