THE children and staff at Ben Rhydding Pre-School are celebrating an Outstanding Ofsted inspection grading.

Patricia Darlow, playgroup leader said: “The inspector spent all day at the pre-school, observing the children and staff and looking behind the scenes at the brilliant work the staff and committee of parents do to make our pre-school such a safe, happy and nurturing place to be.”

The report states that: “Staff prepare all children extremely well for their move to school. In particular, children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are exceptionally well supported” and “Staff provide a vibrant and inviting learning environment that is skilfully planned to ignite children’s imagination, curiosity and independence skills. Children’s behaviour is impeccable. They develop extremely secure emotional relationships with staff, who are admirable role models. Older children develop remarkably warm empathy for younger children”.

The progress children make is commended, The report states: “Children make remarkable progress in their literacy development. They successfully recognise the letters in books and sound them out correctly. Staff expertly help older children to divide longer words, identify groups of letters and confidently read words such as ‘trout’ and ‘lizard’. Children also write their name and a range of other words.”

Staff are praised. The inspector said: “The staff team are extremely motivated and highly reflective. They are committed to providing the highest-quality learning for all children to help them excel. The manager actively seeks and uses the views of staff, parents and children to critically review and analyse the effectiveness of their practice and to support children’s excellent progress.”

The inspector also noted the good relationship with parents. The report states: “Partnerships with parents are superb. Parents are highly complementary about the outstanding quality of education their children receive.

“They describe the pre-school as ‘a special place’ that fosters their children’s incredible joy of learning.”

The pre-school is housed in a purpose-built building Rhydding Primary School, Bolling Road. Surrounded by open fields it has its own outside play area and the large, open-plan classroom is spacious. The building is fully accessible for children and adults with disabilities

The Pre-school is open term-time only 9am-3pm. For further information visit the website : www.brplaygroup.com