A charity-run South Cumbrian pre-school has been given top marks by education inspectors.
Church Walk Pre-school Nursery in Ulverston was visited by Ofsted last month, who rated all aspects of it as outstanding.
Inspectors said: “Children flourish at this wonderful setting where highly experienced staff provide meaningful and engaging learning experiences. A carefully planned and sequenced curriculum provides all children with opportunities to develop their skills.
“Staff challenge children to become deeply involved in their own learning, which supports them to develop resilience and critical thinking skills. They keenly encourage and prompt children’s ideas to help take their learning to the next level.
“Providers have exceptionally high expectations for children’s behaviour. Staff sensitively help children to learn the boundaries and rules of the setting through positive reinforcement. Children learn to be positive and respectful of their peers.”
The report also praised its leadership team, manager Lorna Walker and deputy manager Emma Wilding. It said: “Leaders work tirelessly to sustain the highest quality of provision. Meticulous analysis of the curriculum and its impact on children’s learning, detailed action plans and support from external partners are key in helping them to achieve this.
“Partnership with parents is exemplary. Parents are highly involved in the setting and their presence is welcomed by staff and leaders.”
The pre-school has charitable status, and is operated by a committee of volunteer parents and community members, led by chair Nicola Vogler. Committee members hold director status and are accountable for financial decisions and appointments of employees, as well as overseeing safeguarding and safety standards.
Lorna said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have received outstanding in all areas, especially when it is becoming harder to achieve. I have worked at Church Walk for almost nine years and started the role of manager in September, so the thought of having an inspection one month into the job was a bit daunting.
“The previous manager, Megan Eccles, was incredible and had worked tirelessly for nine years to ensure that the nursery was providing the highest level of early years care possible, so I was lucky to be following in the footsteps of an excellent manager.
“We are a committee-run, charity setting with 34 families currently on roll within the nursery, as well as older children from Church Walk Primary School, who we offer breakfast and afterschool club care as well.
“My entire staff team are the most kind, passionate, and dedicated women that you could ever meet. Unfortunately the Early Years sector is chronically under-funded so it really takes special people to maintain so much dedication to make a positive difference in every child’s life. The outstanding grade, with no recommendations, is truly reflective of all of the hard work and commitment that they show day in and day out.”
Nicola said: “The outstanding rating is a true reflection of the superhuman levels of dedication displayed by the leadership team and their colleagues. Both my children attended the pre-school, which is how I became involved in the committee, and now still attend breakfast and afterschool club.
“The result is especially impressive when set against the chronic funding issues experienced by the early years sector, and the recruitment issues also.
“As a charitable setting we keep fees for parents as low as possible, and support with advice on how to access support including tax-free childcare, and signpost other community services such as Warm Spaces and foodbanks.
“However, we struggle to recruit and retain staff as we are not funded well enough by central government to be able to match salaries in the school nursery sector.
“Rightly, nursery teachers in school settings are paid a teaching salary, but despite many of our practitioners being qualified at the highest level, we sadly simply cannot afford to pay similar rates, unless we charge parents extortionate fees. This, alongside the cost of living crisis, means we also rely on fundraising activities to keep us afloat.
“So I would also like to thank the whole local community for their support – this nursery truly does belong to the community. Parents and families attend our fundraising discos and summer challenge and give generously, and we’ve also been supported by local businesses.”
