A BLACKBURN nursery has been crowned cream of the crop after receiving an outstanding Ofsted report.

St Mary’s Nursery, based at Wensley Fold Children’s Centre in Carnarvon Road, was inspected by the independent body which rated the nursery ‘outstanding’ in every category.

The nursery had previously achieved a ‘good’ rating.

Wensley Fold Children’s Centre was registered in 2007. St Mary’s Nursery is a private provider run by St Mary's College, located within the children’s centre.

It currently has 131 children on the roll and employs 25 staff within the children's centre.

In the report, inspectors said: “The nursery is excellent and extremely well established partnership working with other providers and external agencies and professionals, is highly effective in ensuring children’s individual needs are met.

“The creative learning environment both indoors and outdoors provides interesting, challenging and stimulating activities that actively engage children and effectively build on their interests.

“Staff have an excellent knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and have excellent awareness of how young children learn.

“Children flourish as they gain the skills required in readiness for their progression on to new situations. They have extremely positive attitudes to learning.”

Deputy manager Lisa Parkinson was delighted with the results.

She said: “We have been working for the outstanding grading for a long time and it was very emotional when we found out. The report is all positive and it’s a big achievement for the nursery.

“It shows we are the cream of the crop and we will ensure we maintain these high standards.”