From this month schools in the private sector in England attended by children aged two and under have to be registered with Ofsted. This removes us from the strange limbo we have been living in. Having built a state-of-the-art baby and toddler centre two years ago alongside our existing after-school and holiday club, we found that no matter how hard we tried, no-one, neither social services nor Ofsted, were prepared to inspect and register us.
We could have been swinging the children from the chandeliers (if we had any) and no-one would have taken a blind bit of notice. Unfortunately some 'schools' - and remember, independent school status comes with having just five or more children over the age of five - have used this loophole to opt out of the requirements made in the private nursery or daycare sector. The majority of schools take children from three upwards and they are excluded from the review.
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