Cherry Tree Day Nursery (The)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children demonstrate secure attachments with staff as they confidently move around the setting, choosing how they play.

They eagerly explore the wide range of exciting opportunities, which help them make good progress in their learning. Children demonstrate good imaginative skills. For instance, three- and four-year-old children excitedly create a pretend campfire.

They concentrate and take turns to mix different vegetables together to make a pretend soup. Staff stretch children's understanding of the name of the vegetables and ask how the children will tell the soup is ready. Children say it will be 'hot' and 'smell n...ice'.

They enthusiastically call out 'dinner time' while ringing the dinner bell. Children's social skills are developing very well as they decide together who should serve up the pretend soup and who should get the plates ready.Children have many opportunities to develop their early mathematical skills.

Older babies play with small wooden trains and are encouraged to count the carriages with staff. Toddlers follow a pattern to make a chain of elephants, where staff support children to recognise 'bigger than' and 'smaller than'. Pre-school children correctly identify the numbers on a spinner, and then carefully match this to the number of fruits on a card.

Children are supported by staff who encourage them to share their answers and acknowledge them for trying. This supports children's confidence and self-esteem.

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

Staff plan interesting activities for children to develop their physical skills.

For example, all children access the outdoor space where babies laugh as they splash in puddles, and pre-school children balance on large play equipment. These activities help children to develop confidence and coordination skills. Indoors, older babies show determination as they persevere in pulling on their socks.

Pre-school children carefully use knives to chop vegetables. This leads to new learning, as staff talk to them about how vegetables make their bodies healthy.Staff interact with children to extend their learning and develop conversational points.

For example, when children make pretend tea and hot chocolate, staff encourage them to talk about what they find as they open tea bags and mix it with orange juice, water or milk. Children are confident communicators and engage well in conversations.Staff relationships with children are strong and supportive.

They model how to share and be kind. For example, staff encourage children to think about how they could extend their games to include others. Staff expectations are high, resulting in children behaving extremely well.

They are positive in their learning and highly motivated to join in activities with others.Children are supported to be independent, and staff help them develop key skills, such as going to the toilet by themselves, washing their hands and pouring their own drinks. However, on occasion, staff can be overly helpful.

They do not always allow children time to put on their own coats or fully serve themselves at dinner time.Children enjoy learning how to be careful as they use real china cups and saucers in their play. Staff explain how to wash the dishes carefully.

Children show they remember what to do and tell staff they must be gentle as the china is 'delicate' and 'fragile'. Children confidently state they must make the cups 'sparkle and shine' and then demonstrate this to staff.Parents comment positively about their children's experiences at the setting.

They are happy that their children have opportunities they do not get at home, such as access to the outdoors and messy play. Parents report that their children are more confident since attending the setting and are developing skills, such as independent toileting and making friends.Staff do not organise themselves well enough during story time.

Children's concentration is interrupted, due to staff tidying up the room around them and managing children arriving at the setting. This means children are not able to fully focus throughout the activity and can miss out on opportunities to contribute. However, children are eager to return to the story and engage again quickly.

The management team is reflective and evaluates the effectiveness of the setting. Managers provide a curriculum which considers children's individual needs. Children can access varied and interesting activities, which build on what they already know and can do.

Staff let children take the lead in their learning, and they plan activities that help children achieve their next steps.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have a good understanding of how to protect children from harm.

Staff have a good knowledge of the signs and indicators of abuse and they know how to report any safeguarding concerns. They know what to do if they have concerns about the conduct of a colleague. Leaders and managers undertake the necessary checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

The management team carry out risk assessments to ensure that risks to children are minimised. For example, staff ensure all outdoor play areas are checked and safe before children access them.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to embed children's growing independence skills within routine activities review and improve the nursery routines at story time, so children's learning is not disrupted.