Small World Day Nursery

Weekly Spanish, books taken home and a Christmas performance at Hall Green United Community Church give Small World Day Nursery a recognisable preschool character. Younger children have their own rooms and daily diaries, while outdoors there is space for planting, climbing and investigating nature. The offer combines practical care with activities that extend into family life.

At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with appropriate plans for children with additional needs and information shared with parents about development. Two improvements mattered: preparing activities more carefully and helping children understand the reasons behind behaviour expectations. Those are useful points to revisit when considering the setting.

Based in Hall Green, Birmingham, the nursery accepts children from three months to five years and has 67 places in total. Its youngest room has a published cap of nine babies, a more useful detail for parents weighing baby care than the whole-setting capacity alone.

Rooms and Ages

Babies Room covers the room band from birth to 18 months, with space for nine babies and toys supporting development within an individual daily routine. The nursery’s overall starting age remains three months.

Tweenies Room starts at 18 months and continues beyond two years; its home corner, book corner and sensory activities sit alongside help with using a spoon and drinking from a beaker. This stage connects play with the small practical steps towards managing meals independently.

Toddlers Room begins at two years and extends beyond three, with cooking, messy play and a computer area supporting both individual activities and play with others. There are two toddler rooms, with a combined maximum of 16 children. That total applies across the pair, rather than to each room.

Pre-school comprises two rooms with a combined maximum of 30 children, where computers and an interactive whiteboard support work with numbers and early literacy. The total applies across both rooms, rather than to one group.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes learning through play and planned activities that develop children’s skills. It is the educational foundation here; the more recognisable additions are weekly visiting teachers, books shared at home and preschool sound work.

In Pre-school, jolly phonics involves spending two weeks on a letter sound. Children also choose a book to take home in their weekly book bag, giving families something specific to share rather than leaving reading entirely within the nursery day. Homework is introduced too, so parents considering preschool should be comfortable with some learning activities extending home.

A Spanish teacher visits weekly, using props and resources to make the language activities engaging. Preschool dance also takes place weekly and encourages children to express feelings through movement; toddlers have a weekly visiting dance teacher as well. These are concrete additions to the day, with separate opportunities for language and physical expression.

The pre-school helper role gives children practical responsibilities: a child is selected each morning and afternoon to distribute cutlery or help prepare activities.

In February 2023, older children counted building blocks and considered how to repair fallen towers, while babies explored textures as staff supplied words to describe them. These examples connected early mathematics and vocabulary to things children could handle and investigate. Preparation was uneven, however: some activities needed better organisation to make fuller use of their resources.

Outdoor and Community Life

Two outdoor areas extend the play space. A mud kitchen and planting activities offer opportunities to explore materials and living things, while a climbing frame, wooden bridge and stepping stones provide different ways to practise balance and movement. A storyteller outdoor chair gives quieter listening a place alongside active play.

Preschool children prepare for their Christmas Nativity, performed in the evening at Hall Green United Community Church for parents and carers.

In February 2023, children recalled delivering cakes they had made to a local care home, and visits to the Gurdwara temple during Diwali helped introduce different celebrations. These were examples of learning through contact with the wider community, rather than only discussing it indoors. They belong to that period’s nursery experience.

Relationships and Communication

A key worker is allocated in Babies Room and Pre-school; children starting in Toddlers Room have a key person who plans around their stage of development and keeps progress records for parents. This gives families a defined connection between everyday care, activities and conversations about how their child is getting on.

Daily diaries accompany the baby, Tweenies and toddler stages. They cover practical details including food, sleep and nappy changes, with bottle feeds recorded for the younger rooms and toilet training included for toddlers. For parents of children who cannot yet explain their day, these details make the handover more useful than a general account of whether they enjoyed themselves.

The toddler stage includes an EYFS progress check between 24 and 36 months, giving families a specific point for discussing development alongside the key person’s records.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Two SENCO roles provide a defined structure for additional-needs support. Code-controlled entrances restrict access to the building and play rooms, and CCTV covers indoor play rooms and external areas. These are practical security arrangements; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the inspection described above.

In February 2023, staff comforted children after naps and helped them return to activities. Children also practised putting on coats, pouring drinks and washing their hands, while preparation for school included talking about feelings and ways to manage uncertainty. That account linked independence with emotional support, rather than treating readiness for school simply as early academic work.

Freshly cooked lunch comes with vegetarian, halal and meat choices, and special diets are catered for; breakfast cereal, fruit and other snacks also form part of the food offer. Mealtimes include encouragement to manage utensils and eat independently, connecting care routines with the skills children are learning in their rooms.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates throughout the year, closing on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. This is an opening window, so families should distinguish the hours the building operates from the attendance arrangement they agree.

The address is 975 Stratford Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, B28 8BG. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 0121 693 3071.

Funding and Paid Extras

Nursery Education grants are offered for two-, three- and four-year-olds. Private childcare is also charged, with payment made in advance, either weekly or monthly, by standing order. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

A two-week deposit is required for the nursery booking and is deducted from the first and last weeks at the nursery. Holiday terms allow two weeks at half fees each year, starting from the child’s joining date; other holidays attract full fees. Bank holidays are charged at the usual rate when they fall on a child’s booked day, and the Christmas closure carries a separate payment.

• Activity preparation and behaviour. February 2023 findings called for better-prepared activities and clearer explanations of behaviour expectations. During a visit, ask how staff now organise resources and help children understand why a rule matters.
• The youngest-room routine. Babies Room has a cap of nine and uses individual daily routines and diaries. Discuss how settling and sleep would work for your baby within that arrangement.
• The attendance agreement. The opening window runs from 7.30am to 6pm, while holiday and closure charges affect the overall commitment. Ask for the proposed booking pattern and a written breakdown covering funded hours, meals and consumables.
• Learning shared with home. Weekly book bags and preschool homework bring some activities into family time. Consider whether that style suits the involvement you want in your child’s early learning.

Small World Day Nursery suits families seeking care from babyhood through preschool, with daily practical communication in the younger stages and visiting Spanish and dance teachers as children grow. The baby-room cap, outdoor equipment and weekly books give parents concrete points to weigh.

The February 2023 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference, alongside clear questions about activity preparation and behaviour explanations. For parents comfortable with preschool learning extending home, this is an offer with substance beyond the opening hours. The attendance agreement and closure charges deserve equal attention before committing.