Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford)

Old Road, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford OX3 7JU
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9.9 223 Reviews
  • Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford), Oxford
Julia Durbin Day Nursery is located within the grounds of Churchill Hospital and caters for children both in the local community and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust.

Homely surroundings and a thoroughly resourced facility allows the nursery's highly trained practitioners to achieve high standards of early years education across the age ranges.

Parent partnerships are promoted and developed whilst long opening hours and a fully inclusive package offer a convenient service to busy families.
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Funding & Fees

Contact Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) to get a personalised quote.

Contact Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) to get a personalised quote.

Type of Service

  • Day Nursery
  • Open all year
  • Full Day Care
  • Sessional Day Care

Group/Owner

Person in Charge

  • Emma Wallbridge (Manager)

Number of Childcare Staff

  • 54

Total Places for Children

  • 164

Age Range

  • from 0 years 2 months
  • to 5 years 0 months

Opening Times

  • Monday 07:00-18:30
    Tuesday 07:00-18:30
    Wednesday 07:00-18:30
    Thursday 07:00-18:30
    Friday 07:00-18:30

When Closed

  • Bank Holidays & Inset Days

Parking

  • Free parking is available onsite.

Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) Reviews (223)

9.9

Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) has a Review Score of 9.9 (9.911) out of 10, based on 48 reviews in the last 2 years.
Over all time Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) has 223 reviews.

Overall Experience
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Date Published
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Reviewer Connection to Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford)
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Total of 223, showing 141-160
Review from Diana B (Mother of Child) published on 17 April 2019 Submitted via Postal Card • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Our daughter joined Julia Durbin Nursery when she was 18 months and settled in very quickly first into Ladybirds and then into Butterflies. My husband and I were really impressed by the outdoor area when we first visited the nursery and still believe it is what our child enjoyed the most. She also loved
the range of activities the staff organised on a daily basis and all the nutritious meals the chef prepared for the children who moved from Ladybirds to Butterflies. Thank you for all you've done for her!
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Review from Anne W (Mother of Child) published on 5 April 2019 Submitted via Postal Card • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
My daughter had the best experience at Caterpillars. All staff responsible for this room were extremely helpful and very kind with her. I would definitely recommend Julia Durbin as a nursery for parents who are nervous to leave their baby/child as I felt like I could trust everyone and my daughter was
in really good hands.
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Review from Lou C (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
We’ve been using Julia Durbin since May 2015 and highly recommend this nursery. There are many things that make it a great nursery but, for me, it’s the staff that make it such a great place. Each child who has attended/attending, has not just enjoyed going (barely stopping to say goodbye at drop-off!)
but has come to love the people who have not just looked after them but really cared for them. The garden is a huge plus, being a deciding factor for us, and we love receiving updates/photos via the online app. Any issues I have raised with staff have been resolved swiftly and professionally. While slightly more expensive than some nurseries in the area, this is definitely outweighed by the many positives. When my eldest son’s school was closed due to snow recently, the nursery was open; just one example of their exemplary professionalism and the effort they put into making this a great nursery. When we want our twins to start nursery later this year, I already know where they’ll be going...!
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Review from Vanessa N (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Postal Card • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Julia Durbin is the best.
Such a fabulous, caring team looking after my child. We're so fortunate to have found this nursery and Ladybirds room in particular. Tasty food too.
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Review from Emma P (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Postal Card • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
My son has responded so well to nursery. He loves the activities and has bonded really well with his key person. He is now in his second room and has settled in really well.
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Review from Sommiya H (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Fantastic nursery who care about each individual child. My 9month old has excelled. Every day each child gets a detailed report to take home, which I can only say is a true reflection of my little boy.


Thank you all at the caterpillar class!!

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Review from Tina T (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Postal Card • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
My son joined the nursery when he was one and a half and settled in really well as the staff were incredibly nurturing and fun. He is now thriving in Butterflies where he has made friends and enjoys the challenges and activities that are thoughtfully designed to encourage their development. He loves
his key worker and talking about all the fun activities he does at nursery. I would definitely recommend it to my friends and family a fabulous nursery.
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Review from Lama H (Mother of Child) published on 8 March 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
My youngest daughter currently attends the Julia Durbin Preschool. We have been attending Julia Durbin for over 2 years now and we have been in nearly all their rooms.
My daughter is extremely happy to attend and is never upset when I drop her off. I feel safe leaving her and know she is in very good
caring hands. The preschool team are wonderful, very friendly and encouraging to all the children. They have massively helped with toilet training my daughter as I was struggling at home! The team have good ideas in preschool and the room activities are constantly renewed, they focus massively on preparing the children for school, and with a daughter who recently left Julia Durbin to go to school, I can say this works.
The food is nourishing, healthy and tasty my daughter never complains.
The staff are supportive and very approachable and I would definitely recommend this nursery.
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Review from Caroline (Mother of Child) published on 15 February 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Since our son started in the nursery at one year old, he has continued to develop well. Having the warm input from the enthusiastic and caring staff in Ladybird Room has been great and there are always so many activities on offer every day. The food is healthy and varied and I have felt very comfortable
and reassured when dropping him off in the morning knowing they will meet his needs and know him well. The room is always in order, neat and tidy. The nursery manager is always friendly, attentive and caring. I would highly recommend Julia Durbin Nursery.
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Review from Idoia A (Mother of Child) published on 5 February 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Julia Durbin is an excellent nursery, with both great facilities and big outdoor areas top up by the excellent teams in the rooms! Both my kids love going to Julia Durbin, so much that sometimes they cry when I pick them up before the usual schedule! My experience with all the different age-rooms has
been fantastic and the staff is really committed and allow us to do other jobs for society. They do go beyond their duties very often and they certainly know how to create and keep the connection they make with the children. Keep it up!
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Review from Craig S (Father of Child) published on 5 February 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
It is tough entrusting your child to anyone, particularly when they seem so young. But Julia Durbin could not but make both my wife and I feel at ease that our little one is safe, secure and having a great time.


The facilities are fantastic- particularly the garden which was the biggest selling

point for us. They constantly have new and creative activities, all resourced with no expense spared. We love the online updates we receive - you get your own individual (secure) profile where they post pictures and summaries of activities.


However, it is the people that make this place exceptional, our child’s keyworker (in both rooms she has been in so far) have been so caring and approachable. All the other practitioners are attentive and very sociable.


Food (aka kitchen staff) is great and reception team are incredibly friendly and couldn’t do enough to be more helpful.

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Review from Jacqueline S (Mother of Child) published on 5 February 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Our 7-month-old son has just spent his first month at Julia Durbin. Every day we drop him off or pick him up we can very clearly see how much he loves it there. All the staff in the baby room are very warm and they take very good care of him. I’ve been in at quite different times and the atmosphere
is always very nice; there is always a very good ratio of carers to babies in the room. They put out different toys for the babies to explore every day and activities like finger painting or exploring ice. Julia Durbin has an online system where the key person every so often uploads pictures and short descriptions of what they have been up to which is wonderful for giving us a glimpse of what our baby has been up to. Recently when there was snow chaos the nursery was nevertheless open which we were very grateful for as well.
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Review from Yann S (Father of Child) published on 25 January 2019 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
We moved from Belgium to Oxford in July 2018 and we stayed until January 2019. We have a 3-year old daughter who did not speak English when we arrived. The Julia Day Durbin Nursery has been superb in taking care of her and making sure she settled in well. As part of our review, we'd like to attach the
goodbye e-mail we sent to the entire team:


We just wanted to thank the entire Julia Durbin team for taking such great care of our daughter during our stay in the UK.


Our daughter's English is really sticking with her; whenever she plays games or reads a book, she automatically switches from Dutch to English. We’ll try our best to make sure she can keep practising her English.


We especially would like to mention how important two of the caretakers, in particular, have been to her. Our daughter really developed a strong relationship with both of them. These two caretakers did an excellent job and we absolutely wanted to mention this.

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Review from N M (Father of Child) published on 26 October 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 3.0 out of 5
On the whole, nursery is good, my son has learned a lot of new stuff and experienced new things.


Although some of the teachers are spending more time with children than others still it is satisfying. Nursery has a great space for children to play outdoors and also good facilities for indoor activities,

although I'm a little bit concerned about the hygiene conditions in the toilets. I hope they have extra supervision of children when they use it and ask the children to wash their hands thoroughly and check the toilets regularly to make sure they are clean enough. On the whole I'm more happy about the teachers than the reception crew, I think a warm welcoming reception team can make a great impact on the whole team but sometimes you get to see otherwise.
Reply from Emma Wallbridge at Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford)We thank you for your positive comments and are pleased that you appreciate the wonderful facilities and care that Julia Durbin has to offer. We apologise that you have found the toilets not up to our high cleanliness standards, we have recently employed a domestic assistant and they are now overseeing the toilets cleanliness at key points during the day to ensure hygiene standards are maintained. We recognise our reception area can be busy during drop off and collection times and the greeting of parents verbally has been addressed within the office team. We hope you see some improvement in this soon. We value your feedback and honest comments, please feel free to discuss this further with me at the nursery.
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Review from Lamiese (Mother of Child) published on 18 October 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 4.0 out of 5
My son always seems happy to go to nursery. On the occasional day that he’s slightly under the weather or out of sorts, the caring staff there give him cuddles, which almost instantly seem to make him better and restore his smiley self.


Staff are pleasant and genuinely caring. He is always greeted

when he enters the room. It makes me happy to know that he is having fun, learning and being well looked after when I’m at work.
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Review from Rhiannon R (Mother of Child) published on 18 October 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
The staff at Julia Durbin have been brilliant, accommodating our childcare needs where they can. Our son has had a great start, and we are already impressed with the care, attention and kindness shown to our little one by the staff in Caterpillars. Thank you!
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Review from Stephanie A (Mother of Child) published on 18 October 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Our daughter has been at the Julia Durbin Nursery since she was 7 months old (she is now 2). She absolutely loves her time at nursery every day and it has been wonderful for us to see her grow and develop into a happy, chatty little girl. She has made lots of friends and she looks forward to seeing
them every day!


She loves the big garden and playing outside and I love that the children are outside every day, in all sorts of weather.


I cannot rate this nursery highly enough. The staff are caring, thoughtful and friendly. They know all the children's names (even if they are not in the same room) and there is always a smile from reception in the morning. Our daughter has had the same key worker throughout her time at nursery, which has really helped develop her confidence.


We are so glad we chose Julia Durbin nursery and are grateful for the care and attention they give all the children.

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Review from Eppie (Mother of Child) published on 18 October 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Both of our sons have been extremely happy at Julia Durbin. Recently my younger son has had to spend time in hospital, and the PreSchool Team's help in preparing him for the experience was invaluable and so wonderfully done. As parents, we also received lots of support, and it is this sense of emotional
connection which makes Julia Durbin a very special place.
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Review from Marian K (Mother of Child) published on 3 September 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
My daughter was in Julia Durbin for 10 months and we were extremely satisfied with all aspects of care, and my daughter loved going to the nursery every morning.
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Review from Christelle (Mother of Child) published on 3 September 2018 Submitted via Website • Report
Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5
Thank you to the whole Julia Durbin team for taking amazing care of my son over the last 6 months. The staff is amazing and friendly. The baby room is very well suited to the children's needs. The outdoor space is fantastic. I have really enjoyed the use of Parent Zone as well so we get to see what
the children get up to in pictures :) We will definitely miss the team.
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Current Review Score: 9.9 (9.911)

Overview of Review Score

The Review Score of 9.9 (9.911) out of 10 for Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) is based on a) the Average Rating and b) the number of positive Reviews.

  1. The Average Rating is 4.9 out of 5 from 48 Reviews in the last 24 months.
  2. The score for the number of positive Reviews is 5.0 out of 5 from 48 positive Reviews in the last 24 months.

Detailed Breakdown of Review Score

The maximum Review Score for a Day Nursery is 10, which is made up from the Average Rating of Reviews (maximum of 5 points) and the Number of Reviews (maximum of 5 points) in the last 24 months:

  1. 5 Points are available for the Average Rating from all Reviews in the last 24 months. The Average Rating of 4.911 for Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) is calculated as follows: ( (525 Excellents x 5) + (49 Goods x 4) + (1 Satisfactorys x 3) ) ÷ 575 Ratings = 4.911
  2. 5 Points are available for the number of Positive Reviews in the last 24 months. A Positive Review is defined as any Review with an 'Overall Experience' of '4' or '5' (out of a max rating '5'). The 5 Points relating to the number of positive Reviews for Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford) is based on 48 positive Reviews in the last 24 months and is calculated as per below:

    The 5 points available are broken down as follows:

    1. 4 points are available for the first 20 Positive Reviews in the last 24 months; 3 points for the first Positive Review, 0.125 Points for each of the next four Positive Reviews, 0.05 Points for the next five Positive Reviews, and finally 0.025 Points for the next ten Positive Reviews. (1st = 3.000, 2nd = 0.125, 3rd = 0.125, 4th = 0.125, 5th = 0.125, 6th = 0.050, 7th = 0.050, 8th = 0.050, 9th = 0.050, 10th = 0.050, 11th = 0.025, 12th = 0.025, 13th = 0.025, 14th = 0.025, 15th = 0.025, 16th = 0.025, 17th = 0.025, 18th = 0.025, 19th = 0.025, 20th = 0.025) 3 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.025 = 4
    2. 1 point is available for the number of Positive Reviews reaching 20% of the number of registered child places in the last 24 months. If this number is partially reached, then that proportion of 1 point is given. eg a Day Nursery registered for a maximum of 50 child places has to reach 10 Positive Reviews to receive 1 point, if it has 7 reviews it will receive 0.7 points. 20% of the 164 number of registered child places is 32.8, which has been reached with 48 Positive reviews. Points = 1
  3. When a Review is submitted by someone who has previously submitted a Review, only the latest Review will count towards the Review Score.
  4. If a Day Nursery does not have a review in the last 24 months, then it will not have a Review Score.

Child Vacancies

Please contact us for latest vacancies.

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Awards / Recognitions (19)

Meet the Team (1)

Emma

Emma Wallbridge

Job Title: Nursery Manager Joined: 1996

Emma is the Manager of Julia Durbin Day Nursery in Headington and has a wealth of experience, having worked in the early years sector for 24 years. Emma has numerous qualifications, including an NNEB, Management NVQ's and a Foundation Degree in Early Years. Emma has worked for Childbase Partnership since 1996.


What is your favourite feature of Julia Durbin?
Despite being on the hospital grounds we are almost secretly hidden within a lovely natural space and a huge natural garden. I also like our entrance and reception area as we get to greet all the families and visitors as they arrive.


What are you most proud of about your nursery/team?
Our ongoing recognition from Ofsted and amazing day nursery reviews from our parents. The staff have exceptional relationships with the families and each other which leaves a great morale across the nursery. The children are the heart of our Julia Durbin family.

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