Grantham Nursery “pleased” with first report

A Grantham nursery says it is “pleased” with its first Ofsted report, believing it is “a whisker away” from being outstanding.

Serendipitys Day Nursery at 18 North Road was rated ‘good’ across the board, including its management, teaching, plus the personal development, behaviour and outcomes for children.

Inspectors said self-evaluation of children is effective, helping the nursery identify ongoing improvments that help the children’s learning.

Children are keen to arrive at school, they show they feel safe and secure and make good progress in their learning.

Children develop a very good understanding of their local community, the report continued, and staff promote children’s individual dietry and medical needs very well.

Staff also observe and monitor children’s progress, helping them identify what they need to learn next, and they plan exciting acitivities and learning opportunities for them.

However, to be outstanding, the school is still developing systems to analyse the progress made by groups of children and monitoring of staff needs to improve to raise their teaching to a higher level.

Serendipitys Day Nursery is a chain of five nurseries owned by Kelly and Matt Alls. Their first branch opened in Bingham in 1998 and now also includes Cotgrave, Newark, Balderton and Grantham.

The Grantham branch opened in 2012 and has 44 children agedto four years on its roll. MrAlls told the Journal: “We aim to be outstanding but we are very pleased, we are very positive that in the near future we will reach the outstanding level.”

“I think we are a whisker away. Parents have been very supportive and the staff have worked really hard and pulled together as a team.”