Coppice Childcare Shard End

Play and language give Coppice Childcare Shard End its character: Welcomm assessments help staff identify speech and understanding needs, while the Startwell Award brings healthy eating and physical activity into the picture. These are useful details for families who want to understand both how learning is planned and how everyday care is organised.

At its August 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with a curriculum that supported children's progress and preparation for school. The improvement point was precise: adults sometimes piled up questions before children had enough thinking time. That matters in a setting where conversation carries much of the learning.

At 205 Shard End Crescent in Birmingham, the nursery accepts children aged 3 to 59 months and has capacity for 42 children. Funded attendance includes shorter sessions and longer days, with term-time and stretched arrangements serving different family routines.

Rooms and Ages

The age groups are Under 2's Unit, Tweenies Unit for children aged two to three, and Pre-School for three- to five-year-olds. This separates the youngest children's care from the stages that follow, rather than treating the whole nursery as one group.

In August 2024, younger children explored bubbles while washing dolls, and preschool children made cupcakes. Babies and toddlers shared picture books and action songs; older children remembered familiar stories and joined repeated passages. The activities gave children different ways to participate, from movement and handling materials to talking about remembered events.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) shapes the day through play, conversation, physical activity and learning planned around children's interests and development. It is the common framework for early years provision. Here, practitioners plan learning opportunities, review how children respond and record progress, using those observations to plan the next activities.

Birth to 5 Matters adds non-statutory guidance about development, relationships and learning through play alongside the EYFS. Welcomm has a more specific purpose: assessing speech, language and understanding so staff can tailor support with parents or adapt provision for children with additional needs. The practical value is in identifying what a child needs help with, rather than simply attaching a programme name to the curriculum.

In August 2024, water play led to conversations about ocean animals and what would float or sink. Mathematical language also grew out of play: staff discussed weight and fullness with sand and helped younger children recognise shapes around them. These examples show how ordinary materials can become opportunities to learn words and ideas.

Outdoor and Physical Life

In August 2024, children regularly played outdoors, using bikes and practising climbing and jumping. Physical activity had a clear place alongside stories and table-based experiences. The Startwell Award recognises work on healthy eating and movement, connecting those two parts of the nursery day rather than treating food as a separate administrative detail.

Relationships and Communication

Key workers form part of the nursery's approach to helping children become independent through relationships with adults and other children. Sleep routines also begin with information from families: during settling, staff discuss a child's usual preferences, record them and respond flexibly if the routine changes. Parents are told about significant changes to sleep patterns.

In August 2024, staff comforted children who needed reassurance and gave parents detailed updates about learning. They also helped families continue activities at home. That makes the handover more useful than a simple account of whether a child ate or slept: parents can understand what their child is working on and continue the conversation themselves.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

An in-house Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and SEND support roles give additional needs a defined place in the staff structure. At the August 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff worked with other professionals to support children with SEND and use additional funding for their needs. Current curriculum planning also includes tailored help following speech and language assessment.

Sleep arrangements distinguish between babies and older children. Babies use cots with their own bedding, while older children use rest mats and individual bedding. The sleep policy requires an adult to remain in the room with sleeping children under six months, with recorded checks every five minutes for that age group and every ten minutes for children over six months; babies new to the setting also receive five-minute checks until staff are familiar with their routine. Children are not required to sleep, so rest can respond to the child rather than a single routine imposed on everyone.

Designated safeguarding roles sit within the team, and staff have an ongoing training programme. These are arrangements for managing care and staff development; the dated safeguarding judgement above is the assessment of their effectiveness.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year, with bank holidays closed. The contact enquiry form provides a direct route for initial enquiries. Before attendance begins, parents complete a contract and registration form covering care information, collection arrangements and the agreed fees and sessions.

For children eligible for 15 funded hours, term-time attendance runs across 38 weeks. The shorter-session pattern is three mornings or afternoons, or a mixture; morning access is 8am to 1pm. Alternatively, families can use two days from 9am to 4.30pm. These are meaningfully different routines, so the attendance pattern matters as much as the weekly entitlement.

Eligible children aged nine months and above can use 30 funded hours over three term-time days, with access from 7.30am to 5.30pm or 8am to 6pm, up to ten hours a day. A stretched arrangement spreads funding across the year, with parents paying for non-funded hours according to their attendance. Additional attendance beyond the funded allocation is charged.

The admissions policy prioritises looked-after children, then children known by the local authority to have SEND whose needs the nursery can meet, then vulnerable children with a Child Protection or Child in Need Plan or other local authority support, followed by siblings and local families. Full-time attendance may take preference over part-time attendance depending on work commitments, occupancy and room availability. Funded bookings have a termly intake and can be made a term ahead; allocation follows order of application, subject to availability.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare covers the universal 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, the 15-hour offer for eligible two-year-olds receiving additional support, and 30 hours for eligible working families from nine months. Eligibility conditions apply. Private attendance and extra hours are also offered, with current prices supplied in the nursery's written quotation.

Meals are included for full fee-paying sessions; funded-only attendance carries separate meal charges, with food from home as an alternative. Menus rotate over three weeks and are Startwell approved, while the packed-food policy prohibits nuts and the nursery cannot cook or reheat food brought from home.

Funding excludes nappies, wipes and sun cream, as well as extra hours; outings and special tuition can carry additional costs. Meal requirements need a week's notice to change, and meal payments are collected on Mondays by direct debit. The fees page sets out the meal arrangements, helping families distinguish the cost of attendance from food choices.

• Thinking time. In August 2024, adults sometimes asked several questions before children could respond. On a visit, look at how practitioners pause and give quieter children room to contribute.
• Your funded routine. The 15-hour offer includes shorter sessions and two longer days, while stretched attendance includes paid hours. Before agreeing a pattern, ask how afternoon attendance and the supply or cost of nappies, wipes and sun cream would work for your child.
• Food and allergies. Funded families can purchase meals or send food, but packed food cannot be reheated. Allergy-affected families should confirm current handling arrangements and suitable alternatives before choosing either route.
• Postcode for the journey. The nursery's contact address uses B34 7RF, while the current provider address and August 2024 inspection use B34 7RE, all at 205 Shard End Crescent. Confirm the postcode when arranging a visit to avoid a misdirected journey.

Coppice Childcare Shard End suits families considering morning or afternoon attendance as well as longer funded days, with stretched provision offering another way to organise the year. Welcomm assessments, a defined SEND role and individual sleep arrangements give the care model substance. The Good judgement from August 2024 supports that picture, while the questioning improvement point deserves attention in conversations about teaching. Food choices and paid hours also need to fit the family's routine: the nursery offers several attendance routes, each with its own practical consequences.