Behind the Rating: Parents lift nursery to distinction

As Ofsted early years inspections go, you could not wish for a better result than that achieved by the Kids Explorers Nursery in Fareham.

Its scores in a September inspection are an unbroken string of "outstandings" and the watchdog’s report is almost gushing in its praise.

One aspect that caught the Ofsted inspector’s eye was how the nursery works with parents and carers. Much of this stems from the setting’s parents’ forum, which informs almost everything it does including recruitment.

About 18 months ago, the nursery overhauled its recruitment process to involve parents directly in selecting who to hire. "When looking to recruit, we ask parents if they would be interested in supporting the process and sitting on the interview panel," says Ann-Marie Boxall, the nursery’s early years co-ordinator.

Parental participation

Parents who get involved receive support so that they understand the process and know what to expect. They are also invited to come up with questions for the candidates and the scores they give each potential recruit are given the same weight as the views of the management staff.

"We feel that it is important, as parents that have a child in our setting have a different viewpoint from us," says Boxall. "It gives us a rounded recruitment process that looks at candidates from lots of different angles."

Parents also influence how the nursery assesses its work. Each child has an individual education plan (IEP) that collates the targets and aspirations for them as set by their parents and the professionals, both inside and outside the nursery.
Ofsted called the IEP approach "very effective", as staff evaluate how each child’s needs are met every day. While this suggests an awful lot of paperwork, the IEP streamlines the process. "We worked really hard to refine our paperwork, so that we have one document rather than lots of different documents," says Boxall.

The IEP is not just a form-filling exercise either – the evaluations are integrated into the sessions.
"Children have opportunities to sit down in small groups and talk to staff and their peers about what they’ve played with, what they liked, what they didn’t like and that starts to build up their confidence in talking and working with others," explains Boxall.

While the IEP is central to directing the nursery’s activities, parents like it too because it keeps all the information about their child in one place, she adds.

The inspection report also praises the way that the nursery encourages children "to take controlled risks to learn how to keep themselves safe". Part of that thinking is a result of the setting’s embrace of High Scope and Portage educational approaches.

"We follow elements of the High Scope approach, which allows children to build their self-esteem and make their own individual choices," says Boxall. "The Portage training allows staff to understand how a normal development task can be broken down into tiny little pieces so that a child can achieve small pieces and eventually adopt all the skills to enable them to achieve the larger task."

FACT FILE

• Fareham in Hampshire. Serves parents in both Fareham and nearby Gosport
• Provider: Kids, the national disabled children’s charity
• Number of children: 49
• Description: Inclusive setting that caters for children with and without disabilities from birth to four. Services are free and opening hours are 9.30am to 4pm Monday to Friday during school term time. Its work is informed around principles to build children’s self-esteem and train staff to break down childhood development tasks into segments. 
• Ofsted inspection unique reference number: 110252

HELPFUL HINTS

• Develop a parent strategy. Kids Explorers Nursery has a parents’ forum to help ensure that the views of the parents and carers of its children inform every aspect of its work. "It allows our parents to feed into everything we do, whether that be policies or new developments that we’re looking at," says Boxall. "It helps us bear in mind what parents want for their children."
• Invite external services to see you in action. The nursery considers good external relations as a crucial part of helping to speed up joint working and referrals, so it makes an effort to get external agencies to visit and see its work first hand. Staff also go to external meetings to promote the nursery’s services and make other professionals aware of its specialisms.
• Be accessible to parents. While some settings only take referrals from other professionals, Kids Explorers Nursery allows parents and carers to self-refer their children. Boxall says allowing parents to approach the nursery direct is important because it helps to build the nursery’s reputation through word-of-mouth among local parents and carers.