Stour Road Day Nursery

A baby sleep room upstairs, a mud kitchen outside and separate areas for toddlers and preschool children give Stour Road Day Nursery a clear shape. This purpose-built Christchurch setting combines spaces for different stages of childhood with a key worker system that links care, learning and communication with home.

At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and judged safeguarding effective. The important qualification was teaching: staff needed to explain intended learning more clearly so that children gained more from the activities they enjoyed.

Children are accepted from three months to five years. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions provide different attendance options, although minimum booking requirements matter, especially for children aged three and over.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillars Play Room emphasises babies’ early development, with an upstairs messy room for sensory exploration and a sleep room for rest. These separate spaces allow play, mess and sleep to have their own place in the baby day.

Busy Bees Play room encourages exploration and developing independence, with children aged 18 months to 2.5 years using a dedicated part of the downstairs space. Butterflies Play Room emphasises preparation for school through the areas of learning, alongside access to the downstairs messy room. The toddler area is separated during the day, while shared experiences can still take place when appropriate.

Room moves are treated as a transition rather than a fixed birthday deadline. Children have introductory sessions before moving downstairs, and their key workers exchange information. The timing can change to suit the child, making readiness part of the decision.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning and care: children explore through play, with reading and role play areas supporting different parts of their development. Both floors have activity zones, so the framework translates into recognisable things children can choose and do.

In July 2024, construction play brought together foam building bricks, toy vehicles, sand and factual books about buildings. Babies explored stories and sang with hand puppets; older children practised listening and contributing their ideas in group discussions. These examples show how practical play and language were brought together during the nursery day.

There was a teaching weakness alongside that activity planning. In July 2024, some explanations during a liquid-mixing experiment did not make the reason for the change clear enough. Enjoying an experiment and understanding it are different things. That distinction is the useful question behind the improvement action.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden combines paving and grass with a sheltered sandpit and a mud kitchen. This gives outdoor play several forms, from handling sand to imaginative cooking, rather than relying on a single open surface.

In July 2024, visiting football coaches and dance teachers introduced additional experiences. Children subsequently chose to practise the skills they had encountered. These were inspection-time examples of visitors extending what children could try, rather than a fixed weekly timetable.

Relationships and Communication

Free settling sessions ideally include one with a parent and two or three independently, with the arrangement adapted to the child. A key worker then observes the child’s development, helps plan next steps and acts as a familiar point of contact for the family.

Home routines have a practical place here. Staff try to match daytime sleep to the child’s usual pattern, and families can send familiar comforters. The upstairs sleep room gives that routine a separate space, while introductory sessions help children become familiar with the downstairs routine before a move.

Tapestry, the app used for babies’ daily diaries, gives parents an account of each session. Downstairs, children are encouraged to talk about their day themselves, with staff also available for conversations at session boundaries. Parent meetings take place every other term, and additional discussions can be arranged when concerns arise.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff used parental information and assessment to identify needs, adapted learning for children with SEND through targeted practice, and provided attentive care with established key-person relationships. The concrete mechanism matters: support involved adjusting what children practised, rather than simply expecting everyone to complete the same activity.

In July 2024, learning about feelings progressed from babies recognising emotions to older children expressing them in more developed language. Emotional development was part of the curriculum, giving children opportunities to name how they felt as well as take part in activities.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens on weekdays from 8am to 5pm. Morning sessions run from 8am to noon, afternoons from 1pm to 5pm, and full days from 8am to 5pm; half-day attendance follows the morning or afternoon pattern. Extra paid hours can be agreed in advance, and requests to adjust attendance are considered.

The general minimum is two full sessions or three half sessions, rising to three full days for children aged three and over. Funded bookings require two full days for children receiving 11 funded hours per week and three full days for those receiving 22 funded hours. For that older age group, morning and full-day attendance should begin by 9.15am so children can join the structured routine. These requirements make the weekly pattern as important as the session length.

Care runs across the year, with closures for bank holidays and a week at Christmas. Changing sessions or leaving requires four weeks’ written notice, and booked sessions remain chargeable during illness or additional holidays.

Getting There

The address is 77 Stour Road, Christchurch, BH23 1JL. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01202 485222, by email at information@stourroaddaynursery.com or through the contact form.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered on a stretched basis across 51 weeks. The funding categories include universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, extended funding for eligible working families, including children from nine months, and funding for eligible two-year-olds from non-working families. Additional attendance beyond funded hours is paid privately.

Breakfast and snacks are included with private sessions, with the food offered depending on the session; for funded children aged three and four, from the term after their third birthday, breakfast and snacks instead form part of a separately charged package. That funded package also charges separately for face wipes, suncream and services including Tapestry, cooking ingredients, music and movement, and sensory activities.

Families may request to opt out of the package’s chargeable services and activities, with four weeks’ notice. A deposit is refundable against the final invoice only when four weeks’ notice is given, the booked sessions are taken up and attendance lasts at least three months. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation; the sessions and fees information explains the charging structure.

• Teaching explanations. The July 2024 improvement action concerned how clearly staff taught the intended knowledge and skills. On a visit, ask how practitioners now explain an activity and establish what a child has understood.
• The weekly commitment. Funded bookings require two full days for 11 funded hours or three full days for 22 funded hours, while children aged three and over have a three-full-day minimum and a 9.15am attendance expectation for morning and full-day bookings. Ask how the two-full-day funded minimum interacts with the three-full-day requirement for children aged three and over.
• Funded extras. The separately charged package for funded three- and four-year-olds covers food, non-food items and activities, with a four-week opt-out notice period. Ask for a written breakdown of the chosen arrangement, including how an opt-out would work for your child.

Stour Road Day Nursery suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, provided the minimum weekly commitment fits. Its strongest practical features are the baby sleep space, staged room transitions and different indoor and outdoor play areas. The key worker and diary arrangements give families clear ways to stay involved.

The balance is straightforward: there is substantial detail about how children settle, play and move between rooms, alongside a specific July 2024 teaching improvement action. Families should weigh both the day-to-day arrangements and the clarity of teaching, rather than treating an enjoyable activity as the whole measure of learning.