15 May 2013
Dear Parent/Carer
3 Bears Nursery - Cambuslang
South Lanarkshire
Recently, as you may know, I visited and inspected your child’s nursery. During my
visit, I talked to parents and children and I worked closely with the head of centre
and staff. I wanted to find out how well children are learning and achieving and how
well the nursery supports children to do their best. The head of centre shared with
me the nursery’s successes and priorities for improvement. I looked at some
particular aspects of the nursery’s recent work, including literacy across the
curriculum and children’s involvement in contributing to planning and improvements.
As a result, I was able to find out how good the nursery is at improving children’s
education.
How well do children learn and achieve?
Overall, children are achieving well. Babies are happy and settled in nursery, they
enjoy exploring natural materials and taking part in ‘messy’ play. Toddlers are
independent and help to get activities ready and tidy away. They enjoy looking at
books and exploring paint with their hands and feet. Older children have formed
friendships and play well together. They enjoy learning about things that interest
them such as sea creatures and can talk about what they have learned. They feel
proud of their achievements and the certificates they receive. Children choose from
a range of activities, however, they could take more responsibility for their learning.
They persevere during more challenging tasks, however, do not always sustain
interest in other activities. Children have been involved in helping to make
improvements to the nursery garden and benefit from daily outdoor play.
Overall, children are making good progress in early literacy and numeracy. They are
developing good listening skills and older children contribute with confidence to
group discussions. They enjoy listening to stories and using books and the internet
for information. Most older children write their names and make signs for displays.
They are developing an awareness of letter names and sounds. Children match and
sort with confidence. They are developing their understanding of number. Older
children count and sequence numbers to ten and a few children have an
understanding of larger numbers. Children regularly use mathematical language in
play to make comparisons. They learn about money through visits to the local
supermarket. Children have a good understanding about how to keep healthy. They
enjoy planting seeds and bulbs as well as preparing and tasting different foods.
Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston
EH54 6GA
T
01506 600370
F
01506 600313
E eyfp@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
Textphone 01506 600236
This is a service for deaf users. Please do not
use this number for voice calls as this will not
connect.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
They learn about living things through experiences such as observing caterpillars
and dissecting mackerel. They learn about other cultures and participate in
fundraising events to sponsor a shelter in Malawi.
How well does the pre-school centre support children to develop and learn?
Babies and toddlers needs are met very well. Staff support them with sensitivity and
encourage them to explore and investigate through a range of quality experiences.
Overall, staff meet the pastoral needs of children well and children benefit from
supportive relationships with them. Staff work hard to take account of children’s
interests to plan for themes, for example superheroes and jungle animals. They now
need to build on children’s interests in free play to deepen and extend learning.
Some activities are too adult-led and children need more opportunities to be creative
and solve problems. Staff provide a range of activities for pre-school children to
choose from. Play areas now need to offer children more choice and challenge.
Staff should encourage children to be more independent in managing tasks. Staff
make observations of children and are beginning to track their progress.
Observations now need to be used more effectively to plan for children’s next steps
in learning. Children and parents could be more involved in contributing to children’s
profiles. Children’s learning is supported well through visits from ‘Zoolab’ and trips to
the shop and station. Transition arrangements within the nursery are flexible to meet
the needs of individual children. There are suitable arrangements for children
moving on to school.
How well does the pre-school centre improve the quality of its work?
Staff led by the effective recently appointed manager are committed to improving the
work of the nursery. The nursery values the views of parents and children and takes
appropriate action. Staff are making good progress with aspects of planned
improvements. They have particular roles and responsibilities to develop different
aspects of the curriculum. Recent improvements to the nursery garden have had a
significant impact on children’s experiences. Staff work hard to develop appropriate
planning processes to ensure that children receive a balanced curriculum. Staff take
advantage of professional learning to develop their knowledge and skills. The
manager and area manager monitor the quality of the work of the nursery. They
have a clear focus on improving outcomes for children. Staff work effectively as a
team and under the leadership of the management team have the capacity to
continue to improve.
My inspection of your pre-school centre found the following key strengths.



Happy, friendly children who enjoy nursery and are making progress in literacy
and numeracy.
Positive relationships within the nursery.
The commitment of staff led by the effective manager to improving children’s
experiences.
2
I discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to improve
the nursery. This is what I agreed with them.



Improve the curriculum to provide greater levels of choice and challenge to
enhance children’s experiences.
Develop further, approaches to assessing and tracking children’s progress to
plan more effectively for next steps in learning.
Continue to develop partnerships with parents and the community to enhance
children’s learning.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the
nursery’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, we will
make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The head of centre and
local authority will inform parents about the nursery’s progress as part of the
arrangements for reporting to parents on the quality of the nursery.
Rosie Smith
Managing Inspector
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations,
for your school can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/eyc/3Bears
NurseryCambuslangSouthLanarkshire.asp
If you would like to receive this report in a different format, for example, in a
translation please contact the administration team on the above telephone number.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
us by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or email:
complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us addressing your letter to the
Complaints Manager, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Livingston
EH54 6GA.
3