STAFF and children at Eldene Pre-School have rounded off the school term on a high after being rated outstanding by Ofsted.

To celebrate the exciting news, the team organised a fete on Friday afternoon to coincide with 28 youngsters 'graduating' from the pre-school which is based in Eldene Community Centre.

The education regulator inspected the pre-school last month and in all areas - including quality of teaching, leadership, outcomes for pupils and personal development - the centre was found to be rated at the highest level possible.

Inspector Judith Harris said in her report: “The managers and staff have an excellent understanding of safeguarding procedures and about what to do to help to protect children from harm.

The staff work exceptionally well as a team and the manager ensures they are able to continue with their professional development.

“Staff gather extensive information from parents and other professionals, to provide a full and clear understanding of each child's development needs. This ensures staff can very quickly identify any gaps in learning and very effectively address them with exceptionally precise next steps in their learning.

“All children make outstanding progress, given what they know when they start. Children develop excellent early writing skills. For example, they write clearly recognisable letters and many can write their own names. Children develop an excellent understanding of the natural world and delight in investigating the different creatures they find in the garden. They recognise numbers and count with confidence. All children acquire skills that prepare them extremely well for the next stage in their learning and going to school.”

Eldene Pre-School was previously rated good back in 2015 but since then staff have tirelessly worked to improve the centre further to achieve the glowing outstanding status - much to the surprise of manager Tina Azzopardi.

“We were delighted and proud that we have finally been given the recognition we deserve," she said. "We are a charity-run pre-school but we work with parents in the community to offer flexible hours and we also take on children with special educational needs – we try to be as inclusive as we possibly can.

“We have been in Eldene for a long time and I have now two members of staff that I looked after when they were three-year-olds.

“When we got good last time we were happy but then when the inspector called to say we were outstanding, well, I was amazed.

“The way I run the pre-school is that I want to put everyone at ease but the children know we have rules they have to abide by.

“Because we take children from when they are one onwards, it is nice to see that the older ones are taking them on and wanting to look after them.”