A 'failing' Didcot pre-school, described by Ofsted inspectors as providing unsatisfactory care for children, is fighting for survival under a new supervisor and management committee.

New supervisor Helen Wright with some of the children

By next week Ofsted inspectors want to see an action plan for Park Pre-School setting out more than two dozen improvements, ranging from the supervision of inexperienced staff and the way staff and children interact, to improvements to its premises.

A damning report on the pre-school in November criticised the hygiene, cleanliness and poor decoration of the pre-school hut in Queensway, as well as the outside play area.

The Ofsted reports, which listed a catalogue of problems, followed a rapid decline in standards at the pre-school when a previous supervisor left along with most of the management committee.

By the time of the annual meeting before Christmas, the pre-school was left with only a chairman -- who also resigned.

A new management committee of parents has now taken over, along with a new supervisor, Helen Wright.

Committee chairman Sarah Miles said many of the recommendations for improvements had already been implemented in advance of the action plan being submitted to Ofsted on Tuesday.

And while the numbers of children at the pre-school -- serving a large area at the southern end of Didcot -- had fallen, Miss Wright said the numbers being enrolled, between the age of two and five years three months, had now increased to the maximum 42.

Pre-school secretary Andrew Barlow said their most pressing problem was the poor state of the ageing hut which is leased from South Oxfordshire District Council.

Staff at Didcot's Asda supermarket warehouse are to give the building a make- over, decorating the hut inside and out, and refurbishing the "squalid" washroom.