A north Suffolk pre-school has been dealt an inadequate rating, just seven months after it was told it must improve by Ofsted.

Holton St Peter Pre-school, which runs at Holton and Blyford Village Hall in Lodge Road, Halesworth, received the inadequate rating in all four of Ofsted’s monitoring categories - the effectiveness of leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare and outcomes for children.

It follows an inspection carried out by the education watchdog on February 29.

The inadequate rating, the lowest on Ofsted’s scale, comes just seven months after the regulator dealt it a ‘requires improvement’ status, again in all four monitoring categories.

The pre-school was also found to be inadequate following an inspection in February 2015, and has not been rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted since 2007. In 2010, Holton St Peter Pre-School was found to be ‘satisfactory’.

A report compiled by inspector Jacqueline Mason following the most recent inspection read: “Safeguarding is not effective.

“Staff are not confident about the process to follow if they were concerned about a child or if an allegation was made against a member of staff.

“Staff do not provide consistently good quality teaching to effectively support the learning and development experiences offered to children.

“Staff do not effectively support children’s communication and language development or encourage them to use talk to organise, sequence and clarify their thinking.”

During the inspection, Ms Mason observed teaching of indoor and outdoor activities, spoke with staff and parents, held meetings with the pre-school manager and looked at relevant documentation, such as the pre-school’s action plan for improvement, evidence of the suitability of staff and activity planning.

Despite the overall inadequate rating, staff at the pre-school were praised for providing a varied range of activities for children to promote all areas of learning.

Children were also found to be happy and settled in the “friendly and welcoming pre-school”, built close emotional attachments to their key person and other staff and played well together.

To improve, Ofsted has said the management at Holton St Peter Pre-School must develop staff awareness of processes that should be followed should they become concerned that a child is being abused or if an allegation is made against a member of staff, and ensure that staff effectively support children’s developing communication and language skills and their ability to organise, sequence and clarify their thinking. These targets must be reached by the end of March.

Management was also given a June deadline to improve staff’s skills and teaching to ensure that children receive consistently good quality learning and development experiences.

No comment was given on the latest Ofsted rating, despite an approach made by this paper last week.