A nursery and after school club plagued by poor Ofsted reviews has closed its doors.

Evolution Kids Club and Nursery is on the same site as Grove Park School, Hilton Drive, Sittingbourne, but run entirely separately.

The service was most recently inspected at the beginning of January by Sarah Taylor-Smith and rated ‘inadequate’.

It was then issued with a legal notice ordering it to make improvements to the way it assesses risks, ensures staff are qualified to work with minors and check the way children are told to manage their behaviour.

An email sent to parents from managers at the service was received on Friday, February 21, explaining that it would be shutting.

It said: “I am sorry to inform you, but as of this morning Sarah has decided to close down the nursery.

“This includes the after school club. Very sorry for any inconvenience this causes.”

An Ofsted spokesman confirmed steps had been taken to close the nursery and after school club.

He added: “Ofsted has taken steps to cancel the registration of Evolution Kids Club and Nursery and have issued a notice of this decision.

“The owner of the nursery has the right to appeal this decision and the setting is currently still registered. The setting was judged inadequate in January and this contributed to the decision to take steps to cancel, however, this is not the reason the setting is closed at this time.

“If the setting is closed now, this is a decision the provider has taken themselves.”

Trouble first became apparent when concerns were raised last April that not all of the requirements were being met.

"Ofsted has taken steps to cancel the registration of Evolution Kids Club and Nursery."

It was inspected in September 2019 and rated ‘inadequate’ for the first time, as it had been ‘good’ since being assessed in 2018.

Some pupils from Grove Park School were sent to the service’s after school club.

Executive head of the trust which runs the school, Ceranne Litton, said: “This is a separate company and run independently of our school, we are looking at possibilities of how we can support our families.”

Staff at Evolution Kids Club and Nursery were asked for a comment but no response was received.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne