Rainbow Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show that they feel safe and secure in this well-resourced, comfortable and inviting nursery. They develop strong bonds with staff, particularly their key-person. Staff help children to know what is happening next and give them time to prepare for any changes in activities. They praise children for their 'fantastic help' in tidying up. This helps to promote children's positive behaviour. Furthermore, children learn to share, take turns and cooperate. For example, when they would like a turn with popular resources, children fetch a sand timer and talk about when they can join in.

Managers develop their curriculum in response to information they gain from prompt and sound assessment of children's skills and abilities. Staff provide children with a wealth of positive educational opportunities, which children enthusiastically participate in.

Staff help children to actively participate in their local community. For example, staff regularly take small groups of children to visit the nearby day-care and care home. Children greet the older people that they recognise with joy. They communicate with each other as they draw pictures and mould dough into shapes together. The children and older people show interest in each other's work together, cheerfully gifting pictures to one another. These first-hand experiences help children to understand, respect and value the differences between themselves and others.

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

• Managers and staff show a deep understanding of the needs of families and children that they work with, giving expert support to families. They strive to identify what they can do to help and guide parents, offering them sensitive support. Parents really appreciate the difference that the staff team make to their children's lives.
• Staff introduce parents to sign language to help them recognise when their child uses signs to communicate at home. This is helpful for parents and children because several staff skilfully use sign language, alongside lots of talking and introducing lots of new words, to help children to develop their understanding of language.
• Children remain focused on meaningful play throughout their day. They set and achieve their own challenges such as trying to get their paper aeroplanes through a hoop that they ask staff to make 'higher and higher'. Children enjoy learning about nature with staff who introduce them to new information.
• Children develop their fine motor skills in a variety of ways. For example, they choose dough, draw and paint using invitingly presented resources. Outside, in the large field area, they build strength and coordination as they use wheelbarrows and play football together.
• Managers and staff form strong and effective working partnerships with other professionals and organisations, including statutory agencies that safeguard children. This benefits individual children, such as those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Links with dentistry services help staff to understand how to teach all children how to achieve good oral health.
• Children make good progress in their communication and language development due to the successful, individualised strategies that staff use. Managers help staff to understand the positive difference that a keen focus on communication and language makes to children's development in literacy, and their chances of future educational success. Overall, staff support communication and language well. However, occasionally, there is too much background noise when staff deliver teaching aimed at supporting children to develop their speaking and listening skills. This affects how well the youngest children can tune in to speech sounds in order to be able to then recreate them for themselves.
• Staff report high levels of support from managers for their own well-being. They are motivated to provide children with effective care and learning, and work cohesively as a team. This helps to create the positive and productive environment where children's safety, health, well-being and learning are central to everything that managers and staff do.
• Since the last inspection, managers and staff have made several changes, including to staff deployment. Ambitious staff training plans are in place. Several, but not all staff, demonstrate exemplary teaching which shows how well they understand the intended curriculum. Some staff are still developing their understanding and skills in delivering a similar high-quality level of teaching.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to reduce background noise levels to support children with tuning into and hearing speech sounds more clearly
• find ways to offer even more effective support to less experienced staff to help them to raise the quality of their teaching.