A SOUTHAMPTON pre-school is celebrating after achieving an "almost impossible" rating from the education watchdog.

Riverside Pre-school has been rated outstanding in its most recent Ofsted report published on October 10.

The nursery has said it is "delighted" with the result.

It is run from an independent unit within Bitterne Park Primary School, and was inspected on September 8.

It provides daycare for around 60 youngsters between two and five-years-old.

All four categories that inspectors judged were given the highest rating of 'outstanding'.

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Inspectors said that children are "happy and settle extremely quickly", adding that staff are impeccable role models.

They noted that children work "harmoniously" during group time, thinking of ideas and helping their friends to solve problems.

Inspectors said that staff provide "excellent" opportunities for children to further develop their skills in writing and mark-making.

They said that staff know the children well and know what children are good at and what they need to do better.

Leaders were described as "highly dedicated" with clear goals and an "excellent" understanding of what outstanding practice is.

READ MORE: The 11 Southampton schools rated Outstanding by Ofsted

Deputy lead practitioner Michelle Black said: "Getting an outstanding [rating] under the new Ofsted guidelines is almost impossible and we cannot express how delighted we are in achieving it.

"This has been a massive team effort and we so appreciate our staff and what they have done to secure it.

"Sadly due to lack of staffing, we were forced to close our second setting in St Denys this July and moved all our staff team to our Bitterne Park site.

"Having an Ofsted visit three days into term with a new staff team was an expected surprise, we were ready and we did what we always do, aim to be ‘simply the best’.

"We are immensely proud of Riverside Pre-school CIO and what we stand for, children always come first, regardless of the pressures we are under to maintain our exacting standards.

"A huge thank also goes to our families who have been so supportive.

"My hope for the future is that our government will value early years and fund us properly so we can pay our highly skilled and hard-working staff fairly.

"Early years is haemorrhaging its staff into higher paid jobs such as teaching assistants, shop workers and cleaners.

"We are key in supporting children, our next generation into being the best version of themselves and that is not a simple or easy task."

An earlier version of this story named Bitterne Park Primary School as being the subject of the Ofsted report. However, this was incorrect and has been updated to Riverside Pre-school.

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