A PORTLAND nursery has been rated as “requires improvement” by Ofsted.

Sunbeams Day Nursery, on the Southwell Business Park, was inspected by Ofsted last month.

It was given the rating as management did not always ensure that there was a member of staff who has a paediatric first-aid qualification on site at all times, monitoring and assessment was not precise enough and arrangements for self-evaluation were not thorough enough.

It was found to require improvement in all four areas assessed by Ofsted, ‘effectiveness of the leadership and management’; ‘quality of teaching’, ‘learning and assessment’; ‘personal development, behaviour and welfare and outcomes for children’.

The Ofsted report stated: “The management team does not ensure that there is always a member of staff who has a paediatric first-aid qualification working directly with the children to help ensure any medical emergencies are dealt with effectively. This is also a breach in the requirements of the Childcare Register.

“Monitoring and assessment of children’s learning are not precise enough to help staff to quickly identify gaps in children’s learning or plan well for their individual learning needs. Children do not always make good enough progress.

“Arrangements for self-evaluation are not thorough enough to help the management team ensure it meets all requirements and makes continuous improvements.”

Owner Jayne Urquhart-Sims, said that everyone at the nursery has been trained in first aid. She said that the nursery’s first aid certificate ran out in August but due to unforeseen circumstances, staff were not able to attend a refresher course in July and the first chance they got to do it after missing that chance was this month. She added that monitoring and self-evaluation standards were lower than usual as it was inspected during holiday time.

The report did praise several areas of the nursery. It stated: “Children are well behaved and have a clear understanding of the consistent boundaries and expectations that staff make clear to them. They respond well to the positive encouragement they receive from staff.”