A nursery in March has been told it “requires improvement” by Ofsted.

Bluebell Day Nursery, of Station Road, has “variable” teaching and the daily routines are “too long”, inspector Jacqueline Baker observed.

On the positive side, children are kept safe by staff, have plenty of toys and activities to occupy themselves with and behave “appropriately” as they play together.

The nursery, which employs 10 staff, was rated as “good” following its previous inspection four years ago.

The inspector said: “The quality of teaching is variable. At times, staff do not recognise opportunities to extend the children’s learning by joining in with their play.

“Staff do not consistently use their observations to plan activities that will interest and challenge older children. Adult-led activities are also not frequent enough and contribute to children only making satisfactory progress before they move on to school.

“The daily routines are too long and take children away from their play. This is especially evident as staff prepare children to go outside or wait for meals to be served. For the younger children this is particularly difficult.

“Staff supervision is not always sufficiently focused on improving the quality of teaching. This results in variable performance amongst the staff team.

“Self-evaluation provides an overview of the nursery but has yet to inform robust action plans and bring about improvements to both children’s achievements and teaching skills.”