Sunrise Nursery

An orchard, gardens for each room and direct access to the Millennium Green give Sunrise Nursery a character built around outdoor play. On Abingdon Road in Kingston Bagpuize, children progress from baby care towards school preparation through environments that change with their stage of development. Growing food, exploring woodland and programming robotic animals sit alongside one another. There is more here than a garden used for a break between indoor activities.

At its 26 June 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Sunrise Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that individual children received additional support promptly when needed. That judgement is dated: it gives families an assessment of care and education at that visit, rather than a guarantee about today's practice. The current age range starts at three months, and the nursery has capacity for 116 children in total.

The strongest practical consideration is the minimum attendance of three days, alongside a funded offer stretched across the year. This is a setting to consider for families who want repeated contact with the same nursery across the week and substantial outdoor experiences as their child grows.

Rooms and Ages

The youngest room deserves attention first. The Baby Room has a maximum of 12 babies, with sensory bottles, treasure baskets, soft play and a quiet area for books and rhymes giving children several ways to explore at their own pace. Home routines continue here. Its kitchen includes a separate milk-preparation area, so bottle preparation has a designated space within the baby's familiar room.

Baby Toddlers has a daily maximum of 21 children, combining accessible resources with tactile activities and quieter play involving objects such as pegs and boxes. Children can choose toys from low shelving and clear containers rather than depend on an adult to select everything. Singing and stories happen daily, while the routine remains flexible. Waterproof clothing and boots are supplied for outdoor play, making wet weather part of the day rather than an automatic reason to stay inside.

Toddlers accommodates up to 24 children, with weekly cooking, changing role-play settings and two gardens connecting language, imaginative play and practical independence. One garden opens directly from the room; the other includes grass, fruit trees and opportunities to climb and slide. For this age group, the usual staffing is one adult to four children, better than the statutory minimum of one to five for two-year-olds.

Children move into Pre-school during the term before their third birthday; this room takes up to 28 children and emphasises exploring materials and trying more demanding activities with adult support. Before turning three, children remain on the one-to-four staffing arrangement. This matters at a transition that can involve new resources and expectations as well as a new room.

Upper Pre-school takes up to 31 children in the year before school, bringing together guided play, phonics, independence and an outdoor classroom with an orchard, allotments and mud kitchens. Its day has more structure, with free play around the organised learning periods. Children practise putting on coats and shoes, pouring drinks and managing toileting, so school preparation includes everyday self-care as well as early literacy.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS guides learning: children develop communication, physical skills and other areas through play and everyday experiences. In Toddlers, this includes experimenting with textures, creating pictures, choosing songs and cooking. The point is the experience itself, rather than producing identical finished pieces. Books in the quiet corner change monthly, while the role-play area changes each term, giving familiar spaces fresh material for conversation and imagination.

STEAM, combining science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, adds practical exploration across activities. Number songs and dinosaur cards support counting with younger children; preschool children programme robotic cats and dogs. Technology here can mean controlling an object and testing what happens, alongside the nursery's screen-free approach. It is a concrete activity rather than a screen session.

Upper Pre-school also offers Forest School, with child-led outdoor exploration and opportunities to attempt new challenges. Football training is delivered by Serious for Sport, yoga by Tatty Bumpkin and French lessons by My Little Linguist. Drama and storytelling with Debutots are included in the non-funded Upper Pre-School daily fee, as are the football and yoga sessions. These additions bring recognisable activities into the week, while learning through play continues across the room.

In June 2023, babies practised sounds and individual words, toddlers combined words, and older children discussed their ideas and listened to one another. Drawing also became a starting point for storytelling: adults encouraged preschool children to explain their pictures and develop a sequence. The examples show how a familiar activity can support communication as well as mark-making.

Outdoor and Community Life

Sunrise Orchard supplies shade and fruit, and the Millennium Green extends exploration beyond the nursery gardens. Toddlers use the Green for wildlife exploration and bug hunting; their own gardens supply cherries, apples and plums for snacks and cooking. Planting and harvesting give children a direct connection between growing food and eating it.

Upper Pre-school experiences include feeding lambs and watching the changes from caterpillars to butterflies and tadpoles to frogs. Winter brings a nativity performed for parents. Outside, torches make darker evenings useful for exploration, while summer den-building creates shade. These are tangible changes to children's experiences across the seasons.

Continuity starts with the youngest children. Baby Room staff follow routines from home, and parents direct weaning: foods are introduced at nursery after they have already been tried at home. Parents can telephone for an update on their baby. That makes the relationship useful in practical ways, especially while feeding patterns and routines are changing.

The voluntary settling package covers the visits needed to settle a child, generally ten hours across three days. Later, the key person continues observing learning in Pre-school and identifying next steps, with development recorded in a Learning Journey Profile. Families also receive photographs through Tapestry, the online learning journal, alongside daily feedback. Communication therefore includes both immediate information and a record parents can revisit.

The manager holds the SENCO and lead safeguarding roles, with deputy safeguarding cover also in place. Staff receive paediatric first-aid and safeguarding training, and most hold NVQ Level 3 childcare qualifications or above. These are concrete arrangements and training commitments; families with additional needs can use the named roles to discuss how support would work for their child.

In June 2023, toddlers were sung to during nappy changes, comforted as they went to sleep and gently welcomed when they woke. The care examples were ordinary moments, which matter because settling and emotional security are built throughout the day. At that time, leaders needed to observe staff interactions more closely so that small variations in practice could be addressed sooner.

An on-site chef prepares food from scratch, with menus following a 25-meal rotation and organic meat supplied by Riverford Farm. Dietary information, including allergies, is gathered from parents, and each room has a bread machine for daily baking.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Sunrise operates throughout the year, closing for bank holidays and a Christmas break from 25 December until the first working day in January. The minimum attendance is three days, which is a significant commitment for a family seeking occasional childcare.

Full-day funded care is offered through stretched funding. Families can request a brochure or book a visit by email or telephone, and current prices come in a personalised written quotation. The nursery's address is Abingdon Road, Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire OX13 5AR.

Funding and Paid Extras

The fees page offers eligible children 15 to 30 hours of term-time funded childcare, stretched over 51 weeks and delivered as full-day care. Funding is not offered on Mondays. Families need to weigh that weekday restriction alongside the minimum attendance requirement, rather than assume every booked day can use funding.

The non-funded daily fee includes snacks, lunch, milk and non-food supplies such as nappies, wipes and sunscreen. For funded care, meals, consumables, extra hours and additional services are charged as voluntary extras, with alternatives covered by the funding policies. The voluntary settling package is a separate choice. Sunrise also participates in Tax Free Childcare.

• Three-day commitment and Monday funding. Minimum attendance is three days, and funding cannot be used on Mondays. Take a proposed weekly pattern to a visit and discuss how the funded days, private hours and voluntary extras would fit together.
• Group learning and staff oversight. In June 2023, some group activities lost children's attention because they ran too long or were interrupted, and staff practice needed closer monitoring. Ask how group sessions are organised now and how leaders review interactions across the rooms.
• Baby-room scale and settling. The Baby Room accommodates up to 12 babies, and the voluntary settling package generally spans ten hours over three days. A visit should explore how your baby's feeding and sleep routines would be carried through that transition.
• Dietary needs. Food is prepared on site and allergy information is collected from families. If your child has an allergy, confirm current preparation and serving arrangements before agreeing their care plan.

Sunrise suits families seeking sustained attendance across the week, whether buying private childcare or using stretched funding for full-day care. Its strongest attractions are tangible: separate room gardens, the Millennium Green, growing spaces and a progression towards practical independence before school. The Baby Room's stated cap also gives parents of the youngest children a useful starting point for assessing scale.

The decision needs to work on two levels. The outdoor experiences and named activities must suit the child, while the three-day minimum, Monday funding restriction and different charging arrangements must suit the family. The June 2023 improvement points make the organisation of group learning and everyday staff oversight worthwhile subjects for a visit.