Early Nurture Pre-School

A preschool garden planted for pollinators, theatre visits and practical support for children with emerging additional needs give Early Nurture Pre-School its character. This Hockley setting combines learning through everyday experiences with close involvement in family and community life. Children might explore a story through performance, turn recycled cardboard into play equipment or use familiar characters to talk about feelings.

At its March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Outstanding and found safeguarding effective. The preschool has 30 places in total and operates from the junior site of Anglesey Primary School, at Anglesey Junior School on Nursery Road. Children attending in March 2025 were aged two to four; that is the age range observed at that visit.

Early intervention is a substantial part of the offer. A SENCO coordinates support, works with outside professionals and brings families into review meetings. Alongside that support, the day places considerable emphasis on language, emotional understanding and independence. Flexible stretched hours and full-day arrangements sit alongside a session-based option.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the learning framework: children develop communication, physical skills and social understanding through play, alongside early literacy, mathematics and creative activities. Here, weekly planning combines adult-led experiences with activities children initiate themselves. Staff adapt the intended learning to each child's development, and individual learning journals track achievements and inform the next steps.

Emotional understanding receives sustained attention. Circle time and storytelling help children explore empathy, while colour monsters and flash cards give them ways to identify feelings. The kind tree is used for daily reflection on behaviour. These are concrete tools for conversations that can otherwise be difficult for young children: how they feel, how another child might feel and what to do next.

Language learning reaches beyond listening to an adult read. Children vote for a story, retell it themselves and encounter storytelling through theatre. Visits to Birmingham REP Theatre have included Anansi the spider, allowing children to compare a performed story with a book. Mark-making takes different forms too, including drawing lines and circles, attempting names and exploring writing in different languages.

Startwell Initiative links healthy choices with practical activity. Fay 5 a Day is used when children investigate fruit and vegetables; Sammy Skills connects handling tools with developing coordination. Children chop, smell and taste ingredients, or sort vegetables and match them with numerals. One experience can therefore bring together hand control, descriptive language and counting rather than treating each area as a separate lesson.

In March 2025, children made pictures from observed daffodils and assembled percussion instruments from kitchen pans. During food preparation, adults introduced comparisons of size and weight alongside words for taste, texture and smell. Dough activities gave children practice using their hands, while outdoor movement prompted conversations about the body's response to exercise. The detail matters: learning was built into things children could handle, change and discuss.

Outdoor and Community Life

The preschool garden supports direct investigation of living things. Children have searched for insects, examined ladybirds and watched birds and butterflies. Through the Patchwork Meadow Project, organised with Lozells Community Forum, they planted wildflowers for pollinators and cared for the plants afterwards. This gives environmental learning a physical base: soil, seeds and a garden children help maintain.

Recycling is another practical thread. Cardboard has become a television and letter box for imaginative play, and different-coloured bins introduce sorting and reuse. Local walks have taken learning into the surrounding streets, including observations of road signs, electric vehicles and charging points. Trips to nearby green spaces bring opportunities to collect leaves and investigate seasonal change.

Celebrations also connect classroom activity with the community. Chinese New Year has involved a food-market visit and using chopsticks for mark-making, while Diwali activities included coloured-sand Rangoli patterns and a temple visit. World Book Day brought books from home and costumes linked to children's chosen stories. Families who enjoy contributing to themed learning will recognise the role given to them here.

Community outings extend beyond the preschool day. Staff volunteer during summer holidays to organise family trips, with Bournemouth Beach and Torquay Beach among the destinations. Children and families have also visited Twycross Zoo, then returned to the experiences through discussion. These are family and community activities, rather than a promise of holiday childcare or a fixed schedule of nursery excursions.

Relationships and Communication

Each child belongs to a key worker's group. That adult maintains contact with parents and supports everyday personal care, giving families a regular relationship through which to discuss their child. An open-door approach creates time for parents to talk about family needs, with links to family hubs and community projects where appropriate.

Learning journals give the educational side of that relationship a concrete record. Staff use what children have learned to adjust planning, rather than simply repeating activities. At home and preschool, this makes the conversation about a child's development more specific: what they can now do, what interests them and what they are practising next.

Parent involvement includes health education. A measles and vaccination awareness session was hosted by ilera Health, Birmingham City Council's community engagement partner. Such workshops bring family support into the setting itself, making parent participation broader than conversations about the child's daily activities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND received highly effective support through individual plans, cooperation with families and professionals, and additional funding for resources and one-to-one communication work. That judgement sits alongside a current, detailed support process rather than a general statement of inclusion.

The SENCO uses a cycle of assessment, planning, action and review, with support plans reviewed termly. The SEND Co-production Framework and Charter structures collaboration so families and professionals contribute to decisions together. Referrals can involve the Area SENCO team, occupational therapists, audiology services and other relevant professionals. Review meetings bring the people involved around the child's needs, while information is shared during transition with parental agreement.

For children needing help with communication, attention bucket time and shared-interaction activities are used to develop attention together. Speech and language referrals can lead to additional targets being incorporated into preschool work. The practical question for a family is how those targets connect with their own child's plan, rather than whether the setting uses an inclusion label.

Safeguarding arrangements include designated lead roles, annual staff training and supervision discussions. These are the mechanisms through which concerns can be raised and addressed. Emotional wellbeing is also part of ordinary routines: stories, group attachments and adult modelling help children practise expressing feelings and interacting with others.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Anglesey Junior School, Nursery Road, Hockley, Birmingham, B19 2YA. Opening hours are 8.30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0121 464 4382 or through the contact form.

Attendance options include day care, full days as an alternative to five sessions, flexible stretched hours, and before-and-after care. These options give families different ways to organise attendance; the opening window should be kept separate from the hours attached to an individual booking.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes disadvantaged-child and working-family entitlements, with flexible stretching offered for 15-hour and 30-hour funding. Private additional hours are also offered. Eligibility remains conditional, so a funded entitlement should not be read as a promise that every family qualifies for every arrangement. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation; the funding and charge information explains the different categories.

Food arrangements vary: the breakfast club is free, parents supply lunch, and healthy snacks carry a charge where parents can afford it. Allergen information is recorded, and food is cut to reduce choking risk.

Parents provide nappies, personal creams and clothing, with no separate charge for nappies or sun cream. Additional private hours carry a consumables charge, and outings, including beach trips, have a separate charge. Keeping these categories apart matters when comparing a funded booking with one that includes paid additional hours.

Moving on to School

School preparation includes independent eating, self-care, communication and early reading and writing experiences. For children receiving additional support, transition work includes sharing information and involving families and professionals. The preschool operates on a school site, but attendance does not guarantee a Reception place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

• Attendance pattern. Full days, a five-session alternative and stretched funding are different arrangements. During a visit, ask how the hours and calendar would work for your child's proposed booking.
• Individual support. The SENCO coordinates referrals and termly plan reviews. Discuss how your child's targets would be practised during ordinary play and shared with you.
• Food and additional charges. Lunch comes from home, breakfast is free, and snacks, private-hour consumables and trips have different charge arrangements. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food-handling practice, and families should obtain a written quotation for their chosen pattern.
• School-site expectations. Being based at the Anglesey school site brings no guaranteed Reception place. Keep the preschool decision and the local authority school application separate.

Early Nurture Pre-School suits families seeking flexible stretched hours or before-and-after care, with a five-session option also offered. Its strongest practical combination is a detailed early-intervention process and learning that uses the surrounding community, from theatre performances to planting for pollinators.

The March 2025 Outstanding judgement provides a clear inspection position. For parents, the more useful detail is how the offer works: a key worker relationship, individual learning records, coordinated SEND plans and opportunities for families to join community experiences. Parents supply lunch, breakfast is free, and snacks are charged where parents can afford them. These arrangements and the separate charges for private-hour consumables and trips need to fit the household's routine and budget.