Footsteps Nursery and Pre-school: OFSTED’s Upcoming Changes and What We Hope for the Future
At Footsteps, we are always striving to provide the highest standards of care and education for the children we nurture. As part of this commitment, we continuously keep up-to-date with regulatory developments, especially those that impact the way we are evaluated and the quality of education across the early years sector.
Recently, OFSTED announced some exciting changes to its inspection framework, including a shift away from the familiar single-word ratings. While these changes won’t directly affect nurseries and pre-schools yet, we hope this marks the beginning of more comprehensive changes that could benefit early years settings in the future.
OFSTED’s Planned Changes
Currently, OFSTED uses single-word ratings like “Outstanding,” “Good,” “Requires Improvement,” and “Inadequate” to summarize inspection results. However, there’s growing recognition that these labels may oversimplify the complexities of a school’s performance. In response to this, OFSTED is now considering a broader approach, providing more detailed, descriptive evaluations that better capture the strengths and areas for development in schools.
The shift is intended to give parents and caregivers a clearer picture of what is happening in individual settings, beyond just one-word summaries. The new categories will reflect a more rounded view of educational quality, safeguarding practices, and leadership.
Why We Hope This Extends to Nurseries and Pre-schools
Although the changes won’t apply to nurseries or pre-schools right away, at Footsteps, we are hopeful that OFSTED will extend this approach to early years settings in the near future. The early childhood stage is crucial for setting the foundations of lifelong learning, and we believe that a more detailed and descriptive report could give parents a better understanding of how we support children’s development.
The single-word rating system, while familiar, doesn’t always convey the full picture of what we do at Footsteps. Our knowledgeable team work hard to provide a nurturing, stimulating, and safe environment that helps each child grow in confidence and curiosity. We want our families to know the depth of our efforts – whether it’s our focus on personalised learning, our commitment to outdoor exploration and Forest School approach, or the ways we support children’s social and emotional development.
A more detailed evaluation system could shine a brighter light on these aspects of early years education. We hope that in the future, parents will have access to more transparent, comprehensive reports that reflect all the incredible work taking place.
The Impact for Parents and Caregivers
We know that choosing the right early years setting for your child is one of the most important decisions parents make. We want parents to make more informed choices based on what truly matters—the quality of interactions, the richness of the learning environment, and the safety and well-being of children.
At Footsteps, we take great pride in the care and education we provide, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the many dimensions of our settings. It would also allow us to continually refine our practice based on detailed feedback, making sure we are always moving forward and delivering the best possible outcomes for your child.
Looking Ahead
While these changes won’t affect us just yet, we remain optimistic that OFSTED will consider applying this new approach to early years settings in the future.
As always, we are committed to providing a warm, safe, and engaging environment where our children can flourish. We will continue to monitor OFSTED developments closely and keep our communities informed on any changes that may come down the line.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about our approach to education, the detail behind our current ratings or how we work in partnership with OFSTED, feel free to reach out. We are always here to support our families on their early years journey.
