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St Michaels Nursery & Preschool

St Michaels Nursery & Preschool is a day nursery in Sandhurst for children aged 0 to 4, with 31 registered places. Ofsted report card, 20 January 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.

St. Michaels Church & Pastoral Centre, Lower Church Road, Sandhurst, GU47 8HN

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
31 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
24 January 2025 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 17:30

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 20 January 2026

Who runs it

St Michaels Nursery & Preschool is run by St Michaels Nursery & Pre School Ltd (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 20 January 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 develop a strong sense of belonging through the caring relationships they build with staff. Older children develop friendships with their peers and relish opportunities to play and learn. Babies benefit from close relationships with staff who know their individual personalities and care needs well. Cuddles and reassurance help children to feel safe, secure and confident. Leaders and staff understand how their focus on children's personal, social and emotional development benefits children from the outset. They encourage good manners, and children learn how to be polite, courteous and kind with adults and other children. For example, at snack time, older children learn how to say 'please' and 'thank you' as friends pass water jugs and offer bowls to each other, gaining some independence. Leaders and staff focus on embedding children's personal, social and emotional development, which helps to prepare children for their next stage in learning, including school.

Children enjoy learning as staff plan and provide activities that ignite their curiosity. For instance, babies explore coloured rice, feeling its different texture and noticing what happens as rice falls to the tray. Older children learn about days of the week, as staff teach them rhymes to remember them in order. Children develop age-appropriate knowledge across the curriculum. Where children may face barriers to learning, leaders and staff work closely together to target these. This has a positive impact for children, particularly where there are gaps in development in some areas of learning. Children's consistent attendance enables them to benefit from the learning opportunities the setting provides. Staff share with parents the importance of prompt and regular attendance to ensure that children benefit from continuity.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff recognise the importance of inclusion for all children and their families. They demonstrate an understanding of children's unique needs and changing circumstances. Staff and leaders use their observations and assessments effectively to identify where children may need additional support. This helps them access appropriate support for all children, when this is required. From the outset, leaders and staff work closely with families to create a two-way flow of information about each child's needs.

Staff undertake suitable training and are supported to take the time to understand how they can best support every child. They know how to observe, assess and plan for children's learning and how to target any areas of their development, where appropriate. Leaders and staff build focused relationships with other professionals and the local authority. These further enhance the support in place for families. When children receive additional funding, leaders use it purposefully to target the areas where children need it most. For example, they provide a shared library to ensure that all children have equal access to their favourite books. Families enjoy borrowing these books to share stories at home, giving every child the same opportunity to develop their language skills while fostering an early love of reading.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders provide a broad and well-structured curriculum that is carefully tailored and prioritises children's development across the areas of learning. They ensure that staff adapt teaching to meet the needs of all children in age-appropriate ways. Leaders and practitioners understand the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those where there are barriers to learning. Leaders regularly review children's progress and plan for their future learning. However, at times, they do not fully consider the precise learning intentions of activities, which means teaching is not always directed towards what children need to learn next. As a result, children occasionally lose interest in activities and are not consistently fully engaged.

Staff working with babies place a keen emphasis on early language development, modelling words and sounds during planned activities and spontaneous play. They teach children specific physical skills and encourage them to practise these to build their skills. Leaders have a clear understanding of the learning priorities for older children. They have strengthened staff's practice as they continue the focus on language development. Staff make the most of opportunities to introduce new vocabulary through stories, group times and conversations that encourage children to think, reason and express their ideas clearly. The mathematics curriculum is still developing. Leaders recognise the need to refine it further so that staff can plan and teach mathematical concepts more consistently through daily routines and activities.

Achievement: Expected standard

All children, including those in receipt of additional funding, make age-appropriate progress through the curriculum, helping them build strong foundations for future learning. Babies show enthusiasm for exploring their environment as staff support them to develop confidence in their early physical skills, such as crawling and walking. They begin to babble and develop early language as staff model sounds and words through warm, back-and-forth interactions.

Older children develop their thinking and communication skills as staff ask purposeful questions and give them time to consider and share their ideas. For example, during group time, children reflect on what day it might be today if yesterday was Monday. As a result of this well-planned support, children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning, including their eventual transition to school.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create a welcoming environment for children. They develop relationships with families that enable regular and punctual attendance of all children through a thoughtfully considered settling-in process. The relationship between staff and babies is warm and caring. Staff use these close bonds at times when babies need reassurance. As a result, babies respond to staff, showing that bonds help them feel safe and secure.

Children follow the well-established routines with confidence. Kindness, care and courtesy are a strong ethos of the setting. Children learn about high expectations for positive behaviours from the outset. Staff use daily group times to talk about the importance of kind play in age-appropriate ways. For instance, children talk about it being important to walk indoors, so they do not slip or fall. Where children need additional help with collaborative play, staff help children with this. This helps to support positive attitudes to learning, including sharing and turn-taking in a fair and kind way. Staff use these opportunities to praise children to reinforce the social skills children learn. They focus on this area of children's learning well, and this helps children to develop secure friendships with others.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff working with babies get to know them and their families to understand their needs. Care routines, including those around sleep, are tailored to ensure that their needs are met throughout the day. For instance, as babies are weaning, staff work in partnership with parents to introduce finger foods. They sensitively reduce the amount of time babies use dummies to support their early communication skills. Staff encourage children to learn about feelings and emotions and how to express these. For example, children talk about what makes them happy or angry, as staff listen attentively to them, embedding their understanding of their own emotions.

Overall, children are able to manage some age-appropriate activities for themselves. For instance, staff work with parents to toilet train children in readiness for school. They praise children as they use the toilet and teach them the importance of handwashing during these routines. However, there are times when staff do not consider how they can further encourage children's independence. For example, they do not always support children to independently wipe their own noses. Furthermore, they do not capture opportunities to help babies learn to feed themselves using age-appropriate cutlery during shared mealtimes. Staff tend to lead these routines and do not consistently use these opportunities to further children's independence and physical development.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders and staff share a clear vision for children: to achieve, belong and thrive. Leaders have a strong understanding of their community and recognise the strengths and priorities for the babies and children in their care. They reflect carefully on their provision to ensure that decisions about improvement directly benefit all children. Parents speak highly of the setting. They comment on the high-quality care their children receive and value the advice and support offered. This helps them continue learning at home. Partnerships within the community, particularly with the local school, help shape children's readiness for school. For instance, children develop a love of books through the focus that leaders have on this area of their learning. Leaders recognise how this can help lay good foundations for future learning.

Leaders prioritise staff's wellbeing, ensuring that workloads are manageable and that staff feel valued and supported in their roles. Staff benefit from professional development that builds on their knowledge and skills. For example, they explain that leaders' mentoring enables them to put theories of child development into practice during daily routines.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

  • Leaders should enhance the mathematics curriculum by creating more opportunities for children to build their knowledge and understanding through play and everyday routines.
  • Leaders should support staff to implement precise learning intentions of activities more effectively so that children remain fully engaged in their learning.
  • Leaders should support staff to recognise when children are able to do things independently and understand how to help them build on and strengthen their independence skills.

Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 20 January 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Inspection history

  • 20 January 2026: Full inspection, report card: Expected standard in 6

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

  • Trilakes Nursery and Pre-school - Day nursery, Sandhurst GU47 8JQ, 57 places, 0.2 miles
  • Little Lodge Nursery - Day nursery, Yateley GU46 7UQ, 12 places, 0.7 miles
  • Potley Hill Community Pre-School - Day nursery, Yateley GU46 6AG, ages 2 to 4, 36 places, 0.9 miles
    Ofsted, 4 July 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Just Play Sports at Cranford Park - Day nursery, Yateley GU46 6LB, 0.9 miles
  • Yateley Community Pre-School - Day nursery, Yateley GU46 6LB, ages 2 to 4, 40 places, 0.9 miles
    Ofsted, 21 March 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective

Schools nearby

St Michaels Nursery & Preschool on the Ofsted website