Jubilee Day Nursery

Woodland, a working farm and walks past donkeys give Jubilee Day Nursery a character that goes well beyond an outdoor play area. In Padworth Common, its grounds include private gardens, woods and a stream. For children who enjoy exploring living things, the setting makes nature a substantial part of nursery life.

At its January 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that staff adapted the environment to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). That judgement has a clear qualification: staff needed to explain and reinforce behavioural expectations more consistently. A later regulatory visit in May 2024 also involved behaviour-management training, so this is a practical point for families to explore.

Children can attend from three months to five years. The attendance choices include year-round provision and a fully funded term-time option, making the distinction between the two important when planning care and costs.

Rooms and Ages

Meadows is the baby area, Woodlands serves toddlers, Orchards is for children approaching three, and Treetops is the preschool area. Kingfishers, another baby room, was announced in January 2025. These named stages give families a useful starting point for understanding how a child moves through the nursery, rather than treating the whole setting as one group.

The outdoor surroundings are substantial: over 60 acres of private gardens, woodland and farm grounds, including a stream. A Woodlands outing described in a November 2024 account involved sticks making sounds against a fence, looking at plants, muddy puddles and greeting the donkeys before reaching the farm. Those are concrete opportunities to notice, talk and experiment during a walk.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In parent terms, the day brings play and learning together with the support children need to become more independent.

Forest School, an approach centred on learning outdoors, sits alongside that framework. The farm and woods give outdoor activity a setting beyond the nursery buildings. The aim is a walk to the woods and a farm visit each day; that is an intention, rather than a promise about every child's daily timetable.

In January 2023, communication and independence were central to staff practice. Adults talked with children during activities and used questions to extend conversations. Children practised serving themselves food, pouring drinks and managing handwashing and toileting. These small tasks connect nursery learning to everyday life: independence is something to practise, rather than simply an expectation at school age.

The same January 2023 account described children helping care for animals and growing vegetables. The interest here is the link between activity and responsibility. Looking after living things gives children something real to discuss and attend to, alongside the physical opportunities of spending time outdoors.

Farmer Day in October 2024 developed that theme through clothing, produce activities and stories. Children and staff wore farm-inspired clothes, while activities involved handling produce, planting, chopping, exploring farm tools and sharing stories. This was a dated themed day, with a clear connection to the nursery's surroundings.

An employed SENDCo and a well-being coordinator provide named support roles within the nursery's team structure. Deputy safeguarding lead roles are also part of that structure. For families, the useful distinction is between knowing who holds responsibility and assuming that a role title alone establishes the quality of support.

In January 2023, staff established children's starting points and planned their next learning steps. The SEND coordinator helped practitioners understand individual needs, including those of children learning English as an additional language. Conversations during ordinary activities were part of the support, giving language development a place throughout the day.

Relationships were another feature of daily life in January 2023: children approached adults for help, formed friendships and welcomed newcomers. Staff were calm in their interactions. The improvement point concerned how consistently adults explained rules, including why running indoors or climbing on furniture could be unsafe. Families should weigh both parts of that picture.

Parent communication included conversations at collection and drop-off and progress reports at term end in January 2023. Today, an open-door policy supports contact between parents and staff. The two forms of communication serve different purposes: everyday exchanges address the immediate day, while a longer account helps parents understand development over time.

Meals are cooked on site, with breakfast, hot lunch, tea and snacks, and provision for vegetarian, vegan and other dietary needs. The nursery describes its kitchen as nut-free; families affected by allergies should confirm current arrangements for their child.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Paddock View, Rectory Road, Padworth Common, Reading, RG7 4JD. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, with bank holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year excluded.

Year-round attendance runs over 51 weeks. Flexible sessions are offered, and the funded meal arrangements distinguish morning sessions from full days. Those choices should be considered separately from the overall opening window.

The Full Year Enriched and Enhanced Provision is the standard service where funding does not apply. For funded attendance, families can choose that provision using stretched funding, with a maximum of 22.35 funded hours per week over 51 weeks, or a Fully Funded option during term time. The latter carries no Additional Services and Facilities charge and includes the costs of delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage. These are materially different arrangements, rather than two names for the same package.

Funding and Paid Extras

Free Early Years Education funding covers up to 15 hours weekly for three- and four-year-olds over 38 term-time weeks, starting from the school term after their third birthday. Working Parent Entitlement offers eligible families 30 funded hours weekly over 38 weeks, including children from nine months. Stretched funding is also offered across the year, spreading the entitlement over a longer attendance period.

Funding administration has a joining condition: a child must already be attending before the funding submission to West Berkshire. Joining after that deadline means funding starts in the following term. That timing can affect the first period of paid care even when a family qualifies for an entitlement.

For fully funded sessions, meals and snacks are optional paid extras, charged through additional services and facilities. The Fully Funded attendance option itself has no such charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, so the distinction between childcare entitlement and the optional food package matters when comparing arrangements.

• Behaviour expectations. January 2023 brought a recommendation for more consistent explanations of rules. At a regulatory visit on 22 May 2024, Ofsted found that some requirements had not been met and that corrective action had been taken, including further behaviour-management training. Ask how staff now explain boundaries and respond consistently across rooms.
• Funding and the first term. Funding submissions require a child to be attending before the deadline, while the fully funded option operates during term time. Discuss the proposed start date alongside the attendance pattern and the written quotation.
• Choosing a baby room. Meadows and Kingfishers both serve babies. A nursery tour lasts 30 minutes; use it to discuss the proposed room, its usual group size and how settling would work for your child.
• Outdoor days. Woods, farm visits and muddy puddles are substantial parts of the nursery's character. Ask what clothing children need for these activities and how outdoor time is organised for their age group.

Jubilee suits families who want nature to be part of ordinary nursery life, with woodland, animals and growing activities giving children something tangible to explore. It also serves different attendance needs: year-round flexible sessions and fully funded term-time care, with morning and full-day arrangements reflected in the food options.

The Good judgement from January 2023 is useful context, but consistent behaviour guidance deserves attention because it also featured in the later regulatory history. The strongest reason to choose Jubilee is its outdoor character; the practical decision is whether its room arrangements and funding model fit the child's needs and the family's week.