Town and Country Kiddies Nursery in Market Rasen was criticised by inspectors for not providing enough opportunities for children to learn about other cultures and ethnicities and awarded a ‘good’ grade.
However, the report has now been withdrawn following a backlash from parents whose children attend the nursery and which has led to owner Louise Davies meeting with Ofsted.
Ms Davies said she was happy with the majority of the report but expressed frustration with being downgraded after obtaining an outstanding rating in 2012.
'There are things they'd like us to do over and above children having understanding of other people and different cultures,’ she said. ‘It comes with living in a community where there isn't a great deal of cultural and ethnic diversity.
'They're not seeing that on a day to day basis, unlike nurseries in London where they do.
One of the things the inspectors said was that we needed to put more pictures of people from ethnic cultures on the walls of the nursery.'
'There's a really strong focus in the new criteria that the whole workforce needs to be delivering exceptional practice,’ she added. ‘But it's unrealistic. It's an ideological view, and it is not commercially viable. We can't operate a team that's without exception.
'For us to continually strive towards the 'outstanding' would become more and more commercially unviable. At the end of the day it's all very well chasing something but it's an unrealistic criteria. We need to provide childcare for people to go to work and not worry about an ideology that Ofsted have.
'If anything, we're in a stronger position now than in the last inspection in 2012.'
The nursery operates two setting in the market town, providing early years and after school care for children from eight weeks to 11 years.
In a statement Ofsted said, ‘We are aware of the concerns around our inspection of Town and Country Kiddies Nursery, and have taken the report down from our website while we look into the matter.
‘All early years providers must follow the statutory guidance as directed by the Department for Education, which includes “guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment”.
‘The guidance goes on to state that children should “know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions”.
‘Inspectors have a duty to follow these guidelines during every inspection and will naturally reference them in their reports.’
