Little Ducklings - Farnham Royal

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show that they are happy, safe and secure at this welcoming setting. The manager and the majority of the staff team are relatively new, but they are already working cohesively and communicating well. The manager is committed to making ongoing improvements that benefit children. For example, she has introduced free-flow access to outdoors, which has had a positive impact on children's behaviour. Children can independently choose where they prefer to play and let off steam when they wish. Children gain confidence in their physical skills as they balance on beams and logs, and some children are becoming very adept at riding two-wheeled bicycles. Children remain engaged in their play, as staff plan activities and learning experiences based on children's interests.

Staff know children well and have a good knowledge of their backgrounds, families and individual experiences. Staff are keen to promote healthy eating and are working on this by providing a variety of fruit at snack time and adding fresh fruit and vegetables to children's role-play areas. Staff recently planned a healthy eating week, during which children made their own pizzas with peppers and sweetcorn. Staff are also keen to promote children's literacy in the nursery and encourage a love of books, stories and rhymes. Informative non-fiction books are placed around the setting to enhance children's play.

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

• Children behave well. Staff and children have worked together to agree the rules of the setting. Staff encourage children to take responsibility for completing tasks for themselves, such as pouring their own milk at snack time and spreading butter onto their crackers. Children receive lots of praise from staff when they manage these tasks.
• Children are benefiting from the newly adopted 'in the moment planning', as staff focus on children's interests more effectively. For example, children's recent interest in minibeasts has prompted staff to plan activities and experiences with this in mind. Children have fun looking for bugs frozen in ice and use their imagination and creativity as they make their own bug hotels. There are good prompts for staff written down at each activity, reminding them of the learning opportunities that are possible. However, staff do not always make the most of these learning opportunities to extend children's learning and deepen their thinking.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language development well. They interact positively with children and actively engage them in conversation as they play. There are times, however, when staff do not give children enough time to think when responding to questions, or they allow the more dominant, talkative children to take over their attention. This occasionally means that quieter children are not always given the same levels of attention during their play to help extend their learning even further.
• Staff provide care that is sensitive to children's needs and wishes. For example, they respectfully ask children if they are ready for a nappy change.
• The new manager is developing a good oversight of the nursery in partnership with the owner and her staff team. She is strengthening relationships with parents and has improved the provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff receive good support from the nursery's special educational needs coordinator, and funding has been used well to support children's needs. For example, the setting has purchased 'switches' that when activated speak aloud a pre-recorded command. These are enabling children to find ways of communicating their needs.
• Staff understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. However, they are not always vigilant to what children are doing and where they like to play. Children gravitate towards where the staff position themselves and this means that some areas of the nursery are not used by the children unless a member of staff is there also. Staff do not always deploy themselves to encourage children's exploration and ignite their interest in what is around them.
• Parents comment positively on the relationships they have with their child's key person. They say that their children are happy and always have a really active day. Staff are working to provide parents with good, consistent information about their child's progress while at the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the delivery of the curriculum further so that staff consistently consider the interactions, activities and resources that they provide to make the most of children's learning opportunities
• support staff to focus their support and attention more equally among all the children, enabling those who are quieter to benefit more consistently from good-quality interactions
• support staff to become more vigilant of children and consider how they deploy themselves in order to support children to engage in meaningful learning experiences and fully benefit from what is on offer.