Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Hoddesdon

A baby unit with its own sleeping room, a sensory room and space for outdoor exploration give Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Hoddesdon a clear physical identity. Care begins at three months, with separate stages for babies, toddlers and preschool children. The setting has 53 places in total, so that whole-nursery figure should be kept separate from the size of any individual room.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 22 January 2024 and found safeguarding effective. The useful detail beneath that judgement is practical: children were building independence, taking stories home and using their interests as starting points for learning. There was also a clear improvement point about staff making more of opportunities to stretch children's thinking.

Rooms and Ages

Babies, for children aged three months to two years, occupies a self-contained unit with a sleeping room, milk kitchen, changing facilities and a sensory area, allowing staff to organise care around individual routines while babies explore.

Toddlers, for two- to three-year-olds, emphasises creative work, stories and sensory experiences through activities such as arts and crafts.

Pre-school, for children aged three to five, introduces the school readiness programme, which aims to prepare children for starting school and the experiences beyond nursery.

These stages give families different things to weigh. For a baby, the separate spaces for milk preparation, sleep and changing are the most concrete details. For an older child, the emphasis shifts towards activities and preparation for the next stage. The garden and sensory room add spaces beyond those age-based rooms; they are useful physical features rather than simply more activities on a timetable.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning and development: here, play, stories, creative activities and sensory exploration provide ways to develop skills across its areas of learning. Staff track individual progress and plan experiences around each child's development. The branch also follows a curiosity approach, with children's interests shaping the rooms, outdoor spaces and activities.

In January 2024, books were accessible to children across the age groups, and book packs travelled home with props for acting out stories. Children could then share those experiences back at nursery. Repeated stories and rhymes gave them familiar language to return to, making the link between home reading and nursery play tangible.

Number work also followed children's interests in January 2024. Older children interested in numbers explored digital and analogue clocks and talked about time. Younger children heard staff describe the colours of dough, then used those colour words themselves. These examples show how ordinary play could lead into mathematical ideas or conversation, rather than treating learning as a separate part of the day.

The same month's improvement point concerned consistency. Staff sometimes developed spontaneous play into further learning, such as exploring counting and symmetry while children used a hole punch, but did not take those opportunities far enough on every occasion. For parents, the question is how practitioners respond when a child has an idea, makes a discovery or wants to try something more demanding.

Outdoor and Community Life

The branch's garden extends play outdoors. Group-wide activity descriptions include mud kitchens and sensory areas for exploration. A Nursery cooking club and an External football agency are also part of the branch's offer. Their practical significance depends on what children actually do in those sessions, making them useful topics for a visit.

In January 2024, the special bear travelled home with children, who returned with photographs and accounts of their adventures. That shared activity brought differences in family life and traditions into nursery conversations. It gave children something personal to contribute, rather than discussing other families only in the abstract.

Relationships and Communication

Group-wide settling arrangements provide periods tailored to individual children, recognising their different needs when starting. At Hoddesdon, the baby unit's milk kitchen, sleeping room and changing facilities enable staff to follow individual routines.

In January 2024, children had formed affectionate relationships with staff and talked to them about recent experiences. Parents had time to speak with practitioners inside nursery, helping staff understand family circumstances and children's needs. Those everyday conversations offered a route for exchanging context as well as passing on practical information.

Alongside face-to-face contact, a group-wide app system gives parents updates about daily activities and care, with the child's educational plan accessible there too. This makes communication more than a collection-time account: families can see the plan as well as what happened during the day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff identified support needs promptly and worked effectively with families and external professionals, helping children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children learning English as an additional language make good progress.

Daily independence had concrete outlets in January 2024. Children used self-help stations for tasks such as putting on slippers and wiping their noses, and staff helped them learn to handle scissors and tools safely. Children also contributed to discussions about the nursery's golden rules, practising turn-taking and ways to resolve small disagreements. Care included opportunities to do things for themselves.

Seasonal lunches and snacks are served daily, with support for babies' weaning and dietary requirements. Families managing food allergies or other dietary needs should discuss the current arrangements before their child starts.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6.30pm, across 51 weeks of the year. It closes for Bank Holidays and Christmas. Those closures matter for families planning care across the working year, even with an otherwise year-round opening pattern.

Flexible sessions are offered, with a minimum booking of two sessions for each child. New-parent enquiries and visit bookings are handled through the Hoddesdon enquiry form and telephone contact.

Getting There

The address is Life Church, Rye Road, Hoddesdon, EN11 0JB. This is the setting serving babies from three months through to children aged five, with the age stages described above.

Funding and Paid Extras

In January 2024, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. All-inclusive fee packages are also offered. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; families comparing attendance patterns should use that quotation to understand the package they would be buying.

• Extending learning. The January 2024 improvement point concerned staff missing opportunities to develop children's spontaneous play further. On a visit, ask for an example of how practitioners now take a child's interest beyond the first activity.
• Flexible sessions with a minimum. Flexible sessions have a minimum booking of two sessions per child. Ask how your preferred pattern would be arranged.
• Cooking, football and the package. Nursery cooking club and an External football agency add named activities to the offer. Ask what participation involves and how meals, consumables and these activities fit into your proposed fee or funded-hours arrangement.

Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Hoddesdon suits families seeking flexible sessions with a minimum booking of two sessions per child, especially those who value a baby unit arranged around individual routines and separate spaces for sleep and sensory exploration. For older children, stories, creative play and school preparation give the offer a different emphasis.

The January 2024 judgement supports that appeal, while the improvement point keeps the decision grounded. Warm relationships and engaging activities matter; so does the skill with which staff turn those activities into the next step in a child's learning.