Lower Covey Limited

Lower Covey Limited
Unique reference number (URN): 2836189
Address: Lower Covey, Chapel Lane, Yetminster, SHERBORNE, Dorset, DT9 6LJ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 30/05/2025
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Lower Covey Limited
Inspection report: 23 July 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
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.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
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.

Strong standard
Achievement Strong standard
Children develop excellent skills to support their future learning. All children achieve and
thrive due to the high-quality teaching and interventions in this setting. Babies babble to
responsive staff who reply. Young children move from using one word to joining words
through specific strategies. This enables children to play together. From an early age,
children develop high levels of independence and resilience. For example, toddlers
persevere on low climbing equipment to reach the slide. Young children make bees after
observing them in the garden. Older children work together, using a trolley to take water to
plants in the forest school.
Children have extremely positive attitudes to learning and great resilience. They persevere
to overcome trickier tasks, such as when a trolley breaks, with nurturing support from staff.
Children show huge pride in their achievements, snipping string to fix the trolley. Older
children benefit from a wealth of support to help them prepare for starting school. This
includes thorough information sharing about each child with their next setting. Children enjoy
visits to the school to watch plays. They benefit from the setting using the same school meal
trays to support familiarity in new routines. Children enjoy time with school-age children in
the after-school club at the nursery. Children also go to reading sessions with older children
in the local primary school. Children with barriers to their learning receive highly tailored
support. This ensures they make rapid progress and enables them to access all areas of
learning.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard
Leaders create a culture of respect and positive relationships. This is evident in the
experiences of families, children and the wider staff team. Staff are excellent role models.
Children form warm and trusting relationships and attachments with staff. Children behave
very well, routines are clear and expectations are high. Children play games together
happily. For example, during a pirate ship role-play game, children pretend to try to hide
treasure together from the dinosaur invaders.
During free play, staff recognise when children need help to manage sharing. They use
skilful interactions to model cooperation, turn-taking and kindness. Children thrive within the
consistent routines, which create a calm and positive atmosphere. For example, children
enjoy 'wake and shake' activities on the carpet before sitting for circle time. Children who
need longer to settle access support from knowledgeable staff. This enables them to rejoin
the activity and continue their learning.
Leaders understand the importance of regular attendance and act promptly when children
are absent. They are highly effective at identifying barriers that may affect children's
attendance, such as special educational needs and/or disabilities, medical needs and family
situations. Leaders work closely with families to find effective solutions. For example,
children can have individual drop-off times and altered routines or extra hours. This reduces
children being upset and increases their attendance.

Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders treat children's safety and emotional wellbeing as a high priority. They ensure that
staff all have an excellent understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. Leaders
consistently plan each child's journey in partnership with parents and carers. Babies and
younger children have an extremely nurturing settling-in process. Staff know that settled
children feel safe, secure and ready to join in. They ensure that children's sleep routines
match those at home. Parents are reassured by the information shared via an online app
and in person. They praise the trusting and kind relationships they have with staff and
leaders. Parents continue to contribute to their child's 'All About Me' booklet, which helps to
create a shared journey. Children make progress, staff notice their emerging needs and
children become independent.
Children develop extremely healthy lifestyles. They enjoy frequent play in the garden with an
abundance of activities to build their physical skills. Children at forest school learn how to
use tools safely. For example, they pretend a stick is a leaf blower and progress to using a
real one. They enthusiastically move the leaves and learn about how to charge the battery.
Children eat highly nutritious meals and snacks prepared by the catering team. They learn
about healthy food through their vegetable garden and using the vegetables in a cooking
activity.
Curriculum and teaching Strong standard
Leaders have an in-depth oversight of the curriculum. Staff plan and deliver a broad and
exciting curriculum that is tailored to meet each child's individual needs. Leaders have high
expectations of children's achievements. They create future planning and next steps to build
further on children's learning. Leaders ensure that the staff team work together for every
child across all rooms. This means that all staff know all of the children. Leaders share the
curriculum between the staff team and it is specific for each room. Children move between
the rooms to enjoy learning at their level. Staff conduct considered observations. They use
these to discuss what they know about children. Leaders send a daily post to parents and
carers to share what their children have been doing and learning. For example, leaders ask
parents to send in photos to support the new topic of holidays. Staff use the photos to
promote conversations with children, building on language and the sense of belonging.
Leaders use the topics to embrace all areas of learning. Staff share ideas with parents for
home learning. Leaders signpost parents with places to visit or ideas for new recipes.
Children explore the environment with confidence. They independently select resources and
activities that capture their interests. Children sustain their attention during group activities.
This enables them to cooperate well with others. Children show kindness and care towards
their friends and the staff. They build warm and trusting relationships, and show respect for
those around them. Staff play alongside children, extending their learning. Children make
excellent progress in mathematics as they count children in their group. They use their
fingers to represent numbers and confidently recognise numerals. Children explore numbers
and letters in the sand. They look for the letters in their name and build a number line.
Children build on what they already know and can do. Leaders ensure that children make
continued progress from their individual starting points.

Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders establish a fully inclusive culture throughout the nursery. They work swiftly to
identify and address barriers to children's learning. This includes for children who are
disadvantaged, with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and who are
known to children's social care. Staff work in very close partnership with parents and carers
to gain an excellent understanding of each child's needs. Leaders consistently assess
children's development and any changes in their lives. This ensures that the adaptations
they make have the most impact. For example, children enjoy time in smaller groups to
develop their concentration skills. Children spend time with highly skilled staff to build their
language skills. This helps children to manage their emotions and develop ways of asking
for help. Staff use play therapy and communication work to support children to play together,
building the skills they need for the future.
Leaders collaborate extremely successfully with external professionals for guidance and
training. They advise and support parents with referrals for support. Leaders ensure that
staff receive coaching to include every child fully. This includes specific training to support
children's language development and behaviour. Leaders and staff use additional funding to
provide experiences, extra hours and meals. Leaders share information widely with staff to
meet all children's needs consistently. Staff are highly reflective and ambitious for their own
practice and curriculum. This helps to ensure that each child's learning is enriched and
every child is included and thrives. Leaders and staff support each child to make progress
through targeted support and a timely review process. Staff share strategies ahead of
children's transition visits to school. This helps children to regulate their emotions and have
positive and successful visits to their new school.
Leadership and governance Strong standard
Leaders have created a setting that is built on close and trusting relationships. These shape
the outcomes for all children. Leaders empower staff to deliver a significant and positive
difference to all children. Children experience an embedded curriculum that is exciting and
inspires learning. Leaders have an in-depth overview of the setting and the individual, and
emerging needs of the children and families. They have high expectations in all aspects of
the provision.
Leaders work closely with staff, parents and carers and external professionals when making
decisions in children's best interests. Leaders are aspirational and extremely reflective. They
strive for excellence, continually identifying further areas to improve. For example, leaders
have recently accessed behaviour-support training. They have reflected on the training and
leaders are now working with an adviser to develop their own training for staff. Leaders are
consistently thoughtful with parents and consistently engaged with their staff team.
Supervision sessions are robust and staff feel extremely valued.
Leaders ensure that their high expectations are connected throughout the setting. Staff are
well informed and knowledgeable. They share practice and model skills to their peers. Staff
are highly reflective of their own practice and strive to make a difference in every interaction
with children. This creates a highly positive impact on the quality of the provision. Staff and
leaders inspire each other.

Compulsory Childcare Register requirements
This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Compulsory Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met
Voluntary Childcare Register requirements
This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Voluntary Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children flourish in this extremely warm, unique and welcoming setting. All children develop
close bonds with familiar staff, who know them very well and provide individualised care and
support. As such, babies and children of all ages feel safe and secure. This helps them to
explore freely and confidently. Barriers to children's learning and attendance are quickly
identified. Children experience meaningful adjustments to ensure they are included and
achieve equally in every aspect of the provision.

Inspector:
Children enjoy a broad and exciting curriculum. They benefit from skilful interactions from
staff. Children enthusiastically engage in forest school sessions. They use tools safely and
help staff to weed the area. Leaders enrich children's learning even further to help them
understand the natural world. For example, children water the vegetables in the growing
garden and watch the tractors in the field. They feed the donkeys, ponies and work
alongside farm staff. This helps children to learn about how to care for animals.
Children are highly motivated to learn. From an early age, babies are extremely curious and
delight in looking at books in the shade outside. Babies crawl through tunnels, developing
their physical strength. Toddlers enjoy role playing in a pretend cafe and farm shop, carrying
heavy bags of items to sell. Staff help children to count out the money from the till.
Throughout the setting, all children communicate extremely well. Babies babble and staff
mirror those efforts to communicate. Babies are thoroughly engaged in back-and-forth
chatter to develop their language. Children transition through the rooms of the setting on an
individual journey, with highly reflective support where needed. This means all children are
extremely well prepared for the next stage of their learning. Children enjoy time in smaller
groups. This enriches their learning and supports them to make progress.
Children explore exciting activities, such as painting to music with sticks and leaves in the
forest school sessions. They make fruit kebabs to build their fine-motor skills and talk about
being healthy. Children gain a wealth of skills for their future learning. This helps them to
become confident, resilient and independent. Children behave very well and develop an
extremely positive sense of belonging in this nurturing setting.
Next steps
Leaders should ensure continued improvement in the setting's successful work to remove
barriers for children who need extra help to realise a transformational impact on all
children's achievement and wellbeing.
About this inspection
The inspectors spoke with leaders, practitioners, the special educational needs and
disabilities coordinator, parents and carers and children during the 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.

Amelia Joyner
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2836189
Address:
Lower Covey, Chapel Lane
Yetminster
SHERBORNE
Dorset
DT9 6LJ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 30/05/2025
Registered person: Lower Covey Limited
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00
Local authority: Dorset
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 23 July 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
50

Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
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.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
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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