Nursery’s gold star inspection
Children `happy and confident’
Raploch Nursery has been rated‘very good’by the Care Inspectorate.
A report following a visit in June praised quality of care and support as well as quality of management and leadership.
Inspectors also commented that children were happy and confident in the nursery, which is within Raploch Community Campus and provides early learning and childcare for up to 96 children.
It has consistently received high marks from Care Inspectorate since its first inspection in 2008.
The report concluded staff have a very good knowledge and understanding of the needs of children and their families.
Gaining positive life skills was done in a creative way, with children ordering fruit and vegetables to sell to their parents and carers and developing enterprise abilities and improving number recognition skills.
Parents and carers surveyed described the quality of service as ‘exemplary’, and nursery staff as ‘excellent’ and ‘welcoming’.
The number of activities children can participate in, which include Big Noise, soft play and outdoor trips, was also highlighted.
Suggestions made by the inspectors included that staff should continue building on existing transition arrangements such as developing an information leaflet for children.
They also encouraged the continued development of “free flow play” between indoors and outdoors in all playrooms.
The senior management team were also encouraged to continue developing planned and unplanned monitoring visits to the playroom and sampling various records aimed at picking up any slippage of nursery policy at an early stage.
Stirling Council education convener Councillor Susan McGill said: “This is testament to the hard work the great team at Raploch Nursery have put into ensuring children here have the best start in life.”
Tory group education spokesperson Councillor Bryan Flannagan said: “The staff should be proud that the children are happy and growing in confidence as they learn skills which will serve them well throughout the most important stages of their development.”