Early Days Nursery School

A woodland morning every week gives Early Days Nursery School a clear countryside identity. Based at the Old School in Ipsden, near Wallingford, it combines access to fields and woodland with outdoor spaces children can use through the nursery day. The setting has capacity for 62 children, accepting children from six months to five years. Its appeal starts with what children can do outside, rather than a decorative rural address.

At its 10 March 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with strengths in children's curiosity, communication and relationships, alongside weaknesses in staff understanding of new learning approaches and adapting group activities to different developmental stages. Changes in practice were also insufficiently assessed to establish staff training needs, including when younger and older children began playing together. That gives families a balanced starting point: positive care and learning observations, with specific teaching improvements to explore.

Attendance combines a core day, breakfast and tea extensions and shorter funded-only sessions, during a transition to year-round provision.

Rooms and Ages

Hedgehogs serves children from six months to two years, while Owls covers ages two to five; children move through to Squirrels around age two. The youngest children's spaces include a wooden chalet, a separate sleep room and opportunities for stories, construction, imaginative play and messy exploration, while the preschool environment has areas for books, role play, investigation and early writing. These are different kinds of space for different stages, rather than one undifferentiated playroom.

Covered areas connect rooms to outdoor play, making outings only one part of outdoor learning. The separate sleep room accommodates individual rest needs; older babies practise independence in the chalet.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework shapes the day through play, exploration and learning across communication, physical development, relationships and the later areas of literacy, mathematics and creative expression. Early Days adds activities organised around children's interests, with each key person using observations to plan individual learning. Whole-nursery themes include animals, transport and food, giving shared activities a recognisable thread while leaving room for personal interests.

Letters and Sounds uses games for listening and early phonics; Funky Fingers develops hand movements for later pencil use. Nature Detectives explores insects, birds and soil. Children also sow, tend and harvest plants for cooking, connecting ingredients with how they grow.

Two-year-olds also have activities based on recurring patterns in their play, such as moving objects, rotating them or exploring how they travel. This matters because an activity that engages an older preschool child may need a different entry point for a younger child. In March 2023, staff had not consistently understood the purpose of newly introduced learning strategies or adjusted adult-led activities precisely enough for children at different stages. Those are useful questions about teaching practice, rather than simply the quantity of activities.

Outdoor and Community Life

Woodland School takes Owls to a local woodland site for a morning each week throughout the year. Children may build shelters, work with clay, try tools or make art from natural materials. It adds a different environment for exploration and practical activity, with the site reached by walking across a field rather than arranging transport.

The wider outdoor offer includes a woodland playground, a growing garden and countryside walks each week, alongside daily use of the garden, playground and outdoor classrooms. In March 2023, children talked enthusiastically about community and woodland walks, recalling tractors and animals they had encountered. Those walks linked outdoor exploration with conversation, counting and recall.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with accompanied visits to meet the key person. When parents feel comfortable, children stay alone for gradually longer visits, paced to their needs and familiarity with nursery routines.

Siblings can spend time together, including outdoor play and shared periods around breakfast and tea. For a younger child, seeing an older sibling can form part of settling. Communication also includes an online learning and photo journal within the optional enhanced provision, while Parent Zone brings together menus, policies, newsletters and funding information for existing families.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENDCo coordinates individual support, with routines adapted for additional needs. Staff work with families on children's English as an additional language, cultural background and language development, informing adjustments to the day.

Safeguarding arrangements include staff training and designated lead and deputy roles. In March 2023, 28 staff worked with children. Each child's key person plans individual learning.

School preparation in Owls includes group activities around early reading, sounds and number skills, alongside the weekly woodland experience. The Christmas and Spring Concert and end-of-year Sports Day add opportunities to participate with others. Preparation is expressed through activities and routines, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Old School, Ipsden, Wallingford, OX10 6AJ. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with closures for bank holidays and the Christmas-to-New-Year period. Visits can be arranged by telephone on 01491 681101 or by email at admin@earlydays-nursery.co.uk.

The core session runs from 8.45am to 4pm. Breakfast club extends the start from 7.30am, and an early morning session runs from 8am to 8.45am; tea club begins after 4pm, with collection at 5pm, 5.30pm or 6pm. Extensions can vary between days, so families need not use the same start and finish throughout the week.

A funded-only session lasting five hours and 35 minutes can sit within the core window without buying the additional hours. Existing families' term-time arrangements are being honoured during the transition to 51-week provision. One-off swaps of booked days are not permitted, an important distinction from the flexibility to add session extensions.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both 15- and 30-hour funding places are offered. For the 51-week arrangement, entitlement is stretched to up to 11 hours and 10 minutes or 22 hours and 20 minutes per week respectively, rather than delivered as those headline hours each week. Funding is normally applied in daily portions of five hours and 35 minutes, with eligible remaining entitlement potentially used against breakfast or tea sessions.

Private fees include meals, snacks and nappy consumables, with breakfast and tea included when their respective clubs are booked. An in-house chef prepares the hot lunch and snacks; families declining the funded meal charge can supply food that complies with the Food Brought In from Home Policy.

For funded attendance, meals and nappy consumables have separate, non-mandatory charges, and parents can instead provide their own supplies. The Activities and Enhanced Provision charge is also optional: it covers additions including cookery, Sport Minis, Tatty Bumpkin yoga and the online journal. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the dates and fees page explaining the structure. Families using funded hours alone, without private hours or paid extensions, do not pay a deposit.

• Teaching across ages. In March 2023, staff needed clearer understanding of new learning strategies and more precise adaptation of adult-led activities. During a visit, ask how an activity is adjusted for younger children and how staff evaluate what it achieves.
• The route between rooms. Hedgehogs and Owls have stated age bands, while Squirrels appears in the transition arrangements around age two. Ask how your child's move is planned and which spaces they will use during that stage.
• Funded sessions and optional extras. A funded-only session can be shorter than the core day, and meals, consumables and enhanced provision can be declined. Request a written quotation for the exact attendance pattern and choices you intend to use.
• Year-round attendance. New provision follows a 51-week model, while existing term-time arrangements are honoured during the transition. Fees remain due for sickness and family holidays, and booked days cannot be swapped as a one-off; consider how that fits your working pattern.

Early Days suits families seeking weekly woodland mornings and daily outdoor play, supported by gradual settling, a separate sleep room and individual key-person planning.

The attendance model serves both families using the core day with breakfast or tea extensions and those choosing a shorter funded-only session. The main judgement is whether those patterns, the year-round calendar and the optional charges fit your household. Alongside that practical fit, the March 2023 teaching concerns deserve attention: engaging activities work best when staff know what each child should gain from them.