The Willow Tree Private Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children become happy and confident learners under the care of the attentive staff and leaders at this friendly nursery.

Leaders have recognised the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children and their families. To ease this impact, children and parents receive as many settling-in sessions as they need to feel secure and comfortable. Children join in with sharing and turn-taking games with staff to help them to build their social skills.

This helps children to learn how to be patient and build relationships with others. Children behave well. They listen to and follow staff's instructions.

For exampl...e, children eagerly help to tidy away the resources at tidy-up time. Children are motivated to learn because staff provide activities that meet their interests. For instance, children enjoy exploring play dough.

They hear staff use simple words, such as 'roll' and 'pinch', as they manipulate the play dough. Children listen and attempt to copy the words as they play. Older children use words such as 'heavy' and 'sticky' as they play with the play dough.

They build their small-muscle skills as they use tools to roll it out and make shapes. Children develop new skills as they play and explore.

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

Staff read a 'book of the week' with children.

This is linked to topics and themes that staff want children to know more about. Staff display key vocabulary on posters to support them to use a wide range of words when playing with children. This helps to grow children's knowledge and understanding of new words.

Staff use 'target boards', which lists children's next steps in learning. They use these boards to help them to focus their interactions with children as they play alongside and with them. This supports children to make progress towards their next steps in development.

On occasion, group sizes are too large for staff to provide high levels of support to all children taking part in activities. Sometimes, children's learning time is taken up with changing their clothes after messy and water play activities. Staff do not always consider how to organise planned activities effectively to fully maximise children's learning time.

Staff set up quiet areas in the rooms to help children to manage their feelings and behaviour. They encourage children to take part in mindfulness activities to help them to feel calm. Staff talk to children about their feelings during group times.

This helps children to begin to learn how to self-regulate and understand right from wrong.Babies learn to sit at the table during mealtimes and use cutlery to feed themselves. Older children use water dispensers to pour their own drinks.

This helps to promote children's independence skills. Staff take children for regular outings in the community. For example, children go litter picking or take part in sponsored walks to raise money for charity.

This helps children to learn British values, such as respect and kindness.The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) liaises closely with parents, local authority advisers and other health professionals. She carries out visits to children in other settings before they start to attend the nursery.

This helps her to get to know children and their needs. The SENCo mentors other members of staff to grow their knowledge of supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Consequently, children with SEND receive targeted support that meets their needs.

Staff use an electronic app and a parent's board in the entrance way to inform parents and carers about the curriculum and what their children have been learning. Children build good relationships with the staff members who care for them. However, some parents do not know who their child's key person is.

This does not support parents to build relationships with their child's main carer.Staff receive detailed inductions and regular supervision sessions with the nursery managers. However, due to recent staffing shortages, the managers have been working directly with children to meet ratio requirements.

This means that the managers have not been able to consistently monitor and observe staff in their roles. However, the nominated individual is working hard to recruit more staff members. She is committed to ensuring that the managers receive more time to carry out their leadership roles to provide further support and guidance for staff.

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: consider the organisation of group activities, so that all children fully benefit from the experiences available to them and to minimise disruptions to children's learning nensure that information about the key-person system is clearly communicated to parents, to support them to build relationships with their child's main carer support the managers to enhance the monitoring of staff's practice, to identify areas for development and support them to continue to build on their skills and knowledge.