Ofsted inspectors give Victoria House Day Nursery 'good' rating

Victoria House Day Nursery in Bromyard Road, Worcester, has been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted after an inspection last month.

Inspectors praised the nursery’s “enthusiastic” manager and “dedicated” staff who “strived to deliver high-quality care and education at all times.”

Ofsted also said parents were “highly complimentary” of the nursery and the “fantastic job” that the “welcoming and lovely” staff had done.

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The report by Ofsted said children at the nursery were “happy and content” in the care of its “nurturing” staff who were tuned into every individual need.

“They quickly recognise when children become tired or hungry,” inspectors said. “Babies and young children receive lots of cuddles throughout the day. This helps them to feel emotionally secure.

“The youngest children sleep peacefully in comfortable surroundings. Staff check on them every five minutes to ensure they are safe and well.”

The nursery dropped a rating from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ after an inspection last year but, this time, Ofsted said the nursery had made the progress it needed.

“Since the last inspection, they have enhanced their relationships with parents of children who speak English as an additional language,” inspectors said.

“Staff seek and learn words that children use at home to support their play at the nursery.

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“They complete the progress check for children aged between two and three years, and have a good understanding of how and when to seek early intervention if children are not at their expected levels of development.”

Mandy and Dave Ward, who bought the nursery in December 2021, said they were delighted with the results.

“These are fantastic achievements and a testimony to the dedication of our amazing staff across the three settings,” they said.

“There has been a lot of hard work transforming the nursery into such a lovely environment and we would like to thank the parents for all of their fantastic, supportive comments regarding the nursery to Ofsted.

“With increasing child numbers due to our growing reputation, we are in a great position to be looking to recruit even more staff going forwards, which is superb news.”

Ofsted said that children behaved well at the nursery “on the whole” but there were occasions when “challenging behaviour was not approached consistently.”

“Staff know children and their families well,” Ofsted said. “They plan a wide range of interesting play activities around children's individual interests to support their learning.

“Staff make regular observations of their play to identify what children know and can do. They use this information to plan for children's future learning.”

But while inspectors said the relationship between the nursery and parents was “strong,” the nursery needed to be better at understanding from parents what their children already knew and could do at home to plan and monitor progress from the start rather than just relying on their own assessments.