AN after-school club in Worc-ester has closed after failing an Ofsted inspection.

Happylands After-School Club, based at Oldbury Park Primary School in St John's, has struggled to recruit enough qualified staff since two members left last year.

Now in a letter to parents, managers of the club said they had decided to close.

The letter said: "As you may be aware, we have recently had an Ofsted inspection here at Oldbury Park After-School Club. Unfortunately, we fail-ed. This is due to not having enough qualified staff."

It concluded: "We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your loyalty over the past few years."

Speaking to your Worcester News, Rebecca Hudson, manager at Happylands, said they had advertised for qualified staff but had no enquiries.

She said: "Our standards of care and food hygiene at Oldbury Park After-School Club were never in question. However, we failed on two standards, which are associated with qualified staff.

"We did endeavour to employ qualified staff but unfortunately we had no enquiries. However, we did employ a mature, experienced candidate for the job.

"The school asked for a meeting with us and at that point we were given three months' notice."

Jackie Ludlow, headteacher at Oldbury Park Primary School, said the school had given the club's managers notice because of its inability to meet Ofsted's requirements. "We felt that we could not have an after-school club on our premises that could not meet Ofsted's requirements and so the club was given three months' notice," she said. Mrs Ludlow said the first she knew of any problems at the club was the report from Ofsted. "They did not tell us they were having problems and the first we knew was the inspection report," she said.

Mrs Ludlow said a new after -school club would now be starting up, provided by Vict-oria Housing Day Nursery, based in St John's.