Delight as education inspectors praise work of Kirkby nursery

The Rocking Horse Childcare Centre, Kingsway, has been rated good in each category of education quality, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and managerment, for an overall rating of good , following a visit from education watchdog Ofsted.

In their newly published report, inspectors said: “Children happily arrive at the nursery and are greeted by the friendly and welcoming staff.”

They also praised the nursery’s efforts with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, saying: “Staff are proactive in accessing early help and swiftly address any gaps in children's learning.

“The manager has recognised that, following the Covid pandemic, specialist services are extremely busy, meaning referrals for these services are taking longer than expected. Staff in the setting have attended additional

training so they can implement strategies to support children's speech and language. There is a designated language lead in the nursery, who is deployed effectively. This has had a positive impact on the children’s communication and language.

The report recognised how “staff promote a love of reading” and “know the children well”, so plan activities based on children’s interests.

It said: “Staff understand the importance of building on what children already know and can do.”

The private day nursery has 66 children aged up to four on roll.

Lisa Lounds, nursery manager, welcomed the inspection report.

She said: “We’re really pleased with it, we feel it reads well and represents the ethos of the setting positively.

“We feel the baby room stood out as a strength, along with the SEN children thriving.

“It's also positive that we have got recognition for all our hard work with speech, language and communication, including establishing a small lending library.”

To further improve, the nursery was encouraged to expand on their encouragement for the children, so the youngsters fully understand what they are being praised for, while Ofsted also said: “Occasionally, staff do not adapt their teaching practice to model and demonstrate. This means that, sometimes, when children are presented with new activities, they are unsure of what they should do, and they lose interest.”

Mrs Lounds said: “Going forward, we are planning on using more enhancement around positive encouragement, and adapting our teaching methods.”

To read the report in full, see reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/16/EY283280