Reading nursery needs attention in all areas, Ofsted finds

The Lodge Day Nursery, in Coronation Square, Reading, received the judgement following an inspection on September 17.

Inspectors raised concerns about 'inconsistencies' in the quality of teaching, behaviour and attitudes, children's welfare and wellbeing and inclusion.

Achievement, curriculum and teaching and leadership, were also identified as areas which require improvement.

The nursery is registered with Ofsted under Reading Borough Council's children's services which they provide as a statutory duty.

Ofsted highlighted that there was a 'lack of sufficiently purposeful' activities at the time of the inspection which were well matched to children's individual needs.

This meant some children didn't make the progress they were capable of, inspectors said. Behaviour across the setting was also marked as 'inconsistent'.

The report noted that there are time babies and pre-school children walk around 'without clear purpose' when outdoors.

Inspectors said: "This is because the outdoor curriculum does not provide children with sufficiently engaging experiences to help them achieve the expected progress needed for their next stage in learning."

They added: "There are some breaches of the early years foundation stage requirements that affect children's outcomes.

"Although new leaders have identified some weaknesses in provision, their actions to address them are at the very early stages. As a result, children receive varying levels of quality on their learning journey."

The report also said that younger children also have 'fewer engaging experiences' to explore to expand their learning.

Inspectors said: "Babies outdoors, and pre-school children both indoors and outdoors, have fewer engaging experiences to explore, broaden and expand their learning across all areas of the curriculum.

"During free play, they frequently choose to remain indoors, where there are more stimulating activities and greater staff interactions. Outdoors, babies are less motivated to explore, and pre-school children sometimes have disputes about resources not being shared fairly."

Despite this, communication and language was praised, with children shown to develop physical skills through active play.

The report said: "Babies hear names of body parts as they play with dolls, while toddlers show amazement and engage positively in language interventions, such as 'bucket time', where they hear key words repeated in context while being shown interesting toys. Children also develop their physical skills through active play."

Children were said to be 'supported by caring staff' who get down to children's level, offer comfort and respond sensitively when children reassurance.

A spokesman for Reading Borough Council, said: "As stated in the report, the new leadership team at The Lodge was recognised by Ofsted as already taking actions to address identified issues.

"As Ofsted also state in its report, inspectors saw that the new leadership team was demonstrating the capacity to address issues identified.

"All actions required by Ofsted have either been completed or will be completed by the requested date of 27 November. The nursery is making strong progress and we are looking forward to Ofsted returning for the reinspection of the nursery next year."