The Ark Association

A canopy-covered outdoor kitchen, a planting garden and preschool swimming give The Ark Association’s Princess Avenue nursery a clear identity: practical learning extends beyond the playrooms. Babies have their own outdoor area, while older children can move between physical play, making and exploring. The outdoor layout is a substantial part of the offer.

This Oakham setting accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has 33 places in total. Its purpose-built premises contain three rooms. At its July 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, with the same judgement across education, behaviour, personal development and leadership.

Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions sit alongside term-time-only and year-round attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Willow Room is the baby room, with access to a separate outdoor play space where younger children can see the older children. The wider Princess Avenue outdoor layout includes an area for under-twos surfaced with artificial grass.

Across the site, larger physical equipment occupies the front outdoor space, while the rear contains a mud kitchen and sand pit. A large canopy makes outdoor play possible in different weather conditions.

In July 2023, babies explored bubbles with adults who connected spoken words to the children’s movements. Older children talked about their rainbow artwork, and preschool children practised balance on wooden logs with an adult’s support. Those examples show how movement, conversation and making could work together rather than becoming separate lessons.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care through play. In July 2023, communication and language were central to the planned curriculum: adults helped babies name animals and modelled clearer pronunciation by repeating what children said. Everyday exchanges became learning opportunities.

Books also featured in that July 2023 nursery day. Babies brought books to adults, who used expressive voices and simple language to sustain their interest. For older children, play-dough sausages became a way to explore number recognition and subtraction.

The current preschool programme adds swimming on Monday mornings at the swimming pool at Oakham C of E primary school. Thursday mornings bring a forest school session, an outdoor learning approach involving exploration of the natural environment. The nursery uses its own minibus for transport. These activities give preschool children experiences beyond the nursery’s own garden, with a clear place in the weekly routine.

Outdoor and Community Life

The planting and growing garden adds another purpose to outdoor time. In July 2023, children helped cultivate strawberries, tomatoes and potatoes; harvested potatoes were then prepared as wedges for a snack. Growing and eating were connected through an activity children could take part in themselves.

The outdoor kitchen is positioned beneath the Princess Avenue canopy. Fundraising through craft and coffee mornings helped create it, and children have used it to make pretend potions and birthday cakes.

Relationships and Communication

Babies’ routines follow the pattern set by their parents. Sleep, food, snacks and nappy changes are recorded, so the care arrangements begin with the child’s existing day rather than expecting every baby to fit one timetable.

In July 2023, moving between rooms was prepared for through visits during lunch and outdoor play. Openings in the garden fence allowed younger children to see and interact with children and adults elsewhere. That made the next room familiar before the move, with relationships developing alongside familiarity with the space.

Parents were receiving information about daily routines and activities in July 2023. The important limitation was the next step: not every family received ideas for extending learning at home. Updates about what a child has done and useful suggestions about what to try together serve different purposes; the latter was an improvement priority.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged safeguarding arrangements effective, describing environmental checks, controlled access from playrooms and staff knowledge of reporting concerns. That is a dated judgement, rather than an assurance about every aspect of current practice.

In July 2023, adults stayed alongside children using internet-connected devices at nursery, but children needed more help to recognise online dangers and understand how to respond at home. This was the other improvement priority. Supervised use within nursery and preparation for use elsewhere were separate issues.

Practical independence also featured in July 2023. Preschool swimming outings included learning to manage dressing and undressing, while adults gave specific praise when children poured their own drinks. These small tasks connected care with preparation for the greater independence expected as children move towards school.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Princess Avenue, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6PQ. Opening begins at 7.30am, with closing given as 5.30pm or 6pm. The main nursery day is 9am to 4pm; morning sessions run from 9am until noon or 1pm, and afternoon sessions begin at noon or 1pm and finish at 4pm.

Princess Avenue offers term-time-only or year-round attendance and closes for bank holidays and Christmas. During school holidays, children attending the other Ark site can join the Princess Avenue setting, with practitioners from both sites working together. Families choosing year-round care should therefore consider the holiday routine as well as their usual term-time session.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01572 755776 or through the contact form, which asks families to identify the nursery site. This matters because The Ark Association has two Oakham settings: the Princess Avenue address is the one covered here.

Funding and Paid Extras

Government-funded childcare is offered from 9 months to 4 years, with 15 or 30 hours dependent on eligibility. At Princess Avenue, funding can be used Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm; hours outside that window are chargeable. The funded window and the nursery’s longer opening day are therefore different practical considerations.

During term time, hot lunches are supplied by the kitchen at Oakham C of E primary school and charged separately, or families can send a packed lunch with an ice pack. Morning and afternoon snacks, breakfast, and snack tea for those staying after 4pm are optional charges; fruit brought instead of the nursery snacks must be chopped and labelled in a container for each session.

Non-food supplies have a mixed arrangement. An optional monthly consumables charge sits alongside parents supplying nappies, wipes, required creams and babies’ formula. Families also send named sun cream in summer. For a baby’s family, the items brought from home remain part of the daily preparation.

A registration charge applies only to children who are not funded. Tax-free childcare payments and childcare vouchers are accepted. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, so the useful comparison is the whole charge structure: childcare hours, chosen food and consumables, rather than hours alone.

• The end of the day. Princess Avenue’s opening information gives closing as 5.30pm or 6pm, while the main nursery day ends at 4pm. At a show-around, establish which closing time applies to the attendance pattern you need.
• Learning beyond nursery. In July 2023, the improvement priorities were practical learning ideas for every family and children’s understanding of online dangers at home. Ask how both are now addressed and what families receive to use together.
• The funded-hours boundary. Funding is usable from 9am to 4pm on weekdays, with other hours chargeable. Match that window to your working day and include your food choices when comparing the overall arrangement.
• Outdoor preschool sessions. Monday-morning swimming and Thursday-morning forest school are part of the Princess Avenue programme. Discuss how the chosen attendance pattern connects with those sessions, including the minibus arrangements.

The Ark Association suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as those choosing a full nursery day, with term-time and year-round options. Its strongest practical features are the separate outdoor space for younger children, the canopy-covered play areas and the preschool programme extending to swimming and forest school.

The July 2023 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, with two clear improvement priorities that deserve attention. For babies, parent-led routines are a useful starting point; for preschool children, outdoor exploration and practical independence give the offer its character. Funding is usable within a defined daytime window, and food and consumables need to be considered alongside the attendance pattern.