A MUSSELBURGH nursery has received a glowing report from education inspectors - including the highest rating that the watchdog can bestow.

First Step Community Project is an independent voluntary organisation based in the town's 'Wimpeys' housing estate, funded by East Lothian Council and other funding bodies.

It provides a variety of services, such as parenting support, individually and in groups, nursery provision for children aged one to four, including daycare, and funded places for three-year-olds.

Following a recent visit by Education Scotland officials, the school achieved an 'excellent' rating for its performance in 'meeting learners' needs' and 'very good' in all other categories, which included the curriculum and children's experiences.

Inspectors praised the nursey for a number of strengths and noted its "happy, confident and articulate children who are eager to learn and enjoy high quality learning experiences" and "the care and support provided for all children and their families by an effective, reflective and committed staff team".

Positive relationships between children, parents, the community and staff, resulted in a very caring environment, the inspectors found.

An Education Scotland spokesperson said: "We are very satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the preschool centre's self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, we will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The managers and the local authority will inform parents about the pre-school centre's progress as part of the arrangements for reporting to parents on the quality of the preschool centre." The inspectors and the nursery agreed two recommendations for the project to develop: continuing to build on the work to track and assess children's progress to ensure that they are involved in appropriately challenging activities; and continuing to build on the work underway to take account of Curriculum for Excellence.

Tina Pollock, First Step's early years manager, said: "We are very delighted with such a positive inspection report from Education Scotland. To achieve an excellent in meeting learners' needs was fantastic.

"Over the past few years we have been extremely committed to developing Curriculum for Excellence and meeting learners' needs so we are therefore absolutely delighted to see that this has paid off with our grades and overall feedback. The report reflects what wonderful learners we have here at First Step and it is excellent to see the children recognised as such in the findings. The whole inspection process was very supportive and allowed lots of professional dialogue to take place.

"All staff, children, parents and partnership agencies are committed to continually improving all aspects of our provision and this is reflected in the inspection findings. I would like to thank everyone involved in First Step for their continued support and hard work in making First Step go from strength to strength."