Little Rayes Daycare in West Croydon has defended its record after Ofsted rated it as requiring 'urgent improvement' in two key areas, with the manager calling part of the report 'unfair' while pledging to 'tighten up'.
Ofsted flags SEND support and teaching
The nursery, based at Praise House on Tamworth Road, was inspected on July 3, with the report published on August 21. It provides full-day care for up to 39 children aged between two and five. Inspectors rated the setting as requiring 'urgent improvement' in 'Curriculum and teaching' and in the section titled 'Inclusion', which raised concerns about support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
Two other areas were rated as 'Needs attention', including 'Leadership and governance', while two were rated 'Expected standard', including 'Children's welfare and wellbeing'. Inspector Jenny Selvakumaran wrote: “When children with SEND do not make progress in their communication, staff do not persevere to support them because they do not think they will make a difference.”
Manager responds to criticism
Lorraine Martin, Manager and Director of Little Rayes Daycare, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she was “disappointed” by the report, but felt one aspect focused too heavily on the difficulties of one child who is completely non-verbal. “I thought one [of the ratings] was unfair as it was mainly focused on SEN children,” she said. She explained that the nursery had been unable to obtain information from the child’s speech and language therapist (SALT), so staff used strategies that had worked for other children. Ms Martin said she challenged the inspector on this and that the nursery has since secured an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for the child, but no SALT report was available at the time of the inspection.
“It is a tickbox; what may work for them may not necessarily work for us and the children we have,” she told the LDRS. The Ofsted report also found that agreed methods to help children manage routines and transitions were not always used, stating: “At times, children become distressed when strategies that support them to manage change are not in place.”
Inspectors also criticised staff for completing creative activities themselves rather than allowing children to take the lead, leaving children as “passive participants” and limiting their opportunities to explore and experiment. Ms Martin said one of the apprentices had panicked during the inspection and completed an activity for a child. “Sometimes these things happen, especially when you have staff that have not experienced Ofsted before. They get overzealous,” she said.
Hygiene and training concerns
Inspectors added that only some staff had received communication training and that this knowledge was not consistently shared across the wider team, meaning children with SEND “do not always receive the support that they should” to overcome communication barriers. Hygiene was another concern. While children were taught to wash their hands before eating, inspectors found that “staff do not model good hygiene practices consistently”, specifically noting that staff did not always wash their hands after wiping children’s noses.
Leadership and governance were judged as 'needs attention', with inspectors criticising how staff failed to quickly identify necessary improvements and act on them. Following the inspection, Ofsted required the nursery to review how it supports children who are not making expected progress and to seek professional advice when needed. Management were also told to ensure agreed support strategies, particularly for children with SEND, are understood and consistently followed by staff. Ofsted also required the nursery to improve its curriculum and teaching by making clear what children should learn from activities and adapting them to support development.
Ms Martin said the nursery had acted on the requirements “straight away” and acknowledged that staff needed additional training. She said the local team had since provided further support, and noted that the nursery had a high number of children with SEND last year and staff had not been sufficiently trained to support them. A SEND coordinator visits the nursery once a month to provide training, she added.
Strengths and parent response
Ofsted also identified strengths at the nursery. Statutory safeguarding requirements were met, and inspectors said the setting had an open and protective culture in which safeguarding was treated as everyone’s responsibility. Children’s behaviour was praised, with inspectors noting that they responded positively to guidance and formed secure relationships with staff. However, less confident children were not always encouraged sufficiently to take part in group activities.
Referring to parents' response to the report, Ms Martin said: “Parents have come back and said that is not what they see - the love and care and how we are with their children.” She added that they had “very, very happy” parents at the graduation of their recent cohort. “It is our priority that when children leave, they leave school-ready,” she added.
