A CHILDREN’S nursery has been rated outstanding by inspectors after a ‘good’ inspection three years earlier.

Coalway Early Years’ manager Marie Ridgway said they were ‘delighted’ with the latest Ofsted report.

Based at the village’s infant and junior Schools, the nursery provides childcare and education for two to five-year olds in the Broadwell and Coalway areas.

She said: “We were Ofsted inspected on May 9 and were delighted to receive a grade of outstanding in all areas. Our previous inspection in 2015 had been ‘good’ so we were extremely pleased with this result.”

Marie started at the school site 18 months ago and has implemented a number of changes to improve practice and build upon the existing excellent standards.

This has included a complete refurbishment of the indoor and outdoor learning environments, and changes to the approach to planning to encourage children to be more independent in their learning, and to develop greater exploratory and critical thinking skills.

The inspector commented that she repeatedly witnessed ‘outstanding teaching and learning’ during the day, which was deeply embedded in the children’s play.

She was particularly impressed with how practitioners used opportunities to develop maths and story-telling skills with the children.

“Our future plans for improvement include the re-introduction of a parent and toddler session from September, and the development of a Forest School site,” added Marie.

More information about the setting can be found by visiting the website at www.coalwayearlyyears.co.uk or calling 01594 839436.