ABSOLUTELY OVERWHELMED BY OFSTED
INSPECTION OUTCOME!
Town and Country Kiddies are absolutely overwhelmed following their most recent Ofsted Inspection at their newest
Children’s Nursery in Market Rasen. ‘Chestnut House’ opened in April of this year, in response to demand for places in the
Town. Willow Tree House (the company’s existing nursery, based also in the town) has been operating for nearly 10 years now
and had been full to capacity for the past two years. The company therefore decided to expand into further premises earlier
this year in order to meet the demand for places. The first Ofsted inspection for Chestnut House took place very recently
and the Nursery was awarded the ‘Outstanding’ Rating in all 17 judgement areas! The inspector arrived unannounced and
initially advised that it was unlikely that the inspection outcome could be any higher than a ‘Good’ rating simply because the
Nursery was operating in its infancy. However, after spending a day at the Nursery the inspector decided to award the highest
accolade to the Nursery because she was so impressed by the facility, staff knowledge and expertise and the opportunities available to the children.
Louise Davies, Managing Director told us that the inspector described the nursery as “highly stimulating and a place where children make rapid progress”. We were particularly
praised for our Continuous Improvement Programme which the inspector felt was “very driven by the company and implemented to an exceptional standard”. As a company
we are delighted to have the efforts of the past year in getting this site up and running and operating to the same standard as our other ‘Outstanding’ nurseries, recognised by
Ofsted because they always seek the highest possible standards in all areas.
The inspector praised us for having planning systems in place which provided “an excellent range of high quality resources along with a very good balance of activities which
support individual children to an extremely high level”. She described the children as having “a dynamic role in the nursery and being confident, active learners”. She described
the staff as “having excellent knowledge of learning and development whilst possessing excellent relationships with children; providing for rich and meaningful conversations with
all children who attend”.
The inspector also praised the company for “safeguarding children extremely well, which included robust risk assessments and extremely well organised deployment of
personnel. She noted that the company had “excellent recruitment and vetting procedures in place along with induction and supervision of staff which ensured the safety of
children and the smooth running of the nursery on a consistent and continuous basis”. Louise went onto to jokingly say “It is always nice to hear the word excellent being used by
an Ofsted Inspector and I have to say, for us this seemed to be in abundance but we are certainly not complaining about that!”
The inspector had done a dissertation at University on the benefit of a Forest Schools curriculum, so she was particularly interested in and impressed with our recent Forest
Schools programme to Willingham Woods.
When asked to describe what this meant to the company as a whole, Louise said “the feedback we have received from Ofsted and the Local authority, which became aware of the
achievement recently, has been nothing but positive and encouraging. I am so proud of the companies achievements at Chestnut House, particularly as the road to getting this
site up and running was not only a long one but was at times was very challenging! My congratulations and thanks go to all the staff who took part in the inspection, everyone in
the company is very proud of them”.
The nursery can be contacted on 01673-844014 with any enquiries 23 Kilnwell Road, Market Rasen LN8 3BJ