This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A nursery in Brighton had its Ofsted rating downgraded after it was found staff did not know how to protect children from adopting extreme views and potentially being radicalised.

The decision provoked anger among parents and a local councillor who criticised it as “absolutely ludicrous” and called for the state to “let children be children”.

A periodic Ofsted review lowered Little Ducklings’ rating from “outstanding” to “requires improvement” after finding a number of failings at the preschool.

It censured the nursery for not having an adequate understanding of how to safeguard children, who are aged between two and five at the nursery, from adopting extreme views and said staff must improve their knowledge of the government’s Prevent strategy.

“Although the manager and staff have reviewed some aspects of their safeguarding knowledge and updated the policies and procedures, not all staff have a secure understanding of how to protect children who may be at risk from extreme behaviours or views,” the report said.

“It’s a fantastic nursery that is very popular in the local area,” said Dawn Barnett, a Conservative councillor. “It’s disgusting that they’ve been downgraded. Ofsted have gone mad.

“We’re talking about kids who are still in nappies. I think it’s absolutely ludicrous. I don’t know what the world is coming to. We should let children be children for as long as they can.”

One parent told the Sun: “Of course it’s good to stop children being radicalised, but Little Ducklings hardly strikes you as a hotbed for international terrorism.”

Another parent, Kelly Griffin, said: “This all seems silly. How are you going to know if a three-year-old is going to be radicalised?”

The report did note that “children are happy and settled” and “have positive relationships with staff”, and said parents spoke highly about the care their children received.

Nonetheless, there were further shortcomings that the watchdog said the nursery must rectify to meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and the childcare register.

Ofsted said the nursery must ensure “all staff use the information gained through training to improve their knowledge of the ‘Prevent’ duty and wider safeguarding issues”.

Prevent is the government’s anti-radicalisation strategy to detect extremism in schools. The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, has called for it to be reviewed and claimed it could be counterproductive.

Prevent has attracted condemnation from many Muslims who see it as a tool for spying on them and the Muslim Council of Britain has recommended Safe and Secure, which is already in operation in mosques, as an alternative anti-radicalisation scheme.

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, recently said “misapprehensions around Prevent are often based on distortions” and that he “absolutely supports” the scheme.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “The report makes absolutely no mention of radicalisation or jihadis, but instead notes, as one point for improvement among many, that staff did not understand how to protect young children at risk of extreme behaviours or views.

“This is something that pre-schools are legally required to do and is something which we can all agree is vitally important.

“The inspection of Little Ducklings preschool found a number of failings. This included variable quality of teaching, a failure to make sure all children made the progress they were capable of, and too few opportunities to develop children’s writing.

“Children’s early education is crucial for future success, that’s why where preschools are failing to teach children well it is Ofsted’s duty to highlight it.”

Little Ducklings has been contacted for comment.