Ofsted Inspection of Ratcliffe College Nursery School Early Years Provision

Ofsted Inspection of Ratcliffe College Nursery School Early Years Provision
15 May, 2008

We recently had an unannounced inspection by the government agency, Ofsted, of our early years provision; such 'unannounced' (or unexpected!) visits are a normal part of the inspection procedure in nursery education these days.

Please find enclosed a copy of the inspection report (Linked at end of this page) which the Nursery staff hope you will find both interesting and helpful; the report is also available on the Ofsted website, at www.ofsted.gov.uk. We are pleased that the overall quality rating we received for our nursery provision is 'Good' and that there are aspects of our provision judged 'Outstanding'; it is, in reality, very difficult to achieve an overall quality rating of 'Outstanding', and the inspector was keen to make this apparent to us in her oral feedback. The inspector thoroughly enjoyed her day with us and said how impressed she had been
with the children, the educational experience they were receiving, the dedication of staff,
and the excellent relationships that clearly existed between staff and parents. The inspector felt that, according to the strict criteria of the Ofsted inspection framework she has to follow to make judgements, we needed to improve the use of our outdoor learning environment
and in consequence for this single reason, she was simply unable to award us an overall 'Outstanding' rating. We agreed this was, perhaps, on the harsh side, but understand that rules are rules!

In the coming weeks, we will plan how to develop the use of the outdoor learning environment, ready for implementation in September; the sort of things we will aim to do more of include a children's planting area, an imaginative play area, developing sand and water play, acquiring storage equipment that encourages the children to select their own resources. We aim to have a designated drawing and writing area, and themed weather boxes to enable the children to explore the outdoor environment. The outdoor environment will be incorporated into our weekly planning, ensuring the children will be able to maximize their learning during outdoor play. The Nursery staff had already identified the above
as areas for development and they will be incorporated into the Nursery School Development Plan for 2008-2009.

Thank you for your continued support of the Ratcliffe College Nursery School. I hope you will be pleased to see that the quality of your partnership with us and the support you provide as parents both to your child and to the Nursery staff are explicitly recognised as strengths
in the inspection report.

Kind regards.

Yours sincerely

 

Mrs S Rankine
Head of Nursery School

To read the report in full please Click Here (PDF)