Education / Positive reports for nurseries and childcare facilities
TWO Shetland nurseries, an out of school centre and a residential childcare facility have been given positive reports from inspectors.
Reports on the Sandwick Junior High School nursery, Dunrossness Nursery and Ness Out of School Care Service were presented to Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee on Monday.
Windybrae in Dunrossness, which provides residential childcare for up to three young people, was also inspected.
Councillors were told that the Sandwick nursery was given ratings of four out of six in quality of care and support, and quality of environment.
It was praised for its warm and caring atmosphere, as well as its range of indoor and outdoor learning activities and the good use of the snack time to teach life skills.
Areas for improvement included sharing more information with parents and carers and including more details in children’s care plans.
Dunrossness Primary School Nursery received a five out of six rating for care and support and four out of six for environment.
It was praised for managing its recent expansion to 30 hours of care a week well, while the connection between staff and children was noted and that learning was increasingly being led by the children’s thoughts and opinions.
Inspectors thought that the indoor and outdoor areas could be improved, partly so the outdoors is less like a school playground.
Ness Out of School Care Service, meanwhile, received four out of six for both care and support and environment.
It was praised for its warm, caring atmosphere, the good selection of activities and its positive response from parents.
Areas of improvement included more regular updates of children’s care plans, while staff were recommended to consider how to seek the views of parents and carers in evaluating the service.
Windybrae was given five out of six ratings in quality of care and support and staffing, and four out of six in environment and management and leadership.
Some of its strengths were the nurturing relationship between staff and young people and the range of supporting systems in place to encourage personal and professional development.
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