Ducklings Private Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at the nursery. Staff place a strong focus on supporting children's personal, social, and emotional well-being. They are attentive to children's needs, offering reassurance, comfort and cuddles when needed. Furthermore, Staff provide experiences to help give children a sense of belonging. For example, they collect photographs of the children and their families. They display these photographs at the children's level to prompt discussions. This helps children to feel secure and valued.

Staff support children's communication skills well. They provide activities and experiences to promote children's language development from an early age. For example, staff sing songs to babies while they change their nappies. Babies choose a book and snuggle up to the staff to enjoy a story. They help turn the pages and repeat familiar sounds, such as 'choo choo' and 'ribbit'. Staff plan daily circle time for older children. They skilfully bring stories to life and capture children's interest and curiosity. For instance, children wait in anticipation of what happens next. They recall events in the story and join in with repeated phrases. This helps to promote children's listening and attention skills and builds their confidence in small-group activities.

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

• Parents express they are very happy with the care their children receive at the nursery. They say that staff communication is good, and they are fully aware of their child's achievements and what it is they are learning next. Parents comment that they receive weekly ideas for activities to do at home to stretch children's learning further. Furthermore, they appreciate how the staff involve parents by holding coffee mornings to share information and help them understand the nursery curriculum.
• Overall, staff plan a curriculum to meet children's individual needs and interests. When this is done well, the delivery of the experiences staff provides support for children to learn and progress. For instance, during a circle activity, staff use differentiation and focus on the children's current stage of learning. That said, staff do not consistently consider the different learning intentions for all children. For example, staff sometimes deliver activities without understanding children's individual learning needs.
• Staff understand that children need to practise their small-muscle skills and hand-eye coordination in readiness for future writing. They provide an array of activities to help children develop these skills. For instance, children take part in 'dough disco'. They follow the direction of staff and listen to the beat of music as they use their small-muscle skills to roll and squish the play dough. This helps children to strengthen their finger muscles.
• Overall, children behave well in the nursery. They respond positively to instructions and mostly develop a suitable awareness of the staff's behaviour expectations. Staff consistently use praise and encouragement to support children's good behaviour. However, on rare occasions when children display unwanted behaviour, staff do not always provide an explanation of why this behaviour is unwanted.
• Staff benefit from regular supervision with the manager to support them in their roles. Staff say that they feel valued and respected, and their views are listened to. Leaders invest in staff professional development. For instance, the nursery closes early once a week for staff training and curriculum meetings. This supports staff to refine their teaching skills more precisely.
• Children respond well to familiar routines and learn independence skills from an early age. For instance, at mealtimes, babies learn to drink from cups and to use a spoon to feed themselves. Older children serve their own food and drinks. They also scrape their plates and clear away cutlery when finished with their meal. That said, during some mealtimes, staff do not always continue with their typical high levels of interaction with children. This results in some mealtimes being less of a social occasion where children can extend their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's knowledge of the curriculum intent, so they are clear about what it is that children need to learn, to help them reach their full potential
• make the most of daily routines such as mealtimes, to interact and prompt discussion with children, to extend their learning further
• help staff to consistently explain to children the impact their behaviour could potentially have on themselves or others.