Offord Day Nursery & Skoolz Out

Offord Day Nursery & Skoolz Out
Unique reference number (URN): 2773341
Address: Offord Primary School, Millers Close, Offord D'arcy, St. Neots, PE19 5SB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 26/01/2024
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Bailey & Clark Ltd
Inspection report: 24 April 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
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Children thrive at the setting. Leaders consistently prioritise children's welfare and wellbeing.
Children show through their body language and engagement that they feel safe, secure and
emotionally supported. For example, staff greet them warmly on arrival and engage in
meaningful conversations about their day. This helps children to settle quickly, reinforcing a
secure sense of belonging. Children develop long-lasting healthy habits as a result of staff
teaching them about healthy choices, in addition to well-structured, embedded routines that
motivate children to consistently make their own healthy choices.
Mealtimes are well supervised. Staff model positive social interactions during mealtimes and
sit alongside children to encourage safe eating and engage in meaningful conversations.
Staff encourage children to manage their personal care routines, such as independently
using the toilet, where possible, and washing their hands before snack time. These
opportunities contribute to children developing a sense of responsibility, build on their
confidence and enhance their self-care skills over time. As a result, children adopt positive
hygiene practices. Children explore and taste a mixture of fruits in a tray activity, which
develops their curiosity and confidence to try new things.
Key-person arrangements are highly effective, where staff have a comprehensive
understanding of children in the setting, and are highly responsive to individual needs. Staff
help children risk assess what they are capable of doing during physical play and also tailor
care practices, such as small-step instructions to meet individual needs. This includes those
children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known to
children's social care and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or
wellbeing.
Achievement Expected standard
Children typically achieve well from their individual starting points and are suitably prepared
for their next stage of learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities
(SEND) and those who face other barriers to their learning join in group activities and daily
routines effectively. For example, children gain strength in their physical movement, such as
when they balance on a low-level beam, or climb over a frame. They gain increasing levels
of self-esteem as their contributions are valued and encouraged.
Children develop in confidence and demonstrate positive engagement and attention skills
during imaginative play. They acquire age-appropriate communication and language skills,
develop a love of stories and frequently choose to look at books. Children gain some
mathematical skills, such as they count reliably to 10 and compare the size of different fruit
seeds. Children engage well and show sustained attention during planned activities. This
contributes to children being ready for school. However, children are not consistently

supported to develop their thinking skills so that they are able to independently solve
problems.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard
All children, including babies, develop meaningful and warm relationships with their key
persons, which helps children feel safe and secure. Any minor unwanted behaviours are
effectively and sensitively managed by staff so that children understand the impact of their
behaviour for their friends. Staff act as positive role models for children. They treat everyone
with respect and children show kindness towards each other, enabling them to form close
friendships. This helps children identify what is expected of them and supports positive
relationships. For example, when using the outdoor kitchen, staff reassure children when it
will be their turn, which helps manage children's emotions. As a result, children play and
interact collaboratively with others and there is a harmonious environment. During the fruit
tray activity, children show real curiosity about the different seeds when they explored fruit.
Children gain positive attitudes to learning.
Staff have high expectations of children and have clearly embedded routines. Children show
that they know what comes next as they typically help with tidying up. Staff encourage
children to manage their personal needs, for example children independently use the toilet,
where possible, and wash their hands before snack time. As a result, children adopt positive
hygiene practices. Leaders work closely with parents to support any individual behaviour
needs and ensure that children consistently attend the setting. Leaders swiftly identify any
patterns of non-attendance, finding ways to support parents and children's individual needs.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Children's physical and emotional development is a priority from the start. Staff quickly
establish warm relationships with babies and are attentive to their needs. During an outside
sand activity, staff interact positively with babies to develop their mark-making skills and
introduce words to help them understand and develop communication skills. Staff
understand the steps in children's learning to help build their physical skills and emotional
development so that they achieve well. This includes an inclusive curriculum and teaching
approach, where staff adapt their practice to meet children's individual stage of
development, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Staff describe what children are doing, incorporating new words to help strengthen children's
understanding of early mathematical concepts and language. Staff plan suitable engaging
activities they know children will enjoy. As children explore and taste a mixture of fruits in a
tray activity, staff weave number and counting language to help embed early mathematical
concepts. Staff introduce new words to describe different textures as children play. This
helps to support children's communication and language skills. Children use a range of tools
that help them gain increasing small-muscle control. Children are typically well engaged in
their learning. They develop a love of books, enjoying the carefully chosen stories that
reflect their interests and what they are learning about. However, with some activities, staff
are not always clear about what they want children to learn during planned adult-led
activities. As a result, teaching is not of consistently high quality. Leaders have an overall
understanding of the quality of the curriculum and are developing an action plan to bring

about further improvement, however, this is not consistently focused in developing breadth
in children's knowledge and skills.
Inclusion Expected standard
Leaders identify children's needs swiftly and accurately. This helps them to identify where
children may need extra support. Leaders work in a timely way with external professionals,
such as speech and language therapists to seek advice and implement strategies to support
individual children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). For example,
staff understand how to give children extra processing time or smaller step instructions.
Staff engage with parents to help them navigate external guidance and regularly review
children's individual support plans. They implement appropriate strategies to help children
understand what is coming next, such as visual cues. Typically, the support that leaders and
staff provide reduces barriers to children's learning and wellbeing so that they are able to
make steady progress from their starting points. Leaders allocate additional funding
appropriately with children's needs in mind, including for extra staff, to help ensure that
children can learn effectively. Staff work well together, sharing their experience that
promotes inclusion for all children, including those children with SEND.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Leaders are reflective and know what they need to do to improve, however, actions
identified are not ambitious to bring about enough sustained improvement to develop truly
high-quality provision for all children. Leaders monitor staff workload and wellbeing through
regular support, supervision and mentoring. Staff say they feel valued and motivated in their
roles. Staff reflect on their own and others' practice, however, the arrangements for
supervision do not consistently support staff to achieve high-quality teaching. Those
responsible for governance and leadership place children's best interests at the heart of the
setting to ensure that children are safe, supported and able to thrive.
Partnerships with parents are effective and support children's education and care. For
example, some parents participate in stay-and-play sessions, which helps support parental
relationships, enabling staff to get to know children and their families even further. Parents
value the strong relationships between staff, children and families, as well as clear and open
communication. This helps ensure that children's individual needs, routines and medical
requirements are understood and supported. Staff undertake regular training to support their
professional learning, however, this is not yet precisely focused to improve the quality of
teaching to the highest level.

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 eagerly and ready to learn at the setting and are warmly welcomed by staff.
The environment is safe and stimulating. Children typically settle well and happily interact
with staff and their peers. Children form close attachments with their key person, which
contributes to children gaining a secure sense of belonging, in addition to helping children to
settle and feel safe. Staff form effective, positive relationships with parents and carers and
encourage the celebration of progress at home through a secure app.

Inspector:
John Stafford
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2773341
Staff know children well and plan activities based on their interests. For example, during a
sand play activity, children talk to staff about their holidays at the seaside. This enables
children to recreate meaningful experiences and thrive. Children achieve well and make
steady progress in their physical and emotional development due to the opportunities
provided through the curriculum. They learn to take turns while waiting for each other on the
climbing equipment before they carefully navigate it. Children are eager to play with others
and engage with staff. Children are supported well, to develop their communication,
language and early mathematics skills, which helps prepare them for their next stage of
learning or school. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities
and those who experience other barriers to their learning effectively, such as allowing extra
time or providing visual cues. They accurately assess children's needs and progress,
helping them to swiftly identify any gaps in learning. Staff seek timely, additional support
from external professionals and implement this to help meet children's individual needs,
such as visual cues. As a result, all children make progress over time from their individual
starting points.
Next steps
Leaders should continue to develop the curriculum further so that it is of consistently high
quality and sets ambitious goals for children to achieve.
Leaders should utilise staff supervisions more effectively, so they can monitor and drive
consistently high-quality teaching interactions with children.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, practitioners, the designated safeguarding lead and the
special educational needs coordinator 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:
Offord Primary School
Millers Close, Offord D'arcy
St. Neots
PE19 5SB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 26/01/2024
Registered person: Bailey & Clark Ltd
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00
Local authority: Cambridgeshire
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 24 April 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
1 to 5
Total number of places
28
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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