Treetops Nursery

A teepee village, a large outdoor sandpit and outings towards the River Thames give Treetops Nursery a character that extends beyond its rooms. Muddy play, growing plants and community outings make practical exploration a substantial part of the offer.

Treetops cares for children from 3 months to 5 years and has 75 places in total. In Henley-on-Thames, its address is Unit 5 at Centenary Business Park on Station Road, RG9 1DS. Baby, toddler and preschool spaces provide different environments as children grow, while an allocated key person gives families a continuing point of contact.

At its 24 June 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged achievement, behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance to be at the Expected standard, with safeguarding standards met. This area-by-area assessment identifies work needed on teaching consistency and early recognition of learning barriers.

Rooms and Ages

The baby room combines places for rest and quieter play with space for more active exploration, including provision for babies who are not yet mobile. Treasure baskets contain everyday objects in natural materials, giving babies different textures and objects to investigate; play gyms and toddle boxes add opportunities to practise movement. Communication, physical development and emotional development are the main areas of learning at this stage.

The toddler room combines rest spaces with a sand tray and toddle boxes for shared play. Heuristic Materials, everyday natural objects for tactile exploration, let children investigate by filling, stacking, transporting and arranging.

The Pre School room supports collaborative play: pencils and notebooks serve pretend shopping games, while blocks, figures and vehicles help children build stories. Learning broadens to literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression alongside personal and physical development.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes the learning: children develop language, movement, relationships and early literacy and maths through play, practical activity and adult support. It is the common framework for early years provision. Treetops combines children's chosen activities with adult-led work, using observations and assessments to plan what comes next.

Letters and Sounds prepares preschool children for reading through Phase One listening activities, sound awareness and spoken blending and separating of sounds. Stories, puppets, songs and instruments support language work.

Key Group Time provides preschool learning with a key person in small groups twice daily. Remote-control toys and torches give children technology to explore.

In June 2026, water play involved children experimenting with funnels and working together as they poured and scooped. Story sessions for toddlers included expressive voices, actions and sounds. These examples show how ordinary play materials can become opportunities for conversation and investigation; the development task is to make the quality of adult interaction more consistent.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor play has tangible variety. A partly covered area makes some outdoor use possible in wet weather, while rubber surfacing gives younger children a place to crawl. The mud kitchen supports mixing and making, the teepee village provides a setting for imaginative games, and the sandpit adds another material to dig, shape and explore. Planting bulbs and seeds brings flowers and vegetables into the experience too.

Regular walks reach the park or river, with other outings including the fire station and watching trains at the railway station; train rides happen sometimes. Drawing materials or a picnic may accompany an outing. The nursery also visits the neighbouring care home, giving community life a place in children's experiences rather than limiting exploration to the outdoor play area.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who discusses sleeping, feeding and personal care with families, including toilet training for toddlers. Sharing preferences helps staff maintain continuity with home routines.

Group-wide settling arrangements at Treetops include settling sessions and possible home visits, introducing nursery life gradually. Baby and toddler spaces also provide for sleep and quieter play.

The group-wide Famly App shares photographs, messages and learning observations; parents can add information to their child's learning record. Conversations and parents' evenings allow discussion beyond the updates.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2026 inspection, Ofsted found that children with emerging special educational needs and/or disabilities and children learning English as an additional language could participate and make progress, but identified uneven teaching interactions, missed opportunities to strengthen mathematical learning, insufficiently precise identification of learning barriers and staff development that needed closer tailoring to individual roles. These are connected issues: understanding a child's difficulty early depends on attentive interaction and staff knowing how to respond.

Activities are planned around children's age, development and individual needs, and assessments include the progress check at two years. In June 2026, resources in the baby room were positioned low enough for young children to choose them, and staff worked with families and relevant professionals on additional support. Participation and early recognition of a difficulty deserve equal attention.

School preparation includes using cutlery, toileting, social confidence and communication, so moving on is treated as more than early reading. Nursery cooks prepare meals and healthy snacks, with provision for special diets. For funded attendance, food and snacks carry no additional charge.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours run from 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, with closure on bank holidays and for a week at Christmas. The parent-information session pattern is a morning from 7.30am to 1pm, an afternoon from 1pm to 6pm, or a full day from 7.30am to 6pm. Half-day attendance is also offered.

The September 2026 charging structure separates a full day of 8am to 6pm from an Early Start Session between 7.30am and 8am. It also includes half days of 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, and Short day choices of 9am to 4pm, 8am to 3pm or 8.30am to 3.30pm. These distinctions affect which hours belong in a family's quotation, especially for an early start.

Enquiries can be made through the nursery's contact form. The setting's address places it on Station Road in Henley-on-Thames; outings make use of the nearby river and local green spaces.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the universal 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds and the extended 30-hour entitlement for eligible families, alongside working-parent funding for eligible nine-month-olds and two-year-olds. Delivery is stretched across 51 weeks: the nursery gives weekly allocations of 11 or 22 hours according to entitlement. Funded attendance runs within 8am to 6pm, with a maximum of 10 funded hours a day; the earlier half-hour is privately paid.

Working-parent and extended-entitlement claims require an eligibility code, with reconfirmation every three months. Universal funding for three- and four-year-olds does not require that code. Funding claim forms are handled through Funding Loop, the system used to collect the claim information, and families must meet its specified deadline.

Consumables and additional services have separate funded-session charges, described in the funding terms as voluntary. The consumables opt-out requires families to bring items daily, including nappies, wipes, nappy bags, non-latex disposable vinyl gloves, disposable aprons, antibacterial hand wash and sun cream with a minimum SPF of 50. Supplies are returned at collection each day for parents' own disposal. Food and snacks are covered without an additional funded-place charge; current prices for private hours and the chosen charge arrangement come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Teaching consistency. The June 2026 priorities cover mathematical learning, adult interactions and professional development matched to staff roles. During a visit, ask how these changes now shape everyday play and small-group work.
• Recognising additional needs early. In June 2026, precise identification of learning barriers needed further attention. Families seeking additional support should discuss how concerns move from an observation to targeted help.
• Session boundaries. The parent-information pattern and September 2026 charging structure differ over morning and full-day start times. Before booking, establish which pattern applies to your proposed attendance and quotation.
• The consumables opt-out. Bringing supplies daily also means taking them away at collection. Consider that routine alongside the voluntary charges when deciding how funded attendance will work for your family.

Treetops suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance as well as full days and shorter daytime patterns, with substantial practical play and community outings. The teepee village, river walks and sound-based preschool activities give parents concrete reasons to consider it.

The June 2026 priorities temper that appeal: teaching consistency, earlier recognition of learning barriers and staff development tailored to roles deserve attention alongside the practical offer.