Chichester nursery makes it three top Ofsted ratings in a row

Welcome House Day Nursery, in Grove Road, Chichester, was visited by inspector Alison Large on July 29 and her findings were published on August 19.

In her report, Ms Large rated Welcome House outstanding – its third in a row – and credited the staff’s teaching skills with helping all children to make “excellent” progress.

She praised the “exceptional” progress made by children for whom English was a second language and those with special educational needs or disabilities.

He report said: “Children blossom at the nursery under the care of the extremely knowledgeable and inspirational staff team. Staff demonstrate an extremely secure knowledge and understanding of how children learn.

“As a result, children are very enthusiastic, develop a highly positive attitude to their learning, and learn to work alongside their peers extremely well.”

The children weren’t the only ones enthusiastic about the nursery. During her inspection, Ms Large spoke with some of the parents, who described the care given by staff as “wonderful” and said their children had been prepared well for the future.

Nursery manager Victoria Baldwin said: “We are thrilled to be rated outstanding again.

“As a team we work hard to provide our children with a rich variety of fun and challenging play opportunities like attending forest school, growing vegetables on our allotment, mixing concoctions in the mud kitchen, for example, and the inspector saw how well the staff interact with the children to help them learn.”

Ms Large made only one recommendation for future improvement – to increase the opportunities children had to learn about the lives and experiences of others in their community and in the wider world.

She acknowledged management at Welcome House had already recognised this need and already celebrated the diversity within its walls, where all children were “respected and valued”.

The nursery opened 23 years ago and is still run by mother and daughter team Barbara Stanley and Victoria.

It currently caters for 88 children throughout the week and was expanded last September to provide care for more two-year-olds.

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