Rainbow Pre-School & Extended Services

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this nurturing learning environment. They start their day spending quality time with their key person, sharing experiences from home. They learn to recognise the days of the week and their names. Children and families form strong bonds with practitioners, enabling them to feel extremely safe and secure.

The deeply embedded curriculum excites and motivates children. Staff provide excellent teaching and learning opportunities. For example, children learn to use real-life equipment in the home corner. They enthusiastically count Brussels sprouts and chop up courgettes to make soup. Children use their senses as they explore what happens to fruit-flavoured tea bags as they add water to them in the outside kitchen area. Opportunities to develop physical skills are in abundance. Children enjoy the wide range of climbing equipment and race trikes around the playground.

Children behave exceptionally well. They show respect of one another's needs and consistently use excellent manners and take turns. Children are extremely independent. They dress themselves and quickly learn how to attend to their self-care needs. They develop their fine motor skills as they practise using scissors. This helps children to become confident and extremely well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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

• Practitioners have a deep understanding of what children know and what they need to do next. They build on children's knowledge as they plan experiences to develop all areas of learning. Children's curiosity of collecting autumn sticks and leaves sparks practitioners to share stories about a 'stick man'. They provide activities using sticks and coloured dough. Children concentrate as they count the sticks they have put into the dough, developing their mathematical skills.
• Practitioners meaningfully engage with children to capture their imaginations. They share stories about going to the moon. Props are introduced to support children to role play going to the moon themselves. Children eagerly take turns to climb into a box and delight as they whoosh to the moon. They tell others what the moon is like and where they are going to fly next. This gives children the confidence to express themselves through descriptive talk and helps them to develop their imaginations.
• Following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, children's communication and language is a specific area of focus for the children's learning in the setting. All practitioners have received additional training to strengthen their teaching skills. Children are engaged in consistently high-quality interactions, as practitioners use clear and correct pronunciation of words. Practitioners focus activities to support children's specific needs. They invite children to extend their vocabulary as they talk about the texture of jelly in their hands. As a result, children are making rapid progress in their language and communication.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are extremely well supported. The dedicated special educational needs coordinator coordinates care for children with SEND effectively. She regularly supports other team members, sharing knowledge and ideas of how to effectively support children with SEND. Detailed care plans and cohesive working with other professionals allows children with SEND to receive expert support, helping them to make the best possible progress.
• Practitioners know the children and their families extremely well. Parents speak very highly of the provision. They are kept continually updated about their children's progress and attend parents' evenings. Practitioners work extremely closely with parents to ensure learning at home is captured. Home videos are shared, and parents help children to complete activities from a home-learning challenge book.
• The management team has an excellent oversight of the team, and their well-being is important. Practitioners have highly focused training opportunities, which help keep their teaching at an exceptional level. Managers use supervision and mentoring systems to provide positive feedback and raise any concerns to practitioners. This allows any emerging issues to be addressed quickly. The management team show dedication to continually reviewing and improving the provision. Practitioners are routinely involved in decisions about the setting, which helps them to feel empowered and part of a valuable team.