The nursery in West Dulwich has been told it must urgently improve following an Ofsted inspection in July 2026
A nursery in South London has been told it must urgently improve after staff failed to notice a potential choking hazard when a child was chewing chunks of paper.
Bright Horizons West Dulwich Day Nursery and Preschool on Gipsy Road received an ‘Urgent Improvement needed’ rating for ‘Children’s Welfare and Wellbeing’ and ‘Leadership and Governance’ by Ofsted.
Ofsted also issued four ‘Needs Attention’ ratings for ‘Achievement’, ‘Behaviour, Attitudes and Establishing Routines’, ‘Curriculum and Teaching’ and ‘Inclusion’, following an inspection on July 2, 2026.
A spokesperson for Bright Horizons said: “We fell well short of the standards families rightly expect of us at this nursery, and we are sorry for that. We accept Ofsted’s findings in full.”
According to a report published on August 24, Ofsted inspectors found breaches of the early years foundation stage requirements, specifically in relation to staff deployment, risk assessments, staff training and skills, and learning and development requirements.
However, they found leaders ensure staff are up to date with their safeguarding knowledge and regularly check their knowledge and understanding of the procedures to follow if they have concerns about children or staff who work with children.
Staff also receive personal support from managers whenever they need it, which has a positive impact on staff’s emotional wellbeing.
On Children’s Welfare and Wellbeing, inspectors said leaders do not ensure staff are “deployed effectively” during activities to promote children’s health and safety. Inspectors said: “For example, staff do not notice when children are unsafe, such as when they chew chunks of paper. This compromises children’s health and wellbeing.
“Leaders’ risk assessments during activities are poor. They do not identify potential choking hazards and infection risks. This compromises children’s welfare.”
They did say staff are generally responsive to children’s care needs, including recognising when children are tired or need a nappy change.
Inspectors went on to say children are not supported to develop good communication and language skills, along with early mathematical skills. However, children typically develop the confidence and independence needed for the next stage in learning, including taking themselves to wash their hands before mealtimes and after messy play.
Inspectors said there are times when “young children wander around aimlessly” and don’t benefit from purposeful learning experiences.
Inspectors said this is because learners and staff do not implement effective teaching and don’t have high expectations of what individual children can achieve. As a result, not all children are supported to develop positive attitudes to learning.
On Curriculum and Teaching, inspectors said: “Leaders identify what they want children to learn. However, some staff lack skills to support children and help them build on what they already know and can do.
“They carry out regular assessments and identify children’s next steps in learning, but do not use these when planning for children’s learning. For example, leaders are working on developing children’s vocabulary, but staff do not know how to support this.”
On Inclusion, inspectors found leaders and staff do not provide consistent support to all children, including those who may face barriers to their learning and those who have been previously known to social care.
They share information about children’s changing circumstances and about learning with their parents, but they do not use this information well enough to support children’s achievement.
‘We are focused on improving’
A spokesperson for Bright Horizons said: “Ofsted found the nursery’s safeguarding standards are met and that staff are up to date with safeguarding training. Inspectors also found children settle quickly, form strong relationships with their key person and develop good social skills.
“But we know that is not enough on its own, and we are focused on getting the quality of teaching and the safety of children’s daily experience to where it should be.”
They said since the inspection, the nursery has worked with the local authority to support with additional professional development and observational practices. They added: “We are confident in making the progress required to demonstrate an improved outcome.”
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