'outstanding' nursery.
In the past few years, staff at South & City College Nursery in Birmingham have been on a determined journey to develop the quality and service of the setting, and make it the best it can possibly be. This was duly recognised by Ofsted, when it paid a surprise visit at the end of last year and awarded the nursery outstanding.
Its quality of leadership and the extent to which staff are valued and supported was particularly praised by Ofsted. Manager Liz Beard reports that everyone has worked extremely hard over the past few years, collaborating on a journey of continuous improvement. She believes in giving autonomy to staff, to allow them to take responsibility for education within their units.
She emphasises that the nursery is in a special position to take advantage of the wider community at the college, and this enriches everything it does. 'We get a lot of support from the college departments in terms of developing our learning experiences for the children,' she says.
'For example, in the past we have focused on bones and were helped by the science block, which loaned us a skeleton. We've looked at germ bags and used UV lights to study what's in them.
'We've also used other college departments such as the library, and have borrowed lots of resources for children who have English as an additional language.'
There is a very low turnover among the 20 staff, all of whom are a minimum of Level 4 qualified. Two team members have degrees, and five hold early years foundation degrees.
'Staff are committed to ongoing training,' says Mrs Beard. 'We are particularly strong in safeguarding training, which is regularly updated and embedded in everything we do.'
South & City College Nursery has recently implemented the Baby Effective Learning programme and as part of its ongoing improvement is now working towards embedding the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale.
'Having achieved outstanding, we will certainly not be resting on our laurels,' says Mrs Beard. 'We feel it is really important to continue to network with other local nurseries and maintain our strong links with local professionals including health visitors and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators - and of course, with parents, most of whom are students at the college.'
She adds, 'Not only does being graded outstanding positively affect the children here, but it also has an excellent impact on our childcare students who undertake placements in the nursery as part of their courses. They are able to gain first-hand experience in a nursery, which provides an excellent grounding and benchmark for their future careers.'
- www.sccb.ac.uk/about-us/nursery.
