A nursery school in Wigan where staff have ‘high aspirations’ and children enjoy a ‘strong sense of belonging’ has been heaped with praise by inspectors.
Hindley Nursery School was found to be an ‘Outstanding’ school yet again by Ofsted inspectors, who believed they’ve progressed even further since they received top marks back in 2017. The watchdog ran out of adjectives to praise the Mornington Road site as they hailed their curriculum, management and safeguarding as ‘exceptional’.
During the visit on March 31, inspectors David Lobodzinski and Maria McGarry discovered the children display mathematical skills, impeccable behaviour and top notch communication, language and literacy skills.
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“Children thrive at this delightful and welcoming nursery school,” the report said. “They are happy and safe.
“They are exceptionally motivated to learn. Staff aim to give children the best start to their early education.
"They make sure that children do not miss any opportunity to learn. Leaders and staff have high aspirations for every child.
"From the earliest of ages, children learn to share and to take turns with others. If anyone is unkind, or bullying occurs, leaders and staff deal with it straightaway. Children learn to value everyone’s differences.
“They had thoughtful conversations with inspectors about the reasons why some people wear glasses. Visitors to the nursery strengthen children’s understanding of cultures different from their own.
"Children relish the vast array of experiences that staff provide. For example, staff bring in their own animals to help children learn how to care for living things.
“Parents and carers were overwhelmingly positive about the school and praised staff for how nurturing and caring they are. They know that their children are ‘at the heart’ of all that leaders and staff do.”
The findings of the inspection report, published on June 15, were worlds away from what the regulator found 13 years ago when the school was in special measures. Since then, the nursery has gone from strength to strength and turned what was an ‘Inadequate’ school into an ‘Outstanding’ one, twice in a row.
Reacting to the recent Ofsted report, headteacher Rachel Lewis said: “We are delighted with our Ofsted report and we feel the inspectors captured the uniqueness of our early years provision. The leaders and the staff work tirelessly and we are constantly looking at ways to improve our provision so it meets the needs of our children.
“We feel we are always getting better and better and our inspection is proof of that. There are lots of elements to our success, but we do our own research on what is best for the children and we use that to inform our practice.
“We are a really strong team and we call ourselves ‘our work family’. So we really think about the wellbeing and support of our staff as well as our parents and children.
“We have a strong sense of leadership and we really share that vision with everyone across the nursery and we work towards that vision every day. This is our bread and butter and sometimes it can be frustrating when someone drops in for a couple of days because they can’t see it all.
“But this time they really did capture everything we aim to be. Our parents were lined up waiting for the inspector because they wanted to let them know how special this place is.
“This is a special place for parents, children and staff.”
