Little Rainbows Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children confidently enter the nursery and quickly join activities with their friends. They laugh and share funny moments as they play in the water tray together. Children's emotional well-being is well supported. Staff use frequent positive praise to celebrate children's achievements, which boosts their self-esteem. Staff support children to understand the rules and boundaries. For example, staff sensitively remind children to use 'walking feet' inside.

Leaders develop a broad and varied curriculum for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language. Staff use topics and children's interests to provide fun, engaging and purposeful learning experiences.

Children follow meaningful routines that promote their health and hygiene effectively. Staff encourage children to wash and dry their hands before enjoying their nutritious meals. Children develop their independence when practising their self-care skills, such as washing their hands and serving their own food. Staff are calm and sensitive in their approach, gently encouraging children to have a go and persevere when scooping sweetcorn. This helps children demonstrate high levels of confidence.

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

• Staff make good use of props to engage children in story and rhyme times. Children join in with their favourite songs and group games. Staff encourage children to predict what will happen next in the story. For instance, children talk about emotions and how they feel. Children gain a keen interest in literacy as they interact with books. However, at times, staff do not always ensure group times are organised effectively to ensure that all children can participate successfully.
• Children benefit from activities designed to develop their physical skills. They remain engrossed when climbing the frame in the garden. Staff encourage them outside to jump and climb. This helps develop children's movement and coordination skills effectively. Children have daily opportunities to enjoy fresh air and exercise, supporting their physical health.
• The newly established management team places a strong emphasis on fostering children's key life skills, such as independence, confidence and resilience. Activities are thoughtfully planned and help to support children's readiness for school.
• Staff create personalised plans to ensure children with SEND make good progress. Staff seek specialist advice to ensure children receive swift and effective support. This allows children to make good progress in their learning.
• Parents are generally supportive of the nursery and talk positively of their child's learning experience. Some parents report good levels of communication, especially through the use of the parent app. However, leaders and staff do not consistently share information about children whose parents are unable to access the app, in order to fully support children's development.
• Staff consider ways to teach children mathematical concepts. For example, they successfully incorporate mathematics into daily routines. This includes encouraging children to think about how many scoops it will take to fill up the container in the water tray and how many blocks they need to make a bigger tower. Children show their knowledge of these concepts as they talk about how big they will make their tower. This enables children to begin to use mathematical language.
• Leaders reflect on the provision on offer and what they can do to make further improvements. They have good oversight and manage the staff team effectively. Leaders recognise how they can support staff in their roles and are conscious of staff workload. They continue to develop their own knowledge and skills to share the roles and responsibilities with the staff team. Staff recognise the support they receive and speak positively about this.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Staff regularly remind children to share, take turns and consider others' feelings. They show consistently positive behaviour. Visual routines support children who benefit from additional structure. This contributes to a calm and respectful environment.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure all group times are managed to ensure all children have the opportunity to participate in quality learning experiences
• build on effective strategies to increase parent partnership and involvement, including ensuring they are informed of their child's progress regularly.