Muddy Boots Day Nursery

Muddy Boots Day Nursery works out of Holy Family Church Centre on Trelawney Avenue in Langley, close to the M4 and M25. It takes children from three months to five years and has capacity for 90.

Ofsted rated it Good in July 2022, with quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management each judged Good. That was the setting's first graded inspection, so there is no earlier grade behind it.

It runs Monday to Friday all year apart from bank holidays and a week at Christmas, and its day is built in two layers: a core day, with a longer bookable window either side.

Learning and Named Experiences

Like every registered nursery in England, this one works to the Early Years Foundation Stage, the statutory framework for learning, development and care from birth to five. What it adds is a position on how children move through a day: children have base rooms, but free flow gives them the run of the space, and routines follow the child rather than the child following the nursery timetable.

The detail underneath the Good grade is the useful part. In July 2022 children of all ages helped release butterflies they had watched grow from caterpillars, learning to handle them gently. They dipped string into paint they had mixed to make patterns on paper, stuck wings onto cork to build their own lovebugs, and used scissors and pens in junk modelling to make insects. Books were out indoors and outdoors, beside themed activities. Eid celebrations marked the cultural mix of the children who attend.

Two improvement points were set at the same visit, and both are about adult practice rather than resources: supporting staff to develop children's speech and language, and reviewing transition times around snack and lunch so children stay meaningfully occupied.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoors is where this nursery makes its strongest claim, and the claim is structural rather than decorative. It has a purpose designed enclosed garden with its own outdoor classroom. That Garden Classroom is a hand built wooden room used for lunch, sleep, storytelling and group activities in any weather, lit in the darker months with fairy lights and storm lanterns so outdoor play carries on into the evening. The garden is not filled with purpose-built play equipment: digging areas, planters and safe water features change with the season, and high quality all weather suits let children be outside comfortably all year round.

At the July 2022 visit books and activities were out on both sides of the door, and staff counted heads every time a group crossed between inside and out.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key worker for their time in each room, and each room has a trained co-ordinator overseeing development and organisation.

In July 2022 the bonds between children and staff were secure ones, built by adults who paid attention and took what a child said seriously. Babies got plenty of eye contact and holding, and whatever rhythm they already had at home was carried into the nursery day, which is what settled them. Children played together and alongside one another, and understood sharing and taking turns.

Speech was well supported at the same visit: staff put questions to children and then waited, giving them room to answer and to reach back to what they already knew. The gap was in who got heard. Staff did not always use open questions, and children who were less confident or reluctant to speak did not always get the same chance in group activities. That is the sharpest thing to raise on a visit.

Progress is recorded in a learning journey viewable any time through an online portal, alongside parent evenings, newsletters and questionnaires. In July 2022 parents were very positive, felt well informed, and were given a detailed handover at collection time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Ofsted judged the arrangements for safeguarding effective in July 2022. Staff could recognise the indicators that a child was at risk of abuse and knew exactly who to take a concern to, team meetings carried regular safeguarding updates to keep that knowledge current, and the building was secure. Supervision was good, and staff understood the arrangements for particular dietary needs. The nursery says it has CCTV and biometric fingerprint door entry, and that visitors sign in and out.

Meals are freshly prepared on the premises, with published autumn and winter and spring and summer menus setting out a breakfast, a morning snack, a lunch, an afternoon snack and a dinner for each weekday. Fresh Halal meat from local suppliers is used for families who need it, weaning stages are catered for, and formula, expressed breast milk and sterilising are all handled for babies. At the July 2022 visit the food on offer was varied and cooked from scratch, and children could talk through the business of hand washing and say why it mattered.

The nursery is at Holy Family Church Centre, 226 Trelawney Avenue, Langley, Slough SL3 7UD.

Sessions and Attendance

The core nursery day runs from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and that is the window a parent's contract fees relate to. Either side of it the nursery will open from 6.30am and stay open until 8pm, 51 weeks of the year. Those slots are bookable 24 hours ahead, permanently or ad hoc, and carry their own charge. The shape is a full-day place with a long extension on demand, not a fixed early and late session.

The nursery also publishes a third pattern: three hour micro sessions with a minimum of two a week, flexed across the day. It is published as a trial in an announcement dated August 2019, so confirm it is still running before planning around it. There is also a pick up and drop service, collecting a child from home or a parent's workplace and returning them the same way, on the same bookable, chargeable basis.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery takes funded early education for two-year-olds whose families live in Slough and claim certain benefits, and funding for three- and four-year-olds including the 30 hours extended entitlement. For any hours beyond the funded entitlement, fees are set out in the parent's own contract.

Paid extras are named rather than buried. Nappies, creams and formula milk carry an additional charge added to the monthly invoice, and the extended hours and the pick up and drop service each carry their own charge and terms.

• The Good grade dates from July 2022. It is four years old and it is the only graded inspection this setting has, so there is no earlier judgement behind it. Ask what has changed since, particularly in the staff team.
• Both improvement points were about adult practice. A quiet talker, or a child who finds mealtimes hard, is the case to raise.
• The nursery website covers more than one building. Several pages describe a different Muddy Boots site, with a great hall and centuries of history, which is not the Langley premises. Ask for a tour here, and for the room names, the group sizes and where children eat and sleep.
• The micro-session trial is dated. The three hour sessions with a two-session minimum are published as a trial, in an announcement dated August 2019. Treat it as provisional rather than settled.

Muddy Boots is an outdoor nursery with long hours attached. The enclosed garden, the Garden Classroom and the all weather suits are what the setting organises itself around, and in July 2022 children were learning indoors and outdoors with equal seriousness. The Good grade across all five judgements rests on attentive staff, a leadership team reviewing the curriculum weekly, and parents who felt genuinely informed.

It suits a family needing a full-day place through the year, the Christmas week and bank holidays apart, and one whose working hours run past six in the evening or start before eight, since the extended day is bookable rather than fixed. The nursery does publish shorter sessions too, as flexible hours in a micro-session trial, so a family needing only part of the day may not be shut out, but that trial is the one thing here to confirm before relying on it. It is a weaker fit for a family needing weekend or overnight cover.