Little Acres Day Nursery and Pre-School
Little Acres Day Nursery and Pre-School is a day nursery in Rochester for children aged 0 to 4, with 96 registered places. Ofsted report card, 9 June 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.
60 Oakleigh Grove, Cliffe Woods, Rochester, ME3 8GY
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 0 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 96 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 31 October 2022 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 9 June 2026
Who runs it
Little Acres Day Nursery and Pre-School is run by Sea Shells Nursery (Dockside) Limited (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
- Achievement: Expected standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
- Leadership and governance: Expected standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 9 June 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children and their families at the heart of this happy and community focused pre-school. Children learn about the benefits of being outside on their mental and physical health and the importance of caring for the natural world. Children delight in exploring their forest school. They learn important life skills for the future, such as independently growing their own fruits and vegetables. Children also learn how to keep themselves safe when outside. As such, children of all ages thoroughly enjoy being outdoors and learning about the world around them. This supports their appreciation of nature. Leaders and staff work very closely with parents and carers to support children's regular attendance. This helps to establish positive routines for children for school.
Leaders and staff create a calm and nurturing environment where all families are included and involved. For example, babies confidently toddle to explore their favourite toys. Older children have spaces where they can retreat to when needed, supporting their emotions. As such, children form bonds with staff and display kindness and care towards each other. Younger children offer their friends hugs when they are upset. Older children immediately help staff to tidy up. Staff are positive role models, offering cuddles and comfort, ensuring children feel welcomed and belong. This helps children to feel secure, safe and settled.
Children benefit from leaders and staff who know them well. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to their learning receive effective support. Staff provide all children with a wide range of interesting and exciting experiences to support their communication, physical and social skills effectively. For example, babies join in excitedly with rhymes and stories. They develop their physical skills when learning to crawl and walk. Older children learn new vocabulary when learning about different animals. They learn to weigh items and count accurately. These opportunities support children's ongoing development successfully. As such, all children make positive progress from their starting points and are well prepared for their next stage of learning.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Expected standard
Leaders and staff ensure children and families are warmly welcomed, involved and included, especially for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and who face barriers to their learning and development. Leaders work closely with outside agencies to ensure children with significant medical needs and those known to children's social care receive appropriate support. Staff access training and advice to help them learn how to manage children's individual care needs effectively. This helps children to generally settle well and feel secure.
Leaders and staff provide a range of community events for local families. For example, children excitedly recall helping to design scarecrows with their parents and carers for a recent competition. Leaders offer parents free forest school sessions to support them with childcare. These sessions help families financially where needed to access activities designed to support their children's learning and development.
Leaders and staff work closely together to review children's individual care and education plans. They ensure the support in place remains effective. Leaders have positive plans to help further reduce barriers to children's learning and to support practitioners to make a consistently demonstratable difference to children and families. For example, they are currently recruiting for a specialist teacher to provide support to bridge identified gaps in children's communication to help make a sustained difference to children's development. Although not yet in place, leaders are also planning to further enhance community involvement by developing another outdoor paddock. They explain this will provide families with places to camp and spend time together in nature. Although not yet in embedded, these plans will further strengthen opportunities for children's learning and engagement.
Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
Leaders and staff work together to design an inclusive curriculum. Leaders have an accurate understanding of the quality of teaching. They recognise that at times, staff do not consistently share information about children's next steps in learning with parents and carers. This does not help parents to fully understand how to support and extend their children's learning at home. Although there are plans to enhance this, these are not yet consistently embedded across the setting.
Leaders invest in staff training and support them to obtain additional qualifications. They use staff's strengths to support practice. For example, they review children's starting points with staff to ensure activities and experiences help children to develop the skills they need for the future. This ensures what staff offer supports children's learning and development. Children benefit from staff who support them effectively when developing their mathematical and physical skills. Younger children enjoy learning to count when finding objects outside and learn to navigate the outdoor spaces. Older children spend time learning to weigh items and to balance on a see-saw. These activities develop children's developing skills successfully.
Staff have high expectations for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face barriers to their learning. Staff prioritise children's personal, social and communication skills well. Babies delight in joining in with favourite rhymes. Older children share books, talking about different characters. These activities successfully support children's listening, language and vocabulary skills for their future.
Achievement: Expected standard
All children generally develop age-appropriate knowledge and skills. This ensures they are ready for their next stage. Children receive opportunities and experiences across all areas of the curriculum. All children benefit from the necessary support to help them make positive progress and typically achieve from their starting points. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to their learning and development receive effective support to meet their milestones.
Leaders recognise where they need to further support staff to enhance practice during mealtime routines and in explaining to children the impact of their behaviour and actions supporting children's understanding and engagement further. They have plans to enhance information sharing with parents so that they can help and support learning further at home. These plans will support children to be very well prepared for school and their next learning stage in the future.
Babies develop skills to crawl, balance and climb. Older children learn to use cutlery with skill, ready for transition to school. These activities successfully support children's coordination and movement skills. Children benefit from activities designed to meet their individual needs and interests. For example, babies delight in exploring paint, learning to use paintbrushes. Older children develop concentration and perseverance skills when using tools to make shapes in play dough.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
Leaders and staff together create a positive and calm learning environment and have high expectations for children. They promote kindness and care. As such, children, in the main, display positive attitudes to learning and play collaboratively and cooperatively together. However, staff do not consistently explain to children the impact and consequences of their actions and behaviour. This does not support children's developing understanding even further.
Children develop deep bonds with staff and each other. Babies benefit from cuddles and comfort by caring staff, who know them well. Older children respond positively to requests from staff. For example, children learn to scrape their own plates at lunchtime and clean the tables. This helps children to learn important personal and social skills. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to learning receive support to understand rules and expectations successfully. Routines are clearly embedded in the setting. This supports children to feel safe and secure.
Leaders and staff work closely with all families to promote the importance of regular attendance. They offer flexible sessions to support children to settle in. As such, all children are eager to attend. This supports positive routines for children's transition to school successfully.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
All children develop secure and positive relationships with staff. Staff thoughtfully consider children's individual needs, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, before children start. They discuss babies' specific routines with parents and carers and implement these successfully. This ensures babies settle well and feel secure. It also supports children's positive attachments. However, some inconsistencies in routines mean that at times, some children's individual needs are not fully met. This results in some younger children becoming upset and losing engagement and focus.
Leaders and staff support children's self-care skills effectively. Babies learn to wipe their own hands before eating. Older children remind their friends to be safe at forest school, referring to a safety checklist before going outside. These activities support children's positive welfare successfully.
Leaders and staff provide children with support to learn about feelings and emotions. However, at times, staff do not always routinely extend children's understanding of the impact of their behaviour and actions to further develop children's understanding. Leaders recognise where they need to enhance practice. They support staff to provide safe and cosy spaces for children to retreat to if needed, supporting their positive mental health. Children are encouraged to develop long-lasting healthy habits and to make healthy choices. Children learn where food comes from and to tend to fruits and vegetables they are growing. They talk excitedly at lunchtime about eating potatoes from the ground. The focus on outdoor learning ensures all children develop understanding of the importance of being outside on their physical health and wellbeing successfully.
Leadership and governance: Expected standard
Leaders have an effective and accurate oversight of the setting's strengths and areas of focus. They regularly make changes to practice and provision to support children's learning experiences. This directly impacts on the quality of care and education children receive. However, while leaders recognise the journey they are on, and have ambitious plans for the future to further enhance what they offer, not all of these plans are yet firmly embedded to see the improved impact.
Leaders are passionate about providing high-quality care and education. They invest significantly in providing staff with access to a wide range of specialist training and support. Leaders actively encourage staff to undertake additional qualifications to support their ongoing knowledge and skills. Staff are incredibly appreciative of the focus on their wellbeing and workloads.
Leaders work closely with parents and carers and other professionals to ensure all children and families receive support, help and guidance where needed. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face barriers to learning receive help to ensure they have smooth transitions for their next learning stage. This means all children and families receive effective support for the future.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders should strengthen information sharing with parents and carers to support their understanding of their children's next steps to help their learning further at home.
- Leaders should support staff's practice during mealtime routines to ensure children's individual needs are fully met, supporting their engagement and focus further.
- Leaders should enhance staff's confidence in explaining to children the impact and consequences of their actions and behaviour to further support children's understanding.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 9 June 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history
Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)
Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.
The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.
Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.
Source: Ofsted reports
Funded childcare hours in England
All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.
Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.
Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.
The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.
Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)
Other nurseries nearby
- Phoenix Day Nurseries UK Limited - Day nursery, Rochester ME3 8JQ, ages 0 to 4, 59 places, 0.4 milesOfsted, 10 December 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Cliffe Woods Pre-School - Pre-school, Rochester ME3 8UJ, 76 places, 0.4 miles
- Cliffe Pre-school - Pre-school, Rochester ME3 7PU, 29 places, 1.4 miles
- Higham Village Pre-School - Pre-school, Rochester ME3 7JL, ages 2 to 4, 30 places, 1.7 milesOfsted, 14 February 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Smilers - Day nursery, Rochester ME3 8LE, ages 0 to 11, 52 places, 1.8 milesOfsted, 30 June 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
Schools nearby
- City of Rochester School - Special, 0.4 miles
- Cliffe Woods Primary School - Primary, 0.5 miles
Little Acres Day Nursery and Pre-School on the Ofsted website