Parents and carers at an Aberdeen nursery have been told there is “considerable scope” for improvement by inspectors.
The Care Inspectorate wrote to families with youngsters at Fersands family centre nursery and creche, in the Woodside area of the city, reporting the findings of a recent inspection.
The mixed report says the nursery has lessons to learn in the likes of providing a greater variety of “learning experiences”, encouraging children in maths and language skills and helping children with additional support needs.
But they did identify a number of strengths of the nursery in their report including “happy and friendly children who are keen to learn” and “strong, supportive relationships between staff and parents.”
The letter to parents reads: “Across the setting children’s learning needs are not met effectively.
“Younger children do not have access to a suitable range of appropriate resources and activities.
“Those for older children are better, however, staff need to improve how they identify and support children with additional support needs. We have asked the manager to ensure this is dealt with as soon as possible.”
But Hilton, Woodside and Stockethill councillor Neil Copland praised the “fantastic staff” at the nursery and said he was sure there would be better results next year.
He said: “I think there is plenty of reason for optimism, I know that they have very dedicated staff there who will certainly take this report seriously.
“One other thing I think is worth keeping in mind is that a lot of these children don’t speak English as a first language which obviously also makes things harder.”