AN ELTON pre-school has been given the thumbs up by Ofsted inspectors.

Monitors from the education watchdog visited First Steps Day Nursery and Pre School in Orrell Street on June 17 and published their report last Thursday.

The pre-school has 27 staff and has 105 children aged under five on the roll.

Inspectors gave the pre-school a ‘good’ rating overall — the second best of four possible ratings, and one better than the last time they visited in August, 2015.

In her report, inspector Linda McLarty said: “The manager has worked well with the local authority to improve the learning outcomes for children and these outcomes are now good.

“Staff support children’s care needs effectively. Parents, including those whose children have specific care needs, giving moving examples of the difference this has made to children’s health, confidence and well-being.”

“Staff use information from children’s assessment and from parents to provide activities, which successfully build on children’s emerging abilities and interests.

“Consequently, children become engrossed in learning and behave well.”

In order to reach the top grade of ‘outstanding’, the pre-school must put systems in place to regularly observe staff to check the quality of teaching and give them detailed feedback, the report said.

It added: “Teaching is improving rapidly. However, some staff need more support to ensure that the quality of teaching is consistent across the large staff team.”

Visit tinyurl.com/firststepsburyofsted to read the full report.