Ofsted Awards Top Marks to Children 1st @ Leicester

Following its recent Ofsted inspection Children 1st @ Leicester has been judged to be ‘Outstanding in All Areas,’ the highest accolade awarded by Ofsted.

This means that the quality and standards of early years provision at the nursery in all the four areas inspected are ‘Outstanding.’ During her visit the inspector scrutinised all aspects of daily life at the nursery, observing teaching and learning, reviewing all relevant documentation and speaking with children, staff and parents.

The report is a delight to read, containing as it does an abundance of wonderful comments about the excellent provision at the nursery.

Here are just a few highlights from this impressive report:

Outstanding Outcomes for Children

Let’s start with the children because they clearly impressed their important visitor, inviting her to join in with their active rhymes and songs!

Children’s behaviour is described as ‘exemplary.’ The inspector observed them playing happily, taking turns and sharing. She noted that the children have ‘very high self-esteem’ and that they make ‘excellent progress in their learning and development.’ Not surprisingly, the children were found to be ‘exceptionally well prepared for the next stage in their learning.’

Excellent opportunities for physical activity were shown to help the children develop their strength and fitness. Even the babies impressed the inspector by the way they travelled around their dedicated baby suite as they explored their environment. Indeed, the inspector reported that ‘babies flourish as they freely choose and explore independently.’

The inspector even mentioned Mr Harvey, the healthy eating mascot, who the children talk to, telling him about the ingredients in their ‘freshly cooked nutritious meals.’

The report also comments on the contribution made by the children to improvements at the nursery. Through the nursery council and other opportunities to share their ideas and opinions, the inspector noted that children ‘have an exceptionally strong voice within the nursery.’

No wonder the inspector concluded that ‘personal development, behaviour and welfare are outstanding!’

Outstanding Provision

The inspector noted that much of the quality of the provision at the nursery is thanks to the leadership and management team who ‘strive to provide the highest quality childcare.’  This has led to the creation of a ‘highly stimulating learning environment, indoors and outside.’

To ensure quality standards are maintained staff, including apprentices receive excellent support for their professional development and the manager is ‘highly effective in monitoring their performance.’

Our recently married nursery manager Sanjit Sian is over the moon with the outcome of the inspection commenting:

“The whole team here puts 100% into ensuring consistently high standards of care and education for all the children and it’s pleasing to have all our hard work and effort appreciated in this report. We are all delighted that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment was judged to be outstanding.

Thank-you to all the staff, our wonderful children and our highly supportive parents who have all played an important role in helping us to achieve Ofsted’s highest ranking.”

In judging leadership and management to be outstanding the inspector noted the ‘robust’ nature of the monitoring systems established by Sanjit and the well thought out strategies in place to ensure ‘high levels of vigilance’ and ‘highly effective safety systems.’

A Comment from Our Founder

With so much to celebrate in this report, the final word goes to Margaret Mason OBE, founder and chief executive of Children 1st Day Nurseries:

“Thank-you to everyone who has worked so hard, with such dedication to achieve this outstanding report, particularly as the outcome of this inspection is an improvement on the nursery’s previous judgement of ‘good.’ The report   provides external validation of the high quality of the ongoing work at the nursery to ensure that the provision at the is of the best quality for the children and their families.  The ‘exceptionally strong partnerships with parents’ is highlighted in the report and I would like to thank them for being so supportive. I’m sure that they will enjoy reading and sharing this much deserved, excellent report.

For the company this outcome means that 16 Children 1st Day Nurseries currently hold the judgement ‘Outstanding in all Areas,’ a figure significantly above the national average which is an incredible achievement.”

We hope you enjoy looking through some of our most recent photographs from Leicester.