Hemel nursery falls from Outstanding to Requires Improvement

Old Macdonald’s Day Nursery, in Chipperfield Road, Bovingdon, received the highest-possible grade when inspectors visited in September 2015.

But on September 1 this year Ofsted returned and handed it a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’.

Ofsted said some staff are “still unsure” about the recording methods used to make sure registers are consistently accurate.

The current information of children’s learning “does not target groups of children to ensure that all children make rapid progress”.

And the process in place to support staff to enhance teaching skills is “not fully developed”.

This means children do not receive equally good teaching throughout the nursery.

Ofsted reports rate schools either ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’.

The inspections then break their grading into four categories: effectiveness of the leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare; and outcomes for children.

Last year Old Macdonald’s was rated ‘outstanding’ for all four areas.

A nursery spokesman said: “Our last two Ofsted inspections were outstanding, and we were surprised, shocked and disappointed with the most recent Ofsted inspector’s outcome. However we respect this latest inspector’s rating and shall endeavour to achieve our outstanding rating back.

“The nursery were not happy with the process and are in the process of liaising with Ofsted in this regard.

“Over what is now approaching 19 years we have had thousands of children attend our setting and we regularly receive positive feedback from previous and existing customers alike.

“We hold strong family values. We often have numerous siblings attend spread over many years. We also see many old customers out and about that often remark how wonderful our setting is and they look back on their time attending here with such happiness.”