The Corner House Day Nursery

An Edwardian house, upstairs baby rooms and a garden with a separate area for the youngest children give The Corner House Day Nursery a clear character. This Bournemouth setting combines spaces for quieter care with practical, hands-on learning: toddlers have an outdoor mud kitchen, while older children plant, explore science and take walks beyond the nursery. The physical arrangements matter as much as the activities.

There is capacity for 54 children, with the current age range running from birth to five. At its 23 February 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good and found its safeguarding arrangements effective. That judgement came with two priorities: bringing more mathematics into play and making staff interactions more consistent in extending children's learning.

Full days, morning sessions and afternoon sessions give families different attendance patterns, with a separately charged breakfast extension. The strongest practical features are the separate baby sleep space, a key-person system and digital learning journals that connect parents with their child's day.

Rooms and Ages

Cherry Blossoms covers three to 15 months, with sensory materials, music and stories fitted around babies' existing routines; its upstairs accommodation shares access to a separate sleep room and milk kitchen. Silver Birch follows at 15 to 24 months, with the baby provision using soft furnishings, treasure baskets and instruments to support exploration and quieter moments. Keeping sleep and feed preparation in separate spaces gives these routines a defined place alongside play.

Elms, for 24 to 30 months, combines early independence with activities such as threading, cooking and matching games, supported by toddler resources including water trays and an outdoor mud kitchen. Willows, from 30 months to three years, continues that toddler emphasis on doing more independently, with imaginative play, mark making and sleep mats for children needing rest. These are useful details for families whose children are gaining confidence with meals and toilet training but still need daytime sleep.

Sycamores serves children aged three to five, adding phonics, science, problem solving and planting to play, with book corners, creative materials and quiet areas within the preschool provision. The emphasis shifts towards exploring ideas and developing the skills used in school, rather than replacing play with formal lessons.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning, development and care, covering children's communication, physical and social development alongside areas such as mathematics, literacy and expressive arts. At Corner House, those areas connect through practical experiences: cooking brings together food choices and self-care, while a topic about people who help us creates opportunities for conversation, counting and creative work.

Development Matters is used as non-statutory guidance for planning and assessment. Alongside it, the Curiosity Approach introduces open-ended resources within a calm setting. These additions sit within the Early Years Foundation Stage; they give practitioners ways to organise experiences rather than replacing the framework.

Achievement Trees let families contribute things their child has accomplished at home, helping staff plan from interests and experiences beyond nursery. Monthly activity sheets extend that connection. Cookery classes and sessions combining music with movement add different ways to take part, so learning is not confined to table activities or recorded observations.

In February 2023, children explored foam, pasta and water, poured liquids into bottles and worked dough with tools. Adults introduced vocabulary during play, while dough manipulation gave children practice using the small muscles involved in writing. However, opportunities to introduce mathematical ideas were sometimes missed, and adult participation did not consistently take learning further. The resources and the teaching around them both matter.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden includes equipment for active exploration, and babies have their own outdoor area. Beyond the grounds, outings include the post office, local shops and park, with beach visits dependent on the weather. Preschool walks also include the library. These experiences connect nursery learning with familiar places and everyday errands.

Growing food gives environmental learning something tangible: children take part in choosing seeds and planting, with carrots, potatoes and runner beans among the crops grown. A water butt collects rainfall for watering plants. Children can connect a practical job with what plants need, rather than learning about sustainability only through discussion.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a designated key person within their room, responsible for care, observations and communication with parents. Settling begins with two free sessions lasting two hours each. The key person introduces the room team and discusses the child's development and individual needs, giving families a specific practitioner to build a relationship with.

The eyLog digital reporting system records development and helps plan next steps, with parents able to access their child's learning journal. Room tablets capture photographs, audio and video. Parents can add their own contributions, while newsletters and take-home activities offer another connection between home and nursery.

An open-door policy allows parents to discuss care or development with staff. Parents' evenings take place twice a year, creating a separate opportunity for a fuller conversation about progress. Digital updates are therefore one part of communication, alongside direct discussion with the people caring for the child.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff worked with parents and other agencies to coordinate support for children with additional needs. In February 2023, practitioners also used calm explanations to guide behaviour, and children received recognition for being helpful and considerate. These are dated observations of practice, rather than a promise about an individual child's experience now.

All staff hold paediatric first aid certificates and undergo DBS checks. The team includes apprentices and staff with differing childcare qualifications. For families, the useful practical detail is the first aid coverage across the team; qualification labels alone do not explain how a particular room operates.

A chef prepares lunch and tea on site, using fresh produce, with a four-week menu rotation that changes with the seasons. Parents supply formula, and baby-room staff work with families during weaning.

The separate baby sleep room has monitors, while toddlers have mats for rest. Children also practise everyday health routines, including handwashing before food and supervised tooth cleaning after meals. Care includes these small routines as well as the activities that fill the learning journal.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 62 Portchester Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8LA. Core opening hours are 8am to 6pm on weekdays, across 51 weeks of the year, with bank-holiday closures and a Christmas closure lasting one week. Families can contact the nursery by telephone or email.

A full day runs from 8am to 6pm; morning sessions finish at 1pm after an 8am start, and afternoons run from 1pm until 6pm. The breakfast extension covers 7.30am to 8am and costs extra. It requires a block booking and cannot be bought as an ad-hoc session.

For the three-month-to-two-year age band, the minimum pattern is two full days. Children aged two to five have a minimum of four sessions each week. Additional hours and ad-hoc sessions can be requested at an extra charge, so the regular booking pattern and occasional extensions are separate arrangements.

Getting There

There is a large car park for collection and drop-off. Parents remain responsible for supervising their children in the parking area.

Funding and Paid Extras

Universal funding provides 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds, while eligible working parents can receive 30 hours from nine months, subject to eligibility conditions and the child's age at the start of each term. Corner House stretches funding over its 51-week year: the weekly maximum is 11 hours for universal entitlement and 22 hours for extended entitlement.

Food is included in private-hour fees, whereas meals and snacks on funded sessions carry separate charges. Funded hours also attract an activities charge and a charge labelled Non-Consumables. Parents provide formula and sun cream. These categories need to be read separately when comparing a funded booking with additional private hours.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page explains the charging structure. A non-refundable registration charge and a deposit apply when reserving a place, but neither applies to wholly funded attendance; adding non-funded hours brings those rules into play. The deposit is credited against the final month's fees when payments are up to date.

Fees are paid monthly in advance, and absences or family holidays do not attract reductions or replacement days. Withdrawal requires six weeks' notice, with the deposit lost if that notice is not given. Those terms matter when working out how a booking fits changing work or family plans.

• Babies and minimum attendance. The younger age band requires two full days, and the baby rooms are upstairs with separate sleep and feed-preparation spaces. During a visit, discuss how your child's existing routine would fit that pattern and those spaces.
• Learning beyond the activity. In February 2023, improvement priorities concerned mathematics within play and the consistency of adult interactions. Ask how staff now introduce number, size and quantity and extend children's ideas during everyday activities.
• The funded-hours quotation. Funded attendance has separate food, activities and Non-Consumables charges, while wholly funded bookings are exempt from registration charges and deposits. Ask for the proposed booking to be itemised, including what the Non-Consumables category covers.
• Changing a booking. Six weeks' withdrawal notice, charges during absences and the block-booking rule for breakfast all affect flexibility. Consider these terms against irregular working hours or planned holidays before committing.

Corner House suits families choosing either full-day attendance or morning and afternoon sessions who value separate baby care spaces, practical learning and regular communication with a key person. Its character comes from concrete arrangements: a sleep room and milk kitchen upstairs, toddler independence activities, preschool science and planting, and eyLog journals linking home with nursery.

The February 2023 judgement provides a positive assessment with clear teaching priorities. The decision also turns on the minimum attendance pattern and the total structure of a funded booking. Families comfortable with those terms have a nursery whose rooms, routines and activities offer a clear basis for comparison.