Ham Drive Nursery School and Day Care

About Ham Drive Nursery School and Day Care

Ham Drive Nursery School and Day Care is one of only two state-funded nursery schools in Plymouth, and its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024 judged it Good overall, with Good ratings for early years provision, leadership and management, and the quality of education. That puts it in a strong position locally: the other nursery in the authority also holds a Good rating, meaning neither school in the city has yet reached Outstanding. For parents of children aged 0-5, this consistency across the board is reassuring, especially given that the school has held a Good rating across both its recent inspections — the previous graded inspection in 2015 also awarded Good overall, with the same score of 2 for early years provision. The school’s headteacher, Caroline Watts, leads a setting that serves 95 children, and the ungraded inspection in March 2024 confirmed the school remains Good, so there is no sign of slippage.

Because Ham Drive is a nursery school rather than a primary, there are no Key Stage 2 SATs or Progress 8 scores to compare against the Plymouth LA average. Instead, the most meaningful academic measure is the Ofsted judgement for early years provision, which is Good. The school’s Ofsted report from 2015 noted that children make good progress from their starting points, and the 2024 ungraded inspection found that the school continues to provide a good standard of education. For a nursery, the focus is on early communication, social skills, and school readiness, and the data shows Ham Drive is meeting that brief. The school also has dedicated SEND provisions for social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication difficulties, and other disabilities, which suggests it is well equipped to support children who need extra help before they start Reception.

The school’s facilities are unusually generous for a nursery: it has a library, music rooms, art studios, a dining hall, a forest school area, and even a chapel. Sports on offer include gymnastics, dance and swimming, and there is a gardening club. These extras give children a broad range of early experiences that many nurseries cannot provide. The school is oversubscribed? The data does not say, but with only 95 places and just two state nurseries in the whole of Plymouth, demand is likely to be high. Ham Drive suits families who want a state-funded nursery with a strong Ofsted record, a wide range of facilities, and clear SEND support, all within a setting that feels more like a small school than a typical day care. For parents in Plymouth looking for a nursery that offers forest school and swimming alongside solid early years teaching, this is a strong contender.

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