Puddleducks Childcare

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create a caring and supportive atmosphere where every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, is encouraged to build confidence and a positive sense of self. To help reduce gaps in children's learning, staff work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure the right support is in place so all children can make progress.

Staff understand the importance of noticing and responding to barriers that affect children's learning or wellbeing. They plan carefully, using ongoing assessments, and adjust how they work with these children so that their individual learning needs are met. They act on advice from external professionals and apply these recommendations in practice to help children work towards their goals.

Leaders use additional funding thoughtfully to meet children's needs and interests, which boost their engagement and development. Staff take part in ongoing training to further their knowledge of how children learn. For example, leaders have recently completed training on supporting children's communication and language skills, and plan to cascade this training to the wider staff team.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have developed an evolving curriculum that is regularly reviewed and enhanced. Overall, it is well sequenced and progressive, ensuring that children's development is supported over time, although there are some limitations in supporting all aspects of children's physical skills. Staff gather useful information from parents, when children first start that helps them understand children's prior learning and experiences. They observe and assess children's progress regularly. However, staff's next step plans are not always precise, so they do not consistently focus clearly on what children need to learn to make the best progress. In addition, the curriculum for physical development, particularly in relation to children's large-muscle movements, does not clearly identify the specific learning focus needed to fully challenge children.

Staff model rich vocabulary to children through reading familiar stories together and encouraging children to express their ideas during activities. The curriculum is designed to help build children's, including those with speech and language concerns, confidence by offering lots of different experiences that encourage them to communicate and use language. For example, when children and staff count scoops of compost as they fill and empty containers, the children join in and repeat the numbers. This support children's understanding of mathematical concepts in a practical and fun way.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children are making steady progress across their learning. However, older children do not always make consistent progress in some aspects of their learning, such as physical development, as this is not sufficiently prioritised by leaders. Most of the children engage in meaningful conversations with staff. This helps them to learn new vocabulary, such as the names of the dinosaurs. Those with less language make their needs known, such as through touch and sounds. Children also enjoy a range of familiar stories, rhymes and songs throughout the day and engage with enthusiasm to follow the actions and sing the words that they know. Babies hear new vocabulary as they share a book and explore textures.

Children demonstrate strong perseverance and problem-solving skills as they explore how to operate the trigger mechanism on the water bottle. They remain focused, experimenting with different hand positions and levels of pressure until they successfully produce a spray of water. Their sustained effort shows growing confidence and developing fine motor control. Babies succeed well to gain the skills to progress their movements, such as to crawl and pull themselves up. They seek support from their key person to stand, hold hands and take steps.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Staff understand the needs of each child and demonstrate genuine warmth and care in their interactions. Leaders ensure an effective key-person approach, which supports the positive and secure relationships, forms between children and staff. Staff engage in play alongside the children, demonstrating techniques that encourage them to explore and build the confidence to try things independently. They organise the environment thoughtfully so that babies and children are motivated to explore various materials and experiment with their ideas, such as building a ramp to roll the cars down.

Close communication with parents helps staff provide consistent support for children, including encouraging regular attendance. Staff calmly give clear, simple explanations to help children learn the boundaries that keep them safe and to guide them in how to interact well with others. For example, children learn to share and take turns with resources, such as the light sticks in the pop-up play tent while babies happily engage in a turn-taking game of peekaboo. Daily routines are generally managed effectively, helping children cooperate, grow in independence and build a sense of responsibility.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff build strong bonds with children and follow their needs and interests, helping them feel happy and secure in the nursery. They attentively support children to recognise and manage their emotions, promoting positive emotional wellbeing. Key persons work closely with parents to follow each child's home routines and arrangements. They ensure that they consistently meet children's feeding and sleep routines. Staff act as good role models for promoting children's health and wellbeing. For example, they help children to serve themselves and they enjoy balanced meals. Staff motivate them to eat their vegetables by saying, 'They're going to make your muscles big and strong.' They also support children to learn about oral health and how to manage their own personal hygiene. This helps children develop positive attitudes towards their health and strengthens their self-help skills.

Overall, staff make the most of the outdoor space available to them. Children have lots of fun and benefit from the fresh air, however, children's large-muscle development is not always explored successfully. Staff remain attentive to children's physical wellbeing, ensuring they are comfortable and warm outdoors. They quickly notice when children need reassurance or are tired and offer support promptly.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Staff feel well supported and are motivated to pursue ongoing professional development. Regular supervision and access to training opportunities equip them to fulfil their roles and responsibilities effectively. Leaders have a secure understanding of special educational needs and/or disabilities and know how to access timely and appropriate support. They work well with external agencies to support children's identified needs.

Leaders demonstrate a secure grasp of what the setting does well and have identified the next priorities for improvement. Their current approach to physical development does not yet consistently offer children the depth or challenge they need. By refining curriculum intent in this area and improving the planning of children's next steps, leaders will better support children to make the best possible progress.

Parents speak highly of the nursery and comment on how friendly and approachable leaders and staff are. They say their children are happy attending and that they are pleased with the progress their children make. Parents value the regular information they receive about their child's care and learning, and how they can continue to support children's learning at home.