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Venture Dartington

Venture Dartington is a pre-school in Totnes for children aged 2 to 4, with 28 registered places. Ofsted report card, 5 May 2026: Strong standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.

The Dartington Hall Trust, Warren Lane, Totnes, TQ9 6EE

Key facts

Type
Pre-school (Sessional day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Ages
2 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered places
28 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
22 July 2024 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 09:00 - 15:00

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 5 May 2026

Who runs it

Venture Dartington is run by Venture Outdoor Kindergarten Partnership (Ofsted register).

Latest inspection

  • Inclusion: Strong standard
  • Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
  • Achievement: Strong standard
  • Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
  • Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
  • Leadership and governance: Strong standard
  • Safeguarding standards met

Source: Ofsted, inspection on 5 May 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 show a real sense of belonging. They arrive excited for the day ahead and separate well from parents and carers. Children are greeted warmly by staff. Children independently store their belongings and enjoy breakfast together, chatting about their weekend adventures. Children then engage in activities of their choosing. They enjoy revisiting and building on prior experiences. For example, when children arrive, they immediately return to mixing mud cakes that they started the last time they were in the setting. They play with focus and purpose, confidently asking each other questions, such as 'would you like any petals for the cake?' They play collaboratively, demonstrating negotiating skills far beyond that expected as they ask 'please can you gather more ingredients together'. Children show such confidence in their environment. Children are kind and caring of each other. They share and take turns without adult support. Children have formed positive relationships with staff. The curriculum that children experience is rich and varied and builds on what they already know and can do.

Children have strong bonds with their key persons, and staff know all children well. Staff understand children's characters and interests and help their wellbeing thrive. Children show high levels of independence in their play, only seeking support when they need it. Children benefit from frequent interactions that extend children's knowledge and understanding. All children make progress from their starting points and enjoy activities that prioritise developing their communication skills, physical development and social skills. Children develop balance and coordination as they travel along trails. They construct dens and climb branches, hiding from imagined enemies. Children experience an environment that is full of language. For example, younger children who are new to the setting enjoy quietly observing play while staff support their confidence and familiarity with routines to develop. Older children enjoy constructing stick dens. They persevere as they solve a problem of not being able to enter the den with no entrance. Children's communication and language skills are impressive. They instruct each other, saying, 'First take some small sticks off. Now let's look carefully at the big sticks so we can see which ones to take away and not make it fall.' They cheer when they achieve their goal.

Children thrive. They clearly feel safe and secure. Staff form effective working relationships with families that build consistency in care and help all children make rapid progress. Staff promote children's attendance. When children are absent, staff are swift to communicate with parents and support children's return to kindergarten.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff prioritise inclusion. Staff help every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or barriers to learning, to thrive from the very beginning. They form strong bonds with children, and children clearly feel happy, safe and secure in their care. Leaders and staff work in partnership with parents and carers to gather important information about each child before they start. This best supports staff to effectively meet children's individual needs from their first day. Parents feel that staff trust and respect their views and observations of children's needs. This helps regular communication between parents and staff to best support children's learning and development.

The setting works with external agencies to provide tailored assessments and support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, those known to social care and looked-after children. This helps children and families to receive the right support at the right time. For example, staff provide targeted interactions for children with speech and language delays. This develops children's confidence and skills.

Leaders and staff understand the importance of sharing information with parents to help everyone provide support for children that meets their individual needs and helps them thrive. They recognise the importance of strong partnerships to support the needs of all children, including those with SEND, those who are disadvantaged or where there are barriers to wellbeing. They are flexible with their approach to supporting families. For example, leaders adapt settling-in sessions to meet children's needs. Some children visit once and begin attending and others have a much longer period, building up the length and frequency they visit to build familiarity and self-confidence. This enables staff to build bonds with children and gather information they need to enable them to best promote children's welfare and wellbeing. This helps children to quickly settle at the setting, feel confident with staff and feel safe and ready to learn. Parents greatly value the learning experiences and care that their children receive and feel that their children thrive.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders provide children with a curriculum that is ambitious, inclusive and builds on what they already know and can do. Staff know children's interests, characters and needs well and use this knowledge to provide children with learning experiences and activities that motivate and engage them. Staff interactions are frequent and consistently support children's knowledge, skills and understanding to develop. Leaders prioritise building a staff team that is highly knowledgeable and reflective, sharing ideas and thoughts with each other every day. This supports staff to provide children with consistently high-quality teaching.

Staff promote children's communication and language skills through every interaction. Interactions are considered, purposeful and build on children's next steps in learning. Staff consistently model and use new vocabulary. For example, as staff share a story about emotions, children develop an awareness of it feels when you find a place where you feel a sense of belonging. Staff speak with children about the different-shaped flags in the story and the flags that they have at the setting. Children declare 'our flags are square not triangle'. Staff teach children about unfamiliar shapes, such as hexagons. They ask children questions about the shape properties and children enjoy counting the edges together.

Staff use stories to teach children about different emotions. For example, they think out loud, commenting, 'All the others have a smile on their face. She does not. I wonder why not? I think she is sad, anxious, and worried.'

Achievement: Strong standard

Children consistently achieve well from their starting points. They develop the confidence, independence and skills to prepare them superbly for their next stage in learning. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make rapid progress. Children demonstrate high levels of self-belief and determination. These positive attitudes help children to develop resilience and perseverance to approach new challenges and experiences with confidence and a will to succeed.

Children show such joy in learning. Children's listening skills flourish as they follow instructions carefully as part of everyday activities. For example, children relish the chance to run down a grassy slope. Children receive clear instruction from staff and follow it well. They wait at the top of the hill until they receive the signal to run. Children laugh excitedly as they descend the hill. They show care for their friends as they run carefully, not bumping into friends, as instructed.

Children are skilful and confident communicators. They happily share their thoughts, feelings and needs, and staff are swift to support them. Children show superb social skills. They interact well with others and develop strong bonds with friends and staff. They take turns and share without adult support.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

The setting promotes positive behaviour through clear and consistent routines that help all children to feel secure and confident. Staff know children well and use this knowledge to adapt routines, where needed, so they are inclusive. This ensures that all children can engage in activities and experiences fully and safely. Children relish choosing their own activities for much of the day. This promotes high levels of engagement and focus. All children show positive behaviours as they play and learn. The learning environment is carefully planned to provide children with activities and spaces that are varied and inviting.

The environment supports children to manage their own behaviour and choose activities that develop their interests. For example, children who prefer a quieter start to their day enjoy looking at story books together or smelling the aroma of plants growing in the sensory garden. Staff carefully monitor children's attendance and provide a support call to parents when children are absent, to check on safety, wellbeing and possible return. Children thoroughly enjoy attending. They respond positively to the well-established routines, activities and behaviour expectations and show real ownership and pride in their play.

Staff support children to develop skills that help them to manage risks for themselves. Staff revise safety strategies with children. This is clearly a well-embedded part of each day, and children show such knowledge about each aspect of safety and how to care for their own and others' safety. For example, when children see a red flag image, they tell staff that red flags mean they must not go past or they may get lost. Staff challenge children to understand the rationale behind safety measures by asking questions, such as 'What would you do if you saw a child going past the red flags?' Children respond, 'Tell them to stop. It is not safe.'

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders focus on supporting children's welfare and wellbeing to thrive. They create a nurturing environment where children's physical and emotional needs are prioritised. Staff follow well-established routines. These help children to feel safe, secure and confident. Staff know children exceedingly well. They use this knowledge to provide an inclusive environment. Staff are responsive to children's needs and assist, reassure and comfort them as needed. Staff help children to identify and manage their feelings in a positive way.

Positive behaviour and attitudes to learning are developed. Staff speak with children about what they are doing well and why. They explore how their actions and choices make their friends feel. Staff help children to develop a sense of belonging. Children show pride in their environment as they show visitors their den and the mint growing in their sensory garden. Staff establish routines for handwashing, toileting and snack times that promote hygiene and independence. Staff fully support toilet training at any point in the day, as they recognise that this is a core skill that children need help to master. For example, as children enjoy a walk through the country estate and need the toilet, staff erect a tent and help children to use a portable toilet and then dissemble the tent and continue the walk.

Staff promote children's wellbeing to flourish. Children enjoy quiet moments of mindfulness at snack time. Staff model enjoyment in such moments and narrate how it helps their body and mind to relax. Staff encourage children to have healthy lunches. They also take opportunities to discuss healthy choices with children, supporting their understanding of their wellbeing further. The kindergarten's values are embedded throughout daily practice. Staff interactions consistently support children to thrive. As a result, children feel cared for and respected. They develop confidence in managing their own wellbeing.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leadership is strategic and supports staff to provide high-quality learning and development opportunities that are sequenced and build well on what children already know and can do. Leaders listen to staff views and support and guide staff to best manage their workload and promote wellbeing. Leaders provide coaching and mentoring for staff to be confident in their roles. Staff receive inductions and supervision that best support them to help children's development blossom.

Leaders have a clear vision for their curriculum. They prioritise providing children with time to surround themselves in nature. Children develop high levels of curiosity. Leaders focus on providing learning experiences that celebrate the joy of nature and develop children's problem-solving skills. Leaders and staff constantly reflect on their provision and adapt the curriculum experiences for children to best meet needs. Leaders provide training that helps staff to implement the curriculum well and promote achievement. Leaders know what are the strengths of their provision and what aspects of the provision they are prioritising to develop further. For example, providing children with resources that they can independently access to extend their play is being introduced now. This is to further promote children's ability to make choices in their learning.

Leaders have established robust monitoring procedures to ensure that the physical environment is safe for play. They carry out daily reviews of the site before children arrive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

  • Leaders should ensure continued improvement in the setting's successful work to remove barriers for children who need extra help, to realise a transformational impact on all children's achievement and wellbeing.

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

Inspection history

  • 5 May 2026: Full inspection, report card: Strong standard in 6
  • 5 November 2024: Actions after a concern (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

  • Humpty Dumpty Childcare - Day nursery, Totnes TQ9 6JZ, ages 1 to 4, 67 places, 1.0 miles
    Ofsted, 15 February 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Wild Embers Nature Based Sessions - Pre-school, Devon TQ9 6JH, 1.2 miles
  • Rainbow Nursery - Day nursery, Totnes TQ9 5RP, ages 0 to 4, 56 places, 1.5 miles
    Ofsted, 8 January 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Daisy Preschool - Pre-school, Totnes TQ9 5TZ, ages 2 to 4, 36 places, 1.8 miles
    Ofsted, 27 January 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective

Schools nearby

Venture Dartington on the Ofsted website