The Orchard
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Oxford for from 2 years up to school age, open 09:00 to 14:45, 5 days a week. £7.15 a session, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in November 2022. Open since 2000, with 24 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Term time only, 38 weeks a year, price list dated Autumn Term (after summer holidays) 2026.
| Age | Session | |
|---|---|---|
| All ages | £7.15Lunch club £21.75Afternoon or Morning, 3 hrs |
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £4.00 a session Breakfast clubbooked in advance for the forthcoming half term, includes a healthy breakfast
Funded hours
Free early education funding for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.
Worth knowing. Breakfast club cannot be included in your funded hours.
What childcare usually costs in Oxfordshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Oxfordshire from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
OX44 7PZWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
Ofsted inspector, 21 November 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children settle quickly and eagerly start to play as soon as they arrive at the preschool. The pre-school provides a colourful, stimulating and motivating learning environment for children to learn and develop. Children from a young age are encouraged to develop a real interest in books. Staff make books available for children to take home and enjoy with their family, cultivating children's early love of reading.
Children benefit greatly from the close attention they receive from staff. They talk constantly to children and listen carefully to what children have to say. Children become competent at preparing fruit for their snack. They use knives with care, placing the fruit on large plates. Children pour their own drinks and use small tongs to help themselves to fruit.
Staff have high expectations for children and provide activities that build on what they can already do. Children use their hand-to-eye coordination and small muscles well. This is evident, as children use brushes to paint or try to pick up large dinosaurs with tongs. Children enjoy pretend play in the imaginative kitchen area.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- develop the sharing of information about children's care and learning with other settings that children attend, to strengthen the consistency in the support children receive n provide frequent and varied opportunities to improve opportunities for children to gain a deep understanding of numbers and other mathematical concepts, to support their overall development.
- 21 November 2022Good
- 15 March 2017Good
- 9 February 2015Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for The Orchard
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- Is £7.15 a session still the rate? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Do you have a place for a child of my age now? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.