Twiglets Private Nursery

Two rooms, a large outdoor area and a key person for every child give Twiglets Private Nursery a clear, small-setting character. In Sutton Coldfield, it has 40 places in total across the nursery for children aged two to five. The younger children's room combines space for independent exploration with a nearby key person; preschool children have room to play alongside activities with adults.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Twiglets Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children made good progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). That judgement has a date. The practical strengths today are the separate room arrangements, daily care updates through Famly and a choice of term-time attendance patterns.

Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions serve different family routines. There are also two useful cautions from May 2022: mathematical learning sometimes advanced before children were ready, and scheduled activities could interrupt absorbing play. Both deserve attention alongside the positive judgement.

Rooms and Ages

The Under Two's and Two-Year Old Room is an open room arranged as two spaces, with pretend play in a home corner, quieter time in a reading corner and daily outdoor access. Its layout gives younger children different ways to occupy themselves, while keeping their key person close enough to support exploration.

The Pre-School Room combines space for play with adult-supported tabletop activities, and open doors in summer allow children to move between the room and an adjoining outdoor area. School preparation sits alongside learning at each child's pace. These are different room arrangements rather than a single space used identically by every age group.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage is the framework for children's learning, development and care: it brings their learning and everyday care into the same account of nursery life. The clearest examples of learning here come from May 2022. Children explored dinosaur diets and habitats, using vocabulary such as herbivore and carnivore, and learnt about parts of the skeleton, including the skull. Familiar stories and songs also gave them opportunities to remember details and put events in order.

In May 2022, practical exploration included changing the consistency of a flour-and-oil mixture. Children experimented with adding ingredients rather than simply following an adult's demonstration. That is a useful example of children testing an idea through play, although the same dated account identified interruptions for snacks and adult-directed activities.

Outdoor learning also had a practical purpose in May 2022: large brushes and water encouraged broad arm movements, while using tweezers for small objects exercised finer movements. These experiences connected physical activity with the movements needed for writing. The current large outdoor area provides space beyond the two indoor rooms; younger children use it daily, and preschool indoor-outdoor movement is described for summer.

Relationships and Communication

Every child receives a key person when joining. In the younger room, the arrangement explicitly combines independent exploration with having that adult nearby. For families, this gives the room's layout a care purpose as well as a play purpose: children can explore while retaining a familiar point of support.

Famly makes daily care visible to parents. Staff use the app to log sleep, meals and nappy changes, alongside photographs and updates about nursery life. Its calendar is refreshed each term, and invoices arrive through the same platform. Care information and routine administration therefore sit together, which is useful for parents keeping track of a child's day and nursery dates.

In May 2022, staff worked with parents on toilet training and helping children become more independent. Children also took an active role in preparing fruit for snacks, including peeling and separating pieces. These examples show the practical content of independence at that time, rather than treating school preparation solely as adult-led learning.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The May 2022 account described referrals to external agencies and targeted learning plans developed with other professionals for children with SEND. It also described support for parents to continue learning at home. Those are concrete mechanisms behind the dated judgement, rather than a general promise about meeting every need.

Day-to-day information about eating, sleep and changing is recorded through Famly. This gives parents a practical account of care routines alongside photographs of activities, rather than relying only on a brief conversation at the end of a session.

Sessions and Attendance

Twiglets is at 93 Carhampton Road, Sutton Coldfield, B75 7PG. Opening hours are 8am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 38 weeks, with school holidays closed. This is a term-time arrangement, so the holiday calendar matters as much as the daily hours.

Morning sessions run from 8.30am to 11.30am; afternoon sessions run from 12.30pm to 3.30pm. A full day runs from 8am to 3.30pm, with a separate lunchtime session from 11.30am to 12.30pm. Some flexibility within opening hours is also offered. The combination accommodates shorter attendance and a day spanning lunch, while keeping the afternoon finish the same.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0121 378 0514, by email at info@twigletsprivatenursery.co.uk or through the contact form. There is also a direct enquiry route into Famly.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded and privately paid sessions are offered. Funding includes 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds, 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds and funding for working parents; these sit within the nursery's term-time operation. For eligible two- and three-year-olds, funded places start in the term after the relevant birthday; attendance before funding eligibility is privately charged. Hours beyond a child's funded allowance are charged separately. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen pattern, using the sessions and prices information to understand the charge structure.

NutriFresh prepares hot lunches off site and delivers them ready for serving; a hot lunch costs extra, while families may choose a packed lunch instead. Morning and afternoon snacks and drinks carry no additional charge, including alongside funded attendance.

Parents supply nappies and wipes for each nursery day; the nursery does not levy a consumables charge for them. Keeping this separate from lunch and additional hours makes the funding arrangement easier to understand: funded hours, food choices and supplies from home are different parts of the family's plan.

• Term-time coverage. The 38-week calendar closes for school holidays, and the day ends at 3.30pm. Families needing childcare beyond that schedule will need to account for those periods in their arrangements.
• Learning at the right pace. In May 2022, mathematics sometimes moved ahead of children's understanding. During a visit, ask how staff now decide when a child is ready for the next mathematical idea.
• Time to finish play. May 2022 routines sometimes interrupted children's chosen activities. A useful visit question is how snacks and adult-led learning fit around sustained play today.
• Younger children's entry. The younger room's name includes under-twos, while the current age range is two to five. For a younger child, establish the entry age before making attendance plans.

Twiglets suits families seeking either morning or afternoon attendance, as well as those wanting a full term-time day ending at 3.30pm. Its appeal is concrete: two differently arranged rooms, outdoor space, a key person for each child and daily information through Famly.

The Good judgement from May 2022 is a positive anchor, with specific cautions about mathematical sequencing and interruptions to play. The decision turns on how the term-time timetable fits family life and how those learning routines work now.