A nursery has been criticised by Ofsted for failing to recognise possible hazards to children. The Mama Bear's nursery in Downend has had its rating downgraded from good to requiring improvement following an inspection last month.
The nursery on Downend Road - which currently has 70 children on roll, aged one to four - has been described as having "not effective" arrangements for safeguarding by Ofsted. Mama Bear's has said that, while it was disappointed with the overall outcome, there were many positive areas recognised and highlighted in the report, including that children are happy and settled in the nursery and staff offer support and reassurance to children
The report states: "Staff and leaders do not make all areas of the nursery that children could access safe.
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"They failed to recognise possible hazards to children in the unsafe stacking and piling of broken and discarded furniture and equipment placed in the courtyard area."
Ofsted also found that, while children are gaining some of the skills they need in their future learning, not all children make good enough progress in their learning and development due to weaknesses in teaching.
"Overall, children find things to do and are busy in their play," Ofsted found. "Some of the children's interests are reflected in the activities on offer. However, staff do not always ensure that teaching and interactions with children challenge and extend their learning."
The education watchdog described the quality of teaching at the South Gloucestershire nursery as "variable" and found that some staff do not have a good enough understanding of child development or understand the intent behind what has been planned for children.
"Activities and planned learning are not always implemented consistently for the children aged over two years in the pre-school room," it continues. "This means staff do not focus enough on what each child needs to learn next.
"As a result, children do not make the best possible progress in their learning, including children in receipt of early years pupil premium funding."
Ofsted found that leaders are aware of areas that require improvement and have begun taking steps to address them, but that this is in its early stages and they have not fully addressed the weaknesses in teaching to raise the quality of education to a consistently good level. The report also states that, while staff supervise children well and some appropriate risk assessments are in place, staff do not always identify possible hazards to children.
"During the inspection, the inspector found possible hazards to children in the shed and courtyard area outside," it continues. "However, leaders took immediate action when these were identified, to minimise the hazards and to improve the ongoing procedures.
"Some learning environments are well resourced and stimulating. In these instances, children's creativity and engagement is encouraged well. However, this is inconsistent, and some learning environments are not adequately inviting to children.
"This has a negative impact on children's learning and levels of engagement. For example, some resources and areas of the building are in poor condition."
Ofsted made a series of recommendations so the nursery meets the requirements of the early years foundation stage. This include providing training and coaching opportunities to raise the quality of teaching as well as ensuring that daily safety check are thorough in identifying and minimising hazards to children's safety.
What Mama Bear's said
Mama Bear's said in a statement: "Whilst we are disappointed with the overall outcome, there were many positive areas recognised and highlighted throughout OFSTED’s report, namely that children are happy and settled in the nursery and staff offer support and reassurance to children; that children have good relationships with staff and that children’s emotional needs are met well.
"There were many positives observed around supporting children’s speech and language development, which underpins all other areas of learning and development and is a key element of the work that the staff team work hard to promote.
"Children’s behaviour was complemented as was our partnerships with parents. The Inspector spoke to several parents as part of her inspection and fed back that parents were happy with the nursery and the effective sharing of information."
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