Children ‘making good progress’
Early Years at Lightcliffe which has been rated good by Ofsted inspectors
A PRE-SCHOOL has improved its Ofsted rating from satisfactory to good.
Early Years at Lightcliffe which is situated at Christ Church in Leeds Road supports children’s individual needs according to inspectors during their visit in December.
Inspector Ros Vahey said: “Children’s individual needs are well supported and valued by the staff so they are settled and secure. Staff plan a good range of activities, enabling children to take an active part in most of the learning opportunities provided so children make good progress.
“Staff are responsible in their approach to the children’s health, safety, and welfare needs. Effective partnerships with parents and other services meet children’s needs well.
“The staff take effective steps to evaluate their practice, which includes identifying strengths and areas which require further improvement.”
The pre-school opens Tuesday to Thursday during term-time only and caters for no more than 24 children at any one time.
The report says that the senior management team is very aware of its strengths and weaknesses and that the staff are committed to improving their provision for the children and set themselves challenging targets.
They have effective relationships with parents and carers and offers good support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Staff’s knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage is extensive and they use this well to support children in their learning.
The report also says that children are learning about their own and other cultures and beliefs and enjoy celebrating their birthdays and festivals such as a Mexican Christmas and Hannukah.
To further improve the early years provision which is at the Lightcliffe site of Christ Church, staff must improve the educational programmes to provide opportunities for children to develop their use of simple technology equipment and increase further the opportunities for children to play outside, so that it has a positive impact on children’s sense of well-being, and helps all aspects of children’s development.
Pre-school leader Helen Grayshon said: “We put a lot of hard work into it so that is good that it has paid off. The inspectors commented on the training and how we all knew the curriculum well so that was really positive because we had put a lot of work into that.”
Sam Pearson, who is also a pre-school leader, said: “We have improved our rating from satisfactory to good. The aim has to be to achieve ‘outstanding’ next time.”
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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