The Old School Day Nursery

A former Victorian infant school, a tree-sheltered garden and weekly woodland learning give The Old School Day Nursery a recognisable character. This North Ascot setting combines rooms designed for different experiences with substantial outdoor provision: a fire pit, mud kitchen and growing garden make the grounds part of the learning day. The attraction is concrete. Children have places to investigate, make things and get involved with the natural world.

At its 25 May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding overall and across education, behaviour, personal development and leadership. The current offer accepts children from 18 months to five years, with creative projects, practical science and preparation for school alongside outdoor play.

Morning, afternoon, full-day and funded half-day patterns give families several ways to arrange attendance. The details matter, especially because the session boundaries differ from the nursery's opening hours.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play, relationships and everyday experiences contribute to their development. What this nursery adds is an approach built around discovery and revisiting ideas. Its Reggio Emilia-inspired environment uses equipment and invitations to play to encourage children to investigate together, communicate and solve problems.

That approach has a practical expression. Children build experimental volcanoes rather than simply hearing an explanation of them. Topics return during their time at nursery, allowing familiar ideas to be explored with greater complexity. The curriculum approach gives adults a supporting role while leaving children room to make decisions and test possibilities.

STEM, covering science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also starts with hands-on investigation. Making dough brings mixing, texture and changes through cooking into an ordinary activity; torches and light boxes invite exploration of shadows and light. Children can form an idea, try it and consider what happened. These are concrete experiences rather than a separate academic timetable.

For preschool children, Ginger uses a bear character and small-group work to develop emotional understanding, communication and independence before school. Looking after possessions and practising dressing give preparation an everyday purpose. Mathletes introduces number, shape, quantity and mathematical language through games and collaborative activities. Letters and sounds adds listening, rhyme and sound exploration, including instrumental sounds and body percussion. Together, these programmes address practical independence as well as early literacy and numeracy.

In May 2022, bread-making introduced children to new vocabulary, while a rainforest role-play activity involved finding and ordering numbers with homemade binoculars. Storytelling also prompted perfume-making with petals, scents and pipettes.

Outdoor and Community Life

Weekly Forest School provides sustained outdoor exploration in local woodland and natural areas throughout the year. Its activities include climbing, balancing, negotiating obstacles and, with adult support, using tools to make dens or shelters. The purpose is practical: children encounter unfamiliar situations and practise deciding how to approach them, rather than having every challenge removed.

Back at nursery, tree cover offers shelter for outdoor play. The garden includes an art and music station, water station and large sandpit, with a play park alongside. The growing garden adds another kind of involvement: living things can become something children tend and investigate. These spaces give outdoor time several purposes, from energetic movement to making, growing and experimentation.

Yoga sessions use storytelling to introduce movement, body awareness and self-regulation. Weekly art sessions give children opportunities to work both independently and together around themes.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins before the first contracted day. During the preceding month, families have a meet-and-greet with a team leader or their child's key person, followed by settling sessions during the two weeks before the start date. Those sessions carry no additional charge. The arrangement gives the child time to meet familiar adults and gives parents a named person with whom to share routines and concerns.

Parents can remain during settling for as long as they wish, and daily feedback includes photographs. In May 2022, communication also included regular progress updates through an online learning portal, giving families a way to follow learning beyond conversations at nursery.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the May 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and judged support for children with SEND exceptional, with individual and small-group interventions using dedicated sensory and physical playrooms.

Current communication tools include Now and Next cards, visual prompts that divide routines and instructions into manageable steps. Children can help choose the next card where appropriate, making a transition something they participate in. Five to Thrive is the nursery's approach to emotional wellbeing, with positive reinforcement and relationships used to support confidence and security.

A chef prepares fresh, seasonal food, with three hot meals during the day and a picnic replacing meals when children attend an offsite activity. The allergy arrangements use a child's photograph alongside a specific serving bowl, with extra staff presence prioritised at meals; allergy-affected families should discuss how those arrangements would work for their child.

Cooking is also part of learning. Children take part in a cooking activity each week, often contributing something for snack time, while older children can help prepare vegetables in small groups. This connects conversations about food with something they actually make and eat.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Fernbank Road, North Ascot, SL5 8LA. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year, with closures for bank holidays and the interval between Christmas and New Year.

Morning sessions begin no later than 9am and end at 1pm. Afternoon sessions run from 1pm to 5pm, while full-day sessions begin no later than 9am and finish at 5pm. Funded attendance examples also use half-day sessions. The distinction between opening hours and these booked sessions is important: the wider opening window should not be treated as the length of a full-day booking.

An expression-of-interest form starts the enquiry process, and the admissions team arranges a tour at an agreed time. Registration forms and terms follow the tour if the family wishes to proceed. A registration charge applies once registration is confirmed; cancellation more than three calendar months before the start date qualifies for its refund. After attendance begins, three calendar months' notice is required, with fees payable during that period.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through a stretched arrangement across 51 weeks. The 15-hour entitlement becomes 11.18 funded hours each week, and the 30-hour entitlement becomes 22.36. Eligibility conditions apply, and the nursery accepts children from 18 months, so funding information for younger children does not change its starting age.

Standard private fees include meals, snacks, nappies and other consumables, together with nursery-day trips and activities except swimming. Funded sessions have a different structure: meals and consumables are charged separately, with additional charges for snack and cooking activities and for activities or enhancements. Hours beyond the funded allocation can also contribute to the monthly bill.

These additional charges are not a condition of accessing a funded place. Families who decline the charging policy can be offered alternative days or hours without those charges, subject to the nursery arranging them. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and session terms explain the standard package and notice arrangements.

• Session boundaries. Full-day bookings finish at 5pm although the nursery remains open until 6pm. At a tour, discuss how a proposed booking would cover the hours your family needs.
• Funded attendance costs. Meals, consumables and activities can attract separate charges on funded sessions. Request a written plan showing the funded allocation, additional hours and the arrangements available if you decline those charges.
• Outdoor participation. Weekly Forest School continues throughout the year. Discuss clothing and how woodland activities would be adapted to your child's confidence and support needs.
• Leaving arrangements. Once a child starts, the contract requires three calendar months' notice and payment during that period. Build that commitment into plans for a move or a change of childcare.

The Old School Day Nursery suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with a strong preference for practical, creative and outdoor learning. Woodland exploration, experimental projects and the Ginger and Mathletes programmes give its offer substance. The Outstanding judgement from May 2022 supplies a positive historical assessment, while current routines and programmes explain what families are choosing now. Session boundaries, funded extras and the notice commitment deserve equal weight alongside that appeal.