Puddleducks

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted by welcoming and friendly staff. This helps children to settle quickly when they arrive. Children form secure relationships with their key persons and the other staff working in the nursery. These close attachments help children to feel safe and secure. Children receive encouragement and praise from staff for their achievements. This helps children to develop good levels of self-esteem and confidence in their abilities. As a result, children are happy to engage visitors in their conversations, explaining what they can do and what they enjoy learning. Children develop friendships within the nursery. They play together well and enjoy helping each other. Even the youngest children instinctively help their friends. For example, children share glue and sequins when making coronation crowns. They are polite and respond with 'thank you' and smiles for their friends.

Generally, children behave well. They select the resources that they wish to use and become independent in meeting their own needs. The staff know the children well and plan the environment to support their development. This contributes to children making good progress in their learning. For instance, children develop strength in their hands in preparation for early writing as they mould play dough that staff offer them. They roll and squeeze it into different shapes.

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

• The manager and staff devise a curriculum to support children to develop many skills across the seven areas of learning. Staff have a good understanding of the curriculum and how children learn. They sequence learning to give children knowledge and understanding of many subjects and topics. Children benefit from a broad range of activities that support them to make good progress for the future.
• The manager works closely with the staff. She meets with them to support them in their roles and discusses areas of development. However, staff do not have as many opportunities for specific professional development. For instance, they are not supported to build on their skills when working with children who speak English as an additional language. This would enable them to provide even more support for children's learning needs.
• Generally, managers and staff support children to develop their communication and language skills well. They speak clearly to children and sometimes use gestures, facial expressions and sign language to support children's understanding. Staff introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary. For example, when spotting a 'daddy long legs', staff talk about how it is 'camouflaged' against the wall so it is difficult to see. However, adult-led activities are not always planned so that all children can achieve the same levels of focus and engagement. At times, children become distracted and lose interest, and they miss out on planned learning opportunities.
• Children develop their physical skills well, and staff encourage them to take on challenges as they learn new skills. The youngest children learn how to climb the equipment in the garden as they watch and copy the older children. Staff excitedly praise children for challenging themselves as they successfully climb independently.
• The support in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is good. The special educational needs and disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) liaises with staff and parents to seek the appropriate help to ensure that children with SEND get the support they require. They monitor children's progress and make referrals to other professionals as needed. As a result, children with SEND make good progress in their learning.
• Staff provide lots of opportunities in the day to support children to understand and use mathematical language. For example, they ask children to count how many children are at the snack table. Staff help children to make comparisons, such as 'more' and 'less', when they share play dough. They use language such as 'bigger' and 'smaller' when describing the different sizes of bubbles.
• Parents comment positively about their children's experiences at the setting. Parents report that their children are developing confidence and making friends. They appreciate the information staff share about their children's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• identify professional development opportunities for staff to further improve the quality of education for all children, including those who speak English as an additional language
• strengthen the planning of adult-led activities to ensure all children are able to access the same learning opportunities.