Julia Durbin Day Nursery (Oxford)

I would like to thank all the staff who took the children from my son’s room to Blenheim on Thursday last week. It isn't my son’s normal day at nursery but he was invited along and met the children there as my parents were able to take him. He had a lovely day with his friends and his keyworker and my parents remarked at how included they were made to feel. My son continues to love his days at Julia Durbin.

My daughter attended Julia Durbin for 10 months after I returned to work and I could not be happier with the care she received during that time. She adored attending each day and came on leaps and bounds in her development. The staff are fantastic - very nurturing towards the children and always happy to help with any queries you may have. I highly recommend this nursery.

A very successful 4 1/2 years from nursery to preschool. With a dedicated team whose unfailing courtesy, professionalism and care for the children has been a pleasure to see.

My son has attended Julia Durbin Day Nursery for 3 years. He started in Bumblebees and have progressed to Pre-school. He has developed really well, learnt a lot and made great friends in a lovely, friendly and safe environment. He has also enjoyed his time at Julia Durbin and I am very impressed with their nurturing, caring and professional approach to childcare. It’s not easy leaving your child to go to work but Julia Durbin Nursery has made this process less worrisome, stress-free and with great ease to balancing work life and parenthood. All the events that they have organised have been fantastic and fun for the kids. On days where there were heavy snowfalls, Julia Durbin kept the Nursery open for parents like myself working, to attend work. With that, they provide coffee mornings for parents to grab tea/ coffee and a pastry to take to work which was much needed in those cold, snowy winter mornings. I am very pleased I chose this Nursery as my childcare provider.

There is lots of parental involvement, also with a weekly email. If ever we need to speak to a member of staff they are more than happy to listen and help us with anything we need. All members of staff across the nursery know my children by name and myself now also. During such special primary year's, I couldn't have asked for a better, more nurturing childcare setting.

My son attended Julia Durban nursery (the Ladybirds room) and we were delighted with how quickly he settled in. The nursery facilities are fantastic, in particular, the variety of activities in the room, and the outdoor play area is incredible - the best I have seen by a very long way. The activities each day are varied, promote learning and are fun, and the nursery is great at celebrating seasonal events like valentine’s day, mother's day, mental health awareness week etc. Most impressive however are the nursery staff. My son had a key worker and a secondary key worker that were both fantastic, we really couldn't have asked for more - they really invested in him and his development and they built a fantastic relationship with him that made him feel safe, cared for and confident. All the other staff in Ladybirds were also fantastic. The whole experience with Julia Durban and in particular the Ladybirds room has been second to none and I cannot recommend this nursery more highly.

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!

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.

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...!

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.

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.

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!!

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.

The staff are supportive and very approachable and I would definitely recommend this nursery.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.