Tops Salisbury
Tops Salisbury is a day nursery in Salisbury for children aged 1 to 4, with 104 registered places. Ofsted report card, 8 September 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.
Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury, SP2 8BJ
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 1 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 104 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 9 June 2017 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 06:30 - 18:30
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 8 September 2026
Who runs it
Tops Salisbury is run by Tops Day Nursery 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 8 September 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 arrive happily to this warm and friendly setting. They benefit from positive relationships with staff, who typically know them, and they attend regularly. Children develop a love of learning. They show their excitement in their experiences, such as squealing with joy when staff squirt new paint colours into their trays. Children learn to care for the world around them. For instance, they work together to collect eggs from their pet chickens and to care for them. They are taught about how to understand and protect the environment, such as recycling the paper that they use and turning food waste into compost.
Children become increasingly confident explorers as they move through the nursery. During their time in the baby room, they build secure relationships and investigate the space around them from this safe base. As they get older, they use their senses to explore, such as by smelling basil in their potions. Pre-school children excitedly find footprints in their garden area and work with staff to identify where they came from and what they might mean. These experiences develop their confidence and sense of enquiry. Typically, children develop their communication skills as they progress through the setting, although they do sometimes struggle to make themselves heard when rooms become noisy.
Children benefit from a wide range of additional activities, such as yoga, music and movement and swimming sessions in the local leisure centre. These sessions help children to develop their physical skills and broaden their experience base. They also further support busy working parents. Children enjoy spending time in the lending library. This is provided to support parents in spending time reading with their children before sessions begin. This helps to develop a cohesive love of books, which runs throughout the provision in the nursery.
Children develop a sense of belonging and community. For example, they help to lay the table in pre-school by passing all their peers a cup. They also learn about their role in the wider community, such as through their visits to the local care home for initiatives, such as yoga on national fitness day, and through their partnership with a local theatre.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Expected standard
Leaders ensure that children's needs are typically identified swiftly. They work closely with parents to collect information about children on entry. They are conscious of children's home lives and the impact that this may have on their experiences, such as if having a long journey to the setting. Leaders have a clear understanding of their community and the children within it, and they use this knowledge to inform the provision. This includes clear oversight for children who are known to children's services.
Staff make use of careful adaptations to offer extra support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities where needed. For example, they use a range of visual images on lanyards to support children with communicating their needs and understanding expectations. Where children require more specialist support, staff work closely with wider services to tailor their approach, such as by assessing and changing the environment to help children's physical needs. Staff do not always ensure that they make effective use of their knowledge of children's home languages when helping them to settle into the setting. Although they identify when children speak additional languages, they do not use key words from those languages to help children understand. This means that these children do not always settle quickly.
Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
Leaders have recently made changes to the curriculum. They have ensured that there is a cohesive curriculum in place that covers all areas of learning and is fully inclusive. This is typically well understood and delivered by staff. Staff focus on developing the children's curiosity and independence. For instance, they encourage children to try new things and to explore what they find. Leaders prioritise children's engagement and understanding of nature. For example, they teach children about their role in our world and the importance of sustainability. Staff typically weave mathematical understanding through the curriculum and daily activities. For instance, they help children to count out the correct number of orange segments to put on a plate.
Children develop a real love of books. They regularly choose books and pass them to staff to share. Staff read to them with enthusiasm and children mirror this, pointing out the things that they notice with joy. Children's communication skills develop as they relate their experiences to things they see in books, such as talking about trips on a train. However, at times staff do not respond quickly enough to potential barriers to communication. For instance, noise levels in rooms become too high and prevent children from being heard. This means that some children's communication skills develop more slowly.
Achievement: Expected standard
Children typically develop age-appropriate skills across the curriculum. For example, babies develop their core strength and physical skills as they are encouraged to practise walking with more control and balance. Their confidence flourishes because they enjoy secure relationships with staff and they regularly try new things. Children grow in independence. For instance, they pour their own drinks and serve their own lunch. They also help each other, such as by setting out plates and glasses for each other, developing an understanding of their role as an important member of their community.
Children benefit from carefully planned changes. For instance, they visit older rooms before they move up and move alongside peers, where possible, so that they can make a confident move. This further builds their confidence. Children are also well prepared for the move to school as they learn to increasingly meet their own needs and express their own thoughts and feelings.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
Leaders have ensured that there is now a culture of high expectations for behaviour across the setting. Typically, staff support children to understand these behavioural expectations. For example, they remind them to point their spray bottles down when playing with water so as not to get their peers wet. Leaders' recent work in this area has been effective and staff are generally consistent and clear about what they need to see from children. As a result, children understand what is expected from them. Staff act as effective role models and children benefit from lots of embedded positive praise to reinforce their choices. Children learn to be kind to each other and to share. For instance, they take turns to use tools to scoop sand and water.
Staff use visual prompts on lanyards to help younger children to understand upcoming routines, such as nappy changing time. This ensures that all children can develop their knowledge of the routines and expectations. Generally, children are starting to build familiarity with the daily routines in the setting. Leaders work closely with families to help them to understand the importance of regular attendance. Where necessary they adapt sessions to ensure that families can attend well.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
Leaders have ensured that staff are generally attentive in meeting children's care needs. For instance, they change children's clothes if they become wet. Staff build effective relationships with all children and understand their individual needs. Children typically learn to keep themselves safe. For example, they know to finish their mouthful before they leave the table. Children learn to eat an increasingly healthy diet. Raw vegetables, such as carrots and peppers, are served before the main meal and children happily help themselves to these. This develops children's understanding of healthy eating. Children develop other healthy habits, such as learning to brush their teeth. Staff use songs to reinforce these daily expectations so that children remember and can repeat at home. This builds these positive long-term habits. Children sleep safely and are well supervised while they rest. Staff complete regular checks on all children throughout their sleep. Staff collect comprehensive information about children's weaning journeys and ensure that they provide suitable food.
Although children are generally well supervised, at times staff do not communicate well enough with each other to ensure that they are always suitably positioned. This can result in moments where they do not check who has full oversight of all children. This means that some children do not receive consistent support to understand risks. Leaders have identified this and are working to strengthen staff communication.
Leadership and governance: Expected standard
Leaders have a clear understanding of their local community. Leaders have ensured that they offer flexible sessions to support the shift work of the high proportion of their families who work in the on-site hospital. They adapt their offering to meet the needs of their parents. For example, they offer weekly swimming lessons for older children. Leaders have developed initiatives that further support parents. For instance, a lending library at the nursery entrance is regularly used by parents to settle their children into their day. Leaders work towards ongoing improvement. For instance, their recent work on behaviour management has led to effective change in that area. They are conscious of the need to develop staff communication over deployment and support for all children's communication. Leaders are currently developing a focused system to support children further in preparing for school. Leaders work to mirror the ethos that they embed for children in their own conduct, such as taking part in a national litter pick to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.
Staff typically receive the training and support that they need to develop their practice. Leaders are conscious of their workload and ensure that they liaise regularly with all staff to help ease pressures where possible. Leaders ensure that partnerships with parents are effective. Parents value the flexibility in sessions, but also the wider experiences that their children gain from attending the nursery. For instance, they recognise the development in their children's social skills as they learn to get along with other children. They feel that the staff know their children really well and genuinely care about them.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders should support staff to communicate effectively to deploy themselves effectively at all times.
- Leaders should strengthen staff practice in identifying and reducing barriers to children's communication.
- Leaders should strengthen staff understanding and use of children's home languages to support children's communication, settling and transitions.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 8 September 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history
- 27 April 2026: Actions after a concern (report)
- 6 December 2024: Full inspection, Good (report)
- 25 July 2024: Actions after a concern (report)
- 5 July 2024: Full inspection, Inadequate (report)
- 9 January 2024: Actions after a complaint (report)
- 12 October 2023: Actions after a concern (report)
- 25 August 2021: Full inspection, Good (report)
- 7 January 2020: Inspection (report)
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
- Kindred Odstock - Day nursery, Salisbury SP5 4JA, ages 0 to 4, 60 places, 0.7 milesOfsted, 15 August 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- John McNeill Opportunity Centre - Pre-school, Salisbury SP2 8BG, ages 1 to 5, 62 places, 0.9 milesOfsted, 4 May 2022: Outstanding overall; safeguarding is effective
- Melrose Nursery - Day nursery, Salisbury SP2 8AN, ages 0 to 4, 64 places, 0.9 milesOfsted, 6 August 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- St. Osmund's Preschool - Day nursery, Salisbury SP1 2SG, ages 2 to 11, 104 places, 1.3 milesOfsted, 17 March 2022: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Puddleducks Pre-school Salisbury - Pre-school, Salisbury SP2 8JZ, ages 2 to 4, 57 places, 1.3 milesOfsted, 16 May 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
Schools nearby
- Longford Church of England Primary School - Primary, 0.7 miles
- Harnham Infants' School - Primary, 1.3 miles
- Harnham Church of England Controlled Junior School - Primary, 1.3 miles