14 April 2015
Dear Parent/Carer
Farmhouse Nursery
West Linton
Recently, as you may know, my colleague and I visited and inspected your child’s
early learning and childcare setting. Throughout our visit we talked to parents and
children and we worked closely with the manager and staff. We wanted to find out
how well children were learning and achieving and how well the early learning and
childcare setting supported children to do their best. The manager shared with us
the early learning and childcare setting’s successes and priorities for improvement.
We looked at some particular aspects of the early learning and childcare setting’s
recent work including outdoor learning. As a result, we were able to find out how
good the early learning and childcare setting was at improving children’s education.
I would now like to tell you what we found.
How well do children learn and achieve?
We found that babies, toddlers and young children are happy, settled and enjoy their
experiences. Babies benefit from caring and respectful interactions with staff.
Toddlers are encouraged to develop their confidence and independence as they
explore and investigate in the outdoors. They have fun and enjoy taking part in
activities that help them use and develop their senses, but would benefit from more
opportunities to play with natural materials. Young children show consideration for
others in their play and have developed friendships. Children like to use their
imagination when playing in the construction area or in the building site outdoors.
Most children concentrate well on their chosen activity, particularly when the
experience is in the outdoors. At times, children were unnecessarily directed in their
play causing them to lose interest. Staff need to be more responsive to children’s
experiences and interests. Planning learning with children has been recently
introduced to help capture children’s views and decide on activities but this is at an
early stage of development. Learning profiles have also been recently introduced
but these contain too few photographs and examples of children’s work. Children
Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston
EH54 6GA
T
01506 600 374
F
01506 600 313
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
would benefit from using their learning profile to talk with staff about their learning to
help them identify what they want to learn next.
Young children are making satisfactory progress in their early language and
mathematics. Most children are developing effective early reading and writing skills
and listen well to stories being read. Children apply their understanding of number
when counting the number of days which correspond to the date. They use the
language of measurement, heaviest and lightest, when using balancing scales to
weigh objects. Staff now need to provide experiences of early language and
mathematics in real-life contexts to help children make better progress. Children
enjoy exploring in the outdoor area and in the surrounding countryside. These
experiences allow your children to access a wider range of curriculum areas.
How well does the early learning and childcare setting support children to
develop and learn?
We found that staff provide a welcoming and supportive environment for your family.
They provide an ethos where children feel safe and secure. Overall, positive
relationships exist between you and staff and informal conversations about learning
take place regularly. A few parents who spoke to us during the inspection would like
more information about their own child’s progress. Staff are not yet meeting the
learning and development needs of all children well enough. They need a better
understanding of how to identify a child’s strengths and their learning needs. They
would benefit from having clear strategies which outline how to support each child
achieve their next steps in learning. Staff working with babies and toddlers plan an
appropriate range of learning experiences. Staff working with young children are at
an early stage of using Curriculum for Excellence to plan effectively for their learning.
Overall, the pace of curriculum change is too slow and does not provide children with
sufficient breadth, depth or progression in their learning. A few children would
benefit from greater levels of challenge in order to better meet their learning needs.
Children are well supported as they move between rooms. The setting has effective
arrangements in place for children as they move on to primary school.
How well does the early learning and childcare setting improve the quality of
its work?
We found staff to be hard working and keen to improve the setting. They are aware
of the need to develop team working and leadership at all levels to take forward the
improvement priorities. Your views are sought and acted upon which you told us you
appreciate. Staff have had some opportunities to develop their professional skills,
taking part in training offered by the education authority, for example in supporting
the youngest children and planning for children’s wellbeing. It is not clear what
difference this has made to improving children’s learning. The approaches to
monitor and evaluate the work of the setting are weak. The manager will need
support to improve the curriculum and to implement self-evaluation activities which
are robust and effective. The manager and staff value the support they receive from
the local authority. Through regular and targeted support from the local authority the
setting can begin to make the necessary improvements.
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During the previous Care Inspectorate inspection, the setting had no requirements
and one recommendation. This recommendation has been met. As a result of this
inspection, there are two requirements and eight recommendations.
Our inspection of your early learning and childcare setting found the following key
strengths.



Confident, happy and settled babies, toddlers and young children who enjoy their
experiences outdoors.
Caring staff who provide a supportive and welcoming environment for families.
Positive relationships between children, staff and parents.
We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to
improve the early learning and childcare setting. This is what we agreed with them.




Improve staff knowledge and understanding of Curriculum for Excellence to
ensure that children make appropriate progress in all areas of their learning.
Develop further the use of observations to identify and plan effectively for next
steps in children’s learning.
Engage children more regularly in planning and discussing their learning.
Establish effective and robust approaches to self-evaluation.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
As a result of our inspection findings we think that the early learning and childcare
setting needs additional support and more time to make necessary improvements.
Our Area Lead Officer and Lead Officer Early Education along with the local authority
will discuss the most appropriate support in order to build capacity for improvement,
and will maintain contact to monitor progress. We will return to carry out a further
inspection within 12 months of publication of this letter. We will then issue another
letter to parents on the extent to which the early education and childcare setting has
improved.
Sharon McKenna
Managing Inspector
Jane MacLeod
Care Inspector
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations for
your setting can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/eyc/Farmh
ouseNurseryWestLinton.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.
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If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
us by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail:
complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us addressing your letter to the
Complaints Manager, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Livingston
EH54 6GA.
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