A DAY nursery with “enthusiastic” management and “confident” children has been praised in its first report from watchdogs.

Pine Trees Children's Day Nursery, based at the Essex Golf and Country Club in Earls Colne, has been rated good by Ofsted.

Inspector Shelly McDougall said: “Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this nursery. As they arrive, familiar staff greet them.

“Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure in the nursery and confidently share their experiences with staff, who are keen to listen.”

The report praises the manager, saying she “is enthusiastic and has a clear vision to develop a strong staff team”, adding how “she identifies where staff need more support, including training”.

It says staff support children with special educational needs or disabilities well.

The report also details examples of what the children enjoy doing during their time at the nursery.

It says: “During the main part of the day, children benefit from a wide range of fun and interesting activities.

“For example, children use different-sized pom-poms to demonstrate the various sizes, big, medium and small. Younger children climb up the steps and go down the slide on the indoor climbing frame.”

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It continues: “Babies and young children enjoy mark-making in a variety of ways.

“In the garden, they practise using their large muscles as they paint a wall with paintbrushes, reaching as high as they can.

“Inside, children enjoy exploring the texture of the paint as they feel it between their fingers.

“Young children collect bubbles on their hands and delight as they blow them back into the tray.

“Staff use descriptive words to support the children's language development.”

Ofsted said safeguarding is “at the heart" of the nursery, adding the manager “regularly tests staff's knowledge with quizzes to make sure they have an excellent understanding of wider safeguarding concerns”.

It continues: “The staffing team have a good understanding of their responsibilities to safeguard the children in their care.

“They know when and how to report concerns they have about a child in their care or about a colleague.

“Robust recruitment processes are in place to ensure that those working with children are safe to do so.”