Council-run nursery makes a dramatic improvement in less than six months

**Picture caption: Tracy Smith, interim executive headteacher at Westbourne Early Years Centre, with pupils**

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The hard work of staff at Westbourne Early Years Centre, in Bride Street, has been recognised in a recent Ofsted inspection which found the provision for children to be good across the board.

After an inspection in the summer of last year, various recommendations for improvement were made by Ofsted.

The team at Westbourne rose to the challenge and have implemented all of the necessary changes.

The result of these efforts is a “good” rating which now means that all of the council’s seven nurseries are rated as good or outstanding.

Inspector Anneka Qayyum observed that the “staff are friendly and form close bonds with children. They are sensitive to children's needs and support their emotional well-being effectively”.

She also found that they “have a good understanding of how children learn” and that “children make good progress and develop”.

Tracy Smith, executive head of the nursery, said: “We are all so pleased with the inspection result. Everyone in the team works really hard to provide high quality care and education to ensure the best outcomes for children at Westbourne.

"We are also lucky to have really supportive parents. It was a great team effort to improve the Ofsted outcome and we’re thrilled that this has been recognised."

Cllr Joe Caluori, Islington Council’s executive member for children, young people and families, said: “Congratulations to Tracy and her team. We are delighted that all their hard work has paid off and that we can be confident that all of the council-run nurseries are of a good standard.

“The benefits of an early education can have a positive impact on a child’s development all the way through to secondary school, and so good quality provision is one of our major priorities.”