CIW & Estyn EXCELLENT

Well I have been busting at the seams for 9 weeks to let the cat out of the bag. Last night we closed early so I could let the team know before it went public today, as I wasn’t allowed to tell them either.

 

At our recent joint CIW And ESTYN inspection, which is care and education, WE WERE GRADED EXCELLENT IN ALL SIX AREAS.

 

I am still pinching myself that that happened.

 

The areas are : Wellbeing, Learning, Care and Development, Teaching and Assessment, Environment, Leadership and Management.

 

The grading is Poor (no explanation needed), Adequate(strengths outweigh weakness but improvements are required), Good (Many strengths and no important areas requiring significant improvement) and Excellent( very strong, sustained performance and practice. Not only did we get Excellent in all areas we were also asked to write a case study showing how we work in partnership to be published for other nurseries to see.

 

Only one other Nursery in Wales has achieved 6 excellents, so a shout out to Rachels Playhouse in Aberdare too because we fully appreciate the hard work that goes in to achieve those grades.

 

So that’s the facts and here comes the emotions and there were plenty of those on the day.

 

The feedback from the inspectors on the day was completely amazing. The words they used to describe the setting, the team, the children, which is what we as management work towards every day, reduced me to tears and I have to admit I missed most of it. After Excellent number three, everything was a blur and I was hugging everyone in the room. We (myself, Amy, Emma and Sarah, our Local Advisory Teacher) cried most of the way through but thankfully Sarah remained professional and kept writing notes.

 

At this point people generally say, there are no words to explain how I feel, but I have plenty of words, but you don’t have the time to listen to everything that is going through my head right now. 24 years I have worked to get here, always dreading inspections because either they don’t agree with the way we work or nerves get to people. The New Curriculum I believe is now allowing children to be children and to grow and learn in a way that is fun, which means they are so willing to experiment and take new things on board. Chuckles is designed to ensure that happens and we see the result of that everyday. The team can spend time on creating activities that challenge the children and are not buried in meaningless paperwork. I knew Team Chuckles could shine and despite a few nerves on day one, they came through and showed the inspectors what they were capable of and backed up everything we said they could do.

 

The children, well I never doubted them. No nerves, so no stage fright, just another day in Chuckles Nursery for them. Another day, another adventure.

 

So thank you to Sarah who supports us when we choose to do things the Chuckles Way, but keeps an eye we don’t go too far off base.Thank you to all of the Chuckles Team for the care and attention you give to our little Chucklers and we see every day how much they love you for that.We also have had feedback ourselves and we know you like us now by the way . Thank you to my Poppa (the children know as Mike) who rain or shine stays on top of outside and makes the children such wonderful creations. Thank you to Amy, Emma and Tara who have to live and breathe the many many many rules and regulations we have to maintain to just exist let alone to excel. I know I am a headache always wanting to challenge the norm, but you pull it off every time and sorry by the way, that is never going to change

Thank you to you all, because without you all Chuckles would never be as great as it is. Not sure how we can beat this next time now though, but I am sure we can think of something.

All my love to you all.

 

Lisa xxx