Staff at a Branston pre-school are celebrating their hard work paid off after they secured a good rating in their latest Ofsted inspection.
The pre-school, which is based in Branston Village Hall, in Clays Lane, was forced to stop using the Scout hut headquarters in the village in September last year as the charity run pre-school faced a cut in funds.
It had been running sessions at two venues in the village but had to drop to one venue. The move saw the pre-school continue to run the same number of sessions and keep all its staff.
Despite the changes and upheaval, it managed to maintain all of its staff who were over the moon when the pre-school passed its latest inspection with flying colours. Inspectors from education watchdog Ofsted arrived unannounced to carry out the inspection. A good rating is the second highest rating that can be achived.
Pre-school manager Kelly Locke, 40, said her team was excited over the future and the good rating was well deserved.
She said: "We have worked exceptionally hard and have gone from two buildings to one but managed to preserve the pre-school and keep on the required amount of staff, so we are really happy with the outcome.
"We had to close due to a lack of funds and the village hall is not a purpose fit building so it takes brilliant commitment to put the equipment in and out every day."
Mrs Locke, from Branston, said they were all exceptionally happy with the findings of the inspection and they were well on the way to achieving the top Ofsted rating of outstanding.
She said: "We are over the moon with the rating and we are particularly happy that we have improved the effectiveness of quality and the teaching has improved dramatically.
"Inspectors also recognised that parent involvement is great, which is a big thing for us and we are taking steps to get the outstanding rating we want.
"To get outstanding we need to provide children with enough opportunities to be freely creative, explore, investigate and solve any problems they encounter.
"We have been working hard to put that into practice over the summer and I do not think we are far off outstanding at all. It is what we endeavour to achieve and I am confident that my team is capable of it."
Inspectors who visited the pre-school on July 10 rated the facility good in all areas and found the manager to be "dedicated" and the children to be "thriving in the friendly, well-organised and stimulating setting".
The report said: "The manager is dedicated and seeks to provide the best possible care and education for all children attending the setting. She works well with her committed and enthusiastic staff and supportive committee members, who know children extremely well. Staff are caring, patient and offer praise and encouragement throughout the session which helps to raise children's self-esteem.
"They gather detailed information about individual children from the start with staff carrying out home visits to find out about children's individual interests and what they know and can do before they start."
Children were also able to choose from a wide variety of activities indoors and outdoors, with inspectors noting that the outdoor area had greatly improved since the last inspection in June 2015.
The pre-school's partnership with parents was considered extremely good with parents eager to support children's learning at home and share their children's success with the setting. They were actively involved and regularly attended events, such as play-and-stay sessions.
What is Ofsted and what does it do?
Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It reports directly to Parliament and is both independent and impartial. By law it must inspect schools with the aim of providing information to parents, to promote improvement and to hold schools to account.
Schools judged to be requires improvement are inspected every three years. Those judged to be good or outstanding are inspected once in any five year period. The inspection lasts between one and two days and schools will receive only one or two days’ notice prior to the inspection.
Grade descriptors for overall effectiveness
Outstanding (1)
- The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding.
- All other key judgements are likely to be outstanding. In exceptional circumstances, one of the key judgements may be good as long as there is convincing evidence that this area is improving rapidly and securely towards outstanding.
- Safeguarding is effective.
Good (2)
- The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is at least good.
- All other key judgements are likely to be good or outstanding. In exceptional circumstances, one of the key judgement areas may require improvement as long as there is convincing evidence that it is improving rapidly and securely towards good.
- Safeguarding is effective.
Requires improvement (3)
- Where one or more aspects of the setting’s work requires improvement, the setting’s overall effectiveness is likely to require improvement.
- Safeguarding is effective.
- Where there are any breaches of the safeguarding and welfare and/or the learning and development requirements, they do not have a significant impact on children’s safety, well-being or learning and development
Inadequate (4)
The setting’s overall effectiveness is likely to be inadequate if one or more of the following applies.
- any one of the key judgements is inadequate
and/or
- safeguarding is ineffective
- breaches of statutory requirements have a significant impact on the safety and well-being and/or the learning and development of children
- it is a nursery or pre-school that has been judged as requires improvement at two consecutive inspections and is still not judged to be good at its third inspection.
