Cats Whiskers Day Nursery

Family-run from a converted house on Florence Road, Cats Whiskers has been registered since 2000 and still reads as a neighbourhood setting rather than a branch of something larger. It has capacity for 44 children at any one time and takes them from three months to five years. The nursery describes itself as a family run, "home from home" nursery, and the two badges it displays, Healthy Early Years and Bournemouth Quality Standards, are local quality schemes rather than group marketing.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its inspection on 17 November 2021, with Good in each of the four underlying judgements. Sixty-five children were on roll that day against those 44 places, which is what part-week booking looks like from the inside.

Three rooms carry the age range, the garden does an unusual amount of the work, and lunches are cooked on the premises by an employed chef.

Rooms and Ages

The age range is divided three ways. Apples Room covers the first two years, Pears Room takes two- to three-year-olds, and Preschool sits on the ground floor, which puts the oldest children closest to the outside door and the garden beyond it. Room and group size is the fact parents of babies weigh hardest, and it is a question for the manager directly rather than a figure to read off a total: 44 is what the building holds, not what any one room holds.

Learning and Named Experiences

The framework here, as at every registered nursery in England, is the early years foundation stage. What it means for a day is this. It sets the areas of learning children work through, from communication and physical development to early literacy, mathematics and understanding the world, and it expects staff to reach them mostly through play, recording what a child can already do and choosing the next step from there.

In November 2021 the manager was planning a varied curriculum built on what children already knew and could do, and coaching staff to keep the environment stimulating indoors and out. Older children poured water onto food colouring, watched the colours change, then experimented with different quantities to see what happened next. Toddlers built large-muscle control and coordination with push-along toys and musical instruments. Where children attracted additional funding, the management team audited what it bought and verified that it made a difference, and those children gained resources and experiences such as music sessions that prepared them for the next stage of their learning.

The team includes a music specialist trained at the Royal College of Music and at Drumtech, alongside the chef and a staff group holding early years degrees and Level 3 qualifications.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden is where this setting distinguishes itself. Lawn areas and planting zones sit alongside vegetable patches, a mud kitchen and a mud station, with a canopied external area that keeps part of the outdoors usable under cover. That is the equipment for growing something and eating it, and for mess with a purpose. In November 2021 children moved freely around the rooms indoors and out, exploring a well-resourced environment and developing their own ideas.

Relationships and Communication

In November 2021 children had formed secure emotional attachments with all staff, and were happy and busy through the day, forming close friendships as they went. Staff noticed when a child was struggling to manage their emotions and stepped in quickly, which returned children to their play rather than leaving a small incident to become the afternoon. Parents told the inspector their children were happy and settled.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Inspectors found in November 2021 that the special educational needs coordinators worked in partnership with parents, other agencies and staff to reduce gaps in children's development, responding quickly to any developmental concern, and that the arrangements for safeguarding were effective.

The structure behind that is published. The nursery manager carries designated safeguarding lead and lead SENCO responsibilities, the deputy manager acts as SENCO and pastoral lead. Every member of staff holds full and current DBS checks. Two roles rather than one covering both safeguarding and additional needs is a genuine structural advantage in a setting of this size.

Food

Cooked lunches and puddings are prepared in house for every child. The nursery publishes a nut-free policy and states that it accommodates all dietary requirements, which is a conversation an allergy-affected family should still have with the manager before a first day. Breakfast, lunch and high tea, mid-morning fruit and drinks are included in the fee, along with enrichment activities.

The nursery is at 35 Florence Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth BH5 1HJ.

Sessions and Attendance

Three patterns are sold, not one all-day place with the edges trimmed off. A morning session runs 8am to 1pm, an afternoon session 1pm to 6pm, and a full day 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Non-funded hours carry a minimum of four sessions, with a half day counting as one session towards that minimum. The nursery operates 51 weeks a year, closing on bank holidays and for a week at Christmas, so a place here is stretched across the calendar rather than dropped every school holiday.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded early education is offered on both current routes. Early Education Funding covers the universal 15 hours from the term after a child's third birthday, with extended Childcare for Working Parents options available across up to 51 weeks a year. Under Childcare for Working Families, from September 2025 eligible families with children from nine months can access 30 hours a week. Current prices for privately paid hours come in the nursery's own written quotation, and its fees page sets out the session structure the quotation is built from.

• The inspection is now some years old. The last graded visit was in November 2021, when the setting held Good in every judgement. Staff, rooms and routines move on in five years, so read the report as evidence of direction rather than a description of today, and ask on a visit what has changed.
• Two improvement points were left open. Two things were set down for the provider in November 2021: helping staff link the intent behind a planned activity to how it is actually delivered, so children are fully challenged and engaged, and reorganising routine events such as snack time, which interrupted some children's learning. Both concern the shape of the day rather than safety, and both are fair to raise on a visit.
• Sessions, and getting the days you want. Privately paid hours need a minimum of four sessions, so this is not a setting for a single morning a week. Where a nursery cannot offer full-time attendance, families often take a part week, partial days, or days that were not their first choice; in busy areas parents register long before a child is born and are still offered only some days, and some split a child between two settings until the first has room. Ask early and be specific about which days you need.
• Allergies and diet. A published nut-free policy and a stated willingness to accommodate all dietary requirements are a strong starting position, but practice, not policy, is what an allergy-affected family is buying. Confirm current kitchen arrangements with the manager.

A converted house with a working garden, a chef, a music specialist and separately named safeguarding and SEND leads is a lot of substance for a 44-place independent nursery, and the Good across every judgement in November 2021 describes a setting doing this competently. The two improvement points are real but modest, concerning the polish of the day rather than its foundations.

It suits families who want full days across a stretched 51-week year, and equally those whose week only needs a morning session or an afternoon session, provided they can commit to four sessions of privately paid hours. Families of babies should press hardest on room size and staffing before committing. Families who want mud, vegetable beds and outdoor time built into the ordinary day, rather than offered as an occasional treat, will find more of it here than the frontage of a converted house implies.