Rainbow Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and quickly settle into their play and learning. They form close bonds with the staff who are kind and nurturing. Staff offer children reassurance when needed. They laugh and play together. General routines of the day are a positive experience for children, such as receiving warm interactions from staff during nappy changing. Staff also use these opportunities to support children's independence. Babies follow instructions to lift their legs as staff change their nappies. Older children learn to dress themselves.

Children and babies benefit from frequent opportunities to play in the exciting outdoor areas. Pre-school children work together to make potions, and ask their friends which ingredients they will need. They engage in risky play, such as using a rope swing. Younger children enjoy being physically active as they negotiate ramps and bends in the path when they push themselves along on ride-on toys.

Children behave very well and staff have high expectations of them. Staff use effective strategies to help children to manage their feelings and behaviour. Staff acknowledge children's achievements, such as pointing out good sharing and listening. Children link this to their actions and then tell staff that they have been sharing with their friends. Pre-school children learn to respect diversity, and say how everyone is unique as they explore their visual similarities and differences.

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

• Leaders are reflective and seek the views of staff as part of their self-evaluation to continually improve. They have plans to further extend the support for children's communication and language development.
• Leaders provide staff with effective supervision and have a high regard for their well-being. They ensure that staff access regular training to extend their skills and knowledge. Staff have recently benefitted from training related to children's outdoor play, behaviour management and using signing to communicate with children with language development delay. This has had a positive impact on teaching and the progress children make.
• Leaders have developed a comprehensive curriculum with learning aims for children as they progress through the eight rooms. They place a strong focus on children's language acquisition and create language-rich learning environments that encourage children to learn new words and express themselves. Babies enjoy listening to staff sing to them. Two-year-old children explore the sounds made by a variety of instruments.
• Staff have a thorough knowledge of their key children. This includes their achievements and main learning priorities. However, staff do not use the information gathered from their observations of children's assessments as well as possible to support them in their planning. This means that some teaching is not precisely matched so that children can build on what they already know. At times, staff do not prioritise children's most important learning needs.
• Leaders have created a good key-person system that helps children to develop secure attachments and to support parents. When children change key person, their parents receive a video introduction for children from the new member of staff in which they read a story. This is further supported with effective transitional arrangements so that children can familiarise themselves with the new staff, children, room and routines. This all helps to support children's emotional security in readiness for moving rooms and coping with change.
• Overall, staff organise the learning environment in a way that motivates children to play and learn. During the free-flow session, older children choose which room they will play in and access their own resources. They show high levels of motivation in their self-chosen play. Younger children enjoy dressing up in role-play costumes and being imaginative. However, staff do not organise the baby room well as possible. When some babies are sleeping, other babies have restricted access to resources. This means that their learning is not supported as well as possible at those times.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Staff provide parents with detailed feedback about their children's day and achievements. They offer guidance and support, so that parents can further support their children's learning at home. For example, to use the same strategies to support children to manage their feelings and behaviour and ideas for activities to do together.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff with their use of observations and assessments so that their teaching is planned precisely to build on what children already know and can do
• review and enhance the learning environment for babies, so they always have access to ambitious learning experiences that reflect the curriculum fully.