ONE of the county's biggest nurseries has been ordered to make urgent improvements after inspectors said children's safety was "at risk".

Cygnet Nursery in Kidlington was criticised by education watchdog Ofsted, which carried out an inspection last month.

Its report, released last week, said some staff had not been sufficiently checked to ensure they were qualified to work with children.

A previous inspection, carried out last year, deemed the school as "requires improvement" because of inconsistencies in the quality of teaching.

But since then standards at the nursery, which has 89 children on its roll, have slipped further.

Following the inspection, Ofsted ordered the nursery to make urgent changes to how it recruits assistants, improve monitoring of staff and build communication with parents.

Nursery manager David Smith said a review into the centre's management and organisation had started and a new management structure had been put in place.

He added: "Our policies have been reviewed in depth and robust systems are now being implemented with a clear line of accountability.

"The management team have been developing a detailed action plan to improve identified areas for development including our parent partnership and the quality of activities and learning experiences for the children."

Inspector Nikki Whinton said recruitment files for some staff were missing, references had not been checked and managers were unaware of what checks had been done on agency staff.

Out of the 22 members of staff, only 15 were found to have appropriate early years qualifications.

She added in the report: "Staff do not change activities to take account of the abilities and interests of different groups of children.

"The manager does not regularly monitor staff's day-to-day performance to assess their practice and quality of teaching."

The privately-owned nursery, which operates from two adjacent buildings in Evenlode Crescent, caters for children aged up to eight.

Mr Smith confirmed the nursery had made the improvements demanded by the welfare requirements notice by its deadline of February 9.

In the report staff at the nursery were praised for their enthusiastic, kind and caring nature towards the children.

It was also noted parents were very complimentary towards the staff in how they "go the extra mile" to support children's needs.