Rainbows End Pre School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

There is an extremely strong community feel to the pre-school, where staff completely include all those involved in children's lives. Staff fully embrace the ethos of ensuring that children are happy and secure and that they are 'developing little minds to think big'. There is a planned purpose for each and every activity, resource and piece of equipment. There is exceptionally clear thought on how these are placed within the environment to ensure that this is effective in supporting learning while enhancing and extending development. Children remain completely engaged in learning throughout the sessions. For example, young children become fully engrossed in baking activities. They take turns to measure out their ingredients. Children learn about weighing out the ingredients and also about foods that are a treat and those that are good for them.

Children have an excellent awareness of others and the impact of their behaviours on others. They understand that sharing with their friends is kind. For example, they make sure that everyone has some play dough to use, and they share without question. Children have exceptional small-muscle skills. For instance, they peel carrots to eat at snack time and cut the apricots when making flapjacks. Children learn how to use knives safely under direct supervision from staff. Staff ask children to recall how to keep themselves and others safe while doing so, challenging their thinking even further. Children learn about their mental health and well-being from a young age. For example, they immerse themselves in 'mindful moments'. They take time with staff to learn breathing techniques, to listen to nature, and to be completely present in the moment.

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

• Planning for the effective delivery of a highly effective and ambitious teaching and learning programme is exceptional. Leaders support the team to use an exceptionally successful system for observing children's development. They use the information they gather about the whole child to devise and plan for what they need to learn next.
• Staff adopt a fully cohesive approach to team working. They seamlessly and effortlessly weave the intentions for what children need to learn into every interaction with them. Staff are highly skilled practitioners who have a genuine passion for providing outstanding care and education.
• The manager has an excellent working knowledge of how to observe and assess staff's practice. The manager and staff complete regular observations of each other's practice. This helps them to make highly effective changes to enable children to gain the most in learning from the wealth of experiences provided.
• Leaders and staff use funding to great effect to enhance individual children's learning. The committee aids this further, such as by fundraising for external organisations to visit the setting to provide even greater experiences for children. This helps children access exceptional levels of learning across an excellent range of experiences.
• Children thrive in the outdoor area and the forest school. They search for insects and tick them off their list of ones to find. Children relish the sensory experience of exploring the muddy puddles and delight in sharing their favourite thing from their session. Children take turns holding the 'talking spoon' to share this information and show great respect as they listen and very patiently wait their turn.
• Staff receive training in sign language and use this throughout their interactions with children, making sure that they demonstrate effectively. Children then use this freely in their play to help communicate their thoughts and feelings. For example, when looking at the emotions board, they make the sign for feeling sad. This supports children to communicate at an early age and to voice their options.
• Staff work in complete partnership with parents, ensuring that they meet children's ever-changing care and learning needs. Parents comment that they can see the impact of teaching on their children's learning and how this supports them to make excellent developmental progress.
• Leaders support staff exceptionally well to ensure they receive the support and time they need to be completely effective in their roles. They report that leaders and the whole team work cooperatively to ensure that they are providing the best possible service. Staff undertake specific training in relation to their professionalism, which further enhances their skills and knowledge.
• There is exceptional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff with responsibility for supporting parents and staff in the care of children with SEND have high levels of training and experience. They work with the team, parents, and other professionals to ensure early identification of gaps in children's learning. This enables them to target early support in order to close the gaps and seek additional training, funding, and referrals swiftly.