Poppies Day Nursery Maidenhead

Gardens, reading areas and learning through play give Poppies Day Nursery Maidenhead its shape, with care spanning babies through to children preparing for school. On Shifford Crescent in Maidenhead, it has capacity for 72 children aged three months to five years. That is the whole nursery’s capacity, not the size of an individual group.

At its June 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged overall provision and education Good, behaviour and attitudes Outstanding, and safeguarding effective. Those judgements are dated: later regulatory action concerning staff practice is a material part of the picture for parents today.

The current offer includes freshly cooked meals prepared on site, outdoor space and daily communication with home. Opening hours run from 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care, with play and experiences helping them explore, communicate and build relationships. Poppies Maidenhead emphasises children developing at their own pace, alongside familiarity and new experiences. The practical emphasis is on learning about the world and each other, rather than rushing everyone through the same steps.

Alongside this, the group-wide commitments include Confident Communicators, which emphasises children expressing themselves in ways that work for them, and Explorers of Our World, which connects learning with nature and outdoor experiences. These give parents useful themes against which to consider the day’s activities. They are group-wide principles, rather than separate clubs.

In June 2022, babies shared books with adults who named pictures and made eye contact, while toddlers joined familiar songs and rhymes. Older children made badges with craft materials and explained how they handled tools when preparing fruit. These examples show how conversation and practical tasks could sit together in the nursery day at that time.

The June 2022 improvement priority concerned making fuller use of opportunities to extend children’s knowledge and skills. Planned activities alone were not the whole answer: staff needed to recognise more of the teaching possibilities within children’s play.

Outdoor and Community Life

Gardens and reading areas provide different settings for play and quieter activity. Outdoor experiences also sit within the group’s nature-related commitment, giving exploration a place alongside indoor learning.

In June 2022, suitable resources helped children continue outdoor play when the weather deteriorated. The practical value was continuity: an activity did not have to stop simply because conditions changed. This is an inspection-era example, rather than a promise about today’s routines.

Daily sharing with families creates a regular link between nursery and home. That matters when a child’s day spans experiences parents have not seen themselves: communication gives families something concrete to build on together.

In June 2022, a lending library offered books about emotions and relationships for families to borrow. Children also made books about their families, including different family structures. Together, these activities brought familiar people and feelings into conversations at nursery and at home.

Later Ofsted regulatory action repeatedly addressed staff practice, with the January and June 2024 outcomes recording corrective steps and the December 2024 welfare requirements notice requiring stronger staff support and appropriate behaviour management. In January 2025, the required actions were confirmed as met after changes to training, staff support and understanding of the behaviour policy.

A further regulatory visit in May 2025 identified requirements that had not been met and recorded action to correct them, including policy reviews and additional staff training. These outcomes should be read alongside the recurrence of concerns. Completion of an individual action does not turn the earlier inspection judgement into a current assessment of practice.

Meals are cooked freshly at the nursery each day with seasonal ingredients. For families, preparation on site is a concrete part of the care offer, distinct from the question of how food is charged.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 6pm, and operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and Christmas. Families planning regular childcare therefore need to allow for those closures in their arrangements.

Getting There

The address is Shifford Crescent, Maidenhead, SL6 7UA, in the Furze Platt community. Onsite parking and a Buggy Store support the practical business of bringing children and their belongings to nursery; the latter provides space to leave a buggy during the day.

Funding and Paid Extras

In June 2022, the nursery received early-education funding for children aged two, three and four. Families should obtain current prices in the nursery’s written quotation.

• Staff practice after repeated regulatory action. Concerns recurred across 2024 and 2025, including behaviour management and staff support. At a visit, ask how supervision, coaching and the behaviour policy now work in everyday care.
• Turning play into learning. The June 2022 improvement priority was to make more of teaching opportunities. Ask for a current example of how practitioners extend an activity a child has chosen.
• Your attendance and funding arrangement. The weekday opening window is 7.30am to 6pm. Ask which booking pattern fits your family and how the written quotation treats funded hours, meals and non-food consumables.

Poppies Maidenhead suits families seeking weekday childcare across the year, with gardens, reading spaces, daily home communication and food prepared on site. Its play-based approach has concrete practical examples behind it, although those inspection observations date to June 2022.

The decisive consideration is staff practice following repeated regulatory action. The recorded corrective steps matter, but so does the recurrence. A choice here should weigh the practical offer alongside a clear account of how children are supported today.