Double Praise from Ofsted
Ofsted came visiting in September with Snapdragons Weston and Shirehampton being inspected within the space of a week. Both teams did us proud during their inspections, taking great pride in showcasing their wonderful practice. We’re delighted to be able to share the results with you now that the reports have been officially published.
“Children are superbly well prepared to develop the skills for their move on to school.”
Ofsted Inspector, June Robinson, visited Snapdragons Weston and judged it to be Outstanding in all areas.
She said that the outcomes for children were outstanding and that “Children are superbly well prepared to develop the skills for future learning and eventual move on to school.” Children’s personal development, behaviour and welfare were deemed outstanding and the inspector praised their self-sufficiency and the excellent example set by the staff. The “highly qualified staff work exceptionally well as a team” and “have an excellent knowledge of what children know and can do, and support them highly effectively to meet their full potential.” She was also impressed at the leadership and management at Weston, including their approach to professional development and the support that the team receives to “continually improve their high-quality teaching.”
“Children develop close bonds with staff who know them well.”
For Shirehampton, this was their first Ofsted since opening in 2016 and Inspector Dominique Allotey, was impressed by what she saw, rating the nursery Good in all areas.
She highlighted the strong partnerships with parents, good support and training for staff and safe, healthy and stimulating environments for the children. “Activities away from the setting, such as forest school sessions, help children to be physically active and interact with nature. The homely and very stimulating environments are calm and welcoming. Children develop close bonds with nurturing staff who know them well. This helps them to feel happy and develop high levels of self-esteem.” She identified that manager, Anna, “is very ambitious and committed to providing the best possible learning environments and experiences for children. She continues to raise the already good- quality provision. She seeks feedback from staff, parents and children to identify areas for further development to help raise the quality to the highest level.”
Congratulations and well done to everyone involved in these two brilliant Ofsted results.
Three’s a Crowd at the NMT Awards
Hot on the heels of Christina Noton’s award last month, we’re delighted to announce some more exciting awards news. Three practitioners from our fantastic Snapdragons teams are finalists in the National NMT Nursery Awards 2018.
The NMT Nursery Awards is an annual event organised by Nursery Management Today, a leading business publication in the nursery sector. The Awards are designed to reward excellence in childcare and celebrate the very best people in the Nursery Sector so it is a great honour to have no fewer than three finalists.
Max Bendall & James Fulford
Weston’s Max Bendall and James Fulford from Snapdragons Weston are finalists, where they have been nominated for NMT Room Leader of the Year and NMT Childcare Practitioner of the Year respectively.
Alice Hill
Alice Collard (nee Hill), from our Keynsham nursery, is shortlisted for NMT Personality of the Year.
These are highly regarded and competitive awards and our three finalists will be heading up to London on Friday 19th October to be interviewed by a panel of judges who are all experts in the industry. We wish them the best of luck and know that they will make us proud.
The winners will be announced at a Gala Evening at the Hilton London Metropole on the 1st December 2018 and all three of our finalists will be travelling up to share the excitement of the night.
Christina Wins at Nursery World Awards 2018
Christina receiving her award from the judges
Christina Noton, our brilliant Atworth Manager, has been crowned Early Years Teacher of the Year at the national Nursery World Awards 2018. She was presented with her trophy at a glittering ceremony in London which is designed by Nursery World magazine to celebrate and reward the best practice of individuals and companies in early years education across the country. Christina has worked for Snapdragons for nearly five years and has recently been promoted to manager at Snapdragons Atworth. She has completed her Early Years Initial Teacher Training with Best Practice Network, who have rated her an outstanding practitioner. Christina came in for special praise for her willingness to embrace new ideas, sharing them with her team, and her close partnership with parents which enables all children to access nursery life to the full.
Nursery World’s judgement
Celebrating the Nursery World Awards in London
The first open days at Redland
We are delighted to announce that we will be officially opening our doors to new children at Snapdragons Redland on Monday 3 September. Before that, we’d love to show you around at one of our open days where you can see the nursery, meet the team and get answers to all of your questions. There’s no need to make an appointment, just pop in on one of the days and times below. We can’t wait to meet you!
- Wednesday 22 August, 17:00 - 20:00
- Friday 24 August, 09:30 - 16:00
- Saturday 25 August, 09:30 - 13:00
If you can’t make any of the open days, please drop us an email and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out.
Announcing Snapdragons Redland
Update: Our open days are now scheduled for the end of August. Find out more here.
We're delighted to be able to announce the newest member of the Snapdragons family - Snapdragons Redland!
Based in the beautiful area of Redland, just 1.5 miles from Bristol city centre, the nursery takes over from Redland High Junior School, based in two late 19th Century Victorian buildings.
Whilst these buildings will require a full refurbishment over the coming year, there is also a lovely modern cabin, constructed in 2014, that will allow the new nursery to open in just a few weeks, in September 2018.
We're all very excited to get things started at Redland and would love to show round lots of new families when we first open the doors for visits in August.
To read a bit more, head on over to our Redland page.
