Rainbow Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders are committed to giving children, their families and staff the best possible start. They support staff in planning a curriculum that maximises children's progress. Staff focus on creating a home-from-home atmosphere and thoughtfully plan the curriculum and environment. For example, they create cosy spaces through the use of a tent, to foster a calm learning environment. As a result, children are engaged in meaningful learning. Staff encourage children to incorporate their prior knowledge into imaginative play, such as pretending the floor is lava around a volcano.

Children have endless opportunities to explore and discover during activities. For example, they eagerly investigate shape and space while creating their own road layouts. Staff actively encourage children to generate their own ideas and solve problems at every opportunity. For example, when children design road maps, staff prompt them with questions linking to their real-life experiences of roads from outings. This helps children to extend their creativity by adding features, such as zebra crossings. This approach deepens children's understanding and enhances their problem-solving skills and imaginative thinking.

Children's behaviour is good. Staff help children to understand their emotions through stories, puppets and discussions. When disagreements occur, staff sensitively guide children to resolve issues and consider others' feelings. This helps to foster children's emotional intelligence, problem-solving skills and positive relationships.

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

• Leaders have worked to address the previous recommendations by providing additional training and supporting staff to evaluate and enhance the provision for early writing skills. They have introduced a variety of resources to help children to improve their hand-eye coordination and strengthen their hand muscles to effectively support early writing development.
• All children receive strong support overall. Staff collaborate closely with professionals, parents and carers to set targets promptly, ensuring that children make significant progress in their development. Leaders are dedicated to securing funding and resources for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They use additional funding strategically to provide extra support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as participation in smaller group activities led by their key person. This approach helps children to develop new skills and achieve good progress.
• Leaders demonstrate integrity and hold high expectations for everyone. They have a clear understanding of the pre-school's strengths and areas for improvement. Overall, leaders have established effective processes to support their team in delivering the curriculum and addressing the individual needs of children. However, they have not considered how to support staff to better help children to navigate space during their play. For example, when children take part in indoor physical activity, staff do not consistently support children in developing their spatial awareness. At times, this results in children bumping into one another during their play. This impacts on the engagement and learning of other children and highlights the need for additional guidance and support in this area.
• Parents have high praise for staff and leaders. They highlight the strong key-person relationships and the friendships their children form. Communication is excellent, with parents receiving regular updates. Staff meet frequently with parents to discuss their children's progress and share activities that can support their learning at home.
• Staff gather detailed information about children at the start. They identify any gaps in children's knowledge and provide prompt support, including assessing their language and communication skills. Through observations, they plan activities based on children's interests. This helps children to prepare for the next stages of learning, including school transitions.
• Staff feel well supported by leaders and appreciate being included in the self-evaluation process. They value that leaders consider their input when assessing the effectiveness of the provision, which enables them to contribute to improving outcomes for children.
• Staff provide children with important life skills. Through play, children learn about healthy lifestyles and how to care for their teeth. Staff serve as excellent role models, teaching children respect and how to express their feelings. Children demonstrate outstanding manners, politely asking for help or for a turn.
• Staff engage effectively with children. They join them in their play and introduce new vocabulary. During story time, staff use actions to reinforce key vocabulary from the text. This supports children's language development effectively.
• Staff support children's independence and self-care skills, such as by using visual aids to teach handwashing before mealtimes. This promotes personal hygiene, responsibility and boosts children's confidence in managing daily routines independently.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently offer guidance to help children to navigate space to develop their spatial awareness during their play.