Talbot Woods Day Nursery and Nursery School

Talbot Woods Day Nursery and Nursery School
Unique reference number (URN): EY305398
Address: Bournemouth University, Poole House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 11/04/2005
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited
Inspection report: 3 February 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
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders and staff know children extremely well. The highly effective key-person system
ensures staff build successful working relationships with parents and carers from the start.
This enables staff to gain a comprehensive understanding of every child's needs and the
adaptations needed to include them fully. Staff maintain close communication with parents to
ensure changes to care routines and needs are met consistently and that they are aware of
changes in children's lives.
Children develop extremely close and trusting bonds with staff. Leaders and staff prioritise
children's welfare, emotional wellbeing and sense of security. This is thoroughly embedded
throughout the nursery. Staff help children to understand, express and manage their feelings
and emotions. Babies feel secure in their own routines, and older children enjoy taking turns
holding the soft toy, 'Candyfloss', to talk about and process their feelings with staff and
friends.
Staff nurture children's health and physical development extremely well. Babies enjoy safe,
open spaces to crawl and cruise. Staff sequence children's learning skilfully with exciting
activities to encourage their large- and small-muscle development. For example, older
children join in with a dough-disco activity and large nature-based painting projects, and
they use small tools in creative play. Children benefit from nutritious food at sociable
mealtimes during which they eat well and learn about where healthy foods come from.
Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders and staff form highly effective working relationships with parents and carers from
the start. They closely assess children's learning to quickly identify any delay or barriers to
their development. Staff have high expectations of children's achievements and create
specific targeted activities to support them in reaching their potential. Children with language
delays benefit from skilled interactions to help them learn new words and to communicate
more confidently. Staff learn and use words in children's home languages to reflect their
individuality and support their understanding of English. They rigorously assess the progress
children make to identify any further intervention or adaptations needed. This includes
quickly seeking specialist guidance from external agencies.
Leaders work in close partnership with other professionals involved in the care of children
with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and barriers to their learning. They
monitor the use of additional funding to ensure this has the desired impact on their
development. Staff are well trained and continuously build on their knowledge and skills to
meet the changing needs of children. This includes specific training to support children with
SEND at mealtimes to ensure they are fully included and to meet their emotional and health
needs.

Expected standard
Achievement Expected standard
Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and barriers to
their learning, make appropriate progress from the start. They communicate well and learn
how to express themselves. Babies babble and laugh with delight. Toddlers learn new words
exploring natural resources and tell stories as they play. They proudly tell others what 'spiky'
and 'sharp' mean. Older children learn more complex words, such as what 'infusion' means
when creating pretend herbal tea.
Children gain the skills they need for their future learning and starting school. From a young
age, they develop independence, managing more tasks for themselves as they transition
through the nursery. Older children show resilience and persevere to overcome challenges.
This contributes to children's high levels of confidence in managing self-care tasks efficiently
for themselves.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard
Children develop positive attitudes and social skills. They benefit from kind and caring staff
role models who have high expectations for behaviour. Staff manage any occasional issues
through consistent and gentle guidance. They provide developmentally appropriate support
for younger children to learn to share, take turns and listen. Older children are kind, show
consideration and respect and learn to work together to manage any disagreements.
Children enjoy staff's praise. They take pride in their achievements, celebrating what they
have learned, such as telling others, 'I did it,' when they overcome a challenge.
Leaders work closely with parents and carers to monitor and encourage children's
attendance and punctuality. Staff support children as they transition through the day,
following their own routines and the changes in activities to ensure they feel secure. They
create positive environments in which children have space to explore and be creative,
spaces for calm reflection and time for active play. This includes quiet spaces where children
with barriers to their learning engage well in focused one-to-one activities. However, during
some group activities, when the room becomes noisy, some quieter children are not heard,
and some lose concentration. This does not help to further enhance their engagement.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Leaders have sound oversight of the curriculum delivery, the needs of the children and
quality of staff interactions. Leaders and staff work together to plan, review and deliver an
ambitious curriculum to ensure children's development is supported well. They assess
children's progress well, making immediate adaptations for disadvantaged children and
those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and barriers to their learning, for
instance.
Leaders and staff prioritise nurturing children's emotional wellbeing, confidence and
resilience. This helps to ensure they feel safe, secure and able to flourish from the youngest
age. Staff encourage children's interests, skilfully creating activities to motivate them to

learn. For example, in response to a child's desire to throw things indoors, staff create an
exciting game for children to compete throwing paper balls into a basket. They encourage
children's coordination and turn-taking and incorporate some mathematical learning.
Staff help children to learn new words, such as through discussions, reading books and
exploring natural resources. They support children's mathematical development well overall,
helping them to learn about numbers, shape and size. However, this is not consistent in
helping all children build on their knowledge further, such as when they find mathematical
challenges too easy.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Leaders have made significant improvements since the last inspection. They have sought
specialist support to improve the environment, curriculum and staff interactions with children.
Staff embrace training and professional development. For example, they use skills gained
from nurture training to understand how to help children feel secure and to flourish in their
development. Ongoing support for staff will help to enhance how they encourage children's
engagement and mathematical development even further. Leaders have enhanced their
knowledge of healthy eating to build further on supporting children's healthy lifestyles.
Leaders provide tailored training to help staff meet the needs of children with special
educational needs and/or disabilities and barriers to their learning.
Leaders have a detailed oversight of strengths and areas for development. They work
collaboratively with the dedicated staff to create further improvements to maintain high
standards and strive for excellence. Leaders work closely with parents and carers to ensure
they understand the needs of the families, including how to use any additional funding
responsibly. Parents share extremely positive feedback regarding the staff and care of their
children. Staff wellbeing is prioritised. Leaders provide wellbeing days and individual support
for any challenges staff experience in their lives. Members of the long-established and well-
qualified staff team feel valued and supported in their roles.
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 are happy, settled and thoroughly enjoy their time at the setting. They form
extremely close attachments with staff who help them feel safe and secure and support
them emotionally as they transition through the nursery. Children make friends and develop
very positive attitudes and social skills. Staff know children very well. They monitor
development closely and meet all children's care needs and routines consistently. Leaders
and staff work successfully with parents and carers to involve them fully in their children's
development and to support attendance.
Children benefit from welcoming playrooms that staff continually review and adapt to meet
their changing interests and needs. This includes adaptations to ensure that children with
special educational needs and/or disabilities and barriers to their learning are fully included
and able to benefit equally. Babies enjoy calm environments to explore, rest and develop
their physical skills safely. Staff build on the experiences of children as they transition
through the nursery, creating a balance of vibrant spaces and quiet areas to relax. Children
of all ages explore freely and confidently make their own choices. The youngest children
investigate with great curiosity, and older children find materials to build on their imaginative
and creative ideas.
Staff create a broad curriculum with innovative activities to support children's interests and
learning. For example, older children engage well using a projector to explore reflections
while also learning about shape. Younger children investigate many different materials using
their senses and learning about textures. Children play outside with energy and enthusiasm.
They learn about their community and environment. For example, they visit the residents of
local care homes to learn about intergenerational relationships, and they explore the natural
environment on trips to a beach and forest. This helps to stimulate children's motivation to

Inspector:
Bridget Copson
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): EY305398
Address:
Bournemouth University, Poole House
Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow
Poole
Dorset
BH12 5BB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 11/04/2005
Registered person: Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
learn and engages them well as they make progress towards the next stage of their
education.
Next steps
Leaders should strengthen the organisation of group activities to further enhance
children's engagement.
Leaders should ensure that teaching is consistently effective to deepen children's
mathematical understanding.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, 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.

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00
Local authority: Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 3 February 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
91
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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