A NURSERY has celebrated being rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted less than 18 months after it was rated ‘inadequate’.

Dean Park Day Nursery received the rating following an inspection in April, with inspectors finding a ‘nurturing environment’ at the nursery.

As reported, the nursery was praised in October after it improved from an ‘inadequate’ rating in February to a ‘requires improvement’ rating.

The inspectorate had previously found that children’s safety was at risk due to ‘staff’s limited knowledge of safeguarding’, but the most recent inspection found safeguarding arrangements are ‘effective’.

The report found that children had ‘warm and trusting’ relationships with staff.

Bournemouth Echo:

It said: “Older children shriek in delight while playing running games with staff, and they use tools to develop their small hand muscles, such as snipping dough with scissors.”

Inspectors found that staff ‘respond quickly’ to ‘spontaneous interests’, including organising painting and soup making, encouraging ‘children’s interest in learning’.

Staff are also ‘good role models’ and ‘partnerships with parents are excellent’, with parents speaking highly of the provision.

The report did highlight areas for improvement, including embedding staff practice further to help each child reach their learning potential.

It also said the nursery should ‘help younger children to learn the correct pronunciation of words to support their language development even further’.

Bournemouth Echo:

Rachel Zito, nursery manager at Dean Park, said: “We would like to thank the entire Dean Park community for helping to make the nursery an amazing place for children to start their educational journey.

“We are particularly proud that the report states our staff interact with enthusiasm in children's play and that they help them to succeed with their learning goals in activities they are interested in.

“Every day I see wonderful things taking place in the nursery between children and our practitioners, but it was especially heart-warming to read that the inspectors witnessed children ‘shriek in delight’ when playing with staff.

“This is a daily occurrence and one that brings pure joy.”

John Forsyth, chairman, added: “Over the past 9 months, we have worked incredibly hard to build a team of dedicated and caring professionals who demonstrate exceptional ability in their childcare practices.

“We are pleased to see that Ofsted found our staff to be good role models who help children to develop positive behaviour and attitudes, and good social skills.”