Kings Clipstone nursery earns top marks

Owner Gina Smith is pictured celebrating with staff and children

The Enchanted Garden Day Nursery, Lamb Pens Farm, Kings Clipstone, achieved the top grade after a visit from staff from education watchdog Ofsted.

And the inspectors’ report was full of praise for staff at the nursery.

It said: “Teaching is highly effective and assessment procedures are precise, sharply focusedand comprehensive.

“Children thrive in the nursery as they make excellent progress.

“ Children have the best possible support to reach their full potential and are ready fortheir move on to their next stage of learning, including their move to school.

“Staff respond to all needs and plan excellent, challenging and enjoyable .”

The only area the report suggested could be improved was to “continue to provide ingenious ways of adding text to the outdoor learning environments to extend excellent outcomes for literacy even further.”

Gina Smith, owner of the nursery which is set on an acre of outdoor land said: “The staff have worked amazingly hard since the last inspection.”

“We are a unique setting, and it’s been hard to get parents on board as we have no plastic, and have an outdoors enviroment.

“Our children are always outdoors – theres no bad weather, only bad clothing!

“Mansfield has an amazing early years’ workforce and they all need to celebrate their personal achivements.

“We all work very differently, but the outcome is always in the best interest of the children and their families.

“The ‘oustanding’ rating is a great achivement for our own personal development, as it speaks volumes about us.

“For the past six months all i’ve said to staff is they’re awesome and amazing, they’ve taken everything I’ve thrown at them on board and they’ve run with it.

“The children are thriving in our enviroment.”

To celebrate their achivement, the nursery is holding a celebration event on September 21, which is open to all.

Gina said: “The event is open to other nurseries, as I would love nothing more than to raise standards across Mansfield nurseries by sharing good practices.

“I want Mansfield on the map.”

“Everyone is welcome, there will be bands, a barbeque and face painting.”

The event will take place at the nursery from 4-7pm.

For more information, visit: enchantedgardendaynursery.co.uk