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Littlebrook Nursery Oaklands

Littlebrook Nursery Oaklands is a day nursery in Englefield Green for children aged 0 to 4, with 42 registered places. Ofsted report card, 5 August 2026: Needs attention in 4 areas, Urgent improvement in 2 areas; safeguarding standards met.

Wick Lane, Englefield Green, TW20 0XN

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
42 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
1 June 2026 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 5 August 2026

Who runs it

Littlebrook Nursery Oaklands is run by Littlebrook Nursery Ltd (Ofsted register).

Latest inspection

  • Inclusion: Needs attention
  • Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention
  • Achievement: Needs attention
  • Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention
  • Children's welfare and wellbeing: Urgent improvement
  • Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement
  • Safeguarding standards met

Source: Ofsted, inspection on 5 August 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's safety and experiences are compromised because weaknesses in leadership and governance limit the effectiveness of management's oversight. There are insufficient arrangements in place to ensure risks to children are promptly identified and suitably managed. The ineffective key-person arrangements mean that children do not always benefit from a named adult that fully supports their individual needs, which limits the consistency of their care and learning. Leaders have not communicated well enough with parents, which results in weaknesses in partnership working and continual support for care and learning for children.

The quality of children's overall education is variable. Leaders have not established a clearly defined curriculum to ensure children's learning is well planned and progressive. This does not support children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to achieve to the best of their ability. Leaders and staff have appropriate expectations for children's behaviours. However, staff's inconsistent reinforcement of rules does not give children clear messages, which can lead to confusion.

On the whole, children enjoy their time at the setting. They are polite, kind and caring. They eagerly explore the outdoor environment and mostly play cooperatively with one another. Children patiently wait their turn to use the apparatus outside. Their patience is praised by staff. Children are confident movers and explore different ways of moving their bodies. For example, children ride bikes around open spaces and skilfully avoid objects. Children develop their fine motor skills as they roll, pat and manipulate play dough.

Children attend regularly and demonstrate they have developed friendly relationships with each other and staff members. Leaders have arrangements in place to monitor children's attendance and promote punctuality. Leaders and staff recognise the importance of children establishing secure foundations in routines and learning, which help prepare them for the future.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Needs attention

Leaders and staff do not effectively identify children's needs promptly and accurately, including any emerging or changing needs. These inconsistencies reduce the quality of support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or those who face barriers to their learning receive. Weaknesses in partnership working with parents do not promote consistency in the care and support for all children. Some staff members do not fully understand the details of arrangements and support in place for children to ensure that their individual needs are consistently met. Not all children receive the support they need to help them thrive.

Overall, staff carry out required assessments. They seek further advice and guidance from relevant professionals to help them to support children with SEND in the setting. However, this is not always understood and put in practice. When staff implement appropriate strategies, such as giving children time to process information and share their thoughts, this helps to build children's confidence. Children learn to communicate their needs effectively. Visuals and signs used by staff help children to participate fully in activities. Funding is used to purchase additional resources that provide targeted support. This helps to support development in intended areas.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Leaders recognise that the quality of the curriculum is not effective but have not acted swiftly enough to address weaknesses. The lack of a well-sequenced curriculum limits children's learning experiences. Staff do not have a shared understanding of what they want children to learn and why it is important. Therefore, some learning can be incidental rather than intentional. There are inconsistencies in teaching and learning across the setting. Children are often left alone while they play without quality interaction to help them build on their knowledge and skills. This means that some children, including those that face barriers to their learning, spend periods of time without engaging in purposeful learning and play that support their overall development and progress.

Staff encourage children to look at books and explore their understanding by asking them questions. Children enjoy singing and talk confidently to staff and one another. This supports their communication, language and early literacy skills. Outdoor activities provide children with opportunities to be active as they move around with confidence and pleasure. Staff support children as they build and construct. For instance, staff help children to build tall towers. They help children recognise the different colours of the bricks and count them as they place them on top of each other. Children listen with interest to what staff tell them and mimic spoken words. This supports children's mathematical awareness as they play and explore.

Achievement: Needs attention

Children, including those that face barriers to their learning, are not provided with consistently high-quality learning experiences through a well-considered and ambitious curriculum. Children are not always motivated and encouraged to engage in meaningful learning which sparks their curiosity and interest alongside helping them to build on what they already know and can do. Not all children gain the age-appropriate skills ready for their next stage of learning, including going to school.

Children are happy and content in their environment. They seek comfort and support from familiar adults when it is needed. Children link up with each other to share their experiences. Children share back-and-forth communication and are keen to talk about what they enjoy doing at home. They talk about their likes and dislikes. This supports their social and emotional development as they establish positive relationships. Younger children investigate during sensory play and examine technological resources. They are inquisitive and seek to find out more by exploring.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention

Leaders' and staff's expectations of children's behaviours are not implemented well enough to help children to fully understand the rules and boundaries in place. For instance, strategies used to support children as they learn to share resources, such as using timers, are not consistently applied. Inconsistent messages leave some children feeling uncertain about expectations and boundaries. Children are left to continue behaviours that others have been asked not to. In addition, weaknesses in the planned and focused activities have a negative impact on children's attention to learning. For example, activities are not well thought out to incorporate children's interest. At times, children can wander, become disengaged and easily distracted. This does not fully support children to develop consistently high motivation in their learning.

Children are supported well as they transition through aspects of the routine. This supports them to understand what is happening next, which helps them to feel safe and secure. Staff are kind and talk to children with respect, offering comfort and support during times when they become upset. Children respond well to staff and follow direction and instruction. Staff offer praise to children when they have made positive choices. This helps children to develop confidence and builds their self-esteem. Mostly, staff notice times when children need support to manage minor conflicts and help them to resolve these peacefully. This helps children learn the important skills needed to build healthy relationships as they begin to understand the feelings of others.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Urgent improvement

There are weaknesses in risk assessment processes which place children at potential harm. For instance, weak oversight and leadership does not ensure hazards, such as broken shelters, resources and staff storing items on the children's evacuation cot, are identified and removed promptly. Additionally, leaders have not ensured that daily risk assessments are carried out thoroughly, which means staff miss unsafe objects in the garden while children play. This does not promote children's welfare or help to keep children safe.

Leaders and staff do not fully understand the arrangements for intervention that are in place for children, which limits the effectiveness of support they receive. Additionally, leaders and staff do not always gather pertinent information regarding children's health. This means that children's individual needs are not always met. Strategies to share information with parents are inconsistent. For instance, some parents are unaware of who their child's key persons are and are given limited information by staff regarding support for their child's individual next steps of learning. This does not support continual learning and offer assurance to parents that their children's individual care and learning needs are supported. Staff help children to develop positive foundations to hygiene. For example, they wash their hands before meals and after using the toilet. Children sit well at a table at mealtimes and staff promote good manners.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

The provider does not have an accurate understanding of the quality of the provision. They have not ensured that staff fully understand and implement polices and procedures consistently. Breaches in requirements have a significant impact on children's safety, care and learning. For instance, potential hazards to children's safety have been overlooked. Ineffective key-person arrangements mean that children's learning and care are not tailored to suit their individual needs, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or those who are disadvantaged. Communication with parents and other settings that children attend is ineffective. This negatively impacts on building positive relationships and supporting continuity of care and learning for children. Weaknesses in communication with parents reduce effective collaboration and lead to distrust in those that care for their children.

Changes to the staff team and organisation of the setting have created a period of instability and has impacted on staff's morale and their overall wellbeing. Arrangements for professional development, coaching and support of staff are not yet embedded. Steps to improve the quality of the provision have not been acted upon swiftly enough. However, leaders demonstrate a commitment to make the necessary improvements to provide consistency for staff, children and parents and improve the quality of care and educational standards.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider must:

  • take action to implement a rigorous system for risk assessment to ensure hazards are identified and managed effectively and promptly, so that children are not exposed to risks (by 17 August 2026)
  • implement effective key-person arrangements to ensure all children receive tailored support to ensure their individual needs are met (by 31 August 2026)
  • improve staff understanding of partnership working and ensure targeted special educational needs and/or disabilities support is consistently implemented to meet each child's individual needs (by 31 August 2026)
  • ensure staff implement consistent behaviour expectations and boundaries to help children know and understand what is expected of them (by 31 August 2026)
  • implement secure partnership working with parents to ensure an effective two-way flow of information to meet children's individual needs consistently (by 31 August 2026)
  • ensure an ambitious, well-structured curriculum is fully implemented and clearly understood by staff (by 30 September 2026)

Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 5 August 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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

  • Englefield Green Montessori School - Day nursery, Egham TW20 0UE, ages 2 to 4, 22 places, 0.2 miles
    Ofsted, 16 April 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Shining Pandas Nursery - Day nursery, Egham TW20 0TZ, ages 2 to 4, 26 places, 0.4 miles
    Ofsted, 2 May 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Milton Hall Montessori Nursery School - Pre-school, Egham TW20 0QT, ages 2 to 5, 36 places, 0.9 miles
    Ofsted, 4 May 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Englefield Green Nursery and Preschool - Day nursery, Egham TW20 0RL, ages 0 to 4, 68 places, 1.0 miles
    Ofsted, 2 February 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Old Windsor PreSchool - Pre-school, Windsor SL4 2NE, 30 places, 1.6 miles

Schools nearby

Littlebrook Nursery Oaklands on the Ofsted website