Grenfell Early Years nursery is rated ‘Outstanding’ by Oftsed

BY OWEN SHEPPARD
Local Democracy Reporter
yann@slpmedia.co.uk

Staff at a nursery school which was forced to relocate from Grenfell Tower say they felt “overwhelmed” with joy at receiving an Outstanding Ofsted rating.

The Grenfell Early Years team celebrated after the watchdog awarded it the top-level rating, following its first inspection since the tragedy in June 2017.

Manager Shirley Sylvester gave thanks for the North Kensington community’s support when the nursery reopened, just four days after the fire, in their current site on the Lancaster West estate.

Ms Sylvester, 46, said they “lost everything” in their old base at the foot of the tower block, and that children on their register were among the survivors.

“We’re really proud of how we got up and running within four days [of the fire]. We didn’t think of it like that at the time, but the families needed us,” Ms Sylvester said. “There’s been so much good will, it’s made us tearful 100 times,” she said.

Deputy manager Louise Tomlinson, 47, added: “People had lost everything in their flats so they needed someone to care for their children. We were somewhere they could be safe.

“The community really helped us because we literally had nothing. The support was marvellous, it helped us step back up again.”

Ms Sylvester said they received huge donations of books from Penguin and Osborne Publishing, new climbing frames from The Toy Project, furniture from a local set designer, and laptops and a printer from Hewlett Packard.

All of it helped them adjust to their current building, the Ilys Booker Centre, which fits 24 children, compared the 40 they could look after at their old Grenfell tower base.

“It was the first time we’ve ever been rated outstanding,” Ms Sylvester said.

Ms Tomlinson, who lives in Queen’s Park and has worked at Grenfell Early Years since 2004, said: “Going through the inspection… we knew it was coming. It was a gloomy Monday morning.

“We all looked at each other and said ‘come on, let’s do what we do best’.

“We had all been doing this for years and we knew our stuff. But you worry they’ll ask things like ‘why isn’t the window clean’, or anything.

“But it was overwhelming when we got the result, really exciting.”

Ms Sylvester, who was given a Kensington and Chelsea Mayor’s Award in May for her 25 years’ work at the nursery, said they “all knew” people who were among the 72 who died.

“It was such a trauma. We did lose people we knew. Our neighbours and acquaintances, people we saw in the morning walking their dog.”

Discussing their work, the two women stressed: “It’s important to get it right at this age, because then they’ll do well in school and they’re set up for the rest of their lives.”

Ms Sylvester said: “And I get to see all the children grow up because I only live five seconds away.

Some go to Aldridge Academy [the school next to Grenfell Tower]. They say ‘hi, miss’, and it’s good to know you’ve done a good job.”

The majority of the nursery’s parents receive 15 hours’ free childcare a week under a government-funded scheme.

Ms Sylvester said the council was helping them find a new, bigger premises to move into.