Cherubs Nursery & After Care

A separate sleep room for babies, an upstairs Preschool Learning Zone and a garden usable throughout the year give Cherubs Nursery & After Care a clear progression from early care to greater independence. This Shipton-under-Wychwood nursery has capacity for 45 children and accepts children from 3 months to under 5 years. Its youngest room has a stated maximum of 9 babies, a useful starting point for parents weighing the scale of baby care.

At its April 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Cherubs Good and found safeguarding effective, while asking for better support for learning at home and age-appropriate teaching about online and technology safety. Those improvement points matter alongside the positive judgement. They concern how learning continues beyond nursery and how children begin to understand everyday risks.

Morning, afternoon and all-day sessions serve different family routines, with both term-time and year-round attendance offered. Food and everyday supplies come from home, so preparing for a nursery day includes packing meals as well as clothes and changing essentials.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room serves approximately 3 to 20 months, with a maximum of 9 babies, a ground-floor playroom, separate sleep room and direct garden access: rest has its own space rather than sharing the activity room. Individual baskets hold spare clothing, food and formula, helping to keep each baby's belongings together.

For children aged approximately 20 to 32 months, the Toddler Room has a stated maximum of 12 and combines a large activity room with an adjoining bathroom, where low sinks and toilets support early hygiene and toilet-learning routines. Its position beside the baby accommodation makes the younger rooms neighbours within the building.

From 32 months, the Preschool Learning Zone occupies the upstairs floor, which has a stated maximum of 24 children; social interaction and speech are encouraged through age-adjusted activities, with child-height bathroom fittings and a kitchen used for baking. These are room limits, rather than a promise about the number attending on any particular day.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, with relationships, individual needs and connected areas of learning shaping the day. Cherubs puts this into practice through a key person's observations: these inform planning for each child, rather than treating everyone of the same age as ready for identical activities.

In April 2022, practical experiences included babies handling hay, toddlers experimenting with paint and bubbles, and preschool children collaborating on a castle. The examples span sensory exploration, making marks and working together. They give parents a more useful picture of learning than a list of educational labels.

Reading also received sustained attention in April 2022. Adults explored stories with children, discussed characters and allowed time for answers. Independence featured in small physical challenges, too: preschool children attached named clips to their outdoor shoes before hanging them up. A routine task became practice in coordination and doing something for themselves.

An October 2024 example adds detail to preschool learning: children painted self-portraits, worked on recognising letters in their names and were due to be introduced to phonics through the Jolly Phonics Scheme. Show and Tell linked objects brought from home to a letter of the week, giving children something familiar to talk about in front of others. These examples relate to that term, rather than a timetable for today.

Outdoor and Community Life

Behind the building, a fenced garden has a locked gate and artificial grass. Children go outdoors at least once each day, and the surface allows use across the seasons. All-in-one suits support outdoor play; wellies are useful in wet weather. Direct access from the Baby Room also makes outdoor space part of the youngest children's accommodation.

Forest Adventures takes place in the surrounding village as part of learning about the community. Community figures also visit the nursery, bringing people from beyond the rooms into children's experience. In April 2022, outdoor learning included watering carrots, discussing growth and practising road and water safety on local walks and visits to a pond. Climbing equipment and supervised tools provided further opportunities to learn about risk through practical activity.

A key person is allocated when each child starts. That practitioner builds a development file containing observations and photographs, uses it to plan subsequent learning and passes it to the family when the child leaves. The arrangement gives parents a continuing point of connection between their child's experiences and the next steps staff plan.

In April 2022, new children received help from their key person to participate and make friends, while babies could seek physical comfort from staff when tired or uncertain. Behaviour support used gentle guidance to help children understand expectations and make choices. At that time, the nursery employed 14 staff, including 10 with early-years qualifications; these are staffing figures from that visit, rather than today's deployment.

IConnect is the digital picture-and-video system used to build children's profiles, while ParentZone gives families access to observations and assessments. Parents can contribute photographs from home and update contact details, so communication can run in both directions. This is useful for sharing experiences that happen outside nursery as well as seeing what children have done during their sessions.

NurseryCam is the parental webcam facility linked to internal cameras. Other access arrangements include fingerprint recognition and a visitor sign-in book. These are practical security measures; the dated safeguarding judgement above is the assessment of how safeguarding worked.

Parents supply lunch and tea, which are kept refrigerated until needed; children can help themselves to drinks during the day, and milk is provided mid-morning. Families also bring nappies, wipes and creams as required, making familiar supplies part of the daily packing routine.

Sessions and Attendance

Cherubs is at Cherubs Nursery, Unit 1, Milton Road, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Chipping Norton, OX7 6XU, within Wychwood Business Centre. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm on weekdays. It operates across the year, closing for Bank Holidays and additional days around Christmas and New Year.

The attendance choices are an all-day session from 8am to 6pm, a morning from 8am to 1pm and an afternoon from 1pm to 6pm. Year-round and term-time care are both offered. The half-day choices allow families to use one part of the day, while the all-day pattern spans the full opening window.

Telephone and email enquiries go through the nursery's contact team, and visits can be arranged. For travel planning, Shipton-under-Wychwood has a local commuter station, with more regular train services at Charlbury and Kingham.

Funding and Paid Extras

Early Education Funding is offered during term time, covering 38 weeks of the year. Funded attendance uses 5-hour half days or 10-hour full days, rather than spreading the entitlement across the whole year. This distinction matters for a family whose childcare needs continue through school holidays: term-time funding and year-round attendance are separate choices.

There are no extra consumables charges, and parents supply meals, nappies and wipes. The same supply-your-own arrangement applies to funded attendance. Everyday packing therefore remains a family responsibility, rather than being replaced by a meal or consumables package.

Private childcare is also offered. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the attendance and funding structure outlined on its fees and funding page.

• Session timetables. There are conflicting half-day schedules: mornings run from either 8am or 9am to 1pm, and afternoons from 1pm to either 5pm or 6pm. Confirm the agreed hours before booking, especially where work or another child's collection depends on them.
• Term-time funding. Funded attendance runs for 38 weeks and is not stretched across the year. Families using year-round care should establish how their chosen pattern works during holidays.
• Food from home. Lunch, tea and changing supplies are parent-provided. For a child with allergies, discuss how their meals will be stored and handled alongside other children's food.
• Learning beyond nursery. The April 2022 improvement points concerned home-learning support and safe use of technology. During a visit, ask how staff now support each child's learning at home and introduce technology safety to young children.

Cherubs suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance as well as those needing an all-day pattern, with term-time and year-round options serving different routines. Its strongest practical features are easy to picture: a separate baby sleep space, clear age-group rooms, outdoor access and digital communication that lets parents contribute as well as receive updates.

The Good judgement from April 2022 is useful context, but its two improvement points deserve attention when choosing. Parents comfortable supplying meals and consumables, and matching term-time funding to their own holiday needs, have a clear basis for deciding whether the arrangements fit.