IT has been a busy time at Craven College's Creche over the past week with staff and children celebrating an excellent Ofsted report, welcoming new children and planning a name change.

All children at Craven College's Creche are likely to develop well in the six areas of learning by the time they are five years old according to its recent Ofsted report.

The programmes for social development, language and literacy, maths, knowledge and understanding, physical development and creative development were all described as good or very good by inspectors.

The report stated that the children showed consideration for others and their environment, and that staff were careful to ensure that activities and resources could be selected by the children to work in groups or alone.

The language programme resulted in children listening attentively during story telling, and there were opportunities for role play. The inspectors said the range of books was good as was the provision made for the children to develop their own informal writing. They highlighted the fact that the children were learning to identify rhyming patterns.

The inspectors stated that the staff's planning and quality of teaching was high. "Staff work well together as a team and use appropriate methods of organising children for all activities, achieving a good balance between adult directed activities and those chosen by the children themselves."

Inspectors stated that there were no significant weaknesses.

Creche supervisor Tricia Langham said the development of the creche had resulted in a name change to 'nursery' starting in September. She said the word creche did not give the impression of an educational facility for two to five year olds which the unit had become.

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