Greenway Nursery School & Rainbow Club

A curriculum built around eight achievements gives Greenway a clear school-preparation thread, while its colour house system is designed to keep children with the same key person as they grow. Those are useful anchors for families who value continuity and want to understand what their child is working towards.

Greenway Nursery School & Rainbow Club has capacity for 60 children aged 24 to 60 months, at C/o Greenway Academy, Horsham, RH12 2JS. At its 24 April 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Good overall. The practical offer includes morning and afternoon nursery sessions, with separately booked care earlier and later in the day.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS sets the learning and welfare requirements: in everyday terms, children develop language, physical skills, relationships and early understanding through their experiences and play. Greenway adds its own Curriculum Achievements, eight goals covering subjects such as counting and early writing alongside self-care, emotional independence and making things imaginatively. These are aims for children's development, rather than promises that every child will reach the same point at the same time.

Each goal has three stages, making the intended progression understandable to parents. Early reading and writing begins with coordination, handling books and giving meaning to marks; later aims include forming recognisable letters and retelling a favourite story. Self-care includes communicating toileting needs, washing hands and learning to change clothes for PE. This gives preparation for school a practical side as well as an academic one.

Every week includes either a Foundation Group or a Focus Activity with a mathematics or literacy objective. These are planned learning activities, alongside ongoing opportunities for counting, reading and writing. A coverage chart helps parents connect conversations at home with the nursery's plans, and the curriculum page sets out the achievements in detail.

There is also room for children's interests. Open-ended play environments are adjusted in response to areas where children need more opportunities, rather than relying solely on a fixed sequence of activities. In April 2024, children used dough in construction play and counted the spots shown on a dice at group time. Story sessions and conversations gave them opportunities to practise expressing ideas.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden includes decking, with a sloping connection from the garden door that permits wheelchair access. Indoors, level floors and doors wide enough for wheelchairs support movement through the building. These physical details matter when considering how a child will take part in everyday activities.

In April 2024, outdoor play included riding scooters and bikes, digging in compost and looking for insects in a bug hotel. The experiences combined movement with close observation of living things. They gave children different reasons to explore, rather than making outdoor time solely about energetic play.

The annual Sponsored Toddle supports the Barnados charity. People Who Help Us is a recurring topic that invites parents to explain their work and interests, including members of the emergency services. It connects the nursery day with people children encounter beyond it.

Relationships and Communication

Mixed-age colour houses normally allow children to retain their key person throughout their time at Greenway. Daily conversations provide a regular point of contact, while a meeting room allows longer discussions with the key person, SENCO or manager. The benefit is continuity: parents have someone who can build knowledge of their child over time.

Tapestry is the online communication tool for sharing children's experiences and exchanging photographs or videos from home. It is used for communication rather than generic progress reports or automatically assigned next steps. Separately, the manager and key person discuss each child's development every half-term, with plans adjusted where additional learning opportunities are needed.

Settling is shaped around the individual child. It can begin with a one-hour session or involve several visits and a gradual increase in attendance, with information about likes, dislikes and needs helping the key person plan the early days. The arrangement allows different starting points rather than requiring every family to follow one timetable.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

An Area of Concern flag system draws together staff observations and parents' information. Where an additional need is agreed with the SENCO and family, planning is tailored; an Individual Plan may also be shared with parents and staff and reviewed regularly. Referrals can involve Speech & Language Therapy or other West Sussex services, with discussion before information is passed on.

At the April 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective, children progressing well and targeted support helping children with SEND and those receiving funding. Medicines require signed parental agreement and either a prescription or pharmacy packaging displaying the child's name and dosage details. Where needed, a Health Care Plan is developed with families and outside professionals.

Preparation for school includes contact with receiving schools, visits from Reception teachers and practice with routines such as changing for PE. These are transition arrangements, giving children opportunities to become familiar with what comes next.

Sessions and Attendance

Nursery bookings are divided into an AM session from 9am to noon and a PM session from 12.30pm to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday. An early morning session runs from 7.30am to 9am, lunch attendance from noon to 12.30pm, and a late afternoon session from 3.30pm to 6pm. Families select the blocks they wish to book; the contracted pattern and start date are then agreed by email following the online application.

The nursery contract excludes school holidays, bank and public holidays and calendar-listed INSET days. Rainbow Club separately provides Breakfast Club from 7.30am to 8.50am and After School Club from 3.15pm to 6pm, with transfers to and from Trafalgar included where appropriate. This distinction matters when planning nursery attendance alongside childcare for school-age siblings.

Extra sessions must be booked and paid for at least 24 hours beforehand. Ending the contract requires at least four term-time weeks' written notice, with fees payable during that period; reducing sessions requires four weeks' written notice.

Funding and Paid Extras

Universal Free Entitlement and Extended Free Entitlement (30 hours) can be used in the morning and afternoon core sessions during term time. A completed parental declaration is required before funded attendance begins. Other nursery care is charged separately, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Greenway currently makes no additional activity charges within funded sessions.

Core-session fruit snacks and milk or water are included, while parents supply packed lunches, including for funded attendance; the nursery applies a nut-free policy. Families whose children use nappies must also provide disposable nappies and wipes in a named changing bag, including during funded sessions.

Greenway describes a curriculum partnership with Trafalgar Community Infant School, using feedback to shape school preparation. Nursery attendance does not guarantee a school place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

• Independence in everyday tasks. In April 2024, staff sometimes stepped in before children could manage clothing, serve food or help prepare activities themselves. During an appointment to visit, ask how children now practise these responsibilities.
• Freedom in creative work. The April 2024 improvement priorities included giving children more scope to develop their own ideas during planned activities. Ask to see how adult-led tasks leave room for children's choices and different outcomes.
• Term-time blocks and notice. Nursery attendance follows separately booked sessions and calendar closures, with four term-time weeks' notice to end the contract. These terms need to fit both the family timetable and any likely changes to it.
• Packed lunches and allergies. Parents prepare lunches under the nursery's nut-free policy. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice and discuss their child's requirements before attendance.

Greenway suits families seeking morning or afternoon nursery sessions, with additional early or late care, and those who value a continuing key-person relationship. Its eight curriculum achievements make the intended learning easy to discuss, while the SENCO planning process gives additional needs a clear route for consideration. The balanced judgement is to value that structure while looking closely at how children gain independence and pursue their own creative ideas, the two practical weaknesses identified in April 2024.