A nursery school boss told by inspectors the ‘quality of education it provides is not consistently good’ has hit back over ‘ever-increasing pressure’ on early years practitioners. Ofsted official Joanne Buckley visited Jitterbugz Day Nursery in the Cadishead area of Salford in September, deeming it to be in the ‘requires improvement’ category. Her report said steps had been taken to improve the facility following a previous inspection, the outcome of which was ‘inadequate’. Responding to the publication of the report, deputy manager of Jitterbugz Georgia Wallace told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We have found that it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain a high rating from Ofsted since the change in practitioner to child ratio and the most recent update of the early years’ framework. “The pressure on practitioners is ever-increasing. Every early years provider strives to be ‘outstanding’ for the sake of the families. “However our families continue to reassure us that their children are happy and developing well in our setting, which means a lot to our team, as we continue to work hard to give the children in our setting the absolute best start in life.” In her report, Ms Buckley said: “The curriculum is still not fully embedded. Staff provide inviting experiences planned around children’s individual needs, but some staff over complicate activities by trying to cover too many learning outcomes. “This leads to confusion for the children and their individual learning needs not being met. Staff interactions with children are not of a good quality. They overwhelm children with too much questioning in succession, which is not well thought out or focused on the learning aims.” She said this prevents children from being able to process what is being said to them. “Consequently, this has a negative impact on children’s attitudes to learning as, generally, they become disengaged,” she said. However, she said that despite this, staff provide children with a ‘warm and welcoming atmosphere’ “As a result, children enter the setting happy and settle quickly,” she said. “Staff are developing the daily routine and rules for the children to provide them with consistency. “This helps them to feel emotionally secure, as they are aware of what is happening. In addition, children are developing an understanding of managing their own behaviour as they build their understanding of what is expected of them.” The report said that arrangements for safeguarding at the facility are ‘effective’. “The manager now deploys staff effectively so that there is always a paediatric first-aid trained member of staff available for children who attend,” said Ms Buckley. She also made three recommendations for further improvement, which are: The nursery should strengthen the implementation of activities to help staff stay focused on the learning intentions and keep children engaged in their learning; develop staff interactions with children so they are consistently effective in supporting children’s learning and development; and improve the professional development for staff to precisely target coaching and mentoring to help achieve better outcomes for children.
