Big improvements hailed at Grantown nursery school
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A Strathspey primary school nursery has undergone great improvements since its last inspection and is now ranked very good across the board.
The Care Inspectorate made a visit at short notice on December 11 to the Grantown nursery and welcomed the strides made in the past 15 months. The facility can cater for a maximum of 31 children at any one time.
The quality of care and support, environment, staffing, management and leadership were all graded as five meaning very good.
Inspectors had given gradings from good to only adequate and weak on their last visit and Highland Council had brought temporary senior management to address the issues identified.
And parents also recognised the improvements that had occurred since too.
Comments from parents included:
(My child) “is so happy going to nursery.... nursery staff are fantastic and understand him well. Taking into account it has only been seven months there has been really positive improvements to the nursery and with time I am sure that many more will follow.”
Another commented: “The nursery has improved hugely since January. It is cleaner, brighter and de-cluttered. The atmosphere is more positive and organised.”
On quality of care, inspectors deemed there had been considerable improvement following on from the last inspection.
They stated: “We saw that children were busy and purposeful. It was apparent that the children had developed positive and trusting relationships with the staff.”
On the surroundings, the inspectors stated: “We would like to acknowledge that a great deal of work had been carried out by staff and parents/carers to improve the quality of children’s experiences. This included painting the classroom to ensure the colour scheme became muted and conducive to a relaxing learning environment.
“We noted that there are plans to further upgrade the physical resources and were encouraged by staff continued enthusiasm to build on the current experiences available to children using the service.
The outdoor area was deemed to be of a very good standard. Inspectors said the staff team is now more stable and “consequently staff knew the children well and intervened appropriately when required”.
Parents said they found the staff very easy to engage with, friendly and approachable.
