Oakley Day Nursery

Knole Park walks, baby-height resources and a garden used across the age groups give Oakley Day Nursery a character that reaches beyond its Sevenoaks town-centre address. Its rooms take children from early babyhood towards school, with sensory exploration giving way to greater independence and group learning. Outdoor time is part of that progression, rather than an activity reserved for the oldest children.

At its 14 June 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Oakley Good overall. The important qualifications concern everyday practice: communication before physically helping children, and consistency in handwashing. These deserve attention alongside the positive picture of relationships and interest-led activities.

Oakley has capacity for 43 children in total and offers care from 3 months to 5 years. Acorns, Mini Oaks and Preschool organise the journey through those ages. Full days, mornings, afternoons and the Oakley-Flex booking scheme give families different ways to use the setting.

Rooms and Ages

Acorns takes babies from 3 months to 2 years, combining sensory exploration and resources within children's reach with a sleep area, a nappy-changing room and garden visits several times during the day. For a baby, the practical distinction is that exploration and rest both have a place in the room's arrangements.

Mini Oaks, for children aged 2 to 3, emphasises sharing, physical and social development, independent choices, stories and songs in a free-flow room, with garden time in the morning and afternoon. Potty training receives support here too. The shift is towards doing more for themselves while learning to play alongside others.

Preschool runs from age 3 to school age, using a more structured day and group activities to develop independence and sustained attention, alongside time in the garden and outings around Sevenoaks. School preparation therefore includes everyday habits as well as learning activities. It is a gradual change in the shape of the day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the framework for children's learning and care: at Oakley, learning through play includes language, movement and relationships, then extends into literacy, mathematics, creative expression and understanding the world. Observation, assessment and planning use children's existing knowledge and interests to shape what comes next. The curriculum information explains that cycle alongside the key-person arrangements.

Makaton sign language is used with Mini Oaks children to support communication. Stories and singing also feature in the room's day, while Preschool introduces numbers and phonics through play. These are concrete ways of approaching language and early learning, rather than a promise that school preparation means formal lessons.

In June 2023, recently hatched partridge chicks provided a practical learning activity: children took turns feeding them, explored quantities and talked about how the chicks stayed warm. The example connects learning about living things with mathematics and waiting for a turn. It belongs to that inspection period, rather than a recurring animal programme.

Outdoor and Community Life

Acorns makes regular trips around Sevenoaks and to Knole Park. Mini Oaks also goes into the community, including the park, library and local care home. These outings extend children's experiences beyond the nursery's garden and give different age groups opportunities to explore their surroundings.

For Preschool, library and care-home visits are weekly activities. Weekly trips to Knole Park and the playground carry the nursery's non-Covid-times condition. That qualification matters when weighing the outing programme: the different destinations should not be treated as one unconditional weekly timetable.

Relationships and Communication

The Keyperson Approach assigns each child a practitioner who helps personalise care and learning and build a relationship with the family. For Acorns babies, settling sessions include discussion of routines, interests and individual needs. That gives the relationship a practical starting point: staff learn about the baby's day as well as getting to know the child.

Moves from Acorns to Mini Oaks are discussed with parents as children develop towards the next stage. Visits to the new room come before the move, and parents are invited to spend time with the team and new key person. The transition involves both child and family, rather than simply changing rooms at a birthday.

Famly, the nursery's communication app, lets staff and parents exchange messages, photographs and videos. It also carries observations about wellbeing and development, and parents can contribute accounts of learning outside nursery. Daily handovers sit alongside this digital contact, so communication has both an immediate and a longer-term element.

Twice-yearly parents' evenings include a written account of development and progress. Regular stay-and-play sessions offer another way for families to take part, while Parents Preschool Preparation presentations address the next stage. These are useful distinctions: updates about a child's day, discussions about development and opportunities to participate serve different purposes.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described staff's knowledge of children's interests, home circumstances and learning goals as supporting children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Current team arrangements include specialist safeguarding officers and Special Education Needs Co-ordinators (SENCO), and staff have attended paediatric first-aid training within the preceding three years. These are support roles and training arrangements, rather than a fresh inspection judgement.

The June 2023 improvement points were specific. Staff sometimes repositioned children or wiped their noses before explaining what they were about to do. Handwashing was also inconsistent after nose-wiping and after children touched the chicks. For parents, the issues concern clear communication during personal care and reliable hygiene routines, not simply whether those routines exist.

Food is prepared fresh each day, with breakfast, a hot lunch, cold tea and snacks; the nutrition policy provides for dietary requirements and allergies. Children are encouraged to help with laying the table, serving food and clearing afterwards, making mealtimes another opportunity to practise independence.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 65 High Street (1 Rockdale Road), Sevenoaks, TN13 1JY. Oakley opens Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6.30pm, for 51 weeks each year. Closures cover public holidays, the Christmas-to-New-Year period and one annual staff-training day, so the operating year includes planned breaks.

Full-day sessions run from 7.30am to 6.30pm. Morning sessions finish at 1pm after a 7.30am start, while afternoons run from 1pm to 6.30pm. The distinction is useful for families comparing a whole working day with a shorter attendance pattern; opening hours alone would not explain those choices.

Oakley-Flex allows a mixture of full days, mornings and afternoons, subject to a minimum commitment of 8 sessions each month. Families select the following week's sessions by 4pm on Thursday. It offers a different planning rhythm from choosing the same sessions each week, but still requires both a monthly commitment and advance notice of the next week's bookings.

Enquiries can be made by email or through the contact form. Famly also supports communication about administrative matters, including joining paperwork and funding documents.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for children aged 2 and over, and for those aged 3 and over for 15 or 30 hours per week across 38 weeks. Private sessions are offered too. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen arrangement through the nursery's fees information.

The nursery supplies food and snacks, milk including formula, and non-food essentials including nappies, wipes, nappy cream and sun cream. Parents bring spare clothes. These provisions describe what accompanies the nursery day; the funded-hours treatment of food and consumables belongs in the individual funding discussion below.

There is no registration charge. Payment is monthly in advance, with fees due on the first day of the month; late collection attracts charges, and a late-payment charge may also apply. Families using Oakley-Flex therefore need to consider the booking deadline alongside the payment timetable.

• Personal care and hygiene. The June 2023 findings concerned explanations before physical assistance and inconsistent handwashing. At a visit, ask how staff now put both routines into practice throughout the day.
• Changing work patterns. Oakley-Flex requires 8 sessions per month and next-week choices by Thursday at 4pm. Compare that deadline with how far ahead your own working timetable becomes clear.
• Funded attendance. The funding offer covers 38 weeks, while Oakley operates for 51. Ask for a written breakdown covering your attendance pattern, private hours, meals and consumables.
• Allergies and outings. The nutrition policy accommodates dietary needs, and Preschool's Knole Park timetable has a non-Covid-times condition. Confirm current allergy procedures and how the outing programme works for your child's room.

Oakley suits families seeking full-day care, shorter morning or afternoon sessions, or a flexible mixture that can be planned a week ahead. Its strongest practical features are the progression through Acorns, Mini Oaks and Preschool, regular use of outdoor space, community outings and several ways for parents to stay involved.

The June 2023 communication and hygiene points deserve a direct conversation. Set against those concerns, the room arrangements and booking choices give families specific features to assess: how a baby rests, how a toddler develops independence and how the nursery day fits their working pattern.