South Normanton Pre-School CIC

An eight-child Caterpillar Room and an outdoor area built for digging, balancing and making things give South Normanton Pre-School CIC a clear character. The younger room provides a small starting group, while outdoor play brings mud, loose parts and movement into the day. This is a pre-school for children from two to school age, based at The Hub in South Normanton, with capacity for 39 children overall.

At its June 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good and found safeguarding effective, with positive findings on support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including individual plans and access to a sensory room. Two improvements mattered: exchanging information with other nurseries children attended, and making some preschool routines work more effectively. Those points deserve as much attention as the grade.

Attendance is term-time, with morning sessions, full days and Breakfast Club offering different ways to organise the week.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillar Room takes children from age two, with a maximum of eight, combining indoor and outdoor play with communication, emotional development, movement and self-care. Sharing and choosing activities encourage independence. Its small cap matters for families considering a child's first group care.

Butterfly Room serves children from three to school age, with a maximum of 30 children, a large U-shaped layout, direct outdoor access and toilets within the room, while play is arranged around children's interests. Having toilets close to the activity space gives children opportunities to manage more for themselves. Staff support toilet training rather than making it a prerequisite for joining.

The usual move between rooms is around a child's third birthday, subject to room availability. It is a change in scale as well as age group, so the transition deserves thought for a child who has become comfortable in Caterpillar Room.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the common learning framework for early years education. Children develop language, relationships, physical skills, mathematics and creative expression through play, including conversations, mark-making, stories and practical exploration.

Finger Gym develops hand and wrist skills for threading, cutting and pencil use. Programmable toys, metal detectors and an interactive smartboard support exploration; planting and growing connect learning with the natural world.

In June 2024, water play became an opportunity to learn quantity language as staff discussed changing amounts between containers. Stories about monsters with different colours also helped children connect feelings with words and talk about what made them happy. The value lies in using familiar play and stories to make abstract ideas easier to understand.

Outdoor and Community Life

Both rooms lead directly to the outdoor area, where children spend a substantial part of their time. A mud kitchen, digging area and large sand pit provide space for mixing and investigating; balancing beams and obstacle courses add physical challenge. Reels, tubes and small tyres can become building materials rather than toys with a single prescribed use.

The stage area supports singing and dancing alongside bikes, den-making and chalk drawing, giving children different outlets for movement and imagination. Pack wellies, a coat and suitable footwear, plus a hat and sun protection for sunny weather.

In June 2024, garden games also supported turn-taking, and different wheeled toys allowed children to practise movement at different stages, from pushing themselves along to pedalling. Physical activity was connected with learning to play alongside others.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person before settling begins, giving families a first contact for concerns. Settling takes priority during the first half term; once the child is comfortable, observations inform discussions with parents and jointly agreed next steps.

Tapestry, the online learning journey used in Caterpillar Room, lets parents see learning from home or work and contribute experiences from home. The room also completes the progress check between ages two and three and shares it with parents. Together, these arrangements give families ways to contribute information as well as receive updates.

In June 2024, staff visited children at home before they started and used knowledge of their interests to plan their initial experiences. Books were also lent to families to support reading at home. Those were concrete ways of connecting home life and pre-school, rather than expecting the child to make the adjustment alone.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SEND procedure brings the key person, SENCO or manager and parents into decisions about additional support. Action plans set out the intervention, resources and intended outcomes, with a review agreed at least termly. Caterpillar Room also works with health visitors and Speech and Language therapists. For families, the useful mechanism is a shared plan that can be reviewed as the child's needs change.

Safeguarding arrangements include lead and deputy roles, and permanent staff have paediatric first aid training. For ongoing medical needs, parents help develop a healthcare plan specifying the information staff need to provide care.

Preparation for school includes sharing a child's development, friendships and additional needs with teachers, as happened in June 2024. Current transfer procedures also provide for a summary of learning and development. The purpose is continuity of care and learning when a child moves on.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Hub, Shiners Way, South Normanton, Derbyshire DE55 2AA. Registration enquiries can be made by telephone on 01773 811344 or through the contact form.

The detailed attendance arrangements are Monday to Friday during term time: mornings run from 9am to noon, and full days run from 9am to 3pm or from 8am to 2pm. Breakfast Club runs from 8am to 9am and can use funded hours or be paid for separately. An extra paid hour can extend the earlier full day to 3pm or add an 8am start to the later pattern.

The waiting list is arranged in birth order. Allocation also considers funded-entitlement eligibility, time on the list, home proximity and whether the setting can meet the child's individual needs.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funding includes the universal 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds from the term after their third birthday, delivered over 38 term-time weeks. Eligible two-year-olds can access funding through working-family or low-income and benefits routes, and the extended entitlement provides 30 hours for eligible families. The 30-hour arrangement can be taken across five full days or split with another provider; eligibility codes require validation and reconfirmation every three months.

Additional private hours and sessions can be purchased alongside funded attendance. Families should obtain a current written quotation covering the chosen pattern and paid extensions; the fees and funding information explains the structure.

Snacks carry no extra charge, including during funded attendance, while children staying for lunch bring a packed lunch; the dietary policy provides for individual allergy assessments and generally excludes nuts and nut products. Parents supply nappies, wipes and sun cream for both funded and private attendance, so those items belong in the daily bag rather than the childcare charge.

• Term-time coverage. Morning sessions and the two full-day patterns operate during term time. Families needing care during holidays will need an attendance plan that accounts for those breaks.
• Moving to Butterfly Room. The room caps change from eight in Caterpillar Room to 30 in Butterfly Room, and the move is subject to availability. On a visit, discuss how staff prepare a child for that change and how the settling plan works.
• Consistency between settings and daily routines. In June 2024, information exchange with other nurseries and some routines before lunch needed improvement. Ask how staff now coordinate with another provider and support children through tidying and lunchtime transitions.
• Packed lunches and allergies. Lunch comes from home, while the dietary policy generally excludes nuts and nut products. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice for packed lunches, snacks and their child's individual care plan.

South Normanton Pre-School CIC suits families seeking term-time morning sessions or full days, with Breakfast Club adding an earlier start. Its strongest practical attractions are the small Caterpillar Room, direct outdoor access from both rooms and an outdoor area that gives children plenty to build, dig and explore.

Parents who value outdoor play and communication through a key person and Tapestry have concrete reasons to consider it. The June 2024 improvements merit discussion, especially for children attending another nursery.