STAFF at a pre-school in Coalpit Heath are thrilled to have been rated ‘outstanding’ in a recent Ofsted report.

Little Explorers Pre-School received the education watchdog’s highest accolade in what was its first ever inspection.

Inspectors said pupils at the pre-school demonstrated a‘can do attitude’ and that they were ‘highly motivated to learn’.

They also praised staff, describing them as ‘inspirational teachers’.

Pre-school manager and owner Helen Moorfield said the impressive report was the result of hard work and dedication by the centre’s team.

She said: “It’s amazing, especially as we only opened two years ago and this is our first ever Ofsted result.

“I’m over the moon to have started a pre-school from scratch and for it to achieve an ‘outstanding’ rating.

“We - the staff - are all going out for a Chinese meal together to celebrate, and I’m going to think of a special treat for the children too.”

The report said that the team at Little Explorers has exceptionally high expectations of what the children can achieve and that ‘staff aim to capture children’s imaginations constantly’.

It also said that all children 'progress extremely well from their starting points'.

The report added that staff ‘encourage children highly successfully to be confident and independent and meet their own needs’.

“On the day of the inspection we created a jungle in the preschool,” Ms Moorfield said.

“We were forewarned of the visit from Ofsted, but only by 12 hours, so we just carried on with what we’d already planned for the day.”

In the report, inspector Victoria Nicolson wrote: “Staff turned the pre-school into a pretend jungle with life-sized animals, leaves and insects, to support the children’s understanding of the world extremely effectively. Children were fascinated and highly engaged as they used binoculars to find and examine the ‘snakes’ and ‘flies’.”

The school, which is based in Westerleigh Manor Hall, in Henfield Road, has 40 children, aged from two to four, on its roll.