Sector Leading Nursery

The grades, awarded for quality of care, and support and quality of staffing, are representative of ‘outstanding’ and ‘sector leading’ care according to the Care Inspectorate.

The school is the only nursery service to achieve these grades across the Argyll and Bute area and has been commended for delivering these high standards across all levels, including those not officially assessed.

The report highlighted that the nursery staff: “created an inclusive, nurturing environment where children and their families felt welcome, listened to and respected”.

It went on to say: “the children are happy, achieving, confident about expressing their thoughts, views and feelings”.

During the unannounced inspection period the children created a ‘Snack Café’, learning how to make fruit kebabs, designing and making menus, and learning how to calculate costs and change using real money.

They also created a ‘space ship’, which was constructed using recycled modelling materials.

The report also praised the nursery’s focus on outdoor learning, highlighting that: “staff have created a rich learning environment both inside and outdoors, that was inspiring children to be creative, curious and inventive.”

Students used a mud kitchen, built and played with obstacle courses made of blocks of wood, planks and crates, practised their fine motor skills through weaving, sung songs and listened to stories.

The school’s commitment to adventure and learning in the outdoors begins at nursery and this has been recently enhanced with a new fleet of balance and pedal bikes, sponsored by the PTA.  This will allow children to learn to cycle as part of the curriculum which will further increase activity levels as well as developing gross motor skills and balance.

A parent of the nursery said: “Lomond School is excellent. They provide a first-class quality of care to my child. All staff are welcoming, highly skilled, and extremely caring towards all the children in the nursery. It is a lovely, stimulating environment place for my child to learn in.”

Another parent said: “Lomond School provides excellent facilities and surroundings for all the children that attend. My child is exceptionally happy at the nursery, loves going to the outdoor lessons, helping at the Snack Café and playing with the wide variety of toys, books and craft items. As parents, the staff are friendly, welcoming and know my child extremely well.”

Ailsa Lawn, Head of Junior School at Lomond, said: “We are incredibly proud of the level of care and education our nursery staff provide and are delighted that this has been recognised by the Care Inspectorate.  Our nursery is the entry point to our Junior School and we want to ensure that the opportunities and experiences open to every pupil are of the very highest standard right from the start. All parents want to be reassured that their child will be treasured and nurtured by the people who care for them and we are incredibly privileged to have such a dedicated and skilled nursery team who take great pride in the relationships they develop with every child, and their families.”