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Early years · Report card

Dreamland Nurseries

Inspected 16 Mar 2026 · URN 2800160

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Summary

No overall grade in this frameworkSafeguarding met

Melissa Seetal

What we read, and from where

Click a reading to see it highlighted in the report.

  • Achievement verified

    Needs attention

  • Behaviour, attitudes and routines verified

    Expected standard

  • Children's welfare and wellbeing verified

    Expected standard

  • Curriculum and teaching verified

    Needs attention

  • Inclusion verified

    Expected standard

  • Leadership and governance verified

    Expected standard

  • Framework verified

    Report card

  • Group verified

    Dreamland Nurseries Ltd

  • Inspection datesingle source

    16 Mar 2026

  • Inspectors verified

    Melissa Seetal

  • Postcode verified

    E4 9AA

  • Name on report verified

    Dreamland Nurseries

  • Safeguarding verified

    Met

  • URN verified

    2800160

Page 1 of 8
Page 1 of the report

Deep dive

What this report says

In plain English

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Grade profile

Each judgement on its scale, weakest to strongest.

  • AchievementNeeds attention
  • Behaviour, attitudes and routinesExpected
  • Children's welfare and wellbeingExpected
  • Curriculum and teachingNeeds attention
  • InclusionExpected
  • Leadership and governanceExpected

Tone of the report

How positive or critical the inspectors' language is, from the words they chose. No AI involved.

+52Positivemore positive than 23% of reports of this type

In line with other reports of this type.

Praisepositiveeffectivelyfeel safenurturingconfidentconsistentlysupportiveclear
Criticismnot consistentlynot alwaysdelaysconcernsnot effective

How the report reads, start to finish

Every paragraph in order, sized by length. Tap one to see it on the page.

FindingsSafeguardingAbout the inspectionLeadershipWhat needs to improve positive critical
  • Findings1292w+57
  • Leadership184w+54
  • Safeguarding51w−11
  • What needs to improve36w−20

Strengths

Quoted from the report. Tap to see it on the page.

Concerns

Quoted from the report. Tap to see it on the page.

No strong criticism found.

Next steps

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What the report dwells on

Topics by how often they come up, coloured by how they are described. Open one for an example.

Anatomy of the report

How the report is built, against others of the same type and grade.

Pages
8
Words of findings
1,563
about usual (typical 1698)
Reading level
Hard
Flesch 35, typical 43
Average sentence
17 words
Next steps
1
typical 3
Hedged sentences
7%
“some”, “not always”, “most”…

Where the words go

Findings 64%Leadership 9%Safeguarding 3%What needs to improve 2%About the inspection 22%

Full report text

Dreamland Nurseries

Unique reference number (URN): 2800160 Address: 60-62 Chingford Mount Road, London, E4 9AA Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 14/08/2024 Registers: EYR Registered person: Dreamland Nurseries Ltd

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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 prioritise the development of positive behaviour, attitudes and consistent routines to support children's wellbeing. Children typically benefit from a nurturing approach where they are given opportunities to be curious in their learning. Clear and age-appropriate expectations are included in daily routines and modelled by staff through respectful interactions, and children are receptive.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children are confident and demonstrate resilience in their play, listening attentively, maintaining focus and responding appropriately to staff prompts. When a staff member asks, 'Who is ready to tell me what we are about to do?', the children respond by saying it is garden time, engaging and showing their understanding of established routines.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children confidently approach staff for support, and staff respond sensitively, using encouragement such as, 'Thank you, I can see you are doing perfect listening.' This approach helps reinforce positive behaviour among the children. Children are supported to collaborate in play. For example, children work together to sequence counters. They take turns, share colours and talk about their ideas. Younger children's play is fostered by staff who encourage talking, listening, sharing and cooperative play to support their understanding.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders promote attendance with parents by offering flexibility for them to access funding for both morning and afternoon sessions. Clear communication is provided to families about the importance of regular attendance, ensuring that children benefit fully from their funded entitlement.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children benefit from secure attachments with their key person, and staff know them well. This ensures that children develop positive relationships with staff. Children also receive nurturing support from staff that promotes their confidence, resilience and positive emotional wellbeing.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children are reliant and generally show positive attitudes to learning, with increased independence in selecting their own play. They are responsive to staff and confident in their environment. For example, key persons consistently comfort younger babies using soothing techniques, such as gentle rocking and singing known rhymes. Children are supported to develop their physical skills and to recognise, express and manage their emotions, which supports their emotional development.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Older children demonstrate confidence in their skills, particularly with cars and small-world play, developing their understanding of the world. Staff provide a flexible routine that is tailored around children's individual needs and dietary needs. These are monitored effectively, and staff understand safer care practices. For example, babies follow safe sleep routines, with staff providing comfort items and reassurance. Staff supervise children vigilantly during mealtimes. They sit with children, encouraging independence while offering support where needed. For children who are weaning, staff work closely with parents to introduce new textures and foods gradually, ensuring consistency and sensitivity to each child's stage of development.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders create an inclusive environment where every child is valued and demonstrate that inclusion underpins all aspects of their practice. They work closely with multi-agency professionals and parents to ensure that each child's individual needs are typically understood and met effectively.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders make full use of early years funding to provide tailored support for children who may face barriers to learning. This approach enables the setting to allocate resources appropriately. For example, specialised interventions with a speech therapist ensure that all children can access the curriculum fully.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The setting supports children who may experience challenges and works with families to have an open communication and collaborative culture. This is to identify any emerging needs at an early stage. Quarterly cohort assessments are undertaken, and monitoring is a priority. This enables staff to respond quickly and put appropriate measures in place.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Speech and language development is a key focus within the setting. Staff are trained to support communication and language through quality interactions, modelling language and creating communication-rich environments. For example, visual aids, gestures and key word repetition are used to help children develop their language so that they can meet their full potential.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders typically focus on maintaining appropriate standards of care and safeguarding within the setting. They work collaboratively to ensure that the provision typically meets the needs of all children and strive for improvement. This means, generally, consistency for children and families has been maintained.

p.3

Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders typically show an understanding of the setting's strengths and areas for improvement. They regularly review policies, tailor staff training and listen to staff feedback. For example, leaders identified a need to further strengthen communication and language opportunities for children. This targeted training led to enhanced planning that, once embedded, will improve staff interactions and knowledge and create better outcomes for children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders place priority on staff wellbeing by ensuring supportive supervision. Ongoing external and online training is in place to develop staff knowledge further. This approach ensures that there is a positive culture where staff feel supported and valued and where they can reflect on and improve practice. For example, recent safeguarding and curriculum training has strengthened staff confidence and improved consistency within the setting. However, newer staff do not consistently deliver the curriculum effectively to support children's achievement.

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Needs attention

Leaders ensure that risk assessments are in place and concerns raised will be addressed promptly and effectively. Staff concerns are immediately addressed and actions taken.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children make some progress from their starting points. However, this does not reflect the progress that they are fully capable of achieving. Some children do not consistently benefit from a broad and stimulating range of resources that capture and sustain their interests. In addition, the quality of teaching does not always sufficiently meet children's individual learning needs, which impacts on their language and communication development.

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Achievement Needs attention

However, some aspects are working well. For example, children develop early mathematical skills and gain an understanding of growth as they experiment with plant roots, count and sequence numbers. They show curiosity and collaborate to solve problems with increasing resilience. Younger children also demonstrate their understanding of simple positional language, such as 'up' and 'down', which helps to build their early understanding of direction.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children are valued as individuals within the environment. For example, to support their understanding, visual aids and sensory experiences are implemented in play to meet emerging needs, particularly for those with speech and language delays or who are learning English as an additional language.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff demonstrate an understanding of teaching. However, not all children benefit from quality teaching and learning. For example, at times, children prefer to foster their own play rather than be in a larger group, highlighting the need for staff to adapt teaching strategies to foster children's engagement so that effective learning can take place for all children.

p.4

Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff monitor children's progress through assessments to understand what children know, and they use opportunities to be part of the children's play to build on their knowledge through teaching and modelling. However, these supportive systems are not always effective to fully engage children in sustained shared thinking to ensure continuity of learning across all aspects of the curriculum. This can inherently act as a barrier for creating positive outcomes for children.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders show some understanding of the quality of the curriculum, which is designed to meet the needs of all children. Older children comfortably engage with staff and show an interest in mathematics. Staff play an important role in helping children develop mathematical language. For example, during staff-led activities, children explore the concepts of shape and patterns and build on their problem-solving skills. This deepens children's understanding and helps them make connections and apply concepts for mathematics in their play.

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

Staff create an open culture where children feel safe, secure, valued and well cared for. Children demonstrate a sense of belonging in the environment, which typically supports their individual needs. Staff are warm, approachable and consistently support children's emotional and developmental needs. Younger children benefit from emotional attachment to staff, and older children are supported in building confidence in play.

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

Children are respected as individuals. Staff create an inclusive environment and typically make adaptations to activities to accommodate understanding. They incorporate visual aids into play alongside sensory experiences to meet children's emerging needs, particularly children with speech and language delays and children who speak English as an additional language.

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

Children demonstrate levels of curiosity. They develop early mathematical skills, such as using counters to count and sequence numbers. They are learning to collaborate, share ideas and solve problems together with staff support. Staff also focus on the exploration of plants and how they grow. These experiences provide children with understanding and knowledge to build on their play. Younger children demonstrate their understanding of simple positional languages, for example 'up' and 'down', which helps to build their early understanding of direction.

p.5

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

Positive behaviour is fostered from the onset. Staff encourage and offer specific praise, reinforcing cooperation, sharing and taking turns. Respect for each other is embedded into the setting. Children ask and answer questions, showing a level of confidence in their space. They are developing and building on their skills through experiences such as examining plant roots and sequencing numbers, promoting their curiosity and scientific understanding of their environment.

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Next steps

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

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Action Completion Date

ensure that the environment is age-appropriately planned to ensure children are benefiting from the 04/05/2026

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Address:

60-62 Chingford Mount Road London E4 9AA

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Dreamland Nurseries Ltd

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Address:

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

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Action Completion Date

provision that fosters their interest and needs

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Action Completion Date

prioritise quality teaching that supports children's shared thinking and social interaction, particularly adult- led play, to foster conversations 04/05/2026

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Action Completion Date

prioritise quality adult-child interactions to extend children's communication and language development. 04/05/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, practitioners, the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator and parents 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 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. Local authority: London Borough of Waltham Forest

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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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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. 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 .

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Urgent improvement

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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