Little Star Nursery

Old church school rooms, gardens and countryside give Little Star Nursery in Farrington Gurney its character. Indoor play connects with outdoor exploration on site and in the surrounding woods and fields, making nature part of the setting's everyday offer rather than simply a backdrop.

The nursery has capacity for 24 children aged 24 to 60 months. At its 26 August 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Outstanding overall and for education, with children choosing activities and staff extending their interests through imaginative play. That judgement belongs to 2022; the strongest examples include dinosaur play, storytelling and woodland exploration.

Attendance choices include morning sessions and a longer daytime session, with additional paid hours around them. The important distinction for families is between the session itself, funded hours and separately charged food and resources.

Rooms and Ages

The setting occupies the former school rooms of the village Methodist church. Gardens provide outdoor learning space, while the surrounding forests and fields extend exploration beyond the premises. These are concrete parts of the offer for parents who want countryside experiences alongside indoor play.

Rising Star is the room for children under three. For a child at the younger end of the nursery's accepted age range, that gives a named room to discuss when planning the move into nursery care.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play supports communication, exploration and growing independence. At Little Star, the current outdoor offer links learning in the gardens with discovery further afield.

In August 2022, children's interests shaped activities. An enthusiasm for dinosaurs led to an imagined hunt and a swamp made from play materials. Staff watched what interested children and developed activities from those starting points. This gave children a reason to explore materials and contribute their own ideas.

Circle time in August 2022 connected mathematical language with something immediately useful. Children chose a colour and shape, which staff drew as their sitting place. Picture prompts encouraged children to describe movements before acting them out, while storytelling resources supported stories of their own. Talking, movement and early mathematics were woven into play rather than presented as separate tasks.

Outdoor and Community Life

In August 2022, children could choose between indoor and outdoor activities. Painting extended to a wooden fence outside, giving creative work a different surface and scale. The choice mattered: children could follow an idea in the space that suited it.

Woodland play in August 2022 included using rope and sticks to make dwellings for invented characters. Natural materials became tools for building and storytelling. The current offer continues to include learning in gardens, forests and fields, although those particular activities are examples from that dated visit.

Relationships and Communication

Every child is allocated a key person when joining. Home visits are offered so that the child can begin getting to know that adult and the family can discuss what they want from nursery care. This brings the settling conversation into familiar surroundings before the relationship develops at nursery.

In August 2022, staff reassured children during settling and built relationships from the beginning. Parents also received advice about learning and development. For families, the useful thread is continuity: an identified adult at the start, followed by conversations about how the child is getting on.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The manager holds the SENCO and safeguarding lead roles, with a deputy safeguarding lead also in place. An autism champion works alongside one-to-one support for children needing additional help. These are specific responsibilities and support arrangements, rather than a general promise about meeting every need.

At the August 2022 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding and strong SEND support, including work with other professionals and the use of signs alongside speech to help children communicate. Those findings give practical substance to the dated judgement: support included adapting communication, rather than expecting every child to join in in the same way.

A nursery cook prepares food, and meals follow a three-week menu cycle. Breakfast, snacks, cooked lunch and tea carry separate charges, so the food element needs to be considered alongside the attendance pattern.

Sessions and Attendance

Three main patterns are offered: Session 1 runs from 8.30am to 12.30pm, Session 2 from 8.30am to 1.30pm, and Session 3 from 8.30am to 3.30pm. The different finishing times allow a family to choose a morning or a longer daytime arrangement.

Additional hours are sold after 3.30pm, with hourly wraparound from 7.30am to 8.30am and from 5.30pm to 6pm. These additional hours cannot be covered by EYE funding. A booking that extends beyond the main sessions therefore needs to account for private hours as well as the core attendance choice.

The nursery operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. That closure pattern matters for families arranging work and childcare through the holidays.

Getting There

The address is The Methodist Chapel, Bristol Road, Farrington Gurney, Bristol, BS39 6TG. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01761 452142 or by email at enquiries@littlestarnursery.co.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

EYE funded hours can be used within the three main session windows. Private sessions are also offered, and the early, late and post-3.30pm hours have their own charging structure. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Food is charged separately: breakfast and morning snack, cooked lunch, afternoon snack and tea each have a charge. Non-food resources also attract a daily consumables charge, covering items such as waterproofs and ingredients for cooking and crafts; these charges sit alongside funded attendance too. The Farrington session and fees information sets out these categories, helping families distinguish childcare hours from the extras associated with the day.

• The younger child's room. Rising Star serves children under three, and home visits are offered through the key-person arrangement. On a visit, ask how that relationship carries through the child's first sessions and later move between age groups.
• The funded window. EYE hours apply within the main sessions, while wraparound and hours after 3.30pm are privately charged. Compare the actual booking you need with those boundaries before choosing a pattern.
• Food and resource charges. Meals, snacks and daily curriculum consumables are charged separately. Read the written quotation as a whole-day arrangement, including the food your child will receive, rather than considering attendance hours alone.

Little Star suits families seeking either a morning session or a longer daytime arrangement, with separately paid extensions where needed. Its church-room setting, gardens and countryside exploration give it a clear character, while the key person and offered home visit provide a concrete starting point for settling.

The Outstanding August 2022 judgement adds weight, especially through its examples of imaginative learning and adapted communication. The practical decision is whether the session windows and separate food and resource charges fit the family's routine and budget.