Little Adventures Nursery (Taunton)
Little Adventures Nursery (Taunton) is a day nursery in Taunton for children aged 0 to 4, with 57 registered places. Ofsted report card, 21 January 2026: Strong standard in 3 areas, Expected standard in 3 areas; safeguarding standards met.
Space Adventures, 32-34 Frobisher Way, Taunton, TA2 6BB
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 0 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 57 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 23 November 2021 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 21 January 2026
Who runs it
Little Adventures Nursery (Taunton) is run by Little Adventures Nurseries 2 Limited (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
- Achievement: Expected standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
- Leadership and governance: Strong standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 21 January 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children are happy and enjoy their time at this inclusive nursery. Settling-in approaches are flexible and adapted to meet the needs of each child as an individual. This helps children feel safe and secure from the outset. Staff make the most of this time to get to know children and their families to build secure relationships with them.
Children benefit from a broad and fun curriculum. Babies delight in interactive singing sessions. Toddlers become increasingly independent and show pride in their achievements as they complete tasks for themselves without needing any help from staff. Pre-school children play collaboratively and respectfully as they willingly share resources. Children develop a range of skills that are built up over time and enable them to be well prepared for their eventual move on to school. Staff and leaders focus primarily on children's learning and development in the prime areas. This enables children to develop effective social skills, promotes children's understanding of healthy lifestyles and prioritises their personal and emotional wellbeing.
Staff are knowledgeable about the children they care for, including any barriers to learning that children may face. Staff use their knowledge to ensure the curriculum is planned and delivered in a way that supports each child to make sound progress across all aspects of their development. Children attend regularly. Leaders help parents and carers understand the positive impact that regular attendance has on their child's progress.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Strong standard
Leaders and staff have created an inspiring culture of inclusion. Children feel valued and are able to access all aspects of the curriculum because of staff's skilful support. This enables all children, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to have the same opportunities as their peers. Leaders and staff are quick to identify gaps in children's learning and take swift and well-thought-out actions to tailor support to the needs of individual children. This approach ensures that leaders and staff have a highly effective impact on children's development.
Staff work highly successfully with parents and other professionals in the children's lives. Staff are extremely effective in working closely with social care professionals and ensure barriers that children face are understood and reduced through careful monitoring of their ongoing welfare. Key people proactively act on advice from medical professionals, such as speech and language therapists and dieticians. This highly productive partnership working ensures staff meet children's sensory needs and enable children to be successful in communicating and expressing themselves.
Leaders make excellent use of additional funding to reduce barriers for children. For example, they purchase specific equipment, such as toilet frames, spinning chairs and specialist bikes, for children to be able to be independent in their play and when moving around and accessing the nursery environments.
Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
Leaders and staff plan and implement an appropriate curriculum that helps all children to make progress. Staff skilfully promote children's communication and language development. For example, staff make effective use of sign language alongside spoken language. They ably use visual aids and props to support children to extend their vocabulary. Consideration is given to the curriculum outdoors. Leaders and staff are actively working to enhance the gardens to broaden children's opportunities for learning when playing outdoors.
Staff plan a range of physical activities and experiences for children, such as music and movement sessions. This helps children to be creative as they move their bodies in different ways to music. Staff carefully arrange fun ways to expand children's mathematical knowledge as they break blocks of ice to find and count hidden penguins.
Typically, staff teaching is effective and they are enthusiastic teachers. Staff personalise learning to meet the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Generally, staff's energy successfully promotes children's enjoyment in learning. On occasion, staff distract children before group learning has finished. This interrupts children's focus and concentration. Parents receive information about how they can extend their children's learning at home. For example, they regularly borrow books and story sacks to read with their children.
Achievement: Expected standard
Children are very sociable. They enjoy back-and-forth conversations with others, such as when sitting together at the lunch table. Children understand that conversations are about taking turns to speak. Babies engage fully in singing songs at nursery. They are motivated to join in and bob up and down to the rhythm of songs. They learn about beat and pace of music and clap along happily.
Children learn how to use their fingers when attempting tricky tasks. For example, they peel fruit at snack time, which helps to develop their coordination skills. Children learn important information about staying healthy. They know that part of a healthy lifestyle is to look after their teeth and to eat healthy foods.
Children learn to persevere at tasks and show keen motivation to learn. Toddlers celebrate as they manage to pull up their zip to their coat independently. Older children develop important skills, such as toileting, dressing and making friends, which prepares them well for their transition to school.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
Children play calmly and show an awareness of the expectations that staff clearly and consistently set out for them. Staff use techniques such as visual cues to prepare children for a change in routine. At times, staff do not plan some daily routines as well as they could. For example, during transition times to prepare to play outdoors, staff do not ensure learning is fully maximised for children. This means that children are not engaged in meaningful learning and are left waiting for direction from staff. Leaders recognise this weakness and are reviewing routines to ensure transition times become more purposeful.
Typically, children display positive behaviour. For instance, babies can wait calmly for their bottles of milk to cool, toddlers walk safely and carefully down stairs to the garden, and pre-school children have a sound awareness of their emotions and how to self-regulate. Relationships between staff and children are nurturing and children get on well with one another. For instance, they make friends easily and willingly share resources.
Staff help children understand the needs of their peers with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For instance, children understand that particular resources are for their peers to use and they treat them with respect if they borrow them. Leaders and staff monitor attendance and take action if children do not arrive at nursery. They communicate with parents and carers about the importance of being punctual and to check the wellbeing of the child.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
Care practices across the nursery are highly responsive and respectful. Staff meet children's individual needs excellently. They have developed a strong key-person system, which enables staff to get to know the children well and respond sensitively and swiftly to their needs. This ensures every child feels safe and secure. There is a high emphasis placed on offering continuity of care, particularly for babies and new starters at the nursery. For example, staff settle babies to sleep in the same way that their parents and carers do.
All children, including those with particular social and emotional needs associated with their special educational needs and/or disabilities, are given opportunities throughout the day and have access to dedicated spaces to take time out of the busyness if they feel overwhelmed or need some quiet or rest. Children are supported by staff in this area highly effectively. As a result, they develop excellent awareness of their own emotions and responses and learn ways to manage them effectively.
Children are encouraged as much as possible to be independent, for example in serving themselves food, using the bathroom and dressing. Staff skilfully teach children valuable skills and knowledge for their future, which helps them develop a strong awareness of healthy lifestyles and healthy habits for the future.
Leadership and governance: Strong standard
Leaders demonstrate an excellent commitment to providing high-quality care and education. They have a deeply accurate understanding of the nursery's strengths and areas for development through highly reflective and robust self-evaluation and monitoring that are ongoing and well embedded in everyday practice. For example, leaders continually monitor staff's practice to understand the effectiveness of the increased professional development and coaching staff have received and the impact it is having on children.
The successful leadership team, which has been developed since the last inspection, has been extremely proactive and has already made a significant number of well-considered changes and improvements in a short period. These ongoing improvements are evident. For example, they have given staff an abundance of training opportunities that have greatly improved teaching. The staff team works very well together. Leaders invest in the promotion of staff wellbeing, and staff feel highly valued and extremely well supported.
Leaders have a deep understanding of the barriers that some children face. They continually work to reduce barriers to children's learning. Highly effective communication with parents and partnership working with other professionals ensures consistency in approaches and an excellent continuity of care for children, especially those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those known or previously known to social care.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders should strengthen staff's interactions during group activities to minimise distractions to support children's ability to develop deep focus and concentration.
- Leaders should review daily routines, such as during transition times, to ensure teaching is of consistently high quality throughout the day.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 21 January 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history
Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)
Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.
The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.
Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.
Source: Ofsted reports
Funded childcare hours in England
All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.
Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.
Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.
The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.
Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)
Other nurseries nearby
- Stepping Stones (SW) Ltd - Pre-school, Somerset TA2 6UP, ages 2 to 4, 37 places, 0.2 milesOfsted, 30 September 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- The Beehive Day Nursery Ltd - Day nursery, Taunton TA1 5AA, ages 1 to 4, 62 places, 0.3 milesOfsted, 6 August 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Brock House Day Nursery - Day nursery, Taunton TA2 6RS, ages 0 to 4, 60 places, 0.5 milesOfsted report card, 3 September 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met
- Taunton School Nursery - Day nursery, Taunton TA2 6AE, 0.6 miles
- Taunton School Sports Club - Pre-school, Taunton TA2 6AD, 0.7 miles
Schools nearby
- Staplegrove Church School - Primary, 0.2 miles
- Taunton School - All-through, 0.7 miles
- Taunton Preparatory School - Independent, 0.7 miles
- Bishops Hull Primary School - Primary, 0.7 miles
- Norton Fitzwarren Church School - Primary, 0.7 miles