A MID Devon pre-school has seen its Ofsted rating drop from good just a year ago to “needs improvement” - but some parents have expressed shock at the negative move.

Kingwood Children, located at Muddifords Court, in Willand, had five categories of its Ofsted assessment labelled as “needs attention” while one was flagged as needing “urgent attention”.

The setting secured “good” ratings across the board in March last year, but some complaints have prompted a renewed focus on it by the education watchdog.

However, other parents claimed they didn’t recognise Ofsted’s critique, and suggested the watchdog didn’t properly understand what Kingwood Children offered.

The latest inspection took place in January, but the results were only published on April 13. However, Ofsted has also published updates from visits in the intervening period, which appear to show actions being taken to mitigate Ofsted’s concerns.

The watchdog claimed leaders had “not ensured there was an open and positive culture around safeguarding” which it believed “puts children at significant risk of harm”.

It added leaders did “not have sufficient knowledge and understanding about what an allegation is”, and so “fail to recognise a concern as an allegation and subsequently do not follow their own safeguarding policy”.

It also claimed children were “not all sufficiently prepared for their next stage of learning” and that at times “staff do not encourage older children to focus, and they disengage from activities”.

But Aimee Booth, a parent who sends both her children to the pre-school, said she didn’t think Ofsted “understands what the setting is”.

“Most nurseries are very structured and I think Ofsted will expect a very set standard, with a room and small play area that kids spend their day in,” she said.

“But Muddifords Court is absolutely massive, with a farm section, outside forest school section, and a teepee they go into for hot chocolates.

“They also have the rooms you’d expect inside, but they are absolutely beautiful, and very tasteful with lots of things in them that the kids want to play with.”

An update from Ofsted published in February stated it had received seven concerns that the setting was not meeting a range of requirements, including relating to safeguarding policies and procedures, suitable people, supervision of staff and staff/child ratios.

In January, it said it found the provider was “not meeting some requirements” and served a welfare notice that requires the provider to take certain actions by certain deadlines.

It confirmed safeguarding and welfare actions had been met just days later.

Towards the end of January in a follow-up phone call, it confirmed the provider had met other requirements that were being scrutinised, and stated that the arrangements for maintaining a record of complaints and their outcome “had been improved to ensure any concerns are acknowledged and appropriately investigated”.

A further visit in February also confirmed safeguarding and welfare actions had been met.

The owners of Kingwood Children at Muddifords Court were approached for comment but did not wish to provide a formal statement at this time.