Rainbow Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children, parents and carers show that they feel welcome at the nursery. Staff plan 'All About Me' activities that help everyone to settle into the new term and to get to know each other. Toddlers use play dough to make models of faces and staff help them to learn the words for facial features. Forming the dough into eyes and smiles encourages children to use both hands together. This promotes their physical development. Pre-school children enjoy tasting a variety of fruit. They talk about which ones they like, and discover that other children have different preferences. The activity helps children to find out about and respect other people's ideas.

Staff know the importance of children feeling safe and happy in the nursery. They work in close partnership with parents to help children to settle in. Babies receive lots of attention and learn to trust the staff. This gives them the confidence to set off and explore. Pre-school children demonstrate well-developed social skills. At teatime, they wait for their turn to pour the milk. They cheerfully participate in thoughtful conversations that extend and reinforce their knowledge. For example, children help each other to remember why they should not eat the cracker that fell on the floor.

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

• Staff like working at the nursery and feel that their individual well-being is promoted. They say that the way they are managed helps them to feel that they are doing important things well for the children in their care. Staff's positive approach to their work makes them valuable role models for children. It makes the nursery a place where everyone's ideas are welcome.
• The team incorporates new learning into their self-evaluation and improvement activities. Learning about the links between movement and brain development prompted staff to review why and for how long children are required to stay seated. The curriculum now includes even more planned and spontaneous opportunities for children to develop balance and coordination. Pre-school children display obvious joy and energy as they dance to lively music.
• The nursery day is well organised. Children know the routines that they must follow. They wash their hands before eating and learn to sit in a circle to sing action songs. This helps to promote children's independence and self-control. However, on occasion, staff implement routines without considering precisely what they intend the children to learn. This hinders children's swiftest progress towards what they need to learn next.
• Children's early literacy is promoted throughout the nursery. Staff use well-chosen stories to stimulate children's interest in books. Children enjoy the familiar surprise when the hungry caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful butterfly. Staff help children to listen to and identify the sounds that they hear around them. This helps to prepare children to link speech sounds with written letters, when they are ready to read.
• Staff use children's interests and ideas as the starting point for activities. For example, children work with staff to design and build obstacle courses. This stimulates rich conversation about what to put where, and how children will move through, over and along the equipment. However, sometimes, staff ask questions that children do not have the words or knowledge to answer.
• Staff use advice from specialist professionals to implement appropriate, individual learning targets for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. When children speak English as an additional language, staff use key words from children's home language to help them to settle into nursery. Staff make effective use of additional funding to support the needs of the children who receive it. All children make good progress in their learning.
• Staff and parents work cooperatively to promote children's well-being and learning. When children arrive at nursery with an injury sustained at home, parents record the details on a nursery form. This enables everyone to monitor children's welfare. Parents take home carrier bags and return them to nursery with children's 'autumn finds'. The activity helps to extend children's meaningful vocabulary and they gain knowledge about seasonal changes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to link their planning of routines with precise intentions for children's learning
• help staff to judge, even more accurately, when to give children vocabulary and information and when to ask them a question.