A VILLAGE pre-school has continued to be rated ‘good’ by the education watchdog, with inspectors praising both children and staff.

Longparish Little School was visited by Ofsted inspectors on November 28 and on January 4, a report on the visit was published.

The pre-school has maintained its ‘good’ rating following its previous inspection in 2017, with two areas in the latest report — behaviour and attitudes, and personal development — graded as ‘outstanding’.

The report said: “Children are incredibly happy and settled at this calm and inviting pre-school. They embrace the warm welcome they receive from staff and enter with ease and confidence.

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“Skilled staff enhance and extend children's interests and involvement by joining in with children's play and forging purposeful learning experiences. This at no point interferes with the fun the children are having.”

Inspectors noted that all children “demonstrate a positive attitude to learning”, with staffing knowing the “strategies to help individual children to settle and use these effectively”.

They continued, saying: “Children behave exceptionally well. They are highly respectful of adults and peers and regularly show empathy and care for one another. Staff promote independence and resilience well.”

Praise was also given to the manager for her clear “clear and ambitious vision”, adding: “She is hands-on in her practice and is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable role model for staff.”

Parents told inspectors that their children 'adore coming to the pre-school' and that the staff 'go above and beyond' when supporting their children.

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It was found that safeguarding arrangements are effective, and all staff “demonstrate a sound understanding of what processes they should follow if they become concerned for a child's safety and welfare”.

Inspectors suggested one improvement that the pre-school could make, saying it should "strengthen staff's skills in focusing even more precisely and consistently on what children are ready to learn next, to help them make the best possible progress.”

Manager Claire Nash said: "I am delighted with our overall grade of 'good' from our recent Ofsted inspection and extremely proud of achieving 'outstanding' grades in personal development and behaviour and attitudes. Our ethos at Little School is very much linked to the children becoming motivated, respectful, independent, and resilient individuals. They learn and develop through all the meaningful play experiences we provide for them which I feel the report reflects very well.

"I would like to thank all the staff, committee, parents and, of course, the fantastic children for making Little School such an amazing place."