Humpty Dumpty Pre-School Ltd rated inadequate by Ofsted

The education watchdog rated Humpty Dumpty Pre-School Ltd, which runs a pre-school in Bluebell Resource Centre, Jack Andrews Drive, Colchester, inadequate after a damning assessment.

The pre-school was told it is inadequate across all the board in overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

It was rated good in December 2019, but today the children are left with a lack of self-worth, confidence and general wellbeing due to how staff treat them, an inspector said.

• Note: Not to be confused with 'Ofsted slams pre-school where children were left without access to water'

The inspector stated most of the children’s interactions with staff involve the latter shouting at them, with staff showing children “very little” respect and were labelled “poor” role models.

“For example, when children are laughing together in the book corner, two members of staff shout at the children to stop from across the other side of the room,” the inspector wrote.

They continued: “Staff do not go over to the children and talk to them. Staff shout at them and walk away and sometimes point their fingers in children’s faces. Staff’s expectations of children are unrealistic.”

The damning report added youngsters are made to sit in silence for long periods of time if staff deem the noise levels in the room to be too loud. If children make any noise during this time, staff make the children sit in silence for longer.

Concerns were also raised about the youngsters’ “very little” access to fresh air and physical exercise while at the premises while the safeguarding was deemed ineffective.

When children do not play how staff want them to, they are shouted at, and when staff cannot understand what children are communicating to them, they walk off, the inspector said.

At lunch time they sit at tables which face the wall but, despite this, children are happy to tell visitors what they like to do at the pre-school.

However, the inspector said: “The skills that children do have cannot be attributed to their time at the pre-school.”