Westbourne House Nursery School and Daycare

A baby unit capped at six, a pretend road outdoors and an indoor soft playroom give Westbourne House a concrete character: a capped baby group alongside space for movement and make-believe. At 7 Newcastle Street in Worksop, age-group rooms take children from babies through to preparation for school.

At its February 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Westbourne House Good overall and found safeguarding effective.

The youngest children have particular provision for rest and routines. Freddie Fish has a separate sleeping room, while Rosie Rabbits combines quieter space with creative play. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions sit alongside early starts and later collection by advance booking.

Rooms and Ages

Freddie Fish, for babies up to one year old, accommodates no more than six and combines songs, stories and exploratory play with a separate sleeping room equipped with a viewing window and baby monitor. Rest has a designated space apart from the main activity room.

Rosie Rabbits takes up to nine children aged one to two, using connected rooms to separate rest from painting, water play and other creative activity. The quieter room contains a cot and sleep mats, giving this age group somewhere to pause alongside opportunities to explore.

Billy Badgers accommodates up to twelve children aged two to three, with singing and circle games supporting conversation and social interaction alongside creative and pretend play. Suzie squirrels is the other room for this age group, accommodating up to eight children.

Harry hedgehogs takes children aged three to five, with capacity for 24, and emphasises choosing activities, discussing ideas, early writing and number games. Its school preparation is concrete: children practise recognising and forming letters, explore measurement and take a book bag home with Oxford tree reading books. Nursery uniform is expected.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, covering children's communication, physical development, relationships and other areas of learning. Westbourne House combines activities chosen by children with adult-led experiences, using observations and conversations with parents to plan around individual interests.

Counting games with dice, puppet play and songs introducing letters put early number and language work into recognisable activities. Sand and water introduce ideas about volume; jigsaws and collage provide ways to explore shape. Threading and pencil work sit alongside balancing, crawling and running, so physical development includes hand control as well as larger movements.

In February 2022, staff adapted a mathematics activity so that some children counted puppets, others identified written numbers and others attempted to write them. Children received different challenges within the same activity. Children also worked together on a matching game, talking through which pieces they needed.

Outdoor and Community Life

Two outdoor playgrounds offer different kinds of play, with a climbing frame in one and a pretend road in the other. Garden beds provide opportunities to grow flowers and vegetables. These resources support movement, imaginative games and learning how plants grow.

The indoor soft playroom adds somewhere to climb, balance and build dens, including for children beginning to walk. Musical instruments, painting and print-making provide quieter creative choices within the wider nursery day.

Relationships and Communication

A key person helps children settle and follows their learning through observations. In the baby room, staff aim to maintain routines established at home, and each session ends with a written account of feeding, nappy changes, sleep and activities. Those details help families follow their baby's routine.

Written daily sheets also accompany sessions in the younger children's rooms. Parents are encouraged to take part in nursery life, while staff discuss children's interests with them when planning activities.

Three free settling sessions, each lasting one hour, are offered, with parents or carers able to stay. Taking these on the intended attendance days is the nursery's suggested approach.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received good support from services and that staff worked well with other professionals. In February 2022, teachers visited children preparing to start school, linking transition work to the people who would teach them next.

During that same month, staff helped children resolve disagreements by discussing possible solutions at their level. Books in different languages and activities recognising cultural festivals supported children's understanding of one another.

Rest and mealtime routines deserve attention. In February 2022, some children's sleeping arrangements did not provide suitable conditions for rest, and snack routines gave inconsistent messages about eating expectations. Those concerns matter alongside the current descriptions of quieter rooms: having a designated space and organising its use effectively are separate questions.

The nursery employs its own chef to prepare fresh meals each day, adapting food to individual dietary needs. Babies receive puréed meals and finger foods, and two dining rooms separate eating from the playroom.

Sessions and Attendance

Standard weekday bookings are a morning session from 8am to 1pm, an afternoon session from 1pm to 6pm, or a full day from 8am to 6pm. Children aged three to five can also have different hours requested and priced individually.

Early care begins at 7.30am, and later collection can extend to 6.30pm, with these arrangements booked at reception two days ahead. These extensions carry additional charges. Westbourne House opens throughout the year, closing for bank holidays and one week at Christmas.

Cheeky Monkeys Afterschool Club combines collection from St Annes CofE School with activities including baking, making things and board games. Holiday Club runs during school holidays from 8am to 6pm, with creative activities and outings to libraries and parks.

Getting There

The address is 7 Newcastle Street, Worksop, S80 2AS, in the town centre, with Worksop bus station directly opposite. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 01909 470330.

Funding and Paid Extras

For children aged three and four, term-time funding starts the term after their third birthday, with 15 hours or, where eligible, 30 hours offered. Eligible two-year-olds may also receive 15 term-time hours from the term after their second birthday. Stretched arrangements are offered separately. The no-additional-charge stretched pattern for children aged two to four is 11 hours over 51 weeks, attended from 7.30am to 1pm twice weekly; for eligible children from the term after reaching nine months, the 22-hour pattern runs over 51 weeks, with attendance from 10am to 5.30pm on three days, allocated by the nursery.

Private session fees include meals; on funded places, food and drink are an optional separate charge. Optional funded extras include soft play, enhanced learning groups for children aged three to four for two hours weekly, and weekly baking and gardening activities, with a package combining food, drink and additional services also offered.

A non-refundable deposit applies to childcare bookings. Non-funded daycare bookings qualify for two weeks of holiday at half fees when four weeks' written notice is given. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page sets out the charging structure.

• Rest and snack routines. February 2022 brought concerns about suitable sleep conditions and consistent mealtime expectations. On a visit, ask how rest is organised for your child's room and how staff now manage snacks.
• Funded attendance patterns. The stretched arrangements use specific times and weekly patterns, with days allocated by the nursery. Compare those arrangements with your working week and discuss which optional extras you want included in a quotation.
• The preschool change. Harry hedgehogs introduces a uniform expectation, book bags and early writing activities. Consider how that more school-oriented stage fits your child and ask how the move from the younger rooms is handled.

Westbourne House suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day childcare, with booked extensions adding flexibility around the standard day. Its strongest practical attractions are the small baby-room cap, written daily communication and the combination of outdoor playgrounds with indoor physical play.

The February 2022 Good judgement provides a useful assessment, qualified by the concerns about sleep and snacks. For families comfortable with its funded attendance patterns and the preschool uniform expectation, this is a nursery with clear age-group progression and tangible resources for play.