Oxhill Nursery School
Oxhill, Stanley, DH9 7LROpen in maps (opens in a new tab)
Oxhill Nursery School is a nursery school in Stanley for ages 2 to 4. It is one of the 271 schools in County Durham. Its latest Ofsted inspection, in July 2025, graded each key judgement and gave no overall Ofsted rating.
Ofsted inspection
Inspected 1 July 2025, report published 18 September 2025
This inspection graded each key judgement and gave no overall effectiveness grade.
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Safeguarding
- Met
What Ofsted said
From the inspection on 1 July 2025
Oxhill Nursery School is a wonderful place for children to begin their journey of education. Children are happy here. Staff are kind and caring. They take time to get to know the children in their care and use this knowledge to make learning meaningful and fun. The school is very ambitious for the children. It promotes independence from the earliest days in the school. Staff provide high-quality learning opportunities that excite and encourage children to explore their own ideas. Staff support them to do this through careful modelling and positive encouragement. The positive relationships that are formed help children to thrive here and feel safe and secure. The personal, social and emotional development (PSED) of the children is at the centre of the curriculum. Staff model positive interactions to support children to learn how to interact with each other. This results in highly positive behaviours. Children learn and play happily alongside each other. The school has been on a significant journey of improvement since the last inspection. The leadership team has been extended, and there is a distributed leadership system securely in place. This team have worked, with the support of governors, to introduce new practices and policies that have improved the quality of education swiftly.
What the school should improve
- The school has not identified how leaders at all levels will systematically check the impact of the measures they are taking to improve the school. As a result, while they have oversight of the improvements, they do not have a precise view of the impact of their actions on the provision. The school should ensure that effective systems are introduced to support further improvement.
- The school does not provide sufficient opportunity for children to develop curiosity or interest about the diversity of the world beyond the school community. This means that children do not begin to build knowledge and understanding about communities in modern-day Britain that are different to their own. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides meaningful experiences for children to appreciate the diversity of British society.
Pupil numbers and mix
109 pupils on roll
Schools near Oxhill Nursery School
| School | Distance | Ofsted |
|---|---|---|
| Beechdale Nursery School | 5 miles | Ofsted: Outstanding |
| Oxclose Nursery School | 7 miles | Report card: Expected standard |
| Bensham Grove Nursery School | 7 miles | Ofsted: Outstanding |
| Gateshead Jewish Nursery School | 7 miles | Ofsted: Requires improvement |
| Ashfield Nursery School | 8 miles | Ofsted: Good |
School details
- School type
- Local authority nursery school
- Sector
- Local authority maintained
- Age range
- 2 to 4
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Miss Julia Watson
- Phone
- 01207232266
- Address
- Oxhill, Stanley, DH9 7LR
- Local authority
- County Durham
- URN
- 113970
School details from Get Information about Schools, 17 September 2026. Ofsted outcomes published to 31 August 2026. Pupil mix from the school census, 2025/26.