Good Manors Day Nursery Miller Drive

Daily outdoor play and close relationships with familiar adults characterised Good Manors Day Nursery Miller Drive in Fareham in December 2025, alongside substantial teaching concerns. Ofsted's report card dated 2 December 2025 recorded safeguarding standards met and separate area judgements: expected standard for behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, and inclusion; needs attention for achievement, curriculum and teaching, and leadership and governance. Mathematics, language teaching and staff understanding of the curriculum were inconsistent.

This is a nursery to weigh carefully. Its capacity is 63 children, with an accepted age range of 3 to 60 months. The practical setting is Miller Drive; the educational question is whether everyday interactions now build children's vocabulary and mathematical understanding consistently.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. In a child's day, that means play and adult interaction should support development across the areas of learning, rather than simply keep children occupied.

In December 2025, some staff missed chances to introduce unfamiliar words or bring mathematics into activities. Leaders had also missed gaps in practitioners' understanding of what they were meant to teach. These concerns reached beyond an individual activity: the relationship between curriculum planning, staff knowledge and everyday conversation needed attention. Actions required stronger curriculum delivery and teaching that built on children's existing learning, with a deadline of 9 February 2026.

Physical experiences were more concrete in December 2025. The youngest children practised pulling themselves upright and moving around furniture, while outdoor resources gave children opportunities to lift, stretch and pull. These are tangible experiences for developing movement and coordination, rather than learning confined to seated activities.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden provides a recognisable thread through nursery life. In November 2024, children gathered snow outdoors, carried it inside and made miniature snowmen decorated with leaves and twigs. Weather became something to investigate and discuss, with natural materials linking outdoor exploration to indoor making.

Charity activities have also brought families into shared projects. Rainbow Week in 2025 combined dressing up, sensory activities, colourful crafts and a bake sale in support of Rainbow Trust Children's Charity, which helps families caring for a seriously ill child. Staff contributed through the Big Bike Challenge, a virtual cycling fundraiser.

Children in Need activities in November 2024 included decorating biscuits, making eye patches inspired by Pudsey and experimenting with a yellow water tray. These are dated examples of how a charity theme became practical play; they should not be read as a fixed annual timetable.

At the December 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that familiar key people gave children reassurance, staff coordinated care routines with families, and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received targeted help through adapted activities, professional collaboration and individual planning.

The detail matters for families with younger children. In December 2025, staff discussed eating routines and weaning with parents, held babies during bottle feeds and helped them settle to sleep with gentle physical reassurance. Care was responsive to individual routines, rather than treated as a separate task between activities.

Additional support in December 2025 included bags containing items chosen around individual children's interests to help them manage their emotions. Staff also practised simple signs together and used assessments to identify where targeted plans were needed. For a parent, these are concrete mechanisms to discuss against their own child's needs.

Moving between rooms involved staff exchanging information about children's starting points, current learning and next steps in December 2025. That exchange gives the next team something specific to work from. It also makes the consistency of teaching across rooms an important consideration, given the curriculum concerns.

The address is 118 Miller Drive, Fareham, PO16 7LN. There are 63 places in total; that whole-nursery figure is not a room size or a statement about vacancies.

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and Christmas. Families therefore need to account for those closures when arranging care around work.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. A useful budget needs to match the child's attendance arrangement, rather than rely on a headline price alone.

• Mathematics and language. The December 2025 concerns centred on missed opportunities in daily teaching and uneven staff understanding. On a visit, ask for concrete examples of how vocabulary and mathematics are now developed through play, and how the actions due on 9 February 2026 were addressed.
• Individual support. December 2025 practice included adapted routines, targeted plans and interest-based resources for managing emotions. Families needing additional support should discuss how those mechanisms would apply to their child.
• Attendance and the total bill. The nursery opens across the year, with bank holiday and Christmas closures. Ask for one written proposal covering the booking pattern, funded hours if applicable, meals and non-food consumables, so the care arrangement and total cost can be considered together.

Miller Drive suits Fareham families seeking care across the year who value outdoor experiences and individual care routines, subject to the substantial teaching concerns below. Its dated examples of garden exploration and charity projects give nursery life some character. The December 2025 teaching concerns are substantial, however, and prevent an unqualified recommendation: curriculum delivery and consistent learning through everyday interaction should carry real weight in the decision.