URN 2849763 · Inspected 2026-09-10 · Published 2026-10-12 · Inspector: Kerry Palmer
Little Woodlands Day Nursery Limited Unique reference number (URN): 2849763 Address: The Harvey Centre, Minsterworth School, Minsterworth Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 8JH Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 02/07/2025 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Little Woodlands Day Nursery Limited Inspection report: 10 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. Strong standard Expected standard Inclusion Strong standard Leaders and staff swiftly and accurately assess children's development and achievements to determine appropriate next steps, which they embed within children's play. They have an acute understanding of the importance of early help and staff remain vigilant when checking children's progress. This ensures the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to learning are identified promptly and precisely. Staff work cohesively with parents as partners from the outset. Together, they establish the children's interests, needs and capabilities to ensure that any changing needs and identified concerns about children's development receive highly effective support. This collaborative approach ensures that children receive the targeted support and carefully tailored learning opportunities that they need to help them make the progress they are capable of. Staff diligently follow agreed strategies to ensure all children participate fully. Highly effective assessment arrangements allow staff to closely review progress and promptly identify emerging needs. These methods ensure children receive timely, collaborative and highly productive support to help them achieve. Leaders use funding highly effectively to support children. For example, they use targeted funding in order to provide transport to prioritise children's attendance, and purchase appropriate resources to support interventions and transitions within the nursery and to school. Staff monitor and review the impact this has on children's learning extremely successfully, ensuring that it helps to improve outcomes for them. Achievement Expected standard Children typically make steady and sustained progress from their individual starting points. Children engage well in free-play activities throughout the setting, demonstrating curiosity and a motivation to learn. They access role-play areas, calm spaces and a range of messy play opportunities indoors, such as coloured-rice play. This helps children to develop their perseverance and resilience skills and follow their own interests. Children use blocks to build and count, which helps them to develop early number knowledge and mathematical language. They build confidence with solving problems independently. Children are growing in confidence and are ready for their next stage of education. Children become increasingly independent in their self-care skills. They wash their hands before and after mealtimes and ensure they have regular drinks of water. This helps them develop healthy habits for later life. Overall, children develop the skills and confidence they need to move on to their next stage of learning successfully, including starting school. Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard Leaders and staff typically implement consistent routines to help children develop a sense of security. For example, when it is time to tidy away, staff ring a bell. This means children establish routines and begin to anticipate what is happening next. Staff are positive role models for children and, in turn, children's behaviour is positive. They listen to staff, learn to share resources and play cooperatively. Children form friendships and demonstrate kindness. They show care and willingly help their friends, such as helping each other step on the stepping-stone crates outdoors. Staff regularly use praise and encouragement and speak to children in a calm and reassuring manner. They develop positive relationships with children. This supports children to build warm relationships. Leaders monitor children's attendance and know which children are expected to attend each day. Leaders follow up on any unexplained absences with parents and carers. This helps to promote children's safety and wellbeing. Children engage purposefully in a range of activities available across the setting and play cooperatively with their peers. They enjoy imaginative play, where they practise real-life social skills, such as caring for dolls and sharing resources. These experiences support children's communication and language development while building their social confidence and positive relationships with others. Overall, children show positive attitudes to learning. They explore the environment and engage in activities of their choice throughout the day. Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard Leaders have created a nurturing and welcoming environment for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This ensures all children feel safe, valued and supported, reinforcing their sense of belonging. Leaders and staff have a secure knowledge and understanding of the children in their care. Children build trusting relationships and form secure attachments with the adults who care for them. Typically, children seek comfort and reassurance when needed and sit together to share stories or enjoy a cuddle. However, on occasion staff do not recognise quickly enough when children become unsettled. This can mean that some children wait slightly longer before receiving support. Leaders ensure staff implement robust policies and procedures. Staff in the baby room have secure knowledge and understanding of safe-sleeping guidance. They are confident in procedures to ensure babies remain safe, such as ensuring they are checked regularly and that the temperature is maintained to ensure children's safety and comfort. Children learn healthy habits. They enjoy daily fresh air and opportunities to develop their physical skills in the setting's wild garden. Staff understand the importance of ensuring they closely supervise children to keep them safe. They sit with children at mealtimes to ensure their wellbeing. Generally, older children receive encouragement to develop their independence by pouring their own drinks and using cutlery appropriately. Children enjoy healthy and nutritious food, including fresh fruit, that meets their individual preferences and dietary requirements. Curriculum and teaching Expected standard Leaders and staff have designed a well-considered, broad curriculum, which takes account of what they intend children to learn over time. Generally, it centres around communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and physical development. This supports children to acquire important skills they need to progress. Staff generally weave mathematical learning through the day. For instance, children count bricks as they build models. These experiences help children develop an understanding of early counting. Staff use regular observations to assess and monitor children's progress in order to identify what they need to learn next. They identify any children who may be at risk of delay and adapt their teaching accordingly. Mostly, staff adapt their teaching to meet children's individual needs, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities or children who may face barriers to their learning. For example, staff adapt resources and use simple sign language to help encourage children's engagement. This promotes an inclusive culture. Typically, staff support children's language skills effectively. Staff talk to children about the food they eat and use language such as 'crunchy' and 'sour'. However, on occasion, interactions from staff can be limited. For example, as younger children play, staff do not extend children's vocabulary or model language for them. Leadership and governance Expected standard Leaders demonstrate a reflective approach to continuous improvement and have an appropriate understanding of the context of the setting. They use this information to ensure that the curriculum is based on the needs of the children and celebrates the uniqueness of the local area. They regularly evaluate the effectiveness of their practice and implement initiatives that respond to the changing needs of the children. For example, leaders have worked with staff and have jointly developed a curriculum that is tailored to the needs of the children. Leaders establish positive partnerships with parents and carers. Parents are effectively kept up to date with their child's development through frequent parent meetings and assessments. Leaders are proactive in seeking support and working effectively with health, education and other professionals to meet children's individual needs. Leaders value families' contributions, and work closely with them to support children's progress and wellbeing. Leaders collaborate on a wide range of well-attended family events. These build a sense of community and strengthen relationships between families. Leaders work collaboratively with staff, through open communication and reasonable adjustments for those with health needs. They promote staff wellbeing through an open-door culture, with wellbeing discussed through supervision and informal check-ins. Staff report that they feel well supported and valued by leaders. Leaders monitor teaching and staff development through supervision processes and observations of practice. However, this could be done more frequently, which would ensure high-quality teaching consistently across the nursery. 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 at this warm and welcoming nursery eager to learn and engage in the wide range of opportunities available to them. They develop secure relationships with caring staff who know them well and understand their individual personalities, interests and needs. Children learn how to form positive relationships and engage confidently with others. Babies enjoy participating in group song times where they excitedly join in with actions, movements and familiar rhymes. Older children engage in shared story sessions and confidently contribute their ideas. These experiences help children develop their communication skills, Inspector: Kerry Palmer About this setting Unique reference number (URN): 2849763 confidence and sense of belonging within the nursery community. Children behave well, show positive attitudes to learning and demonstrate increasing levels of independence. They enjoy learning and develop the confidence, resilience and skills they need for future success. Children, including those with additional needs, access a broad range of experiences that help them learn about the world around them. They celebrate a variety of festivals, traditions and cultural events. Children learn about the similarities and differences between people and communities. They also benefit from regular forestry experiences where they explore nature, take risks and develop their confidence and curiosity outdoors. For example, children plant tomatoes seeds and grow pumpkins, nurture them to grow and proudly use them for nursery snacks. Babies confidently develop their physical skills as they explore the garden area with independence. For example, they enjoy digging in the sand pit. All children enjoy investigating resources, sharing ideas and building their knowledge through play. Next steps Leaders should ensure that staff respond promptly and sensitively to support children's emotional development more consistently. Leaders should support staff to make more effective use of their interactions, to support children's communication and language development more effectively. About this inspection A quality assurance visit by an additional inspector was carried out at this inspection. The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, the special educational needs coordinator, the designated safeguarding lead, parents 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. Address: The Harvey Centre Minsterworth School Minsterworth Gloucester Gloucestershire GL2 8JH Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registration date: 02/07/2025 Registered person: Little Woodlands Day Nursery Limited Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00 Local authority: Gloucestershire Facts and figures used on inspection This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection. This data is from 10 September 2026 Children numbers Age range of children at the time of inspection 0 to 3 Total number of places 38 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. 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