By EYN Partnership
We are delighted to share news of the achievements of one of the nurseries within the EYN Partnership family. Tender Years Day Nursery in Solihull has achieved an Outstanding rating from Ofsted, whose report made reference to their commitment to the EYN Partnership, as an example of how personal development, behaviour and welfare are viewed as outstanding at the nursery.
"Children thrive as their individual care needs are exceptionally well met. Children learn about the importance of being healthy. The nursery is part of a nutritional excellence award scheme. Children are offered a wide variety of nutritional foods and staff talk to them about eating well."
Ofsted, Tender Years Day Nursery, Solihull, 2017
The team at Tender Years works with EYN Partnership nutrition professional Gill Kelsall. Gill said, ‘I was absolutely thrilled for the team, it’s wonderful news, and very well deserved. I’ve been so impressed with how the team have embraced the nutrition challenge, they really are committed to offering the best they can to the children in their care.’
Gill said, ‘I think this shows how quickly nurseries and pre-schools can achieve significant results through signing up to the EYN Partnership. Because the team were really enthusiastic, we were able to come up with a sensible strategy to make changes, which we did in stages to allow the children time to adjust from their previous menu. Nonetheless it was a fairly quick process and the team had implemented many of the changes by the time of their inspection. We decided to concentrate to start with on their tea menu and we’ve introduced some lovely new dishes, such as three bean salad and cheese wraps, pasta salad with chickpeas or tuna, and mackerel on toast amongst others! A particular favourite is the butter bean and cream cheese dip! These dishes represent a huge step forward from the crackers based teas they used to do. The kids seem to love them and it’s amazing progress from their old tea menu.’
We spoke to Lisa Whitehouse, the owner of Tender Years to congratulate her on their new Ofsted rating. Lisa told us, ‘We are thrilled to have our Outstanding rating from Ofsted, I’m delighted for our hardworking and talented team that they have had their efforts recognised. We are incredibly proud of what we do at Tender Years, we always have the children’s wellbeing at the centre of everything we do, and that’s why we became involved in the EYN Partnership. We know how important it is to get nutrition right in the pre-school years and the support the programme offered was perfect for us. I know our involvement in the EYN Partnership impressed Ofsted and I would urge other settings to follow our lead. Our EYN Partnership journey so far has been rewarding and enjoyable and we know it is working for our team, our parents and most of all, our children’.
We also spoke to Collette, mum to three and a half year old Rhys, who has been at the nursery for two and a half years and is in the Toddler room. She said, “Rhys has had multiple allergies from when he was a little baby and the nursery team have gone above and beyond adapting the menu for Rhys. Knowing exactly what he has and doesn’t have is really important to me. They’ve worked really well with me, when they brought the new menu in they sat down with me and together we looked at exactly what he could have and they offered me alternatives. It was so nice to see the new menus, and new foods, it was all colourful and looked nice. It was a really adventurous menu too, a lot of nurseries have just sandwiches whereas here it’s a little bit adventurous. I’ve been in when the kids are eating their tea and they’re loving it. Rhys is so excited when he comes home and tells me what he’s tried that’s new that day! So I love the new menu!”
So our congratulations to all at Tender Years! It is brilliant to see settings recognised for the contribution that the EYN Partnership can make to the children in early years settings.
If you’ve got an Ofsted inspection coming up and you want to talk to us about how you can benefit in the same way as Tender Years, click here!
