Praise for nursery ahead of closure
Croftamie facility received a glowing assessment
A rural nursery which is set to close later this year has been lavished with praise by inspectors.
Croftamie Nursery, based near Drymen, received gradings of ‘5’ (Very Good) across the board from national regulator the Care Inspectorate for the standards of its leadership, staff team, care, play, learning and setting.
Despite the glowing assessment, Stirling Council said this week that plans for the nursery remained unchanged and that the children would be moving into a new nursery as part of Drymen Primary School later this year.
The inspectorate’s report followed an unannounced inspection at the nursery in late October 2022. The nursery provides care and learning for 32 children aged from two years to those not yet attending primary school.
Areas singled out for praise at Croftamie included its “warm and nurturing care from staff which supported the children’s wellbeing”.
There were also positive comments from parents on communication which allowed them to feel confident and involved in their children’s learning. High value was placed on outdoor learning to allow children to feel connected to their community and develop opportunities to engage with their surroundings.
There was also said to be a “culture of continuous improvement”.
Chris Ogilvie, Principal Early Childhood Educator at Croftamie Nursery, said: “We are all very proud of our inspection outcome.
“The staff team at Croftamie show nurture, love and dedication in all of their interactions with our children and families. This was particularly apparent during the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a pleasure to support our local community and we thank our families for their continued support and involvement in the nursery.
“The children showed great resilience during the challenges of the pandemic and continue to make good progress in their learning and development. We are delighted to share this report and it is a real celebration of our successes as a nursery community.”
Councillor Danny Gibson said: “The leadership and staff team at Croftamie Nursery should be incredibly proud of this report that highlights the numerous areas in which the nursery provides a nurturing environment for learning along with a high quality care and support for children.
“It’s clear from the report that high standards of play, learning and care are very much part of the culture within the nursery while parents are given input into their child’s learning and early development. Congratulations to everybody at Croftamie Nursery, this report reflects the commitment and hard work from the whole staff team.”
In 2020, the council’s children and young people committee decided by eight votes to three that the facility should shut its doors, with only the Conservatives voting to keep it open.
The move came just three months after members narrowly refused to give the nursery the axe after the then local member for Forth and Endrick, Tory councillor Alistair Berrill, had urged the committee to instead bring back a fully costed study of improvement options for the existing building instead.
However, education officials came back with a further report recommending the nursery closure be formally approved.
They had originally argued that parents were broadly supportive of the move to Drymen and while the Croftamie building was in good condition, “achievable” works to the existing building and grounds would cost around £550,000 and may still not fully meet modern requirements, and a new build nursery for Croftamie would cost just over £1 million.
Those arguing to retain the nursery, including local community councillors, had said closure was “overkill”, and the design requirements were purely guidelines.