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A Bristol nursery school responded to Ofsted’s “inadequate” rating, saying staff felt intimidated during the inspection, describing it as “a horrible experience”. Staff and owners have also disputed some of the education watchdog’s findings.

The inspection of the Play Station Nursery in Filton took place in January when Ofsted’s findings changed the nursery from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’. The report, released last week, criticized “staff’s lack of supervision and knowledge of safeguarding procedures that compromised the safety of children,” noting examples of broken or dangerous materials and wet covers.

The report also found that children were not being taught “effectively about limits and expectations,” describing the children’s behavior as “poor and they struggle to participate in activities.” He noted that children were seen throwing toys or dough at each other and staff did not intervene.

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It also found that managers “failed to communicate to the staff team what they want children to learn,” adding that staff did not have the skills or understanding to implement the curriculum successfully.

The report also indicated that staff do not teach children the knowledge and skills they need and do not help them develop a positive attitude toward learning. He said children were not motivated to “persevere with tasks and participate in learning” and that not all parents knew who their child’s key person was and how well they were doing.

nursery response

However, a spokesperson for the daycare responded to the report, saying they disagreed with the findings. The team behind the nursery on Conygre Road in Filton have also lodged two formal complaints against the watchdog. She said: “This was a horrible experience for our team, we have been in the childcare industry for over 20 years and at the site in question for over 10 years, we have had many experiences with Ofsted and none like this.”

She said the children currently in her care had been through a lockdown that presented challenges, as did losing a staff member with members of the administration team having to step in and cover for teachers when necessary.

She stated: “The inspector was late and nervous from the start and therefore did not go through what would have been a learning walk and gave us a chance to show around our surroundings and talk about our cohort and fantastic parent associations , which we believe would have given the inspector a better knowledge of our environment at the time of issuing the judgement. The staff felt very intimidated and the inspector did not reassure them”.

The daycare spokeswoman added that the broken equipment referenced in the report “was a bucket that was a little rusty, nothing else was broken.” very aware of this and take precautions.” She said they rented the South Gloucestershire Council building and told them about the slippery surface.

She said the comment about limits and expectations was in reference to a child who had been in day care for two days and was “not yet fully immersed in our day care routine and rules,” adding: “This child was also the problem of the key person”. and we do a relationship mapping process where we make sure the key person is the best fit for the particular child.

“We are especially offended by the comment ‘leaders don’t recognize poor staff practices’ – asked the inspector quite specifically – who would you say is the strongest member of your staff? The manager felt this comment was intimidating and replied that we identified the strengths and weaknesses and that he was able to show a detailed training program for the staff that the inspector refused to see”.

He added: “We would also like to point out that we had another inspection in a sister environment under the same management team and found a very positive experience, completely different to this one with a very positive outcome. Our passionate staff work hard to ensure that we create a nurturing and supportive environment for our families.”

In response to the nursery’s claims about the inspection, an Ofsted spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individual inspections or complaints.”

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