Flintshire playgroup removed from monitoring by inspection body

A playgroup in Flintshire will no longer need to be monitored by a national inspection body after it was deemed to have made ‘sufficient progress’.

Estyn placed Woodland Imps Playgroup in Mynydd Isa under review last year after it published a critical report.

Officials said the playgroup’s safeguarding arrangements did not meet requirements and gave cause for concern.

They also found that nearly all children did not make sufficient progress in developing their literacy and numeracy skills.

Following the inspection, staff were required to draw up an action plan to show how they were going to address the issued raised.

An assistant director from Estyn has now written to the playgroup to confirm that the recommendations have been successfully achieved.

In a letter, Mererid Wyn Williams said: “Woodland Imps Playgroup is judged to have made sufficient progress in respect of the key issues for action following the Estyn visit in September 2018.

“The setting has been removed from the list of setting requiring Estyn monitoring.

“There will be no further Estyn monitoring visits in relation to this inspection.”

The playgroup is managed by a voluntary committee and based in a room in Mynydd Isa Community Centre.

It has its own enclosed outdoor area and during the last inspection catered for 43 children between the ages of two and a half and four years of age.

While most areas of performance were described as ‘adequate’ in the original report, several issues were raised.

Inspectors said: “Leaders do not focus well enough on the quality of teaching and learning and the standards that children achieve.

“The setting’s current self-evaluation report is detailed and generally accurate, although it does not focus robustly enough on the standards that children achieve and the quality of teaching.

“The setting makes only limited use of the local community to enhance children’s learning experiences.

“In view of children’s standards of achievement and the quality of teaching and learning, the setting provides adequate value for money.”

By Liam Randall – Local Democracy Reporter (more here).