WORKERS at a nursery in Swindon are celebrating after transforming its fortunes.

A 2017 June Ofsted report rated the Croft Playgroup in Old Town as 'requires improvement' in all areas.

But now, following a reinspection, it has been marked 'good' in every category.

Playgroup manager Helen Dearlove said: “We are extremely proud of our playgroup.

"The staff have worked incredibly hard to make improvements since our previous inspection.

“We have had a total overhaul of the indoor and outdoor areas, new website and rigorous systems in place to support staff in their daily practice.

"And were praised for the ways in which they support the children to play cooperatively together, develop early friendships and to play imaginatively.

“We value close partnerships with parents and we were delighted that they were unanimous in their praise during the inspection.

“We have excellent support from our committee and have benefitted from good links with local schools in the community, notably Lethbridge Primary School who have worked closely with us during the last year.

“At Croft we believe that each child is unique and deserves to feel welcome, loved, respected and valued by that adults and children around them.

“We are delighted to be ‘good’ once again and are keen now to build on this success as a team.”

Among the areas identified last year were that staff needing to improve their own self-evaluation and noted that procedures to track children’s learning English as a second language were not effective enough.

A summary of the most recent report said “The manager and staff have worked hard to make significant improvements since the last inspection.

"They have addressed the actions and recommendations raised.

"They know what the setting’s strengths and weaknesses are and implement ongoing improvement plans to help maintain children’s good outcomes.”

It also said management and staff now receive very good support from the playgroup committee, having regular one-to-one supervisions, team meetings and annual appraisals.

Adding that staff complete regular assessments of children’s achievements and support children’s communication and language skills well.

Youngsters are also encouraged to play imaginatively and staff help them to experiment and est out their ideas

The pre-school for three to five-year-olds had been previously rated good in November 2015.

To reach outstanding the report said the sometimes staff do not recognise opportunities to extend children’s early interest in mathematical language and concepts further and children’s interests and abilities could be challenged further on occasions.