Tops Salisbury

Tops Salisbury
Unique reference number (URN): EY546902
Address: Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury, SP2 8BJ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 09/06/2017
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Tops Day Nursery Limited
Inspection report: 8 September 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.

Expected standard
Achievement Expected standard
Children typically develop age-appropriate skills across the curriculum. For example, babies
develop their core strength and physical skills as they are encouraged to practise walking
with more control and balance. Their confidence flourishes because they enjoy secure
relationships with staff and they regularly try new things. Children grow in independence.
For instance, they pour their own drinks and serve their own lunch. They also help each
other, such as by setting out plates and glasses for each other, developing an understanding
of their role as an important member of their community.
Children benefit from carefully planned changes. For instance, they visit older rooms before
they move up and move alongside peers, where possible, so that they can make a confident
move. This further builds their confidence. Children are also well prepared for the move to
school as they learn to increasingly meet their own needs and express their own thoughts
and feelings.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard
Leaders have ensured that there is now a culture of high expectations for behaviour across
the setting. Typically, staff support children to understand these behavioural expectations.
For example, they remind them to point their spray bottles down when playing with water so
as not to get their peers wet. Leaders' recent work in this area has been effective and staff
are generally consistent and clear about what they need to see from children. As a result,
children understand what is expected from them. Staff act as effective role models and
children benefit from lots of embedded positive praise to reinforce their choices. Children
learn to be kind to each other and to share. For instance, they take turns to use tools to
scoop sand and water.
Staff use visual prompts on lanyards to help younger children to understand upcoming
routines, such as nappy changing time. This ensures that all children can develop their
knowledge of the routines and expectations. Generally, children are starting to build
familiarity with the daily routines in the setting. Leaders work closely with families to help
them to understand the importance of regular attendance. Where necessary they adapt
sessions to ensure that families can attend well.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard
Leaders have ensured that staff are generally attentive in meeting children's care needs. For
instance, they change children's clothes if they become wet. Staff build effective
relationships with all children and understand their individual needs. Children typically learn
to keep themselves safe. For example, they know to finish their mouthful before they leave
the table. Children learn to eat an increasingly healthy diet. Raw vegetables, such as carrots
and peppers, are served before the main meal and children happily help themselves to
these. This develops children's understanding of healthy eating. Children develop other
healthy habits, such as learning to brush their teeth. Staff use songs to reinforce these daily

expectations so that children remember and can repeat at home. This builds these positive
long-term habits. Children sleep safely and are well supervised while they rest. Staff
complete regular checks on all children throughout their sleep. Staff collect comprehensive
information about children's weaning journeys and ensure that they provide suitable food.
Although children are generally well supervised, at times staff do not communicate well
enough with each other to ensure that they are always suitably positioned. This can result in
moments where they do not check who has full oversight of all children. This means that
some children do not receive consistent support to understand risks. Leaders have identified
this and are working to strengthen staff communication.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Leaders have recently made changes to the curriculum. They have ensured that there is a
cohesive curriculum in place that covers all areas of learning and is fully inclusive. This is
typically well understood and delivered by staff. Staff focus on developing the children's
curiosity and independence. For instance, they encourage children to try new things and to
explore what they find. Leaders prioritise children's engagement and understanding of
nature. For example, they teach children about their role in our world and the importance of
sustainability. Staff typically weave mathematical understanding through the curriculum and
daily activities. For instance, they help children to count out the correct number of orange
segments to put on a plate.
Children develop a real love of books. They regularly choose books and pass them to staff
to share. Staff read to them with enthusiasm and children mirror this, pointing out the things
that they notice with joy. Children's communication skills develop as they relate their
experiences to things they see in books, such as talking about trips on a train. However, at
times staff do not respond quickly enough to potential barriers to communication. For
instance, noise levels in rooms become too high and prevent children from being heard.
This means that some children's communication skills develop more slowly.
Inclusion Expected standard
Leaders ensure that children's needs are typically identified swiftly. They work closely with
parents to collect information about children on entry. They are conscious of children's home
lives and the impact that this may have on their experiences, such as if having a long
journey to the setting. Leaders have a clear understanding of their community and the
children within it, and they use this knowledge to inform the provision. This includes clear
oversight for children who are known to children's services.
Staff make use of careful adaptations to offer extra support to children with special
educational needs and/or disabilities where needed. For example, they use a range of visual
images on lanyards to support children with communicating their needs and understanding
expectations. Where children require more specialist support, staff work closely with wider
services to tailor their approach, such as by assessing and changing the environment to
help children's physical needs. Staff do not always ensure that they make effective use of
their knowledge of children's home languages when helping them to settle into the setting.
Although they identify when children speak additional languages, they do not use key words

from those languages to help children understand. This means that these children do not
always settle quickly.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Leaders have a clear understanding of their local community. Leaders have ensured that
they offer flexible sessions to support the shift work of the high proportion of their families
who work in the on-site hospital. They adapt their offering to meet the needs of their parents.
For example, they offer weekly swimming lessons for older children. Leaders have
developed initiatives that further support parents. For instance, a lending library at the
nursery entrance is regularly used by parents to settle their children into their day. Leaders
work towards ongoing improvement. For instance, their recent work on behaviour
management has led to effective change in that area. They are conscious of the need to
develop staff communication over deployment and support for all children's communication.
Leaders are currently developing a focused system to support children further in preparing
for school. Leaders work to mirror the ethos that they embed for children in their own
conduct, such as taking part in a national litter pick to demonstrate their commitment to
sustainability.
Staff typically receive the training and support that they need to develop their practice.
Leaders are conscious of their workload and ensure that they liaise regularly with all staff to
help ease pressures where possible. Leaders ensure that partnerships with parents are
effective. Parents value the flexibility in sessions, but also the wider experiences that their
children gain from attending the nursery. For instance, they recognise the development in
their children's social skills as they learn to get along with other children. They feel that the
staff know their children really well and genuinely care about them.
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 arrive happily to this warm and friendly setting. They benefit from positive
relationships with staff, who typically know them, and they attend regularly. Children develop
a love of learning. They show their excitement in their experiences, such as squealing with
joy when staff squirt new paint colours into their trays. Children learn to care for the world
around them. For instance, they work together to collect eggs from their pet chickens and to
care for them. They are taught about how to understand and protect the environment, such
as recycling the paper that they use and turning food waste into compost.
Children become increasingly confident explorers as they move through the nursery. During
their time in the baby room, they build secure relationships and investigate the space around
them from this safe base. As they get older, they use their senses to explore, such as by
smelling basil in their potions. Pre-school children excitedly find footprints in their garden
area and work with staff to identify where they came from and what they might mean. These
experiences develop their confidence and sense of enquiry. Typically, children develop their
communication skills as they progress through the setting, although they do sometimes
struggle to make themselves heard when rooms become noisy.
Children benefit from a wide range of additional activities, such as yoga, music and
movement and swimming sessions in the local leisure centre. These sessions help children
to develop their physical skills and broaden their experience base. They also further support
busy working parents. Children enjoy spending time in the lending library. This is provided to
support parents in spending time reading with their children before sessions begin. This
helps to develop a cohesive love of books, which runs throughout the provision in the
nursery.
Children develop a sense of belonging and community. For example, they help to lay the
table in pre-school by passing all their peers a cup. They also learn about their role in the

Inspector:
Alanda Phillips
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): EY546902
Address:
Salisbury District Hospital
Salisbury
SP2 8BJ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 09/06/2017
Registered person: Tops Day Nursery Limited
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
wider community, such as through their visits to the local care home for initiatives, such as
yoga on national fitness day, and through their partnership with a local theatre.
Next steps
Leaders should support staff to communicate effectively to deploy themselves effectively
at all times.
Leaders should strengthen staff practice in identifying and reducing barriers to children's
communication.
Leaders should strengthen staff understanding and use of children's home languages to
support children's communication, settling and transitions.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children and parents 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 : 06:30 - 18:30
Local authority: Wiltshire
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 8 September 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
1 to 4
Total number of places
104
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.
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.
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.
This publication is available at https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk.
Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information
and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn.
Piccadilly Gate
Store Street
Manchester
M1 2WD
T: 0300 123 1231
Textphone: 0161 618 8524
E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
W: www.gov.uk/ofsted
© Crown copyright 2026
© Crown copyright