Rainbow Childrens Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted each day by friendly and caring staff, who welcome them into the nursery. Children are happy and settled and have lovely relationships with the staff. Babies contentedly fall asleep in staff's arms as they snuggle in to have their bottles. Staff respond positively when children need reassurance and are actively engaged in children's play. Children play harmoniously together. For example, when playing with a wheeled, ride-on car, children giggle with delight as they cooperate to push each other around the garden. Overall, they develop a positive attitude to learning and confidently lead their own play.

Staff support all children to develop the key skills they need to be ready for school. They encourage children to use cutlery at mealtimes, relevant to their age and stage of development. Children benefit from a varied and nutritious meal each day. The food provided for children is home-made, including home-made bread, and staff cater for children's special dietary needs. Children learn to manage their own hygiene needs, including wiping their noses and disposing of the tissue in the bin. They develop their physical skills in the garden and in the soft-play space indoors. Children become confident communicators and enjoy staff's interactions with them.

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

• Staff are enthusiastic and work well together as part of a friendly and motivated team. The manager implements an effective programme of supervision and appraisal for all staff to manage their performance and foster a culture of mutual support. They encourage and actively support staff's professional development.
• The nursery's management team is effective in driving improvement. Leaders are fully aware of the weaknesses in the nursery. They have a challenging but achievable action plan in place to enable continuous improvement to the quality of teaching.
• Staff are led by what children want to do. They design a curriculum based around children's needs. However, they do not always think well enough about how activities can be extended so that all children are provided with sufficient challenge. Sometimes, staff do not notice when children are not fully engaged in activities.
• Staff do not consistently consider a wide range of activities when planning for the outdoor environment. They do not make the best use of the outdoor play areas to help promote children's early mathematical and reading skills. In addition, they do not make best use of the available resources indoors to encourage children to explore and develop an interest in books and reading.
• Staff know children well. They talk confidently about where children are in their learning and development and what they need to do to support children's continuing progress. Staff are confident to carry through their findings into planning. Children benefit from interesting resources that promote their natural instincts to discover and explore.
• Staff support children's speech and language development effectively. Children engage in conversations with staff, who actively listen to what they have to say. Staff promote children's thinking skills carefully, asking questions and giving them time to consider and express their own responses. They respond positively to the gestures and babbles of babies.
• Children behave well and develop good friendships with each other. They respond positively to the high expectations from staff. Children initiate interactions with each other and understand the consistent ground rules. Staff are calm and gentle as they remind children of the rules, such as using 'walking feet' indoors.
• Staff are exceptionally caring towards the children. Each child has a named person to take responsibility for ensuring that their care and learning needs are met. Key persons build friendly and trusting relationships with parents and children. Children's transitions between rooms are managed well, supporting children effectively to settle quickly.
• Parents spoken to at the inspection state that they are very happy with the service provided. They describe staff as 'caring and friendly'. Parents report that they are kept well informed about what their children are doing in the nursery and are encouraged to remain involved in their children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's teaching skills to ensure that children receive consistently good-quality learning and development experiences
• focus more closely on supporting the early literacy and mathematical skills of children who prefer to learn in the outdoor environment
• provide more opportunities for children to develop their interest in books and practise their early reading skills.