Shout it from the treetops

Chapter One Childcare and Treetops Outdoor Nursery in Dalkeith Country Park was awarded the second highest grade of ‘very good’ (5) across all four categories. This comes just over a year since the nursery’s last report which awarded three ‘adequate’ (3) grades and one ‘good’ (4).

The nursery’s senior manager Michelle Nicholson said: “I feel absolutely delighted about the report. I moved here from Shawfair in January last year, following the previous inspection. And my focus was to get better grades.

“So I have been delighted with the team here who have worked really hard. It was really just about having a focus and looking at everything overall. Having a plan in place and taking the team with us on a journey, working together.

“By all of us doing this we managed to achieve that.”

The nursery opened in January 2016. It has 25 staff and looks after up to 90 children.

“We are nearly full already. It’s been through word of mouth,” added Michelle.

“We will obviously use the report now to develop up the next grade. We are striving to be excellent. We will take this report on board and keep improving. We are definitely pleased with what we have achieved. The inspectors said it wasn’t common to jump two grades in such a short time scale so we are delighted.”

In the report, inspectors said: “Staff encouraged children to take ownership of the nursery by using their ideas and interests as the basis for the activities which took place. We saw that children were proud of their nursery and felt included in the nursery community. Children had developed strong bonds with staff and were confident in approaching them for support and reassurance.”

The nursery is set in the grounds of Dalkeith Country Park. The building consists of six playrooms, toilets and changing areas for children, outdoor play areas, parents room, laundry facilities, an office and a staff room. The Treetops part of the service has a camp in a designated area within the woodlands of Dalkeith Country Park.