Community playgroup is delighted with excellent inspection report

The playgroup, which provides learning through play for children from 2 years to 4 years old, is based at the Grove Activity Centre.

The follow-up inspection which took place in November, followed an inspection in February 2010, which highlighted strengths in the caring support provided by the staff, the good efforts made by the staff to improve the layout of the playroom and ensure a broad range of activities for the children; the quality of the children’s oral language and listening skills; and the management of the new leader and the developing team-approach to curricular development.

The inspection, however, identified the need for improvement to develop further the planning and assessment methods to ensure that there is progression and challenge in the pre-school programme throughout the year.

Since then an action plan was put in place by the Playgroup Leader, Jenny Robinson, who took over the post two years ago, who said she is delighted with the recent report.

“It was fantastic news. I’m just delighted to have recognition for all of the hard work we’ve put into the play group. We were expecting ‘good’, but to get ‘very good’, one from ‘outstanding’ - we were extremely pleased,” she said.

The playgroup is now planning to move forward to attain their accreditation and achieve ‘outstanding’.

The inspection last November found a whole range of improvements since the previous inspection including:

* the children now develop their creativity through the very good opportunities to explore and experiment with different materials and tools;

* the staff‘s revised approach to planning identifies appropriate progression in the learning, indicates more clearly the role of the adult and the intended learning outcomes for the children;

* the staff use systematic assessment methods which are meaningful and help them identify more effectively the children’s learning needs;

* the staff’s interactions with the children are consistently of a good quality and, at times, of a very good quality; and the playgroup leader now provides very good leadership which is developing the staff’s capabilities to implement effectively the changes to the provision.

The inspectors added: “In the areas inspected, the quality of education provided by this playgroup is now very good.

The playgroup is meeting very effectively the educational and pastoral needs of the children and has demonstrated its capacity for sustained self-improvement.”

Free pre-school places are still available for September 2012. Anyone interested can contact Jenny Robinson on 07901800832.