TIMBERSCOMBE Turtles Pre-School has been given the official thumbs-up by inspectors in the group's first Ofsted report since moving to purpose-built premises within the village school.

Inspector Julie Neal ruled the pre-school was good overall and ranked it as outstanding in four key areas.

The pre-school moved to a dedicated room within Timberscombe First School in 2010 and currently caters for nine children.

Ms Neal said children's individual needs were well met and they made excellent progress towards their development goals.

She found the three staff were well qualified, there was good feedback and communication with parents and both leadership and management was good.

This meant staff were enthusiastic and confident, had an extremely good understanding of safeguarding procedures and made the most of action plans.

"Children are safe and secure in the setting because staff are vigilant in ensuring daily health and safety checks of all areas are carried out.

"Staff benefit from an involved and supportive committee who share administrative tasks such as updating the operational plan and related documentation.

"As a result, all policies and procedures and risk assessments are reviewed regularly to reflect current good practice and regulatory requirements," Ms Neal said.

She said parents were becoming more involved in their children's individual learning plans after termly parents' events were dropped in favour of inviting parents to meet key workers on a one-to-one basis each week.

Children's views also formed a vital part of the self-evaluation process and the youngsters clearly enjoyed being part of an "inclusive environment" where their individual needs were both understood and met.

Ms Neal said: "Staff are extremely good at using impromptu opportunities to encourage children to talk about what they have learned and to asses their understanding.

"Children make excellent progress towards the early learning and development goals.

"Individual records of achievement are very well maintained and these confirm that children enjoy a wealth of experiences that promote learning in all areas.

"Children enjoy the very well organised learning environment, enthusiastically exploring the excellent range of resources available to them, both indoors and outside, and using these creatively,"

She said the children were confident communicators and well behaved: "They respond very well to the staff team's high expectations of them and take pride in being given responsibility.

"Some children are beginning to form clear letter shapes, however, all children confidently make their own marks to represent their names and staff applaud their writing skills," Ms Neal added.

Of the 17 areas judged by the inspector, the pre-school was deemed to be outstanding in four areas for offering exceptionally high quality and good for having strong provision in all the rest.

The top grades were achieved for its effectiveness of the use of resources, for children's achievements and enjoyment of learning, for the extent children made a positive contribution and for the development of their skills for the future.

The inspector's only recommendation was to develop consistency in reviewing parental consents for the administration of ongoing medication to ensure staff complied with the pre-school's policy of reviewing such medication every three months.

She said children's health requirements were recorded appropriately, were known to staff and were well met.

However, while procedures were appropriate, a check on individual records found inconsistencies in the timing of the three-monthly reviews.

Elaine Wood, chairman of the pre-school committee, said she was thrilled the pre-school had received outstanding marks in four areas.

"We are delighted with our Ofsted, especially since we have had to deal with moving premises and all the hard work that entails over the last six to seven months.

"The inspector had nothing but great things to say during her visit and was especially vocal with her praise for our headteacher Alison Bonner.

"She commented time and time again about how happy the children were in the setting and how 'at home' and 'at ease' they seemed to be.

"I would like to extend a massive thank you and well done to all our staff and committee for their dedication, enthusiasm and hard work, together they have created a place the children love to be.

"Also a big thank you to all at the first school, especially headmaster Marcus Capel, for the warm welcome we have received since moving into their premises and their continued support."