Doodle Do Day Nursery

A converted church hall, gardening through Garden Champions and a weekly rhythm of Spanish, yoga and coached sport give Doodle Do Day Nursery a recognisable character. This Bishop’s Stortford setting combines play with planned activities. Its cookery station and community visits take learning beyond stories and table activities.

At its 9 April 2026 inspection, Ofsted awarded Strong standard in achievement, behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance, with safeguarding standards met. These are separate judgements, not an overall grade. The practical picture is a nursery accepting children from three months to five years, with capacity for 80 children in total.

Communication deserves attention here. In April 2026, songs, stories and conversations ran through the day, while adults used questions to extend children’s ideas. The emphasis was on using language during play and familiar routines, giving children reasons to speak rather than treating conversation as a separate lesson.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) provides the framework: children learn through play across language, physical development, relationships, early literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. Staff observe children’s interests and development, then use those observations to plan what comes next. This is the foundation of the nursery day, with Doodle Do’s additional activities sitting alongside it.

An individual progress tracker organises observations by area of learning. Learning Journeys, records of each child’s experiences and development, help connect those observations with future activities. They include photographs, artwork and contributions from home, giving parents something more concrete than a general account of how their child is getting on. Children can revisit their experiences with their key person, and families keep the record when they leave.

Above and Beyond Educational Experiences is the nursery’s collection of additional activities, including movement, cooking, gardening and community visits. Wake up & shake up uses cross-lateral movements as an energising activity. Emotions Boxes and Chatterboxes are activities intended to support confidence and wellbeing. Their value for parents is the breadth of experiences alongside the everyday curriculum, rather than the programme names alone.

There is also a clear weekly rhythm. Wednesday mornings bring Spanish lessons, followed by yoga on Thursday mornings, both for all children. A sports coach works with toddlers and preschool children on Friday mornings. Attendance days therefore affect which recurring activities a child encounters.

In April 2026, water play gave staff opportunities to introduce new words and explore mathematical ideas. Children compared the size of play dough creations and explored the concepts of full and empty. Indoor climbing supported larger movements, while tools such as tweezers gave children practice with smaller, controlled actions. The examples connect early learning with things children can handle and do.

Outdoor and Community Life

Garden Champions is a gardening activity using School Gardening Awards training from the Royal Horticultural Society. It gives outdoor learning a named strand alongside regular opportunities to explore and move outside. Community visits add social experiences beyond the nursery, while the cookery station brings practical food activities into learning.

During garden activities in April 2026, adults demonstrated safe tool use and asked children questions about their work. Children also recalled learning about the harm rubbish can cause sea animals. Together, these examples show how hands-on experiences and conversation can connect the immediate activity with a wider idea. The outdoor offer is about learning as well as physical activity.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a Key Person who observes their development, shares information with parents and provides continuity in their care. Settling sessions introduce the child and family to that person. This makes the early relationship a practical part of joining, rather than leaving parents to learn who knows their child best after attendance has begun.

Termly parents’ meetings provide time to discuss individual needs and progress with the key person. Learning Journeys add an ongoing account of experiences between those conversations. Parents can contribute observations from home, helping staff plan around interests that extend beyond nursery. That two-way exchange matters when a child’s confidence or abilities look different in different places.

In April 2026, staff supported upset children by acknowledging their feelings, offering comfort and helping them find another way to respond. They modelled taking turns and sharing rather than simply stopping disagreements. Daily routines also gave children opportunities to practise independence through washing their hands, pouring drinks and clearing away.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2026 inspection, Ofsted found effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities through individual adaptations and work with parents and external professionals, alongside safeguarding arrangements that met the required standards. A useful example was replacing visual boards with sand timers to support turn-taking. Home-language words and visual prompts helped children learning English communicate and participate.

In April 2026, staff followed children’s sleep routines from home and used quiet spaces for those needing rest while other children continued playing. Occupational therapists were among the professionals involved in supporting individual needs. These are practical mechanisms for adjusting care, though the next step remained extending the successful work on removing barriers so it had a greater effect on every child needing extra help.

Meals are prepared by nursery chefs, with menus planned alongside a paediatric dietician and seasonal choices rotating over a four-week cycle. Children help prepare snacks and serve lunch with adult support; older children also help with laying and clearing tables, making meals opportunities to practise everyday skills.

Sessions and Attendance

Doodle Do operates at The Old Church Hall, Portland Road, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3SL. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. It operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and for a week over Christmas and New Year. The opening window gives working families a useful measure of the day’s outer limits.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01279 653318 or by email to manager@doodledodaynursery.com. The nursery’s position close to the town centre and access to the M11 are practical considerations for families combining childcare with work or other journeys.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds and the extended 30-hour entitlement for children whose parents meet the eligibility criteria. The entitlement is stretched across 51 weeks. Fully funded attendance is offered on Mondays and Fridays, a condition that matters as much as the headline hours when fitting childcare around a working week.

Stretching the entitlement distributes it across the year rather than concentrating it into term time. Families comparing attendance options should therefore distinguish the entitlement from the nursery’s opening hours. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, while the fees and funding information explains the funded arrangement.

• Funded attendance days. Fully funded attendance is offered on Mondays and Fridays, with entitlement stretched across 51 weeks. Families needing other days should weigh that restriction against their intended weekly pattern.
• Activity timing. Spanish takes place on Wednesday mornings, yoga on Thursday mornings and coached sport for toddlers and preschool children on Friday mornings. Those fixed days make the activity timetable relevant to attendance choices.
• Individual support. The April 2026 next step was to extend work on removing barriers for children needing extra help. At a visit, discuss how staff would adapt activities for your child and review whether those adaptations are working.
• Joining and costs. Settling sessions introduce families to their child’s Key Person. Use that conversation to ask how the settling plan would work for your child and what the written quotation includes for meals and non-food consumables during paid and funded attendance.

Doodle Do suits families who value practical learning, a recurring activity timetable and a clear relationship with a key person. Garden Champions, cooking and community visits give parents concrete reasons to consider it; Learning Journeys and termly meetings provide ways to follow their child’s development.

The April 2026 area judgements give a strong inspection position, with further work on removing barriers remaining relevant for families whose children need additional help. For working parents, the weekday opening window is useful. For those planning fully funded attendance, the Monday and Friday arrangement is the decisive practical condition.