Orchard Day Nursery

Orchard Day Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): EY225572 Address: 239 Henley Road, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 6LJ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 28/02/2002 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Orchard Resources Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders and staff have created a safe, calm and respectful environment with shared expectations for children's positive behaviour. Staff quickly establish warm and genuine bonds with children in their care. This helps children develop a sense of belonging and feel valued. Staff offer gentle guidance and advice as children take appropriate risks, such as when younger ones navigate going up and down the outdoor ramp in their wellington boots. In this way, children begin to recognise that the rules and boundaries in place help to keep them safe.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Generally, the positive messages from staff help children to understand what is expected of them. Staff role model positive behaviours well and adapt their approach to the age and developmental stages of children they care for. For instance, the secure relationships built with younger children helps support their emotional security. Equally, staff support older children to make positive choices and recognise their feelings, as well as those of others. They encourage children to be kind and respectful towards each other and readily praise acts of kindness shown, such as taking turns or sharing a popular toy.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders help parents to recognise the benefits of regular attendance and punctuality. Through established routines, children build resilience, learn acceptable behaviours and develop their self-confidence.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders ensure that children readily develop positive attachments with their key person. Babies seek out their key person when they need reassurance and older children remember their key person's instructions as they get changed in the bathrooms to protect their privacy. Staff work in partnership with parents to follow routines from home, such as for sleeping and feeding. In this way, children feel secure and safe.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff encourage children, including those who face barriers to their learning, to become independent when looking after themselves as they transition through the rooms. For instance, younger children develop good hand–eye coordination when they learn to feed themselves and drink from open cups. Staff readily support older children to use the toilet confidently, pour their own drinks and self-serve their meals. As children get older, staff help children to recognise, express and manage their emotions appropriately.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff support children to lead healthy lifestyles, such as washing their hands before mealtimes, wiping their noses and covering their mouths if they cough. Children also point out the ingredients in the nutritious meals the chef makes for them and staff talk to children about how certain foods benefit them. This helps children to understand how to take care of their bodies.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders with responsibility to oversee the provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have made strides in helping staff understand specific children's gaps in their learning. They know individual children and their families well and understand their needs and backgrounds. Those responsible for children with SEND understand their role and responsibilities. For example, they help staff identify emerging needs in a timely manner. In addition, they coordinate and monitor inclusive practice to help these children access learning and help narrow gaps. For instance, for those children who need to improve their concentration and focus, targeted interventions take place daily, as well as personalised guidance during their play.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff keenly work with external professionals and families, completing relevant training to shape children's focused support. The collaboration with specialists ensures that each child with SEND has clearly identified next steps and interventions are reviewed regularly. Staff's practise is generally effective at ensuring children who face barriers to their learning make steady progress in preparation for the next stage in their education. Additional funding is used effectively, for instance, to provide extra resources, enrichment opportunities and one- to-one adult support.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children do not make the best possible progress as staff's understanding of the curriculum intention is variable across the curriculum areas. For example, younger children fascinated by cause and effect when exploring are not supported to extend their ideas and vocabulary. Nonetheless, there are moments where some competent talkers engage in meaningful back-and-forth conversations with staff and each other. For instance, during role play children share their own ideas from a holiday to France to talk about French words and foods they know.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children take on roles of responsibilities with enthusiasm. For instance, older children readily take on responsibility to work out how many plates, cups and cutlery is needed for lunchtimes. They take pride in using their mathematical language to ask staff for 'one more' or 'one less' plate or cup.

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Achievement Needs attention

All children, including those who face barriers to their learning, become increasingly confident at managing their self-care. They demonstrate security as they quickly adapt to familiar routines. Children's achievements are celebrated by staff, which helps children feel immensely proud of their accomplishments.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

There are inconsistencies in the quality of teaching of the curriculum. This is evident when some staff do not know when to use their interactions to extend children's learning as they play. Staff in the older children's room do encourage more confident ones to share what they already know and can do. However, they do not always ask questions to extend children's thinking beyond their existing knowledge. Consequently, at times, staff are not able to support children achieve to the best of their abilities. Leaders have created a curriculum that focuses on building children's knowledge and skills over time. However, this has not yet been shared with staff effectively enough. This has led to staff's variable understanding of the curriculum. Key persons use their assessments and observations to help them to decide what they need to teach next. However, during interactions in real time, some staff are not

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

confident in taking children to the next level.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

The outdoor curriculum supports children's physical skills, natural curiosity and imaginations. Staff plan and set up open-ended activities that children enjoy, such as exploring in the mud kitchen, building obstacle courses and creating sand models. Key persons responsible for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities know that some of them prefer to learn outdoors in the fresh air. Typically, these staff play alongside these children with enthusiasm, helping to build their stamina and coordination, such as with obstacle courses.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders demonstrate that they lack precision in ensuring appropriate action is taken to bring about ongoing improvements in staff's understanding and implementation of the curriculum. Nevertheless, they show that they have capacity to improve and have successfully addressed some actions from the last inspection, such as embedding better room transition procedures. However, this does not include effectively sharing leader's knowledge of a recently created sequenced curriculum to staff or how to consistently deliver this over time to raise the quality of teaching. As a result, children do not achieve to the best of their abilities.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The newly appointed leadership team share management responsibilities. They have welcomed support from early years consultants, who have delivered training around specific strategies to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, leaders' monitoring of teaching and limited coaching and mentoring for individual staff is not yet effective to bring about positive change. Despite this, children with SEND are benefitting from leaders who are responsible for these children. In this area, leaders and staff are developing positive relationships with parents and other professionals. This provides consistent support and shared understanding, which helps these children make steady progress.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

All leaders possess a genuine regard for their staff team, who report high levels of morale, wellbeing and manageable workloads.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children's learning and development are variable. In the main, their achievement is supported by leaders and staff, but inconsistencies in teaching and leadership oversight mean that not all children consistently benefit from high-quality provision. That said, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from a newly appointed leadership team, who are working to strengthen the curriculum, teaching and children's achievements. However, their learning experiences are inconsistent and there is not sufficient impact on other children at the setting to achieve their full potential. The quality of interactions varies across the rooms. For example, during a group story session with older children, the less confident ones are not fully encouraged to contribute to questions posed by staff or children's responses are not fully extended. While children enjoy the open-ended activities on offer, including younger children rolling wheeled toys down a ramp outdoors,

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

opportunities are not always taken up by staff to build on individual children's existing knowledge and skills.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

From the outset, children form warm and positive relationships with staff, who work closely with families to get to know their children well. Staff respond to children's care needs with reassurance and respect. For instance, they ask children permission to wipe their runny noses. Transitions between rooms has improved since the last inspection, as children are supported to understand the routines and staff's expectations. Children practice and master their self-help and independence skills, such as putting on their coats and setting up tables for lunchtime. They demonstrate a growing awareness of what is expected of them, such as tidying away their toys after finishing with them. Outdoors, children have large spaces on different levels to be physically active and explore freely at their own pace, promoting children's physical wellbeing. Indoors, children show a keen sense of belonging as they move around the rooms with confidence, choosing what they want to play with. Their

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

favourite activities include readily approaching members of staff to share books with them, showing a genuine love for books.

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Next steps

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must take the following actions by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

share and implement a curriculum that is well sequenced and has clear intent to meet all children's needs 10/04/2026

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Action Completion Date

improve oversight of the quality of teaching and put appropriate arrangements in place to ensure individual staff receive personalised training opportunities, coaching and mentoring 10/04/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, special educational needs coordinator, parents and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The

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Address:

239 Henley Road Caversham Reading Berkshire RG4 6LJ

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Orchard Resources Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Urgent improvement

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk . Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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