A Walshaw nursery is jumping for joy after regaining its ‘outstanding’ rating.

Mulberry Bush in Stewart Street was previously rated as ‘good’ in August, 2013, but when Ofsted inspectors attended in November, 2013 the nursery was given top marks.

Inspectors praised the priority which the nursery places on children’s safety, their commitment to provide learning opportunities and the way managers motivate their staff to provide an excellent service.

The nursery, which looks after 166 children up to the age of five, had previously been rated as outstanding in September, 2011.

The report stated: “The nursery passes on highly comprehensive information about children's progress directly to their next settings, such as full-time school. This promotes continuity of planning for further learning.

“Children make excellent progress in their learning, as key persons have an exceptional knowledge of how individual children learn.

“Their progress is very comfortably within that expected for their age range.”

Jo Kinloch, Mulberry Bush Nursery group director, said she was delighted with the report.

She said: “We are thrilled that the incredible hard work, commitment and passion of our talented team of childcare practitioners has been recognised in such a beautiful report from Ofsted. All four of our nurseries are rated ‘outstanding’ and this is because we ensure the experiences of children truly come first in every aspect of our nurseries. We were very pleased and we were thrilled to get it back, but it is no more than we expected.”

However, Mrs Kinloch said the nursery was “unhappy” with the way the previous inspection was conducted, and by the manner of the inspector.

She added that the nursery was appealing to have the August 2013 report removed from the Ofsted website.

The Mulberry Bush group also owns nurseries in Tottington, Walmersley and Whitefield, and recently spent £40,000 on building three new childcare rooms. Their Tottington nursery was opened in September, 1990 in the Old Police House in Kirklees Street, Tottington by Mrs Kinloch’s mother and father, John and Sue Robinson.

They then opened the Whitefield nursery in 2004, followed by Walshaw in 2006 and most recently Walmersley opened in July, 2011, and the nurseries are now run by Mrs Kinloch and her two brothers Paul and Andy Robinson.