Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Wing

A mud kitchen, weekly Forest School activities and Christmas carol singing at the retirement home next door give Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Wing a recognisable village character. Outdoor exploration runs through the day, while a sensory room provides a different kind of space indoors. This is a nursery where the surroundings contribute directly to children's experiences.

On Church Street in Wing, within the grounds of Overstone Combined School, the nursery accepts children from three months to five years. It has 60 places in total. That whole-setting figure should not be read as the size of a baby's group.

At its June 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, with strengths in children's communication and two improvement priorities: making curriculum delivery more consistent and deepening staff knowledge of children's lives at home. Those priorities matter alongside the outdoor offer. Flexible sessions have a minimum booking of two sessions per child.

Rooms and Ages

Children have a baby room, a toddler room and a pre-school, giving different stages their own spaces. Rooms and outdoor areas are arranged around children's interests, so the environment can respond to what captures their attention. A floor dedicated to younger children and babies adds separation within the setting, while the sensory room broadens the indoor offer.

In June 2024, baby-room staff used repeated words, changes in vocal expression and clear mouth movements to encourage children to imitate speech. The detail matters: communication work happened through direct exchanges with babies. Older children were talking with confidence and expressing their ideas clearly.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes learning and development through play, with staff tracking children's progress and planning experiences around their next steps. Nursery rhymes, books, independent play and adult-led activities provide different ways to take part. Children's interests influence the planning, connecting learning with things they already want to explore.

In June 2024, the curriculum placed emphasis on independence and communication. Staff sustained children's attention through their interactions, but the new curriculum was still being put into practice and its intended effects were not yet fully evident. The improvement priority was consistency across the nursery, rather than simply adding more activities.

Sensory exploration also featured in June 2024. Young children investigated seed-filled mixtures and had materials suitable for exploring with their mouths. These were concrete opportunities to investigate texture and materials, with staff choosing resources appropriate to the children's stage.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School activities take place on a weekly walk, using hands-on experiences in woodland or other natural surroundings with trees. This adds a recurring opportunity to explore beyond the nursery's own outdoor space. Regular village walks and trips to the nearby park for snacks extend that connection with the locality.

Within the garden, children can use a climbing frame, a sensory kitchen and a planting area. Mud pies in the mud kitchen bring textures and smells into play. The combination gives outdoor time several purposes, from movement and making things to investigating natural materials.

Community experiences have a seasonal rhythm. Each Christmas, children sing carols for the neighbouring retirement home; annual Christmas letters are posted at the local post office. Visits to the local church add another connection with village life. These are experiences involving real people and places, rather than activities confined to the nursery rooms.

Relationships and Communication

In June 2024, staff paid extra attention to children and parents who needed help with separation. An information-sharing app carried updates about daily experiences and development, helping parents connect nursery learning with life at home. Parents understood what their children were learning and how to support it at home.

The same June 2024 account identified a limit to those partnerships: staff exchanged care routines but did not consistently gather enough about children's earlier experiences and wider home lives. Stronger knowledge of those details was needed to deepen key-person relationships. For families, this makes the content of settling conversations as relevant as their frequency.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children made good developmental progress, that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefited from professional support plans and changes to their surroundings, and that safeguarding arrangements were effective. The practical inclusion mechanisms were collaboration with external professionals and adaptations that enabled children to participate in learning.

In June 2024, babies' feeding and sleeping followed their home routines, with adults staying close as tired children settled to sleep and providing attentive bottle-feeding care. Staff also supported changes from breastfeeding to bottles and the weaning stage. These observations describe the care at that time.

Seasonal lunches and daily snacks are served, with dietary requirements accommodated and support for babies' weaning. Food, milk, wipes and nappies are included in the fee package, which keeps these everyday items together within the nursery charge.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Flexible sessions carry a minimum of two sessions for each child; the opening window describes the nursery's operating day rather than fixing the length of each flexible booking.

The nursery opens for 51 weeks each year and closes for bank holidays and Christmas. That makes the holiday calendar relevant even for families arranging care across the year. Enquiries can be made through the Wing nursery's contact route, and visit booking is offered.

Funding and Paid Extras

In June 2024, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. That is a dated participation statement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fee package includes food, nappies, wipes and milk.

Getting There

The address is Church Street, Wing, Buckinghamshire, LU7 0NY, on the Overstone Combined School site. Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place at the school, so families must make a separate school application through the local authority admissions process.

• Curriculum consistency. In June 2024, staff were still developing confidence in delivering the new curriculum. On a visit, ask how its emphasis on independence and communication now translates into activities across the rooms.
• Knowing your child. The June 2024 improvement priority included fuller knowledge of children's home lives and past experiences. Discuss how settling conversations capture your child's routines, interests and experiences, and how the key person uses that information.
• Your attendance and funding plan. Flexible bookings require at least two sessions per child, and closures include Christmas and bank holidays. Which session lengths and funded-hours arrangement would apply to your child's proposed pattern, including any separate charges?

Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Wing suits families seeking flexible attendance and a day with substantial outdoor exploration. Weekly Forest School activities, the mud kitchen and seasonal village connections give that offer substance. The June 2024 Good judgement provides a positive dated assessment, balanced by clear priorities around consistent teaching and closer knowledge of each family. For babies, the inspection-era detail about speech, feeding and sleep is useful; for older children, the garden and community experiences give the nursery its strongest character.