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Nursery rated inadequate by Ofsted - WWYD?

4 replies

boobymilkmachine · 09/08/2018 12:55

Our DS currently goes to a small Montessori nursery 2 1/2 day's a week, I'm currently on maternity leave & we had been planning for him & DS2 to go up to 4 days / week from Feb when I go back to work. Up until now we'd been very happy with the nursery, & have found them caring & attentive, with a really nice warm atmosphere - although their admin has been rubbish at points.
They've just had an Ofsted inspection & were rated Inadequate overall, largely due to issues with safeguarding (recruiting staff without gathering full references & not doing additional checks for staff members who've come from overseas) but also with some concerns about teaching standards for the younger children.
I'm really shocked, & don't know what to do. The nursery have complained to Ofsted & are saying that they believe the inspector was racist in her attitude to some staff members and seemed determined to fail them despite them having evidence that contradicts the inspectors findings.
I'm not sure whether to give them the benefit of the doubt & wait for the re-inspection, or if we should cut our losses & move the boys. It's a small family-owned place so if too many parents did that they could go bust, & we don't want to be rash & unfair on them, but if the Ofsted inspector was right, then there's no way I would be able to trust them to care for my boys 4 days per week.
WWYD? Thanks!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
HSMMaCM · 09/08/2018 18:23

Out local pre school went from outstanding to requires improvement, due to some paperwork issues and then back to good within a few months. Try and find out a bit more. Not checking staff is pretty serious and the lack of learning might be simply not completing 2 year checks. There's no way for us to know, only the nursery and ofsted know. Hopefully parents will get more information and details of how they're planning to improve.

nannynick · 11/08/2018 10:45

I have known nurseries go from inadequate to good in 6 months. They may appeal the judgement, make changes and get reinspected and do much better.

I would use your personal judgement not rely on Ofsted. I would look at the response the nursery gives you - they will probably tell all parents about the inspection and what changes they have immediately implemented. The managements actions over the next couple of weeks would help determine decision to look for somewhere else.

catherinedevalois · 11/08/2018 10:52

Teaching standards for the younger children? How bizarre that sounds

boobymilkmachine · 11/08/2018 20:06

Thanks for the replies Smile
The nursery have complained about the inspection to Ofsted and appealed pretty much all of their findings. To be honest that bothered me more than anything - they were very firmly of the view that they are great and the inspector was mad. Not exactly showing willingness to learn and change to become better.
Apparently Ofsted should respond to the complaint in a few weeks, which will be interesting. In the meantime I'm visiting nurseries!

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