Ducklings Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children love to play in this well-equipped nursery. They are welcomed by the staff at the door with a smile. Children see how staff build positive relationships with their parents, such as when they chat together warmly during arrival and collection times. This helps children to feel at ease with the staff. Children are happy. They show that they feel safe, for instance when they approach staff for comfort and reassurance.

Children benefit from the meaningful learning experiences that leaders and staff provide. This is because leaders and staff think carefully about what they want children to learn. Children's needs and interests are considered by staff when they provide learning activities. Children learn important new knowledge, such as to make and keep friends, develop their muscle strength, and begin to recognise print. This helps them to be ready for the next stage in their education. Children live up to staff's high expectations for how they should behave. They relish the responsibility of teaching others the nursery's golden rules for how to behave. Children develop leadership skills when staff support them to care for younger children. They find that their efforts and achievements are praised by staff.

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

• Leaders' clear curriculum thinking means that they know how to support children to learn new knowledge across the areas of learning. For example, they make sure that children learn important information that builds on what they already know. Children become confident learners, full of curiosity and wanting to learn even more.
• Staff sing and talk with children often. They use songs frequently and in purposeful, expert ways to support children to learn new words. Staff use lots of gentle talk to describe different actions when playing with the children. However, sometimes, staff do not use the correct words for objects that children are using. This does not help children to extend some of their growing vocabulary.
• Staff use number language in everyday activities. They develop children's grasp of mathematics competently and playfully. For example, when staff play hiding games in the garden with children, they count to five as each child runs to hide. Children learn that numbers are important and fun.
• Leaders provide staff with the regular training and coaching that they need to make improvements in their work with children. For instance, leaders have recently led training for staff to learn more about developing their curriculum for books and counting. As a result, leaders have improved staff's skills and knowledge in teaching children these areas of learning.
• Staff deliver leaders' curriculum for books well. For example, they read stories aloud to children frequently and do so with confidence and passion. Staff discuss and point to the words, letters and content of books with children. Leaders make sure that story times are valued activities that help children to learn important book knowledge.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well by staff. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) ensures that she makes effective links with specialist professionals. This helps staff to plan the individual support needed for each child. Children with SEND learn well.
• Staff get to know children's individual needs by giving them lots of positive, individual attention. For instance, they are often available when children and babies need reassurance and seek a cuddle. Many staff are expert at knowing when children need attention and when they should step back to allow children to try tasks for themselves. However, on occasion, some staff take over tasks for children too quickly. At these times, some children do not learn how to persist when some tasks are tricky.
• In the main, leaders make sure that staff follow the daily routines for children well. For example, staff provide children with verbal reminders and guidance when it is time to tidy up, play outside or prepare for lunch. This helps children to know what is coming next in their day. However, lunchtime for babies and toddlers is less well organised than for older children. This leads to some children waiting too long for their meal. Some children become restless at these times.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve knowledge of how children learn language to support their growing vocabulary
• revise the organisation of the lunchtime routines for younger children so they wait less time for meals
• strengthen staff's knowledge of how to develop children's independence so they become resilient to persist at tricky tasks.