NI nurseries shine in quality assessment

The report, Begin with Quality, produced by DENI's Education and Training Inspectorate, also found that of the country's five Education and Library Boards, the Western ELB area had the highest proportion - more than 40 per cent - of good-quality daycare provision. It also said that overall, almost three-quarters of settings were either judged to be satisfactory, good or of very good quality, while one in four settings was deemed 'less than satisfactory'.

The Inspectorate's report, which is the first since the start of the Department of Education's Pre-school Expansion Plan in 1998, drew on about 295 inspections of pre-schools and day nurseries carried out from September 1998 to June 2001 and follow-up inspections six months later. It said they had five main strengths - the quality of the ethos, including a caring atmosphere, good relationships, and the promotion of appropriate behaviour; the relationship with the parents and the efforts made to inform them about the centres' work; the breadth of the play programme; the provision for promoting children's language, and personal, social and emotional development; and the quality of management, including teamwork and staff support, and the provision of support and guidance.