Marston Ferry nursery in Oxford judged 'inadequate' by Ofsted - advice from parents?

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Hi,
We're planning on sending our DS (now 10 months) to this nursery, having really liked the look of it when we went to visit, but have just been passed their recent ofsted report, which downgrades them from 'good' (in 2012) to 'inadequate' and lists a series of quite worrying-sounding failings, particularly regarding babies. I don't know how much faith to have in Ofsted, and it's so hard to judge until he actually starts there. He's our first, so we don't have previous nursery experience to judge from. It would really help to have the views of others who may have children at the nursery or have friends who do. Any thoughts please? Thank you so much!

Generally I don't set a huge amount of store by Ofsted reports (especially as I hated a few 'outstanding' settings and absolutely adore a 'good' one and recommend it to everyone who asks) but having read the report for Ferry the specifics they bring up would have me running for the hills.

That said, sometimes a poor Ofsted outcome gives the staff a real shock and gives the impetus to improve very quickly... would you consider viewing again? Do you have other options in terms of geography/commuting/etc?

Hi - replied on the Nurseries board too but will also respond here too.

We visited this nursery a few months ago and immediately ruled it out as an option. We saw first hand many of the issues highlighted by Ofsted in their report (with the benefit of drawing comparisons with our eldest's previous nursery, which was outstanding).

As per the above, why not visit in a couple of months and make your mind up - it wouldn't be the first time that a terrible report has shocked a nursery into having a complete turnaround.

Thanks both for very helpful replies! (Hedges78, I replied on the other thread too.) We're in Marston and really want something close to home, so we're a bit stuck. We're going to look at the nurseries at the JR but it's still a bit far to walk, up a big hill if cycling, and traffic round there is terrible so even driving or bus would not be ideal. Same issues apply to headington. Tricky! Thanks again for your help.

Have you considered a childminder, if you can find someone with a space that is! We did a mixture of nursery and childminder for our first and she definitely preferred the home setting. We visited that nursery years ago and weren't impressed then.