Cheshire College – South & West are celebrating an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating for their on-Campus nursery, ‘Starting Point’. The nursery was inspected in August this year and are overwhelmed to have maintained their Outstanding rating.
Achieving an Outstanding rating in all five areas of the inspection, Ofsted praised the nursery for providing an environment where “children thrive and are incredibly happy in [a] safe, nurturing provision.”
In the report, Ofsted highlighted how the nursery’s environment produces “exemplary” behaviour from the children where they are “extremely imaginative and confident in leading their own learning. For example, during pirate week, children are excited and highly motivated to build boats with their friends and to count treasure. Staff have exceptionally high expectations of children and skilfully extend vocabulary and mathematical knowledge during play. Children eagerly recall their learning and take pride in their achievements.”
The report continues to state that the nursery provides “an abundance of opportunities to learn from nature in the forest area [and] children have their own kitchen garden, where they grow a variety of vegetables which the cook turns into healthy recipes.
As well as the interactive settings, children fluently express their views at nursery ‘council’ meetings and their ideas are quickly followed up by experienced leaders, who plan exciting themed weeks to enhance children’s interests. As a result, all children are deeply engaged in meaningful experiences which help them make rapid progress from their starting points.
Inspectors added that “Parents are delighted with the progress the children make and feel exceptionally valued. The parent communication systems ensure they are very well informed and provided with valuable resources to support learning at home. Links with [Cheshire College] are strong and children [have full] access the Campus field and stage.”
Starting Point Nursery opened in 2010, providing funded early education for children aged 0-5 years. The nursery includes indoor and outdoor play areas, a baby room and a Forest School area. It employs 20 members of childcare staff; all of whom are fully-qualified in Children’s Care, Learning and Development ranging from Level 2 to Level 6. All members of staff are also Paediatric First Aid trained, prevent trained, bias trained, Food Hygiene and Safeguarding Children trained, as well as having additional training in Special Educational Needs, Speech and Language Development.
Located on the Crewe Campus of the largest provider of post-16 education, Cheshire College, the nursery also provides on-site training for students pursuing qualifications in Early Years and Education.
Julie Jervis, Manager of Starting Point Nursery at Cheshire College, commented: “We are delighted to achieve yet another Outstanding grade from Ofsted. The report gives us as even more reasons to be extremely proud of both our amazing children and staff. I would like to thank my wonderful and dedicated team as well as the parents and careers for their ongoing support and hard work, especially through our most trying times through the pandemic.”
Dhesi, Principal and CEO of Cheshire College, added: “We are thrilled with this result. The staff at Starting Point Nursery work incredibly hard to provide an exceptional environment for the children and the families trusting us to provide key development milestones at such a critical age. I would like to personally thank the staff and stakeholders for the vital role they play in our continued links between the nursery and Cheshire College.”
Families can learn more about Starting Point Nursery, its ethos and values at https://www.ccsw.ac.uk/life-at-cheshire-college/college-facilities/starting-point-nursery/.