URN EY333182 · Inspected 2025-12-09 · Published 2026-05-20 · Inspector: Lucy Short Tara Naylor Paula Sissons
The Rainbow Centre for Conductive EducationLimited Unique reference number (URN): EY333182 Address: The Bradbury Building, Palmerston Drive, Fareham, Hampshire, PO14 1BJ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 03/05/2006 Registers: EYR, CCR Registered person: The Rainbow Centre for Conductive Education Ltd Inspection report: 9 December 2025 Exceptional Strong standard Expected standard Needs attention Urgent improvement Exceptional Safeguarding standards met The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe. How we evaluate safeguarding When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes: Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met. Achievement Exceptional Children, including those that present with very complex needs, make exceptional progress during their time at this setting. Through highly focused and tailored approaches, children learn to communicate their needs clearly and form firm, lasting friendships. They skilfully use a wide range of communication aids, such as sound buttons, objects of reference and communication boards, to converse with their friends and make choices. This includes choosing a musical instrument for their friend, knowing it is their favourite. Children make remarkable leaps in their physical development. They engage in purposefully developed strategies that help to strengthen their bodies to maximise movement and mobility. Children learn to connect with their bodies, such as with the use of mirrors to help them gain correct posture. They build increasing levels of attention and secure confidence with the use of number through focused repetition that enables them to embed new learning. Children are exceptionally prepared for their next stage in learning, including their eventual move to school. As a result, children go on to thrive within their mainstream and specialist school placements. Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Exceptional Leaders establish highly effective partnerships with parents, who appreciate the absolute benefits of regular attendance. They establish an incredibly respectful environment that provides appropriate challenge and ambition for children, including clear behaviour expectations. Routines throughout the setting are fully established and sensitively sequenced to reflect the individual needs of children. This successfully ensures that all children have full access to the curriculum. Staff use an innovative range of strategies to develop children's understanding of routines. For example, staff introduce interactive timelines and sound buttons to indicate the start and end of an activity. This helps children develop a secure understanding of 'now' and 'next' and enables them to transition through the routine with absolute ease and high levels of confidence. Staff know children exceptionally well and engage each individual child in a way that highly motivates them to challenge themselves and persevere at tasks they find difficult. For example, during a large-group activity, expert support enables children who are at an early stage in their language development to form a sentence for the very first time. Staff erupt with cheers, and children beam with pride. Highly established nurturing and secure attachments between staff and children mean that children develop a desire to do well and respond with gusto to meaningful praise they receive. This in turn motivates children to make exceptional progress that is beyond the bounds of expectation. Children's welfare and wellbeing Exceptional The individualised care children receive is remarkable. Staff place a significant focus on children's growing autonomy and independence. Every child, regardless of their age or ability, is encouraged to take an active part in their self-care. This approach is tailored to each child's individual needs. Staff place significant importance in teaching children about dignity and privacy in a sensitive manner, helping them learn the fundamental rules in keeping their bodies safe. Staff design a respectful culture, which prioritises the voice of the child and their developing need for autonomy over their own bodies, including during toileting times. The incredible support children receive to develop their physicality also helps them gain a deep and positive relationship with their bodies and an advanced sense of self. Staff intuitively support children to understand and regulate their emotions. Staff have an inspirational knowledge of the equipment needed for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including making sure walking aids are fitted correctly and providing support for non-mobile children so they have full access to the curriculum. Parents cannot speak highly enough of the care their children receive and the amazing impact the 'magic' of the setting has had on their children's journey. Curriculum and teaching Exceptional Leaders and staff expertly design and deliver an innovative curriculum that is precise and enables each child to make the highest level of progress unique to their individual learning journey. Staff know each child exceptionally well and meticulously plan carefully considered activities and experiences that are highly effective. This provides children with a robust foundation for future learning. Children gain a sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts, which is seamlessly weaved through each activity and adapted to effortlessly meet the learning level of each child. For example, children learn complex concepts such as direction as they follow instructions and move their bodies to the 'left' and 'right' during physical exercises. This demonstrates how incredibly precise and well thought out the curriculum is planned and delivered by highly skilled staff to maximise learning at every opportunity. Staff work exceptionally well with parents, transferring skills that enable continuous progress beyond the setting. This means that all children make rapid progress both in the setting and at home, supported by well-informed parents. Even children who experience regular absence due to serious ongoing health conditions have access to the curriculum and engage in sessions via video link. This creates a highly consistent and inclusive approach that actively removes barriers to children's learning. Inclusion Exceptional The setting's exceptional and inspiring approach to inclusion not only underpins every aspect of the curriculum within the setting but also enriches the wider community beyond measure. Leaders and staff work tirelessly to create a curriculum that maximises every opportunity for children to reach their fullest potential. Meticulous assessment along with precise and highly sequenced learning targets mean that every child, including those with complex physical and learning needs, make incredibly impressive and sustained progress that is often above and beyond expectations of other professionals involved in their care. Leaders are committed to ensuring that staff have the most up-to-date knowledge and expertise to provide children with exceptional quality teaching. Staff are expertly trained to use their inspiring and detailed knowledge of special educational needs and/or disabilities to provide experiences that celebrate and build on what children can already do. Leaders work tirelessly to enable children to access the setting. They expertly guide parents in removing barriers that prevent their children from attending this extraordinary setting. For example, leaders are inspiring advocates who make it their duty to understand the many processes around accessing additional support for those who need it most. Leaders work in absolute partnership with parents to challenge decisions made by other professionals and ensure that these are made in the child's best interest above all else. This means that children flourish and thrive during their time at this setting. Leadership and governance Exceptional Leaders are inspirational and consistently ensure that children's best interests are at the heart of all decision-making. Leaders have made a transformational impact on the setting's priorities. For example, many staff members have completed training to degree level in a specialist area of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This enhances expertise and ensures that practice remains of exemplary quality for every child who attends. The ethos of the setting is completely focused on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children. Leaders and staff are unrelenting in searching for ways to enable access for all children. Nothing is impossible, and leaders have completed a qualification in advanced SEND law to be able to better understand and navigate the education, health and care plan process and ultimately support families to access the support that children need. Parents are fully involved in their child's learning. Staff expertly teach parents how to continue the curriculum at home and provide practical ideas and creative ways to promote their child's learning and development. Because of this, parents feel fully supported and inspired to continue teaching their child using the same high-quality approaches. This accelerates the progress children make to help them achieve at the very highest levels, tailored to their individual needs. Parents, including those who were previously provided with low achievement outcomes for their children prior to starting the setting, watch in wonder as their children take huge strides in their development. The setting is a champion for children with SEND. Leaders work with local councillors to influence change around this area of education at government level. Leaders share their ground-breaking practice with other organisations, including universities, to educate professionals on the importance of high-quality care and education for children with SEND. Leaders' and staff's continuous attention to detail is so refined that there is no interruption to children's learning at any point during the session. Staff are highly reflective in their practice. They are resolute in their commitment to making adaptations to their practice to enhance children's learning. They continuously scrutinise the impact of how new concepts are being taught, seeking the views of other professionals in conjunction with evidence-based research, and their observations. Children's best interests are truly at the heart of all that they do. Compulsory Childcare Register requirements This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register. How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Compulsory Childcare Register When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes: Met Not met What it's like to be a child at this setting Children are warmly welcomed into this extraordinary setting by staff who know them all exceptionally well. Staff tailor their approach and communication to each individual child, taking time to celebrate any new updates and notice and acknowledge changes, such as new glasses or walking aids. This helps children feel special, as they start their day with a Inspectors: Lucy Short securest sense of belonging. Children respond extremely well to staff, and this gives children a sense of belonging. The setting is extremely safe, and parents feel assured. They know their children will be happy and their needs fully met by inspirational staff who are highly qualified and passionate about their roles. Children develop extremely positive attachments to friendly and reassuring staff. Staff highly value children and take the time to listen when children communicate, using sign language to support them and make them feel heard. Children flourish in this highly reflective setting. They reach developmental milestones that were previously thought to be too challenging, such as going on to mainstream school. Staff put themselves in the place of children to consider how best to support them. For example, staff wear a blindfold to help them to understand the experience of children with sight impairment. The impact of this is a valuable insight into how else staff can support children to thrive even more during their time at the setting. Children are highly motivated and respond with real positivity to experiences provided by staff to move their learning forward. Staff are superbly skilful in using simple resources to teach children a wide range of skills. This also enables parents to use everyday items to practise the skills at home. This provides an incredibly consistent learning approach that infiltrates each aspect of a child's life and maximises the progress they make. Children are extremely excited to join in with enriching experiences that support their interests. For example, children thoroughly enjoy pushing a toy shopping trolley to support their physical development as they navigate their way across the room, stepping over different obstacles. Celebrating the achievement of what children can do is central to the 'magic' of the setting. Staff use the conductive approach to empower children and honour every milestone they meet, which is unique to each child. About this inspection The inspection started on 9 December 2025. Inspectors returned on 10 March 2026 to gather additional evidence in line with Ofsted inspections and visits: Deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence policy. The inspectors spoke with parents, leaders, practitioners and the designated safeguarding leads during the inspection. We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage. A quality assurance visit by an additional inspector was carried out at this inspection. Tara Naylor Paula Sissons About this setting Unique reference number (URN): EY333182 Address: The Bradbury Building, Palmerston Drive Fareham Hampshire PO14 1BJ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registration date: 03/05/2006 Registered person: The Rainbow Centre for Conductive Education Ltd Register(s): EYR, CCR Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday : 10:00 - 15:00 Local authority: Hampshire Facts and figures used on inspection This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection. This data is from 9 December 2025 Children numbers Age range of children at the time of inspection 1 to 8 Total number of places 20 Our grades explained Exceptional Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it. Strong standard The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them. Expected standard The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them. Needs attention The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements. Urgent improvement The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. 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