Speckles Day Nursery

Speckles Day Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): 2556610 Address: 102 South End, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 1DQ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 18/08/2020 Registers: EYR Registered person: Speckles Day Nurseries Ltd

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Expected standard

All children make steady progress from their starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or barriers to their learning. Children build their knowledge and skills as they move through the setting and are prepared for their next steps in learning. Children enjoy books and stories as part of their learning and develop a love of books. They grow in confidence as they communicate and play with their friends.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children are confident in the environment. They are eager to explore and enjoy the interactions that they have with staff. They independently lead their own play and access resources freely. Children confidently express their needs and enjoy staff joining in with their play. They demonstrate high levels of concentration and attention. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress in their development as they play alongside other children, taking turns, mark making and making a malleable dough for their friends to play with. Children of all ages are very physically capable. They take on physical challenges outdoors, such as negotiating obstacles and practicing yoga positions with staff. All children do well in the setting and are well prepared for the next stage of learning.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children build respectful and trusting relationships with staff, which helps them to feel safe and secure in the setting. Staff deploy themselves effectively across different areas of the environment, supporting children to remain engaged in activities that capture their interests. Staff working with babies are responsive to children's individual needs. For example, they provide gentle encouragement for babies to confidently access all areas of the room and practise their walking as they develop their physical skills.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children typically behave well. Staff reminded children to use their manners and support them to learn how to take turns. For example, staff encourage children to wait patiently as they take turns and wait for resources. Children in the toddler and pre-school rooms enjoy their time as daily helpers.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Routines are established throughout the nursery and transitions from room to room are smooth and help children to understand what is expected of them as they move through the nursery. Children play collaboratively with other children and include them in their games. For example, a group of children help each other as they build towers in the construction area and to turn on the tap to water the plants.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Effective systems are in place for leaders to monitor children's attendance and liaise with parents regarding absences, helping to ensure attendance remains consistently high.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children benefit from warm, caring relationships with staff, who know them extremely well. Leaders and staff work closely with families, when they join, to ensure that they settle in well and have a positive start to their nursery journey. Children are encouraged to share their emotions, and staff use a range of strategies to support them to express themselves. For example, staff use visual cues and activities to support children to understand their emotions. As a result, children show emotional security and are ready to learn.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders ensure that children's health and wellbeing are typically promoted well by staff. Free access to outdoors and daily fresh air further promotes their overall wellbeing. However, during some routines younger children do not consistently benefit from opportunities to be independent, such as being encouraged to practise their walking skills as they move between activities and serving their own meals. Consequently, opportunities for the younger children to develop long-lasting healthy habits are not yet embedded.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have a clear understanding of the curriculum and quality of teaching. Staff provide a broad and varied curriculum for the children that particularly focuses on their interests. Staff know the children well and provide play opportunities that follow these interests. This supports what children need to learn next. For example, younger children learn about shadows following an interest in a particular book. Older children build dexterity as they mould clay.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Typically, staff have a secure knowledge of the curriculum and interact well with the children. They provide a narrative as children play. However, staff do not consistently adapt their practice during activities to fully promote children's individual next steps in learning. Most children develop well in their physical development. They use pipettes to fill pots with water, use crayons to draw and ride on wheeled toys in the garden. Staff support children's language skills as they narrate and introduce new words to children. Children are developing effective mathematical skills as they practise number recognition and staff introduce mathematical language, such as 'taller', as they build towers.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders promote a warm, inclusive culture, where every child is seen as an individual and made to feel valued. Staff know children well and make effective use of observations, assessments, starting points and the progress check at age 2, to understand what children can do and what they need to learn next. They build trusting, respectful relationships with families and ensure that parents' insights meaningfully contribute to each child's learning needs.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from tailored support that helps to remove barriers to learning and enables them to access the curriculum with confidence. These include visual aids, emotion cards, photographic cues to support routines, and prompts that help children understand expectations and daily transitions. Younger children also benefit from clear gestures and modelling, which strengthen their early communication and understanding of routines.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders work closely with the local authority early years and inclusion teams, seeking timely guidance and making referrals promptly. This ensures early identification leads to purposeful action that supports children's progress. Disadvantaged children receive sensitive, tailored support through partnerships with families and external professionals. Leaders take strategic and thoughtful steps to reduce barriers, so that all children feel welcomed and supported. This enables them to thrive in the setting.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have established clear systems to oversee the quality of the provision. Overall, leaders and staff monitor children's learning, development and wellbeing through observations and assessment. Leaders provide staff with supervision sessions and regular professional discussions to help them assess children's progress. Self-evaluation is informed by monitoring activities, feedback from parents and staff and ongoing reflection, enabling leaders to identify priorities that support continuous improvement.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders generally support staff's professional development through mandatory training, local authority training during inset days, coaching, supervision sessions and regular staff meetings. Professional discussions, peer observations and coaching help staff reflect on their practice while mandatory training, including safeguarding and paediatric first aid, ensures staff maintain the knowledge required for their roles. Leaders are keen for staff to develop their professional knowledge and support staff to gain qualifications.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have established positive partnerships with parents and the wider community. Daily communication, progress meetings and an open-door approach help parents contribute to their children's learning and wellbeing. Leaders also work closely with early years services and external professionals to support children's transitions and coordinate additional support where required.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children are settled and happy at nursery. Leaders highlight to parents the importance of consistent routines for children and encourage regular attendance. On arrival, children are keen to play and explore the activities and resources on offer, quickly engaging in these when they arrive, such as play dough and role play. They learn to play alongside and with other children appropriately.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children form caring and trusting relationships with their key person and other staff. They confidently initiate discussions with staff, sharing their ideas and inviting them to join their play. Children feel safe, settled and secure at nursery, enjoying their time there and having fun. For instance, babies eagerly share books with adults and toddlers excitedly catch

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About this setting

bubbles in the garden. Children demonstrate they know the routines as they move their bodies to different songs staff sing for snack and tidy-up time.

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About this setting

Children's individual backgrounds and learning needs are typically understood and supported securely. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing. Leaders and staff consider the different needs of children well. This includes the learning environment and atmosphere, such as offering a calm and supportive approach. They make reasonable adjustments, when needed, to the curriculum and routines to support and meet children's individual needs securely. Children progress across all areas of learning securely from their starting points. They gain a solid foundation in skills for their future learning, such as developing their independence effectively and building positive language and social skills.

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Next steps

Leaders should support staff to recognise when to adapt activities to precisely target children's individual next steps in learning. Leaders should review and improve how routines are organised so that children's independence is consistently promoted across the whole setting.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, the special educational needs coordinator, parents and assistants during the inspection

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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About this inspection

The inspection started on 31 March 2026. It was paused in line with Ofsted inspections and visits: Deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence policy. Inspectors returned on 7 September 2026 to complete the inspection. Unique reference number (URN): 2556610

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Speckles Day Nurseries Ltd

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:15

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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