Northampton nursery scores top marks with inspectors after nine-month turnaround

Abington Park Day Nursery has scored an "outstanding" mark in every area in its latest inspection by Ofsted.

It is the highest rating available from the education watchdog - but it comes after earning mediocre scores in August 2018 where it only scored "requires improvement" in each category.

But the new glowing report published on May 1 reads: "Since the last inspection, the new leadership and staff team have demonstrated a tireless pursuit of excellence.

"Children flourish in the highly-nurturing environment. They develop excellent skills to support their future learning.

"Despite often lower starting points, children are now making exceptional progress in their communication and language development."

It comes after the nursery only scored "requires improvement" in its last report only nine months ago, which called the teaching "inconsistent" and said children under three were not benefiting from "good-quality interactions".

Now the new report singles out how children are taught to behave using the "rocket reward" chart to mark their achievements, as well as showing photos of themselves playing that demonstrate how they are following one of the nursery's 'golden rules'.

The report reads: "Staff are extremely knowledgeable about the children in their care.

"They provide parents with regular in-depth summaries that capture their children's personalities, interests and levels of development. Staff use these to identify children's next steps in learning. Staff demonstrate high expectations for each child's future learning."

Nursery manager Sharon Ryan said: “We’re thrilled with our outstanding rating from Ofsted and the comments from the report.

"I’d like to thank all my colleagues for their hard work, as it really is a team effort and we wouldn’t be able to bring this excellent level of care to the children without their dedication.”