The Early Years Nursery

Vegetable growing, animal care and outings to Blenheim Palace give The Early Years Nursery a clear character: children learn through contact with the natural world. Its Old Farmhouse setting within London Oxford Airport, Kidlington, adds earth walls, exposed beams and daylight to that emphasis. This is a nursery for families who value time to explore, repeat an activity and follow a child's interests.

Children attend from birth to five years, with 50 places in total. At its September 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and recognised support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Those are dated judgements, rather than a description of every aspect of today's provision.

The practical offer includes full days, additional morning or afternoon sessions and separate funded-only attendance patterns. The distinction matters: the attendance rules and what is included differ between full-day care and funded-only provision.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, including learning through play and attention to their next steps. Alongside it, the Pikler approach emphasises respectful care, movement at the child's own pace and uninterrupted exploration. Its clearest application is with babies: adults do not place them in positions they cannot reach independently, and sensory resources support free play. For parents, this makes the approach more concrete than a general promise of child-led learning.

Activities match the child's capabilities, with materials and projects revisited. Repetition gives children time to investigate real objects and work out how they behave.

The enviro-nature programme extends learning into gardening, animal care and walks beside canals or through woodland. Logs, insects and vegetable growing provide practical material for exploration: children can observe living things, handle natural resources and see the consequences of caring for plants. The curriculum page explains this connection between the nursery's activities and its environmental emphasis.

Outdoor and Community Life

Blenheim Palace is a recurring destination, with many children visiting weekly. That frequency gives outings a continuing place in nursery life, although it does not mean that every child makes the trip each week. Visits have also included Oxford Canal and Evolution Reptiles, alongside opportunities to see helicopters and fire engines; these are examples of past outings, rather than a fixed weekly itinerary.

Animal care involves observation and responding to animals' needs, including encounters with death. Children experience life cycles as well as caring for living things.

In September 2023, children investigated insects beneath a stump, compared worms and counted beetle legs, while babies persisted with physical obstacles. These examples show how exploration could bring movement, observation and early mathematical thinking together. At that inspection, Ofsted also identified inconsistent support for communication, especially for quieter children and those with speech delay, and insufficient challenge in some older children's problem-solving. An appealing environment therefore needs to be considered alongside the quality of adult interaction.

Relationships and Communication

The key-person relationship is central to the Pikler approach here, with care routines intended to give the child an adult's full attention. For babies, that means movement and care are considered together, rather than treating feeding or changing as interruptions to the learning day. The practical value is continuity between the adult who responds to a child's cues and the adult who supports their play.

Free settling sessions are tailored to each child, including extra sessions when needed. The transition can take longer without another settling charge.

In September 2023, learning updates, home activity suggestions and workshops helped parents support learning. Staff also worked with professionals and agencies when needed.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

During September 2023, adults helped children work through feelings and supported friendships through shared play. Children cooperated over tasks such as moving sand together, while lunchtime routines were adapted for some older children to prioritise social interaction before greater independence. The useful detail is the adjustment of a routine to a child's readiness, rather than expecting all children to reach the next stage together.

Staff training in safeguarding is part of the current nursery arrangements. In September 2023, training also covered local safeguarding priorities, and staff knowledge was tested through questions and scenarios. That describes the practice at the time; the dated safeguarding judgement is given above.

Rest was respected in September 2023 when children indicated they needed it, and babies were closely supervised while eating. Full-day fees include food prepared at the nursery, together with nappies and wipes. Funded-only attendance has a different package, explained below.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Farmhouse, Langford Lane, Oxford Airport, Kidlington, OX5 1QT. The nursery operates across 51 weeks of the year, Monday to Friday, with core hours of 8am to 6pm. An earlier breakfast start at 7.30am and a later finish at 6.30pm cost extra, either for individual occasions or through an ongoing monthly arrangement.

Full-day bookings require at least two days a week, with funded-only places exempt from that minimum. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm and afternoons from 1pm to 6pm; these half-day sessions can be added to the full-day booking pattern. For families wanting shorter additional attendance, that condition is as important as the clock times.

Funded-only attendance follows separate windows. The three- and four-year-old universal offer runs from 9am to 11.15am each day, while working-family funded-only attendance is split between 8am to 10.30am and 4pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The split pattern needs to fit the family's day as a whole, rather than being read as one continuous session.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by calling 01865 922226. Registration involves submitting the form by email or post. A non-refundable registration charge is credited against the first month's fees; families can also register for the waiting list, with any future offer dependent on forecast space.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery accepts working-family funding for eligible children from the school term after they reach the qualifying age, universal funding from the term after a child's third birthday, and funding for eligible two-year-olds. Entitlement is stretched over its 51 operating weeks. Working-family codes must reach the nursery before the term begins for funding to be obtained for that term.

For full-day attendance, monthly charges include meals, nappies and extras even when funded hours form part of the booking; wipes are also included in the fees. Funded-only places do not include snacks, meals, outings or extras, so the two arrangements should be considered separately when comparing attendance choices.

Tax Free Childcare and Childcare Vouchers can be used for payment, and Workplace Nursery schemes are accepted through Salary Sacrifice. Direct Debit is the usual method for a remaining balance. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the fees and information page explaining the booking and payment structure.

• Language and challenge. The September 2023 findings identified uneven communication support and insufficient problem-solving challenge. During a visit, ask how adults now help quieter children practise new words and extend older children's thinking.
• Attendance commitments. The two-full-day minimum exempts funded-only bookings, while half days are additional sessions. This favours families who can use that core commitment rather than those seeking an isolated morning or afternoon.
• Split funded-only hours. Working-family attendance uses separate morning and late-afternoon windows, with food, outings and extras excluded. Consider both the gap between sessions and the difference from the full-day package.
• Outdoor experiences. Weekly Blenheim Palace visits involve many children, and animal care is part of the programme. Ask how outings and animal contact are adapted to your child's age, confidence and any allergies.

The strongest reason to choose The Early Years Nursery is the combination of unhurried exploration and practical contact with nature. Gardening, animal care and Blenheim Palace outings give its environmental programme substance, while the Pikler approach makes its expectations for baby care clear.

It suits families seeking full-day attendance with additional morning or afternoon sessions, as well as those whose routines fit the separate funded-only windows. The September 2023 Good judgement supports consideration, but the communication and challenge findings deserve a direct conversation. The choice rests on both the appeal of the programme and how well adults help each child make use of it.