Playgroup staff over the moon as Ofsted rating improves

Crest Preschool Playgroup, in Old Town, Hastings, was visited by inspector Alison Weaver, in April and her findings were published on May 13.

Ms Weaver praised the work carried out to make improvements since the last inspection and added: “The leadership team places a strong emphasis on continuing to improve the professional development of all staff. Children benefit from the increasing knowledge and skills of staff.”

The children were described as “confident and independent learners” who made good progress and were well prepared for their step up to primary school.

Ms Weaver made particular note of the staff’s skills at recognising when children needed a little help to reach the standards expected of them.

She said: “Staff recently identified that boys were not achieving as well as girls. They introduced a greater variety of resources that now engage and extend boys in areas in which they previously showed no interest.”

Playgroup chairman, Karly Stoker, said: “We are extremely happy with our Ofsted report after all the staff have worked very hard to make all the recommended changes following our previous report and more.

“We have spent a lot of time on training, money on resources to change the nursery into a creative, fun and effective learning environment for our children. We are very pleased with the report as a whole and the feedback received by our inspector.”

Ms Weaver made a couple of recommendations for further improvement – and Karly said action had already been taken to address them.

She added: “We are always self evaluating to make sure we improved the nursery. We are hopeful that we shall continue to grow and will become outstanding in our next inspection.”

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