{"id":955929,"date":"2026-05-13T00:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/955929\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T00:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:40:26","slug":"staple-hill-pre-school-told-to-make-urgent-improvements-as-children-at-significant-risk-of-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/955929\/","title":{"rendered":"Staple Hill pre-school told to make urgent improvements as children at ‘significant risk of harm’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Ofsted report has delivered a scathing verdict\"General<\/p>\n

Little Sheep Pre-School is based at Staple Hill Methodist Church(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n

A pre-school in Staple Hill<\/a> has been told to make urgent safeguarding improvements because children enrolled there are at \u2018significant risk of harm\u2019.<\/p>\n

Little Sheep Pre-School, based at Staple Hill Methodist Church, was found to not be meeting safeguarding standards during a damning Ofsted inspection carried out in January, the results of which were published on Thursday (May 7).<\/p>\n

In addition, the pre-school was found to require \u2018urgent improvement\u2019 in five of the six areas examined by inspectors.<\/p>\n

The school is due to be inspected within six months of the January inspection to ensure the requisite changes have been made.<\/p>\n

June Ladd, senior steward of the church and a member of the school\u2019s management committee, said Little Sheep\u2019s leadership was very troubled by the report\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply dismayed by the findings of the recent Ofsted Inspection,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report makes clear that urgent improvement is needed in several key areas and we take these concerns extremely seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe care, safety and well-being of every child in our pre school community has always been, and remains, our highest priority.<\/p>\n

“Since the inspection took place in January, there have been staffing changes, and the Management Committee and staff team are working closely together with South Gloucestershire<\/a> Early Years Team to restore the high standards that Little Sheep has achieved in past years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that our improvement plan will deliver the changes highlighted by Ofsted and move the pre school into a far stronger position for both children and staff. Our families and the wider community can be assured that we are committed to making the necessary improvements swiftly, responsibly and with the children\u2019s best interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little Sheep was registered in 2014 and has 16 places for children aged between two and four. January\u2019s report wasn’t the first time Ofsted inspectors were critical of the pre-school; in February 2025 they gave Little Sheep an overall grade of \u2018requires improvement\u2019, although on that occasion they were satisfied safeguarding standards were being met.<\/p>\n

That was not the case in January\u2019s report, which found the pre-school was failing to keep students enrolled there safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders have not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding,\u201d the report said. \u201cThis puts children at significant risk of harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough staff have completed appropriate safeguarding training, leaders and staff do not demonstrate a secure understanding of their child protection responsibilities. They can identify when a child may be at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, they do not consistently record concerns accurately or follow the required reporting procedures set out by local safeguarding partnerships. The failure to follow safeguarding procedures compromises children’s safety and welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under a new Ofsted framework introduced at the start of this year, schools, nurseries and other educational settings are no longer given an overall grade. Instead, inspectors judge how they are performing in a number of different areas.<\/p>\n

Nurseries and pre-schools are assessed on achievement, inclusion, behaviour, well-being, curriculum and leadership. Little Sheep was given a \u2018needs attention\u2019 rating on inclusion; the small pre-school was found to require urgent improvement in all other areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Ofsted report has delivered a scathing verdict Little Sheep Pre-School is based at Staple Hill Methodist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,2266,393,4884,30154,10299,40217,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-955929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-ofsted","14":"tag-south-gloucestershire","15":"tag-staple-hill","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116564487570610156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}