The Apple Tree Day Nursery

A baby building in the garden, an oak tree shading outdoor play and a conservatory for messy exploration give The Apple Tree Day Nursery a recognisable character. This Attleborough setting separates its youngest children's space from the main house, while older children have room to move, make and experiment. The physical layout is a substantial part of its appeal.

Children attend from 3 months to 5 years. At its April 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, while identifying a need for greater learning challenge and more room for children's own ideas.

The Pippins, The Russets and The Bramleys provide successive stages of nursery life, with a key person supporting each child and parents contributing to development planning. Funded attendance can follow either a term-time pattern or a stretched arrangement across the year.

Rooms and Ages

The Pippins covers the 0 to 2 age band in a separate garden building, with reading nooks, gentle lighting, space for crawling and climbing, and a canopy over its dedicated outdoor area supporting sensory exploration. For a baby, the useful distinction is physical: outdoor experience belongs to their own space rather than depending entirely on the main garden.

The Russets, for children aged 2 to 3, occupies the upstairs of the house, combining a wooden play kitchen and reading spaces with a sensory room where textures, sounds and lighting support exploration and quieter moments. The Bramleys, aged 3 to 5, uses the ground floor, where role play, books and activity trays lead into a conservatory for painting, sculpting, pouring and investigating.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning, development and care: children learn through play and direct experiences, with activities planned around their interests and next steps. Montessori principles also influence the approach, with independence and exploration emphasised alongside that framework.

The nursery's Curiosity approach Ethos uses natural materials and planning that responds to children's interests, encouraging conversation as children investigate and pursue ideas. Its free-flow arrangement lets children move between indoor spaces and outdoors.

In April 2022, babies explored coloured rice and books, while older children brought sticks inside to use for painting. Those examples show how simple materials can become starting points for discovery. The same visit also exposed the limit: adults sometimes gave excessive direction or missed chances to take learning further. Choice and adult support both matter here.

Outdoor and Community Life

The main garden supplies more than space to run. An oak tree gives shade, mixed terrain changes the experience of moving around, and a mud kitchen, wooden playhouse, climbing frame and slide offer different forms of physical and imaginative play. Flower beds support growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, linking planting with caring for living things and harvesting.

The conservatory opens directly onto the garden, connecting indoor messy play with outdoor exploration.

A January 2024 visit from NR Medical Training brought basic first aid into children's play through scenarios, including bandages and the recovery position.

Relationships and Communication

Every child has a key person who observes their development and uses interests from home and nursery to shape planning. Settling sessions introduce the child's routines, abilities and needs, with parents and the key person agreeing initial development priorities.

Parents can view their child's learning journal and add comments, and regular meetings provide opportunities to review progress. A secure app also carries observations, photographs and information about eating and naps. Weekly email newsletters share activities and photographs, and families receive a magazine three times a year. Families therefore have both individual updates and a broader picture of nursery life.

In April 2022, staff followed babies' individual routines and comforted them after sleep; preschool children practised fastening their coats.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENCO works with key persons on individual plans and adapts activities and resources to children's abilities and interests. With parental consent, the role includes liaison with Early Years Inclusion Officers, Speech and Language Therapists and Health Visitors. Parents join reviews of targets and strategies, keeping support connected across home, nursery and other professionals.

Families using another language at home are encouraged to share useful words so the key person can use them with their child. Moving rooms involves a handover of relevant information; moving to school can include teachers visiting the nursery, transition documents and, where appropriate, a supported school visit with parents and the key person. These are practical mechanisms for continuity.

Meals are prepared in the on-site kitchen, with age-appropriate menus and dietary requirements catered for. The nursery operates a No Nuts policy and allows home food subject to its food rules, including allergen information and restrictions on shop-bought or pre-prepared lunches.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Norwich Road, Attleborough, NR17 2JX. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year; bank holidays and a week at Christmas are closures. The weekday opening window gives the overall boundary for attendance, while funded bookings follow their own fixed-session arrangements.

Under the group-wide funding terms used here, funded sessions start at 8am, 9am or 1pm, with lengths of 3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7.5 or 10 hours. Sessions cannot be joined together. Early collection is permitted, but the booked session is still claimed in full, and time beyond it is charged privately. That distinction matters when matching a funded booking to working hours.

Term-time funding runs over 38 weeks, while stretched funding spreads the entitlement over 51 weeks. Switching between those arrangements is permitted at the September start of the academic year. Enquiries can be made through the enquiry form, by telephone on 01953 453316 or by email to theappletree@goldenapples.co.uk; a showaround booking form is also provided.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use funded childcare, with 15 or 30 hours per week in the term-time model depending on age and eligibility. Additional private hours are offered. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the price-list page provides the route to its charging information.

During funded sessions, nursery meals and snacks are charged separately; families may instead bring food under the home-food policy. Nappies, wipes, nappy bags, cream and sun cream must come from home each day; a replacement charge applies if required items are missing. Funded childcare therefore needs to be considered separately from food and daily supplies.

Optional enrichment is separately charged, with families able to opt in or out for a term; opting out retains the full early years curriculum. These charging arrangements apply across the group.

An enrolment deposit is refunded after the child starts. A non-refundable administration charge applies only when families purchase private hours in addition to funding, and supports settling visits and a meeting about the child's routines and needs.

• Learning challenge. In April 2022, children needed more opportunities to develop their own ideas and receive greater challenge from adults. During a visit, ask how practitioners now extend an activity while leaving children room to shape it.
• Fixed funded bookings. Start times, non-combinable sessions and September-only changes between term-time and stretched funding affect how attendance fits family routines. Discuss the intended weekly pattern alongside the nursery's opening hours before committing.
• Food and daily supplies. During funded attendance, nursery meals and snacks are charged separately. Families supply daily personal consumables. Allergy-affected families should confirm current kitchen practice and home-food requirements, including the No Nuts policy.
• The baby building. The Pippins has its own garden building and covered outdoor space. On a showaround, ask how sleep, outdoor play and settling are organised within that separate area for your child's routine.

The Apple Tree suits families looking for garden-based exploration, clearly separated age-stage spaces and a care relationship built around a key person. The Pippins' separate building, The Russets' sensory room and The Bramleys' conservatory give that proposition concrete substance. Term-time funded attendance and stretched attendance across the year serve different family routines, although both require attention to fixed booking rules.

The dated inspection judgement supports a positive assessment with a clear reservation about challenge and children's independence in learning. Individual support plans, parent contributions and school-transition arrangements add practical depth. For families comfortable with separate food charges during funded attendance and daily supplies brought from home, the combination of physical space, responsive planning and structured communication has practical appeal.