‘Warm and welcoming’ Hartlepool nursery with ‘ambitious’ curriculum rated ‘good’ by Ofsted

Lonsdale Childcare, in Grange Road, was rated ‘food’ in all four areas following the inspection in March of this year.

The overall “good” mark is the second highest of four grades with “inadequate” the lowest.

Ofsted praised the nursery’s ambitious curriculum and the “language-rich environment” provided by staff.

The report said children are happy in the nursery while staff are “positive role models”.

Inspectors described the partnership with parents as “strong” and said they speak positively about the nursery.

The report stated: “Children are happy, settled and content in this warm and welcoming nursery.

"Staff greet children as they arrive and they happily leave their parents, ready to start the nursery day.

"Staff are positive role models and provide plenty of praise and encouragement. This helps to develop children's confidence and self-esteem.”

It added: “The manager and staff implement an ambitious, sequenced curriculum, overall. They provide a wide range of interesting activities and experiences.”

The nursery has said it is “happy” to keep its Good rating, which it has maintained for the past nine years.

Manager Michelle Lee said: “We are pleased that staff were recognised for the amazing work they put in with the children, the majority of our staff have worked for us for a very long time, many for over 10 years, I myself have been with the company for 22 years, meaning we have a very low staff turn over allowing for consistency for the children and their learning journey.”

She added: “We as a team are dedicated to continuous development to ensure our children and families receive the highest level of care and learning.”

Some of the recommendations Ofsted made in its report included developing further the strategies to communicate information to parents about how they can extend and support their child's learning at home and strengthening the quality of staff interactions with children to help them challenge and extend children's learning more effectively as they play.

The nursery said it is “always looking to develop and strengthen” its practices and that it has taken inspectors’ suggestions to give parents ‘homework’ “on board”.