“Improve in all areas”, Ofsted tells Aughton nursery

Aughton Early Years Centre has been told it needs to improve the effectiveness of the leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare and outcomes for children.

The Main Street nursery and children’s centre was inspected on October 12 and the report was published last Friday.

Inspector Jane Tucker said: “Leaders monitoring of staff’s practice does not focus precisely enough on how they can raise the quality of teaching to a consistently good level.

“Staff do not use observation and assessment effectively to identify what children know and can already do.

“They do not consistently identify children’s individual next steps or preferences for learning.”

She added: “Leaders do not always plan activities precisely enough to meet children’s individual learning needs and some gaps in learning have occurred.

“Not all children make the best possible progress.”

The inspector noted the centre’s partnerships with parents were good, mealtimes were “social occasions” and children were given healthy meals.

She said another positive aspect was the fact children had been out into the community, visited shops and learned about “people who help them”.

To improve, Ms Tucker said, the centre must raise the quality of teaching, ensure activities were individually tailored and identify weaknesses in the nursery more precisely to help raise outcomes for children.