A Malvern nursery has been praised for providing a warm and welcoming environment that captures children's imagination.

Playhouse Nursery, on Abbey Road, was given an excellent report from education watchdog Ofsted.

The nursery, which currently caters for 63 children aged six months to four years, gained top marks in all six inspection categories.

These include children's emotional and social development, communication, language and literacy and mathematical development.

The report praised staff for nurturing children's confidence and ensuring their individual development needs were met.

It said children had a good relationship with staff, had good opportunities to learn and were making very good progress to their early goals.

It also commented on the warm rapport between parents and staff, and the nursery's good strategies for care of children with special educational needs.

Areas requiring improvement included the provision of information about sources of advice and support for children with English as an additional language.

Nursery proprietor and manager Larraine Walker said: "We're absolutely thrilled with our success right across the board. It's very exciting."

Ms Walker said attributed the nursery's success to the hard work of staff.

"It's their enthusiasm, teamwork and all the training courses they attend that makes the difference," she said.

The nursery has been running for 18 years and has 14 staff.