Holy Cross Pre School Nursery

Shared school life and practical communication give Holy Cross Pre School Nursery its character. Children join assemblies and productions at Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, while Makaton, a language programme combining signs and symbols with speech, gives them another way to express themselves. This is a preschool with close contact with school life, rather than a separate route into Reception.

At its November 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with individual support for children with SEND and learning that prepared children for school. The improvement priorities concerned training for newer practitioners and more consistent use of children's home-language vocabulary.

Nursery hours serve children aged two to four, with Kids' Club extending care to children up to eleven. There are 50 places in total. Full-time and part-time attendance sit within a term-time operating model, so the main practical decision is how that pattern fits family life.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, play, conversation, movement and creative activities give children opportunities to practise those skills. Alongside it, curriculum lessons run through the week, with children choosing activities linked to the nursery's Curriculum Goals. Master of Maths and Blossoming Bookworm are two of those goal names; they sit within the activity programme rather than representing separate clubs.

Makaton has a more concrete role in the day. Staff regularly use signing alongside spoken language, and a sign of the week gives families something to practise together. The signs add visual clues to speech, which can help children whose spoken communication is limited or unclear. That creates a useful connection between communication at nursery and at home.

In November 2023, imaginative play moved between construction, modelling and storytelling. Children assembled castles using pretend building materials, shaped dragons from dough and developed stories through drawings made outdoors with chalk. Activities returned to earlier learning, allowing children to revisit ideas rather than move immediately to a new topic. The fantasy-and-adventure theme connected books with hands-on play.

Outdoor and Community Life

The forest area supported exploration of seasonal change in November 2023. An allotment provided another practical link with the natural world: children tended fruit and vegetables and used their produce in cooking, including soup. Growing and preparing food put an everyday experience alongside the creative play indoors.

School contact is part of the current offer. Nursery children attend assemblies and productions in the school hall and take part in special masses during the year. Families choosing Holy Cross should be comfortable with those Catholic school experiences as part of nursery life.

Annual Sports Day brings parents into children's activities; the summer 2024 invitation specified green polo shirts, trainers and shorts or joggers. In 2024, the annual Easter bonnet parade included an Easter workshop for families. These are opportunities for shared participation, rather than simply performances to watch.

Relationships and Communication

Settling has a defined starting point. Before a nursery place begins, families are invited to two sessions lasting one hour each: a parent stays for the first, then the child attends the second independently to begin building relationships with their key person and other children. The SEND policy also allows settling to respond to individual needs.

Famly connects parents with the nursery day. Updates cover activities and achievements, with food information where needed; key-person feedback can also cover friendships, interests, rest and progress. Accident records require parental acknowledgement.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

SEND support follows an assess, plan, do and review process involving the key person, SENCO and parents. Support plans are reviewed every 12 weeks, and the SENCO can involve outside professionals with parental agreement. Parents participate in deciding outcomes and interventions, so the plan has a defined review point rather than becoming a static document.

At the November 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff understood children's individual needs, used additional funding for resources and one-to-one help, and involved all children in bucket time, a targeted SEND session, but identified inconsistent home-language use during activities and a need to develop newer staff's language support. Those details matter more than a broad claim of inclusion: the support had practical forms, while communication remained an improvement priority.

Quiet, cosy spaces give children somewhere to withdraw when overwhelmed. The behaviour policy uses stories, puppets and conversations about feelings, alongside individual and small-group attention. If biting persists, staff observe possible causes and work with parents on strategies. The emphasis is on understanding the behaviour and responding to the child.

All staff have paediatric first-aid training. Safeguarding leadership includes a designated lead and deputy roles, while the child-protection policy provides for a designated person to be on duty throughout opening hours. These are arrangements for handling concerns, alongside the dated safeguarding judgement above.

Rest and sleep areas are provided when needed. If a child becomes ill, the policy calls for prompt collection and care in a quiet space with their key person where possible. Medication requires parental permission and recording through Famly, making health information part of the same communication system families use for other updates.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, Laburnum Drive, Sutton Coldfield, B76 2SP. Opening hours run from 7.30am to 5.30pm during term time; that window includes nursery and Kids' Club provision. Kids' Club accepts nursery children as well as children attending the primary school.

Full-time and part-time places are part of the booking model, with a minimum attendance requirement of 15 hours each week. A full-time application may take preference over a part-time one depending on parents' work commitments, occupancy and room availability. The waiting list requires no payment, and families may decline a place when offered.

Enquiries can be submitted through the enquiry form or made by telephone on 0121 675 1191. Before attendance begins, parents complete a contract and registration form covering matters including health, dietary needs, permissions and collection arrangements.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use 15 or 30 funded hours, delivered during term time over 38 weeks. Additional private hours can be bought. Funded hours exclude Kids' Club, meals, consumables such as wipes and sun cream, and enrichment activities including trips; those items attract separate charges.

Meals and consumables are charged separately, so a funded entitlement does not represent the whole family bill. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Invoices are issued ahead of each half term, with payment due before the term starts; cancellation requires written notice for a half term, with a grace period of three weeks into the current term; fees remain payable during the notice period.

Moving on to School

Sharing a site gives children contact with Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, including time in its hall. Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still apply through the local authority admissions process, so familiarity with the school should be kept separate from the application decision.

• Term-time fit. Opening hours span nursery and Kids' Club, and attendance has a 15-hour weekly minimum. At a visit, discuss how a proposed full-time or part-time pattern would work within those arrangements.
• Age boundary. Nursery hours cater for two- to four-year-olds, while the October 2025 admissions policy includes children up to five. If your child will reach five before moving to Reception, clarify which provision would apply.
• Language development. In November 2023, improvement priorities covered newer staff's professional development and more consistent use of home-language words alongside English. Ask how current activities address those priorities, especially if your child is bilingual.
• Charges and contract. Funded hours exclude meals, consumables, enrichment and Kids' Club, and cancellation carries a half-term notice period. Review an itemised quotation and the written notice terms before agreeing an attendance pattern.

Holy Cross suits families seeking full-time or part-time term-time preschool attendance, with Kids' Club as an additional option and regular contact with Catholic primary-school life. Makaton provides a practical communication tool, and the SEND planning process gives parents defined opportunities to shape and review support.

The November 2023 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, qualified by clear priorities for staff development and bilingual language support. For families comfortable with the religious experiences and term-time calendar, this is a setting whose appeal rests on shared school experiences, communication and practical individual planning.