Having made the jump from 'inadequate' to 'good' at its recent inspection, staff at the Cambridge Day Nursery are enjoying a real sense of achievement. Changes have been made by addressing the skills and confidence of the team, rather than investing in new resources or a revamp of the premises.
Over the past three years the nursery has had what manager Rachel Watson calls 'a rough time'. But new management that took over last September has completely changed the outlook. Ms Watson herself has been manager for the last six years and reports that the input of an early years mentor, provided by Cambridge County Council, has been absolutely key to the turnaround.
She says that the council had been active in promoting the mentoring service and that her own good relationship with it had helped to get the level of support that was clearly needed.
'The mentor's first job was to empower staff to take ownership of their rooms and develop them further,' she says. 'She then worked with them to make more subtle changes to their practice.'
Ms Watson reports that the mentor worked with the nursery intensively for two weeks in January, scrutinising every aspect of practice and testing new approaches.
'For example, she provided a lot of support for role play - showing practitioners how to step in and guide the children,' she says. 'She also focused on observation and planning, to reflect a child-led approach. As a result we have developed our own monitoring system, which allows us to evaluate our practice in these areas and ensure that children have freedom of choice.'
One of the biggest changes is the move to free-flow outdoor play.
'We have two pre-school rooms, one of which is upstairs, and we have devised a system whereby children upstairs can now independently access the outdoors,' says Ms Watson. 'This involves ringing a doorbell to tell a member of staff that they are on their way downstairs and moving their photograph to the garden door. The children love this system - there is lots of ICT going on and they can choose which environment they want to be in for 90 per cent of their day.'
The nursery, which has been established in Cambridge for 35 years, is currently registered for 46 children each day and has 65 on roll. It employs 18 staff, 16 of whom are qualified to Level 3, with two training for Level 3. Ms Watson is about to embark on a foundation degree.
'While we have purchased some new equipment, the improvement has been about adapting what we've got and changing the staff's thinking,' she says. 'It has been a real pleasure to work with everyone here. We have now set our sights on achieving an "outstanding" at our next inspection.'
