Seesaws Day Nursery, Chester Road

Blackberries turned into paint and fruit grown in a garden allotment give Chester Road's nursery day a practical, exploratory character. These July 2025 activities connected children's experiences outdoors with making, talking and caring for living things. There is useful substance behind the family atmosphere here.

At its 24 July 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated Seesaws Day Nursery, Chester Road Good overall and judged its safeguarding arrangements effective. The important qualification concerns how activities are organised: adult direction often crowded out children's choices, while larger groups left some children less involved.

At 635 Chester Road in Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, the nursery accepts children aged 3 to 60 months and has capacity for 60 children. Its opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. For children, this brings learning and care together through developing language, understanding relationships and emotions, and exploring creativity and the natural world. In July 2025, activities followed children's interests and connected with what they had recently experienced.

A nature walk, for example, became an opportunity to make paint from collected blackberries and water. Children could explore how materials change while using something they had gathered themselves. That is a more concrete learning experience than simply being told about plants or colours.

Language also ran through practical activities in July 2025. During collage-making, adults repeated useful vocabulary and encouraged children to try it themselves; paper and pine cones supplied textures to describe during sensory play. Pictures and objects helped children who needed another way into communication. The practical value is clear: a child can connect a word with something they are handling, rather than encountering it only in conversation.

Choice was less consistent. In July 2025, some children selected books or decided what to draw, but adults also steered play too closely. Group activities did not always accommodate different learning needs, and some children disengaged. The improvement priorities were to provide more suitable challenge and give children greater control over their learning. For families, the distinction matters: attractive resources alone do not tell you how much freedom a child has to use them.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden allotment supplied another practical thread in July 2025. Children grew flowers alongside vegetables and fruit, and cared for living things. This gave them responsibilities connected to the natural world, with something tangible to tend rather than an abstract discussion about nature.

Visits to a nearby retirement village also featured in July 2025. They brought children into contact with people beyond their nursery group. Family customs and celebrations contributed to daily life too, with photographs and greetings in children's home languages making their backgrounds visible within the setting.

Relationships were a substantial part of the July 2025 nursery day. Staff listened to information from parents and built supportive connections with children; a shared breakfast offered a social routine before children moved to their rooms. For families, that links the handover of everyday information with a familiar pattern for the child.

At the July 2025 inspection, Ofsted identified early recognition of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as a strength, finding that collaboration with parents and professionals, together with additional funded resources and adult support, helped these children make good progress. This is a specific account of support in practice, rather than a general promise of inclusion.

Daily circle times in July 2025 used feelings monsters, tools for helping children identify and discuss emotions. Adults helped upset children put feelings into words and offered calm reassurance. Naming an emotion gave children a starting point for understanding it.

Behaviour expectations were similarly concrete in July 2025: running belonged outdoors, while adults demonstrated considerate manners and calm responses. These everyday examples made expectations easier for children to understand. The emphasis was on what adults modelled as well as what they asked children to do.

The address is 635 Chester Road, Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, B73 5HY. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, and the nursery operates across the year with a Christmas closure lasting one week. That closure needs to sit alongside the weekday hours when families plan their childcare calendar.

Chester Road enquiries can be made by telephone on 0121 592 0980 or by email to chester.road@seesawsdaynurseries.com. These are the branch's own contact details.

In July 2025, the nursery offered funded early education to eligible children. Eligibility remains an essential qualification to that offer.

• Children's own choices. Adult direction limited children's ownership of play in July 2025. On a visit, ask how children now choose activities and influence what happens next.
• Group activities. In July 2025, larger groups and insufficient adaptation left some children less engaged. Ask how activities are organised for children with different interests and learning needs.
• Funding and everyday costs. Funded early education was offered to eligible children in July 2025. Request a written quotation explaining the attendance arrangement and everyday costs.
• Christmas cover. The nursery closes for one week at Christmas. Families relying on year-round childcare need to accommodate that break.

Chester Road suits families seeking weekday childcare across the year, with practical learning and contact with the wider community. The July 2025 examples of blackberry paint, gardening and emotional discussion give its day a recognisable character. The balance between adult-led activities and children's own decisions deserves attention: warmth and useful resources sit alongside clear improvement priorities about participation and independence.