Our Lady's Pre-School

Our Lady's Pre-School is registered as full day care on non-domestic premises at 312 High Street, St Mary Cray, with 40 registered places. Ofsted judged it Good across all four graded areas on 29 November 2024. The report's clearest theme is communication: staff combined conversation, song, signs and visual prompts to help children take part.

Children were happy and confident in a warm setting, with strong, trusting bonds helping them explore. Learning was deliberately language-rich. As an English early-years setting, its curriculum sits within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS): in parent terms, children learn through play and adult-guided experiences that build communication, physical, personal and wider learning rather than following a school-style timetable. Staff varied both activities and resources to meet children's communication needs, moving between group and individual support. Photographs of local landmarks also prompted children to talk about their experiences.

Teaching interactions included skilful questions during play, while singing and signing ran through group time. This is an environment built around participation rather than passive supervision. Adults modelled and repeated language so children had several ways to understand and respond. Displays were purposeful too: photographs of children at play and familiar community landmarks became starting points for conversations with adults and peers.

Daily routines carried learning beyond planned activities. At mealtimes, spoken prompts and signs reinforced please and thank you. Children learned about healthy choices and where food comes from; leaders had also planned a fruit-and-vegetable-picking event for children and families using food sourced from a local farm. Indoors and outdoors both formed part of the observed educational offer.

Familiar adults offered comfort through cuddles and shared play, while parents told Ofsted they valued clear communication and the range of learning opportunities. The report records exceptional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including work with specialist agencies and early identification of possible needs.

Ofsted found safeguarding arrangements effective in November 2024. Children practised manners, joined tidy-up time, managed their coats and helped peers. Those routines build belonging and practical self-reliance. The report nevertheless identified a clear next step: staff were asked to step back more often so children could try everyday tasks and manageable challenges for themselves.

Leaders were ambitious for children's progress and gave staff training across a broad range of areas. Staff understood individual needs and abilities, planned from that knowledge and used inclusive experiences to deepen children's understanding of the world. For a child needing help with communication, the combination of visual aids, repeated signs, song and specialist-agency input is particularly coherent.

The setting is at 312 High Street, St Mary Cray, Orpington, BR5 4AR. The official record classifies it as childcare on non-domestic premises, with a full-day-care subtype, but that classification is not a published booking timetable. Families therefore need the setting's own current pattern list rather than assuming that full day care means every full-day or part-day combination is sold.

The inspection evidence gives a useful picture of practice but not the full commercial offer. No reliable conclusion can be drawn here about term dates, closures, notice rules, deposits or local travel arrangements. That makes the current written joining information important: it is the only sound basis for comparing weekly fit and total practical commitments. Its official record gives capacity for 40 children and identifies it as full day care. The available official information does not establish the booking patterns, accepted age range, funded-entitlement arrangements, meals or consumables, so families should request current written details directly.

• Independence in practice: Ask how staff now decide when to help and when to let children try everyday tasks and manageable challenges for themselves.
• The practical offer: Request the current age range, session choices, minimum attendance, annual calendar, funding treatment, meal arrangements and consumables position before comparing the setting with alternatives.

This is a Good setting whose strongest documented qualities are warm relationships, communication-rich teaching and particularly strong SEND practice. It should suit families who value signing, song and purposeful adult interaction, but the nursery does not publish enough detail to match it to specific attendance patterns; obtain the current booking model before deciding. Families should also compare how the setting's strong adult interaction is now balanced with the inspector's call for more child-led risk, challenge and independence.