Happy Rainbows Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and are warmly greeted by cheerful staff at this small, friendly setting. Staff build strong, positive relationships with the children and their families. Children who are very new to the setting receive lots of cuddles and gentle reassurance from staff. This helps them to feel safe and secure as they become familiar with a new environment and routine. Staff encourage children to follow daily routines and help each other. For example, they sing a song about 'golden choices' with babies, which provides an early introduction to the expectations for behaviour. Staff give older children roles and responsibilities, such as helper of the day, to help their friends and the staff. This helps to support children's personal development.

The setting has a well-sequenced curriculum to help develop children's knowledge in the areas of learning. For instance, staff support younger children to climb ladders as they play in the garden. This encourages children to take and manage risks safely and develops their physical skills. Older children develop their mathematical skills when they take part in a group counting activity selecting and matching a number of objects to the correct numeral. This helps children to develop the skills they need for later learning, including the move to school.

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

• Staff understand the importance of developing children's communication skills from a very early age. They use signing alongside spoken language to support understanding. For example, when babies are served food at lunchtime, staff say 'thank you', accompanied by the sign to support meaning. This helps children to communicate effectively before they can speak. Staff model spoken language well. They engage in dialogue with children and use lots of songs and stories which children enjoy. All children are supported to become confident and effective communicators.
• Staff ensure that children's personal and care needs are well met. They successfully encourage children to become increasingly independent in some of these. For example, babies learn to feed themselves using a spoon. Older children become increasingly independent in toileting and handwashing. At lunchtime, staff engage in conversations with children about food and use this to promote their understanding of healthy eating and the importance of good oral health. Good hygiene and healthy lifestyles are well promoted.
• Staff plan a wide range of exciting learning activities for children to enjoy. These are based on children's interests and next steps for learning. Staff have clear intentions for children's learning. However, while they are interesting, some small-group activities are not sufficiently well planned to enable children to make as much progress in their learning as they could do.
• Staff have realistic expectations for behaviour, which are based on children's ages and stage of development. Overall, children play happily and are kind to each other. However, staff do not provide children with consistently clear expectations for their behaviour. As a result, there are times when children cannot manage their behaviour independently.
• Staff provide experiences, such as visits from a dentist and firefighters, that teach children about the different jobs people do. They also ensure that children learn about different cultural festivals and celebrations. These are based on children's personal and family experiences. These opportunities further enrich the curriculum and support children's understanding of the world and personal development well.
• The setting has a strong partnership with parents. Staff keep parents well informed about their children's daily routine and updated on their learning and development. Parents say that they are happy with the level of education their children receive and that they are confident that their children are safe and well looked after by the supportive staff.
• The owner/manager and her staff team are passionate about providing high-quality care and education for young children. Since the last inspection, they have made positive changes to the induction process to include a programme of specific and targeted training to support staff to continually improve their practice and, consequently, outcomes for children. There are rigorous systems in place to ensure the ongoing suitability of all staff. Staff are happy and feel well supported by the owner/manager and their colleagues.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan small-group activities so they are more sharply focused to support and extend all children's learning
• provide children with clear and consistent messages about expectations so they can manage their behaviour independently.