Nursery having Acres of Fun celebrating oustanding Ofsted rating

Inspectors praise Hermitage nursery in glowing report

CHILDREN and staff at the Acres of Fun Day Nursery in Hermitage are celebrating after being rated ‘outstanding’ by education watchdog Ofsted.

The nursery, based in Priors Court Road, was judged as outstanding in each of the four main areas – effectiveness of the leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, personal development behaviour and welfare and outcomes for children.

It is an improvement from its previous rating of ‘good’.

In a glowing report, inspectors noted how leaders inspire enthusiastic staff, who are keen to expand their knowledge and skills.

It adds that leaders have thoroughly addressed recommendations from the previous inspection to provide a high-quality and dynamic learning environment for children to play.

Inspectors praised the dedicated owner, who “places utmost importance on children feeling happy and secure”.

Furthermore, the report added that “warm and attentive staff concentrate on helping every child forge strong relationships on which to build their future learning”.

It goes on: “Teaching is of a consistently high standard.

“Children are highly motivated and fully absorbed in their play. They are very confident and highly independent and make rapid progress.

“Relationships across the nursery between staff, children and parents and with other agencies are excellent.

“Effective monitoring identifies children at risk of falling behind and planned programmes of support help them catch up quickly.”

Inspectors noted that children are wonderfully curious and fascinated by the world around them.

The report adds: “Staff recognise this, planning outdoor learning meticulously, and this contributes greatly to children’s enjoyment and wellbeing.

“Children lead exceptionally healthy lives at nursery.

“They thoroughly enjoy varied, tasty and nutritious meals prepared by the cook.

“They play energetically and manage their personal care exceedingly competently.

“The exceptionally competent management team motivates and monitors staff extremely well.

“Managers provide training and regular discussions, and all staff very confidently recognise, record and report concerns.

“Vigilant staff keep a close check on children playing outside. They fence high-risk areas, such as the pool and large climbing frame, so that children only use them with supervision.”

The only area for improvement was to ensure all staff make full use of the newly-introduced system for recording children’s progress so that colleagues and parents can see clearly what children need to learn next.