THE manager of a nursery outside Oswestry says staff will be working hard to restore its ‘Good’ Ofsted rating after it was marked down.

Peter Pan Nursery, on the grounds of the RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, was inspected in May this year and was marked as ‘Requires Improvement’ in four areas.

This included quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

Inspector Anne Dyoss did praise the nursery for its ‘effective safeguarding’ but manager Lynne Jones accepted the findings and said work is already underway to retain their previous standing.

She said: “The inspector gave us lots of positive feedback on areas such as our safeguarding and Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) procedures, our liaison with parents and the care and nurturing we offer our children. 

“We recognise that our curriculum is of a good ambitious standard.

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“However we identify that our staff need further training and coaching to raise the standard of teaching.

“We have reviewed the way in which we implement our curriculum with the support of our mentor from the Local Authority.

“Our staff are all undertaking further in-depth training.

“We will be reinspected within 12 months and hope to get back to our ‘Good’ grading from Ofsted.”

In their report on Peter Pan, which employs 27 members of childcare staff, inspectors said: “Children and babies are happy, settled and enjoy the opportunities to play with their friends.

“They form close bonds with the staff, who are kind and nurturing. Children gain some knowledge and skills that prepare them for school and the next stage of their learning.

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“However, there are some inconsistencies in the quality of the education that the children receive, which hinders the progress that they can make.”

The inspector left three targets for Peter Pan bosses and staff to tick off by August 11 this year.

Target one is to ‘improve the monitoring of staff practice and provide them with effective coaching, training and support to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently good level’.

Target two is to ‘support staff to understand and implement the curriculum, so they have consistently ambitious and realistic expectations for all children’.

Target three is to ‘support staff to improve the use of their observations of children's play to plan purposeful learning experiences that match their stage of development and help children to build on their existing knowledge and skills’.