Oxford university nursery in Woodstock

[Lcats]

Hi,

We are moving to Oxford from overseas to work in the university, and were just offered a place in the nursery in Woodstock (I think I got a sponsored place -wasn't expecting that at all as previously they told me that the waiting period is 2 years). It sounds like it will save us a lot of money compared to the nursery we planned on sending our child to (Little Troopers). However I cannot find any reviews and know no one with a child in this nursery. That is except the Ofsted report which is the usual generic "good".

Perhaps someone on this site has heard something about the nursery in Woodstock? I researched the nurseries here a few months ago and some old topics were reallly helpful...

Do you mean the one on Woodstock Road (afaik there isn't a university one in Woodstock village)? If so I know two people who send their kids there and both are very happy with it. We also did a tour of it about this time last year and thought it looked good - nice premises, staff seemed friendly, seemed to have a good atmosphere).

Thanks for the answer! Yes, of course I meant the nursery on Woodstock Road, it just somehow morphed into "in Woodstock" in my head. It is reassuring to hear that you liked it, since I already accepted the placement anyway.

My chief concern is that the nursery is large and I am afraid that my son (who will be 3 come September) might feel overwhelmed there. He is currently attending a nursery with 25 other children and lots of individual attention from his caregivers. I guess what I am afraid of is that the university nursery is kind of a big place where all the children roam together :) He was in just such setting before transferring to his current nursery and he just withdrew into himself.

If you don't mind me asking, which nursery did you eventually choose?

I too have a friend who's very happy with it.

Most nurseries in Oxford are big - I went to view DD's preschool yesterday for her starting in September and there seemed to be millions of kids! The transition from 0-3 to 3-5 feels like a big leap but the staff take the settling in process very seriously.

DD goes to Roundabout Centre at the moment but transfers to Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School in September. I'm not university though and work in East Oxford.

It is big but they have lots of different rooms separated by age so there aren't actually that many kids in each room. Some of the smaller nurseries group the kids together more (we went round a really small nursery where they basically just had 1 big room).

We ended up moving house and Woodstock Rd would have been pretty inconvenient (whereas previously it was just round the corner) so we went for Jack Straw's Lane in the end.

By the way, did you know that if you accept a place but prefer a different nursery, you can still stay on the waiting list for your preferred nursery? So when you get to Oxford you can do tours of the other nurseries and if your son isn't happy you haven't lost the option to move him.