A NURSERY in Radcliffe has been praised by inspectors for its "rich, stimulating and exciting learning environment" in an Ofsted report published this week.

Bank House Day Nursery, in Blackburn Street, was given an overall 'good' rating after it was inspected on July 10.

Inspector Julie Kelly said in the report: "The quality of teaching throughout the nursery is good and at times outstanding. Staff have a very good understanding of the learning and development requirements and how children learn best. As a result, children make consistently good progress in relation to their starting points.

"Key persons are highly skilled and sensitive and help babies and children to form extremely strong emotional attachments. Consequently, children's self-esteem, sense of belonging and feeling of security is promoted to the highest level.

"Staff provide babies and children with a rich, stimulating and exciting learning environment, both indoors and outdoors. They benefit from a very wide range of high quality resources that effectively promote all seven areas of learning. As a result, children are interested and motivated and develop extremely positive attitudes towards learning, in readiness for school.

"Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who speak English as an additional language are particularly well supported."

The report added that, to achieve an 'outstanding' rating, the nursery should take more opportunities to improve children's listening and attention skills, and consistently take account of parents and children's views when carrying out self-evaluation.

The nursery currently caters for 69 children up to the age of 11 and has been registered since 1986.

Commenting on the Ofsted report findings, Bank House Day Nursery co-owner Jenny Rivers said: "We are very pleased, particularly because we got an 'outstanding' for the wellbeing of young children.

"This report is good for the nursery and we are very proud of our 15 staff for consistently working well and promoting the children's learning development and wellbeing."