Northolt Nursery Downgraded to 'Inadequate' by Ofsted
Happy Kids found to provide 'noisy and chaotic learning environment'
Happy Kids Day Nursery on Pett's Hill. Picture: Google Streetview
February 29, 2024
A nursery in Northolt has been downgraded from ‘Good’ to ‘Inadequate’ after its most recent Ofsted report. The regulatory body’s inspector found that Happy Kids Day Nursery was not providing a high enough standard of education for its children due to inexperienced staff.
The report, which was published on 19 February, lists a series of issues surrounding how the children at the nursery were taught. It describes a “noisy and chaotic learning environment” which “does not support children to have good attitudes to learning”.
One key focus of the report is staffing. Staff are inexperienced and “lack awareness of how children learn”, it says. An example of how inspectors believe certain situations are mishandled and create a more difficult environment is meal times. The report reads, “Staff do not serve the children’s snacks and meals at the same time, and some children start to eat, while others have to wait. This leads to some children becoming confused, and they take food from others, creating an unsettled environment.”
Concerns around meal times have been flagged before with the nursery’s Ofsted record showing that an official complaint was made about the hygiene of food preparation areas and the quality of the food being served in November 2023. The standard of nutrition the kids were receiving was also a concern.
The nursery doesn’t have enough facilities to provide prepared meals for the children, so they bring in packed lunches. This created an issue because “some of the packed lunches contain less nutritious options,” according to the report.
Happy Kids Day Nursery has implemented steps to ensure there will be improvement in food hygiene and nutrition since the complaint but the February report says there is still more to do. It reads, “Despite staff recently providing information to parents about healthy and nutritious foods to provide, this has not yet been fully embedded. This means children’s overall health cannot be assured.”
It does add that, “Children have been learning about healthy eating. The manager has started to provide fruit at snack time for all children, and they talk about how eating fruit will make them strong and give them muscles.”
The report says that the children are taught good hygiene and are encouraged to wash their hands regularly, especially before meals. However, the limited toilet facilities prompted the inspector to raise concerns about privacy.
They wrote in the report, “There is only one toilet and hand basin, and all children go to the bathroom together. This means that children have no privacy when using the toilet. This does not support them to learn about their own personal safety and protect their dignity.”
Even with all of these issues, the report does add that, “Despite this, children are happy; they settle well and are greeted warmly by staff.” The inspection has seen Happy Kids Day Nursery’s Ofsted rating drop from ‘Good’ to ‘Inadequate’ with recommendations for improvement focusing on bringing more experienced staff as well as a long-term deputy manager.
Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter