Lord Williams's School Day Nursery

A Reading Hut for stories, gardens for digging and a quiet room for babies’ sleep give Lord Williams's School Day Nursery a clear character: books, outdoor exploration and everyday care share the space. Based on Oxford Road in Thame, it accepts children from six months to four years and has capacity for 39 children. Its purpose-built accommodation sits on the site of Lord Williams’s Upper School.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good across all areas and found safeguarding effective, with sensitive baby care and a successful emphasis on books and stories. That is a dated assessment, rather than a judgement on today’s practice. The current offer combines age-specific rooms, a key person for each child and Blossom, an app connecting families with their child’s day.

Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings give families different ways to use the nursery. The more consequential practical detail is the calendar: it opens during half terms but closes during the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, with summer club provision dependent on staffing.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room combines sensory and creative play with a garden for physical exploration; home sleep routines are followed, and a quiet room gives rest its own space. Carpeted play space and a separate wipe-clean area accommodate different activities, while the adjoining outdoor area extends babies’ opportunities to explore. The arrangement matters for children whose day still alternates between activity, feeding and sleep.

For children aged two to three, Toddler Room pairs creative play with a spacious enclosed garden containing a mud kitchen, sandpit, digging area and a track for wheeled toys. Its Reading Hut is used for stories and phonics groups. These are practical resources for different kinds of play: digging and riding involve movement, while the hut gives shared reading a recognisable setting.

Pre-School serves children aged three and four, with resources covering the EYFS and an emphasis on preparation for school. EYFS means learning through play, including activities led by adults and choices made by children themselves. It is the common framework for early learning and care, rather than an extra programme unique to this nursery.

Learning and Activities

Monthly topics introduce seasons, cultural and religious celebrations, and the wider world. An interactive smart table adds touch-screen activities, while growing herbs, flowers, fruit and vegetables gives children something tangible to care for. The balance is useful: learning can involve a screen, a conversation or something changing in the garden.

Learning Journey is the nursery’s record of a child’s development. A key person observes interests, approaches to play and areas needing support, then uses those observations to plan further experiences. Parents can review the record. This makes the connection between a child’s own interests and planned activities explicit, rather than leaving learning as a list of things everyone does.

In May 2022, younger children explored books with staff, while older children selected books to take home in a library bag; stories also formed part of the routine before meals. Children practised independence through tasks such as managing coats and clearing plates. Those examples show how reading and self-care fitted into ordinary nursery life at the time.

Outdoor and Community Life

Two large gardens extend the indoor provision, and the school grounds are used for walks, including nature walks. The toddler garden’s artificial grass supports use across different weather conditions. Outdoor access throughout a session allows movement and exploration to sit alongside quieter indoor activities.

Local support has helped develop these spaces. Peach Pubs donated towards a greenhouse and gardening tools, and fundraising has purchased a climbing frame, bikes, scooters and a mud kitchen. The practical result is equipment children can use for growing, movement and imaginative play, with fundraising directed towards nursery resources.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who supports settling, exchanges information with parents and plans activities around their needs. After a place is confirmed, settling visits vary in length. Babies’ routines from home guide sleep arrangements, and staff work with parents during weaning. That gives the early weeks a starting point in the child’s existing habits.

The key person remains the main family contact, but children also become familiar with other practitioners so that another close adult can support them during an absence. Parents can arrange meetings during nursery hours, and parents’ evenings provide further opportunities to discuss development. Most days bring a verbal update, alongside regular written summaries.

Blossom is the mobile app used for updates about meals, sleep and nappy changes, as well as photographs and observations. Communication runs both ways: parents can share experiences from home and update routines, likes and dislikes. For families managing changing sleep or feeding habits, that is a concrete way to pass information between home and nursery.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The manager holds both the designated safeguarding lead and SENCO roles. The behaviour policy sets out a staged response to persistent difficulties, involving the key person, parents and SENCO in support planning. Its ABC method records what happened before a behaviour, the behaviour itself and what followed, helping staff consider a trigger before agreeing support.

Where difficulties continue, the policy provides for discussion of specialist involvement and external referral. For ongoing medical needs, individual health plans involve parents and relevant professionals, include emergency arrangements and are reviewed every six months or sooner where necessary. These are defined mechanisms for organising support, rather than a blanket promise about every child’s experience.

Food is cooked on the premises each day, using a three-week menu refreshed each term. The nursery’s nut-free policy restricts specified nut products and items carrying may-contain warnings; weaning arrangements include a parent-completed chart recording foods already tried at home.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Oxford Road, Thame, OX9 2AJ, and weekday opening hours are 8am to 5pm. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, afternoons from 1pm to 5pm, and full days from 8am to 5pm. Morning bookings include breakfast and lunch; afternoon bookings include tea; full days include all three meals.

Attendance follows the school-year calendar, including half-term holidays, with closures for bank holidays and during Christmas, Easter and summer holidays. A staff training day closes the nursery to children once each term. Summer club must be booked ahead, and its duration depends on staffing, so it is a separate consideration when planning holiday childcare.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. Accepting a place requires signed terms and conditions. Changes to sessions or giving up a place require written notice at least six weeks ahead, and ordinary absences, including illness or family holidays, do not reduce fees. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through two-year-old funding, universal entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, and working parent entitlement covering eligible children from nine months. Funding is delivered over 38 term-time weeks. Half terms are open but unfunded, so full nursery fees apply during those weeks.

The session structure limits how funding is used: six hours can be claimed within a full-day booking, and three within a morning or afternoon booking. A 30-hour code therefore does not make every hour of a booked session funded. Working parent codes must be validated before a firm offer and eligibility reconfirmed every three months.

Standard session charges include meals, drinks, nappies and wipes. Funded attendance carries a separate daily consumables charge covering meals, wipes, sun cream, outings and materials; nappies are included in session charges, while parents supply formula. These different positions matter when comparing the cost of private and funded attendance.

The funded-attendance charge also covers RugbyTots sessions for toddlers and preschool children, Rattle and Roll sessions for Baby Room children, and Cookery Club resources. These are charged elements within the funding arrangement. The fees and session times page sets out the session structure.

School preparation includes learning records and key-person support for the move to Reception. The nursery describes links with Thame primary schools. Attendance does not guarantee a school place; families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

• Teaching consistency. In May 2022, Ofsted identified activities whose intended learning was insufficiently precise and asked for stronger staff monitoring and support to make practice consistently effective. During a visit, ask how practitioners now plan children’s next steps and review their teaching.
• Funding within sessions. Only six hours of a full day, or three hours of a morning or afternoon, can be claimed as funded time. Request a written quotation matching your attendance pattern, including half terms and the daily consumables charge.
• Holiday coverage. Christmas, Easter and summer closures affect year-round childcare planning, while summer club depends on staffing and requires advance booking. Discuss the calendar alongside the sessions you intend to use.
• Allergies and weaning. A nut-free policy and home-tried-food chart guide catering. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food handling and their child’s individual arrangements before starting.

Lord Williams's School Day Nursery suits families wanting morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day care, with books, gardens and regular communication shaping the experience. The Reading Hut, baby sleep space and opportunities to grow plants give that offer substance. Its May 2022 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, balanced by specific work identified on planning and staff consistency.

The calendar and funding structure deserve equal weight in the decision. Families comfortable with school-holiday closures and funded hours that cover only part of a booked session will find a clearer fit than those needing uninterrupted year-round attendance.