Food
The nursery has a fully equipped kitchen for heating meals and storing packed lunches. Children also plant and harvest vegetables and fruit from the nursery's garden.
Dysart Nursery
Ofsted: Strong standard·
4.4(7 Google reviews)
·1 Dysart Avenue, Drayton, Portsmouth, PO6 2LY · Portsmouth
Number of places
42 places
Age range
1–4 yrs
Last inspected
Jun 2026
Local authority
Portsmouth
About this day nursery
Dysart Nursery, established in September 2002 in Drayton, has cultivated a strong local reputation for delivering exceptional childcare and education. The day nursery is designed with spacious, bright playrooms that facilitate role play, messy and creative activities.
Children benefit from a secure outdoor area featuring a vegetable patch and fruit trees, encouraging hands-on harvesting. Facilities also include a fully equipped kitchen for meal preparation and packed lunches, alongside a dedicated sleep room for naps.
The day nursery prioritises the welfare, learning, and development of every child, ensuring all are actively involved in daily activities. With a team of appropriately qualified early years staff who receive continuous training, Dysart Nursery aims to provide optimal care and education.
It maintains strong connections with local schools, the Health Visiting Team, and Portage, collaboratively working to enhance early years education and support families within the community. Parents are encouraged to track their child’s learning through displayed photographs and artwork, and the nursery hosts parent evenings three times a year, alongside opportunities for parents to participate in play sessions.
Monthly newsletters provide further information about nursery life, and staff are always available to discuss any queries.
Our ethos
Our aim is to actively promote your child’s welfare, learning and development. We do this by ensuring that all children are included in everything we do. At Dysart Nursery we believe the foundation for healthy eating begins by teaching children where food comes from and which foods are healthy and un-healthy.
What it's like
Children arrive happily at the setting and excitedly join in with the activities on offer, welcomed by enthusiastic staff. They engage fully in welcome sessions, with babies choosing characters from a 'tap tap' box and older children self-registering and joining counting exercises. Children show great enjoyment and a sense of belonging, feeling happy, safe, and secure. They are confident and independent, relishing opportunities both inside and outside, accessing an enabling environment that covers all areas of development, and thriving in the provision.
Established 2002Secure Outdoor Area with Vegetable PatchQualified StaffStrong Community LinksParent Involvement
Pricing & funding
Pricing on request
This nursery doesn't publish its fees online. Contact them directly for an up-to-date price list and availability.
Request pricing →Key facts
Opening hours
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 07:30 - 18:00
Registered with Ofsted
2024
Ofsted Inspection — new report card
Strong standard
Last inspected Jun 2026
Grade summary
Exceptional
—
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
—
Urgent improvement
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Each dot represents one of the six inspection categories. Headline is the average of the six grades, rounded up.
Category grades
AchievementExpected standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routinesStrong standard
Children's welfare and wellbeingStrong standard
Curriculum and teachingExpected standard
InclusionStrong standard
Leadership and governanceStrong standard
Age range
1 to 4
Registers
Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register
Ofsted Inspection
Ofsted report for Dysart Nursery
Last inspected 11 June 2026
What it's like to attend
Children arrive happily at the setting and excitedly join in with the activities on offer, welcomed by enthusiastic staff. They engage fully in welcome sessions, with babies choosing characters from a 'tap tap' box and older children self-registering and joining counting exercises. Children show great enjoyment and a sense of belonging, feeling happy, safe, and secure. They are confident and independent, relishing opportunities both inside and outside, accessing an enabling environment that covers all areas of development, and thriving in the provision.
Inspector highlights
- Children behave exceptionally well and follow routines with ease, showing high levels of focus and attention.
- Staff have built warm and trusting relationships with children and parents, supported by a key-person system.
- Leaders prioritise children's welfare and wellbeing, continuously reviewing and adapting policies to meet ongoing changes.
- The setting maintains a highly inclusive culture, with staff monitoring development to identify needs quickly and accurately.
- Leaders and staff have positive relationships with parents, arranging events and meetings and giving regular feedback.
- Children arrive happily and excitedly, engaging in activities and showing enjoyment and a sense of belonging.
- Children are confident and independent, relishing opportunities both inside and outside.
- Leaders provide an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum, ensuring all children achieve and feel valued.
Areas to develop
- 1Leaders should continue to work with staff so they are consistently clear about the purpose and learning focus of the activities, so that opportunities to build children's knowledge and understanding are maximised.
- 2Children could achieve even more in their learning and development by ensuring staff consistently expand on children's learning.
Source: OfstedView full Ofsted report
Inclusion & environment
How they support every child
SEND provision
Leaders support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively, with staff accessing relevant training and making skilful adaptations. Funding is used to provide appropriate resources, such as larger equipment and a sensory tent, ensuring children with SEND are happy, enjoy their experiences, and consistently meet their small, achievable targets.
Outdoor space
Children get regular access to outdoors and opportunities to be physically active. They relish the opportunities on offer both inside and outside, happily going outdoors in all weathers to access the enabling environment, which covers all areas of development.
Google Reviews of Dysart Nursery
4.4
(7 Google reviews)
Layne Gray
10 years ago
My son has attended this amazing nursery for the past 2 years. His development has been outstanding and the staff has been so supportive and passionate about his developmental progress. The nursery has just undergone a refit so I can only imagine that is what the negative woman below was bleating on about. Whenever you enter the day centre the children are so happy, that is clear to see. Now, with all the new additional features in the nursery there is so much to do. The staff are such warm, friendly individuals I never had any doubt about this nursery or looked anywhere else after my first visit. Thank you Dysart xx
Read on Google
Fiona Hebben
10 years ago
My son has been at Dysart Nursery for 2 years now and my daughter is about to start. I chose this nursery as it is nice and small with a lovely family atmosphere. All the staff are kind and friendly and look after the children well. Much nicer than the larger nursery's.
Read on Google
Desislava Andreeva
10 years ago
I`m very pleased with the service that Dysart nursery offers to my family. The manager Samia Mcminn & staff are very helpful, friendly and supportive. They`ve always been happy to answer all my questions, book additional sessions and do changes in schedule. All my three children have settled down really quick and are happy to attend every session. In my opinion this is the best little nursery in local area where kids entertain, socialize and prepare themselves for school. I`ve recommended it to my friends and they find it a good place for their children as well.
Read on Google
John-Cortin Fernandez
13 years ago
My son has been going to the nursery for the last 5 months and in the beginning, he was very attached to us and would bring the world down when we dropped him off. The staff were kind and understanding, they worked with us and have managed to get him settled in very well. Keep up the good work guys..
Read on Google
Peter Huskinson
a year ago
My grandson appears to love going to Dysart Nursery. His speech and vocabulary have improved over the last few months. Impressive.
Read on GoogleReviews from Google for Dysart Nursery. See all on Google Maps
Inspection history
Most recent inspection
11 June 2026
Only one graded inspection on record — a trend chart will appear here once a second graded report is published.
View full Ofsted reportFrequently asked about Dysart Nursery
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