A childminder who is training as a mentor for fellow professionals has received an outstanding Ofsted inspection.
Clair Wooding, who already runs drop-in sessions for fellow childminders in her home village of Holbeach St Marks, has been a child minder for 15 years and is delighted to receive the top grading from the education inspectors for the care she provides for children aged up to 12 years.
And she now hopes to share her skills and experience with other childminders after signing up to train as an early years skills coach.
Clair said: “Childminders offer the same as nurseries and pre-school just on a smaller scale.
“I offer a home-from-home caring environment, which is flexible and affordable for parents.
“I arrange a range of child led activities for the children in my care. We go on outings and attend lots of local actitivities, so I am really pleased to have received the outstanding grade in my recent Ofsted report.”
The inspector who visited Clair’s setting said the quality of teaching was consistently high and praised her for using her expert knowledge of the children and the areas of learning to deliver “rich and varied activities which are stimulating and challenging”.
As a result of focused monitoring and assessment, the inspector’s report said, children make rapid progress, while parents and carers are always involved in targeting the children’s next steps in learning.
The report added: “The welcoming learning environment is superbly well-resourced to promote interesting and challenging activities inside and outdoors.”
The one area the inspector highlighted as a way Claire could improve further was to “extend accessibility to the excellent range of resources in the playroom to further enhance children’s free choice and continuous play experiences.”
