Nursery where children are happy is told to improve by Ofsted
Cherry Blossom Education Ltd in Harwood was placed in the requires improvement category by Ofsted.
It was previously rated good in 2022.
Every area of the nursery — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management were all said to require improvement.
The Ofsted inspector did note many positives in the nursery, including that children are "settled and happy at the nursery".
READ MORE: Bolton St Catherine's Academy sees standards rise says Ofsted
READ MORE: Bolton teacher slams Ofsted's proposed 'report card' system
The report stated: "Staff at the nursery are enthusiastic about teaching and playing with the children."
Adding: "Staff develop close relationships with children.
"Babies benefit from the caring interactions from their special key person in nursery. Staff ensure they know the children well and what helps them to feel secure. This helps children to feel settled and safe in the care of staff."
Staff were said to be "skilful in tuning into how children feel" and activities help children "to become confident communicators".
Mostly, staff were found to promote children's personal development well but Ofsted found that at times staff are too eager to help children which "does not develop children's skills well or support them to persist at completing tricky tasks for themselves".
The Ofsted inspection found: "Children adore using the nursery's well-equipped outdoor play area. They develop strong muscles when balancing, jumping, sliding and climbing."
But Ofsted found that although leaders have a clear understanding of their intentions for children's learning and development, it is not evident enough in practice.
The report stated: "For example, some staff provide activities that are less effective at building children's knowledge than intended.
"Some staff do not recognise when there are gaps in children's learning of key knowledge. This means that children do not receive a consistently good quality of education at the nursery."
The report stated: "Staff at the nursery are enthusiastic about teaching and playing with the children.
"However, the provider has not ensured that all staff have the skills and knowledge to deliver the intended curriculum effectively. Staff observe children and plan activities in response to children's interests. However, some activities lack purpose and do not build on children's previous learning well."
The inspector also noted: "Staff at the nursery are not supported well enough in their work.
"They report that their workload and well-being is not considered well. This impacts on how staff feel about their personal effectiveness and happiness in the workplace."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Your response to this baffling optical illusion could depend on where you grew up
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Last year we covered the 'coffer' illusion, a visual riddling that was blowing/bending/frying/breaking the internet's collective mind. And like all the best illusions, it seems this one keeps on giving, as new scientific research has revealed that your perception of it could be influenced by one unexpected factor. For the uninitiated, the coffer illusion depicts what appears to be a series of rectangles – but actually contains 16 circles. They're initially hard to spot, but once you've managed it, they can't be unseen (spoiler alert: they're in the gaps between the rectangles). How quickly you find the circles, though, could depend on where in the world you grew up. As reported by the Guardian, a study led by Ivan Kroupin at the London School of Economics has explored how people from different backgrounds interpret the coffer illusion, found that "people in the UK and US saw it mainly in one way, as comprising rectangles – while people from rural communities in Namibia typically saw it another way: as containing circles." So why the difference? The suggestion is that those hailing from western industrialised countries "are generally exposed to highly 'carpentered' environments, with lots of straight lines, right angles," whereas rural Namibians, for example, see the circles first because "their environments being dominated by structures such as round huts instead of angular environments." "During the data collection, it was quite striking to see individuals immediately identify and describe features of an image - circles - which took all authors a significant amount of time to identify at all," the study explains, before going on to suggest different responses to the illusion could hint at larger visual discrepancies between people. "In sum, the world does not look the same to all of us—the present results show this at the very least. And it remains a possibility that such cultural variation exists even at layers of visual perception previously assumed to be universal."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
27 girls, counselors at Camp Mystic killed in Texas floods: Live updates
At least 27 children and counselors from a beloved all-girls summer camp in central Texas have died in the devastating flash floods that tore across central Texas, the camp said in a statement Monday, as a frantic search for those still missing entered its fourth day. "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy," the private Christian camp, Camp Mystic, said in a statement on its website. "We are praying for them constantly." It's unclear how many of the 27 fatal victims were children and how many were counselors. Across the state, at least 81 people have died in the flooding since Friday, officials said. On Sunday, local authorities in Kerr County, where the worst of the flooding occurred, said 10 children and a counselor were among the many people still missing. It's unclear if that number had changed. "We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls," the statement said. There were about 700 children at the camp when relentless rain caused the nearby Guadalupe River to surge over 26 feet in less than an hour on Friday, said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Photos taken at the scene show a building where some of the children slept with broken windows and a blown-out wall. Among the debris-covered mud were pink blankets and stuffed animals. "We will remain 100% dedicated, searching for every single one of the children who were at Camp Mystic as well as anybody else in the entire riverbed," Texas Gov. Greg Abbot vowed at a news conference Sunday. "We are working as swiftly as possible." In the wake of the deadly Texas floods, a variety of aid groups, nonprofits and other organizations are accepting donations to help victims and assist in the recovery effort. The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country started a Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, which will provide aid to vetted organizations in Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point and other areas. Crowdfunding website GoFundMe has an updated page for verified fundraisers connected to flood victims and their families. Other organizations accepting donations include World Central Kitchen and the Salvation Army, which is distributing supplies and has set up a mobile kitchen in the disaster area. More: Texas flooding deaths hit at least 80: Here's how you can help – James Powel For the meteorologists and hydrologists tracking the weather patterns that led to the deadly floods across Texas Hill Country, the most urgent advisories weren't deployed until it was almost too late, according to interviews and advisories. Forecasters said they pushed out warnings as fast as they got the data. But the hilly terrain and the trickiness of predicting flash floods made forecasting and alerting communities along the Guadalupe River in real time particularly challenging. "This is a problem that we are constantly trying to work on: how to better communicate," Greg Waller, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service's West Gulf River Forecast Center in Fort Worth, told USA TODAY. "We can issue the best forecast in the world, but if it's not put in the hands of the individuals so they can make the best decision, that forecast has little value." Read more: Warnings for deadly Texas flash flooding came with little time to act – Rick Jervis The National Weather Service extended a flood watch through 7 p.m. local time as downpours were expected through Monday, including in hard-hit parts of the state. Federal forecasters said it's difficult to pinpoint exact locations where the heaviest rain will fall, noting that an uptick in intensity is possible over the Hill Country, where the worst of deadly floods have occurred. Widespread rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches were expected, forecasters said, warning that some areas could receive 10 inches of rain. "The thunderstorms should become more organized and move westward possibly across the flood-ravaged portion of Texas during the day today," the weather service said Monday. Trump said he expects to visit Texas later this week after catastrophic flooding caused extensive death and destruction in the state. "Probably on Friday," Trump told reporters on Sunday when asked about visiting the state. "We wanted to leave a little time. I would've done it today, but we'd just be in their way." Earlier on Sunday, Trump signed a major disaster declaration for hard-hit Kerr County, unlocking federal funding for first responders on the ground and offering FEMA assistance to victims of the flooding. — Zac Anderson This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas flooding live updates: 27 killed at Camp Mystic
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
My father threw away my childhood possessions – then took his own life
Sometimes it's not something you've seen tangibly in front of you that stays with you for the rest of your days, be that a disturbing horror movie or real-life car crash. It's suddenly seeing nothing where something important should be. And nothing is exactly how I saw it when I stepped into my father's garage one day seven years ago, to find it starkly bare, voided of the classic dad-junk that had cluttered the space for years. Gone were the half-used paint cans and rusty garden tools, the grandchildren's obsolete toys and pieces of old furniture waiting to be fixed or upcycled. I should have felt admiration and approval, for his 'getting things done' and having a clear-out after a year of listlessness since Mum had died. Instead I felt a heart-sinking horror at the prospect the worst had happened. Buried beneath all that worthless flotsam had lived something of incalculable importance to me, which I'd entombed there for 'safekeeping' as I moved from house to house. It was a large cardboard box, emblazoned with the words 'DON'T THROW AWAY' in black marker pen on each side. It contained the entirety of my life mementoes: a distillation chiefly of my childhood, teenage and university years. Inside was the priceless time-capsule items one looks forward to revisiting one day: years' worth of personal journals; Polaroids and photos with no negatives; love letters; reams of teenage poetry; all my degree essays and education certificates; all the local newspaper and student-mag articles of my early journalism years. Essentially it held the most important artefacts, documents and keepsakes from the first 30 years of my life – I was 39 at the time. I knew there and then that it was all gone, and irretrievable: the 'clear-out' had taken place months prior, spontaneously, with Dad quick to exonerate himself by blaming the 'builder' he had hired to clear his garage and dispose of the contents, not realising or 'forgetting' my life-box was among it all. If there was one thing I knew about my father, it's that he was a terrible liar. He expected me to believe this workman had not checked with him despite the large letters daubed on the side of the box. He knew full well that box was there, why it was there and what it meant, and for reasons I'll never understand, he'd callously binned it himself with his own hands. This was established instantly: a swift phone call to the builder confirmed what I already knew: he hadn't cleared any garage or outbuildings as it wasn't part of his service remit, for anyone. But it didn't matter that Dad was 'busted'. He simply flapped about it being an easy mistake to make – and please don't go on about it as he had enough already on his plate and it was only old junk. It was in that bleak moment that the irony sledge-hammered me: I, someone who placed so much importance on physical memories, had left mine in the protection of someone who absolutely didn't. The bitterest pill for me, however, was that he had not even set it aside just in case, or made a quick call to check if I still wanted it. He didn't even need the space in his now-empty garage or the three-bed house he was rattling around in. It was the utter needlessness of the act that I couldn't fathom. But I simply had no choice but to chalk it up to 'experience'. I couldn't 'go on about it' as implored because Dad was a broken man, and had been since Mum's passing. He didn't know what to do with his life except wanting to end it, which he had not just threatened but attempted, hospitalising himself with a botched effort. I had to bury my acrimony. And the worst then happened only weeks later. He was gone for good after succeeding this time in taking his own life, and so the previous calamity was simply supplanted and snuffed out by the next. Both the throwing away of the box and then the throwing away of himself had been destructive acts over which I'd had no control, so I would just have to learn to accept and live with it. Covid arrived not long after, and a pandemic and lockdowns and everything else in those crazy couple of years kept me distracted and diverted from all that had happened before. And once the country was back to normality again, and I'd landed a long-term copywriting contract, I truly felt like I'd emerged from all the earlier heartache like a butterfly from a chrysalis. How wrong I would be. Five years on, in 2023, out of nowhere the grief returned with a vengeance, but this time transmuted into something closer to consuming anger and rancour – emotions I'd kept in check at the time because of the situation with Dad. They had lain dormant all those years until finally finding an opening to vent, the trigger being my deciding to clear out my own junk-filled spare room, and deciding what needed to be chucked. Suddenly the dam burst and it all flooded back. The Kübler-Ross grief stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance – had basically been upended: I'd had to leapfrog straight to 'acceptance'. Turns out your mind doesn't let you off that lightly: there are no shortcuts. Those early stages are simply deferred, held 'in the bank', and I'd now experience the disbelief and ire years after the fact, long after thinking I was in the clear. Triggers arose everywhere: anything to do with history, personal possessions, memories, from someone mentioning something in conversation to a scene in a movie, would lead back to the feeling that part of me had died when that box went into landfill. Why on earth had I not liberated it when I had the chance, I'd continually curse myself, as if I'd had any way of knowing what was going to happen. Another grievance was that without any of my old ticket stubs or diary entries, I could no longer pinpoint the dates or times of anything I'd seen or visited – my curated life chronology now just a vague swirl of guesswork. Maybe that's a good thing, someone suggested to me: 'Without objects to steer your memory, you're free to remember anything in any order.' And that's what I've learnt to do now: to see things differently, or at least try to, or I'd just afflict my remaining life with futile recriminations over a deceased father who I can never otherwise properly mourn. Finding new meaning after loss is a powerful thing, someone else said to me. That helped clarify the importance of talking about it, whether to friends or a therapist, and not 'being a man' and just suppressing it all, as if that would help. Researching similar stories showed me I'm far from alone, from the theft of a removals truck containing an entire home's contents to storage-unit conflagrations, or the hapless man who couldn't afford to keep up with his storage arrears while seconded abroad and returned to find the company had subsequently destroyed his life possessions (was in the Ts-and-Cs, apparently). Writing about it helps, even if just as a warning to anyone likewise storing precious personal items with parents/relatives for 'safekeeping'. While the lesson is too late for me to learn, it should at least underscore the importance of keeping those things within your own control, their destiny in your own hands. Other recently emerging silver linings include my mind now compensating in other ways. Music has always been a potent transporter, but certain songs from my youth suddenly hold more evocative power than ever. I've also become given to organising large-scale social events, like an annual indoor mini-festival in a rural stately home for friends, or a high-school reunion attended by 120 people in my hometown – it's all about making the most of time left now, forging new life experiences I probably wouldn't otherwise have bothered with. On a practical note, as that box was the only thing I'd have rescued from a house fire, I no longer bother with contents insurance. Once the irreplaceable stuff is gone, everything else just becomes the opposite. Nowadays I can see more of the funny side, if you could call it that, of any of the triggers that not long ago plagued me. A recent Telegraph article on 'Döstädning' (decluttering) raised a smile at the irony of Dad's own little declutter session where he certainly was as 'ruthless' as the practice recommends. Earlier this year, during my latest fast-tracked bucket-list experience – a Beatles location pilgrimage in Liverpool, after a lifetime of Fab Four fandom – I was struck by a Paul McCartney quote reflecting on his unsteady relationship with John Lennon not long before his murder: 'His bluff was all on the surface. He used to take his glasses down, those granny glasses, and say, 'It's only me'…Those are the moments I treasure.' The truth of that line really chimed, that life is all about those moments that stay with you, so even if someone or something removes your physical reminders, they can't extinguish your actual memories of cherished lived moments, and it's those, once all is said and done, that sustain until the end. They can never be thrown away. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
