Puddleducks Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are well settled in the home-from-home nursery. They arrive happily and quickly engage in play and learning. Staff provide an inclusive, nurturing environment for children. They get to know children's whole family to help them understand their individual needs. This helps staff to support children's emotional well-being. Staff recognise the importance of helping children to learn about sharing and turn taking. They plan activities that help children to learn these fundamental skills. Staff model good manners and remind children about friendly behaviours. This encourages children to develop their social skills and learn about what is expected of them. Staff support children to be physically active. Children benefit from fresh air and exercise through daily outdoor play in the revamped garden.

An effective key-person system supports children to settle swiftly and make good progress in the nursery. Staff have a sound understanding of children and their abilities. They confidently discuss children's next steps in learning and are consistently observed supporting children during their play. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have particularly close relationships with their key staff. They display affection and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure in their nurturing care.

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

• Since the last inspection, leaders and staff have worked hard to raise the quality of the nursery to a good standard. They have successfully rectified weaknesses to ensure that there are no breaches to requirements. Improvements to the curriculum, professional development of staff and overall safeguarding practice ensure that children's individual needs are well met.
• Leaders and staff have sought support from the local authority and worked hard to improve the quality of education. Leaders regularly observe staff practice and give feedback on ways this can be strengthened. This has had a positive impact on the quality of interactions between staff and children.
• Changes to the learning environment, resources and curriculum on offer have improved the quality of education since the last inspection. Children show increasing independence as they follow their own interests during play. Staff regularly assess children's development so that they can plan the next steps in their learning. However, on occasion staff do not offer children further challenge to extend their learning in that moment. As a result, their learning experiences are not always fully optimised.
• Staff read to children throughout the day. They encourage them to make comments on the books and point to characters they are familiar with. Children use the nursery book bags to take books home to share with their parents as well as making regular trips to the local library. This promotes children's literacy development and helps them to develop a love and interest in books.
• Children develop a good understanding of early mathematics. Staff introduce mathematical language into daily activities. This helps children to develop an understanding of numbers and measures in everyday life. For example, children compare the sizes of pumpkins they have in the nursery. They discuss their similarities and differences and use the weighing scales to see how heavy or light they are.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are identified swiftly. Leaders ensure that referrals are made to appropriate agencies to support children. They use their advice to create targeted support plans for children. This helps to ensure all children are making progress.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents say they are happy with the communication they receive from the nursery and that their children have made significant progress since starting. They praise the homely feel of the nursery and how friendly the staff are. Staff share information with parents about their children's learning and development using an online application.
• Morale is high among staff, who report that they feel valued and supported at this small and nurturing setting. The provider conducts regular appraisals and supervision with staff to identify areas for development. Staff have access to a variety of online and face-to-face training.
• There is good support for children's language and communication skills. However, at times, staff do not do enough to introduce children to new vocabulary to fully enhance their early communication and language skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider how to provide children with further challenge in their learning when planning and carrying out activities
• consider ways to introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary.