STAFF and youngsters at a village nursery school are celebrating after Ofsted inspectors judged it to be outstanding.

Townsend Barn Nursery in Poulshot, near Devizes, went from its previous good rating to outstanding much to the delight of manager Sarah Wheeler.

She said: "The nursery has just celebrated its fifth birthday and in the four years that I have been the nursery manager I have striven to achieve this outcome.

"Having over 25 years experience of working with children in the early year’s age group I have high expectations of the nursery practitioners, and I know their practice is exemplary so for Ofsted to observe this too makes me extremely proud.

"Being a small nursery setting in a village location we really do pride ourselves on working as one big happy family. We have happy staff, children and parents and this shows by the limited availability of places available to offer to children.

"I believe if a private nursery grows too much the quality of care can be lost, so to be able to provide high quality care and education in a small rural nursery for me is a dream job.

During the inspection the inspector observed happy children, parents and staff and stated: “Children flourish and make excellent progress." On September 12 the children will take part in a teddy bear picnic to raise money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance.