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A Halifax nursery manager says she is proud of her ‘wonderful staff team’ after the setting retained its outstanding Ofsted rating.

Salterlee Under Fives Playgroup, based at Salterlee Primary School on Kell Lane, continued to receive the top honour from the education watchdog following an inspection in September, having gained outstanding from Ofsted’s previous visit in 2016.

The latest report, which has just been published, states: “Children are extremely happy and confident. They have developed exceptional relationships with staff, whom they trust implicitly. Behaviour throughout the nursery is impeccable.

“Children are supported to understand and manage their own emotions. They are kind towards peers who may be upset.

Staff at Salterlee Under Fives Playgroup, from left to right: Julie Phillips (Early Years Practitioner), Dawn Wareing (Deputy manager), Suzanne Jowett (Administrative manager), Felicity Sutcliffe (Early Years Teacher and manager), Louise Batty (Early Years SENCO) and Mia Fellows (Early Years Practitioner).

“Children are exposed to rich and diverse opportunities to learn about the world around them.

“Staff speak with immense pride about the wonderful achievements of all children. They have exceptionally high expectations of what children can achieve, and children display excellent attitudes to their learning.

“Staff encourage children to talk about their feelings. This helps them to understand the impact that their behaviours can have on others.”

The report also praises the setting’s focus on language. It says: “Children become confident and fluent users of language. Staff support language development with exceptional skill.

Salterlee Under Fives Playgroup, based at Salterlee Primary School, Halifax, is a place where "children are exposed to rich and diverse opportunities to learn about the world around them," according to the Ofsted inspectors.

“They ensure that all interactions are of a high quality, modelling language with precision and clarity.

“Where children's language skills are lower than expected, staff apply highly effective action to close gaps in progress.”

Felicity Sutcliffe, manager at the nursery as well as an early years teacher, and has worked there for 15 years, was delighted with the reports’ findings.

She said: “I am really proud because it is really hard to attain an outstanding. We got it last time so keeping it was really important for us.

“It’s been six years since the last one and there have been a lot of changes but the quality has improved. It is really nice to be recognised.

“Language has clearly been impacted for children during COVID and the paragraph about the fluency of children’s language was lovely. I loved that because that is such a focus for us.

“We have got a really stable, wonderful staff team, who have been here a long time.”

Salterlee Under Fives Playgroup in Halifax retains ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating