Rainbow Pre School

Weekly woodland exploration and a setting attached to Westgate House care home give Rainbow Pre School a recognisable character. Its Wallingford premises bring together preschool life, outdoor learning and activities involving the neighbouring care home. The connection is concrete: care-home activities sit alongside gardening, local outings and yoga in the children's experiences.

At its June 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Rainbow Good overall. The setting has 45 places in total, while its preschool offer serves children aged 2 to 5. Capacity is a whole-setting measure, rather than the size of an individual group.

Morning sessions and flexible hours make this a useful option for families organising care around term time. A separate Holiday Club extends the offer into school breaks. The strongest reasons to consider Rainbow are its sustained Forest School groups, individual key-person arrangements and practical links between children's learning and home.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning across communication, movement, relationships, early reading, number work, creativity and understanding the world. These are the everyday foundations of early education, rather than an extra programme: children practise them through play, conversation and shared activities.

Key-group time and snacks precede morning indoor and outdoor play. Singing comes before lunch, followed by sleep or quiet time. Afternoon play, stories and garden activities balance movement with rest for children staying beyond the morning.

In June 2022, books, rhymes and action songs were prominent in children's experiences. Children were beginning to identify their own names and those of friends, connecting print with people they knew. Another activity involved investigating grain with toy vehicles and scooping it by hand. These examples show how early language and physical practice could arise from familiar interests, rather than only from adult-directed tasks.

In June 2022, staff needed to plan learning in a clearer sequence, sustain children's involvement and increase challenge. The timetable's appeal needs to be weighed alongside that planning priority.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds weekly exploration of plants, trees, wildlife and habitats. A small group stays together throughout a term, so children can return to earlier experiences with the same companions. This is a sustained group arrangement, rather than a claim that every child attends every week.

Children discuss practical choices outdoors, including where to walk, what to touch and how to handle an insect. Staff inspect the site before sessions. Afterwards, a session summary goes into Tapestry, the online learning journal, giving parents a way to follow the experience and talk about it at home.

In June 2022, a large outdoor area supported running, climbing and practice balancing on stilts. Children had space for energetic play and movements requiring persistence.

Westgate House is another useful point of difference. Rainbow is attached to the care home, and its activities include contact with that neighbouring setting. Local-community outings, gardening and yoga also feature in the wider offer. Their frequency should not be confused with the explicit weekly arrangement for the participating Forest School group.

Holiday Club has a different purpose and age mix. Cooking, craft work and planting are among its activities, and children can attend even if they do not use Rainbow during term time. It also welcomes former preschool children, allowing the connection with Rainbow to continue after they move on to school.

Relationships and Communication

Before starting, each child receives a key person who supports settling, gets to know the family and plans care, wellbeing and learning with parents. Families have a clear point of contact.

The key person maintains developmental records and shares information regularly. Parents contribute to progress discussions and next steps, extending the partnership beyond settling.

Tapestry preserves updates about activities, food and Forest School in an online journal. Collection conversations with staff add a direct exchange about the child's day, complementing those digital records.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and SEND support good, with early identification, targeted help, adapted routines and access to specialist agencies. Those are dated judgements, rather than assurances about every child's future experience.

Parents, the SENCO and key person create and regularly review a SEND support plan. Links with speech and language therapists, health visitors and specialist early-years inclusion teachers provide routes to additional help.

Designated safeguarding leads are available on site, and the team includes practitioners trained in paediatric first aid. Parents, visitors and staff cannot use mobile phones within the setting. Families are asked to report an absence promptly; if an expected child does not attend, Rainbow calls the family. These are practical procedures parents will encounter in everyday use.

Lunch comes from home as a packed meal, while Rainbow supplies snacks; a separate voluntary contribution covers snacks and consumables. Children staying after lunch have a scheduled sleep or quiet period, giving rest a place in the routine alongside play.

Sessions and Attendance

Rainbow operates at Westgate House Care Home, Millington Road, Wallingford, OX10 8FE. Opening hours are 8.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, during term time, with bank-holiday closures.

Morning sessions start at 8.30am, 8.45am or 9am, with collection at 11.30am or 11.45am. Afternoon collections run from 2pm to 4.30pm. Flexible hours cover funded and privately paid attendance, allowing morning attendance or time extending into the afternoon.

Give as much notice as possible when swapping days or increasing hours: flexible bookings still require staff and daily provision to be organised.

Holiday Club accepts children aged 2 to 9, including those who do not attend the preschool. It runs during school holidays and half terms, with Christmas provision depending on the dates. This is separate from the term-time preschool arrangement and needs its own booking.

Applications can be downloaded and returned to Rainbow. The waiting-list process carries a non-refundable administration charge, paid with the form, and a visit is arranged when a place becomes available. Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email or by telephone.

Funding and Paid Extras

Rainbow accepts 15 and 30 hour early education funding for three- and four-year-olds during term time, and also accepts Early Years Funding for eligible two-year-olds. Privately paid childcare and childcare vouchers are also accepted. Funding participation does not establish an individual family's eligibility or guarantee a particular attendance pattern.

A voluntary contribution is added to termly invoices for every child. It covers snacks and non-food consumables, including sun cream, as well as experiences such as Forest School, yoga, outings and care-home activities. Families who cannot afford the suggested contribution may donate an amount they can manage. The voluntary condition matters: the contribution should not be read as a compulsory extra.

Packed lunches remain the parent's responsibility, including during funded attendance. The snack and consumables contribution also applies across funded and privately paid attendance. Current prices come in Rainbow's written quotation; the funding and sessions information explains the term-time funding arrangement and contribution structure.

Getting There

Allocated Rainbow parking bays and disabled bays can be used for drop-off and collection. Families wait outside, and leaving a pushchair, bicycle or scooter by the door is at their own risk.

• Progression and quieter children. In June 2022, staff needed to strengthen the sequence and challenge of learning, and draw quieter children more fully into group conversation. At a visit, ask how practitioners now plan next steps and include children who rarely volunteer an answer.
• Forest School participation. One small group stays together for a term and attends weekly. Ask how children join that group and how participation fits their chosen attendance days.
• Term-time care and holiday bookings. Preschool sessions follow term time, while Holiday Club is a separate arrangement and Christmas dates vary. Families needing care across school breaks should consider both parts of the offer.
• Waiting-list commitment. The administration charge is non-refundable and must accompany the waiting-list form. Understand that commitment before submitting an application.

Rainbow suits families seeking morning-only preschool attendance or flexible hours extending into the afternoon, with a separately booked holiday option. Forest School's term-long groups, the Westgate House connection and the key-person system give parents specific reasons to consider it.

The June 2022 learning priorities deserve attention alongside that appeal. Outdoor experiences and a varied routine carry most value when staff build on them deliberately and involve quieter children. Rainbow's combination of individual planning, parent communication and sustained outdoor groups makes those sensible questions to explore.