Hillbury House Nursery

A baby suite with its own cot room, a sports hall and a climbing wall give Hillbury House Nursery a recognisable character: small in overall size, but with several different spaces for children's day. This independent Hove nursery has 30 places in total and accepts children from three months to five years. It is not part of a chain.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 30 October 2023 inspection. The useful detail behind that judgement is balanced: children enjoyed close relationships with their key person and opportunities beyond the nursery, while staff needed to pitch activities more accurately and handle behaviour more consistently. Those are practical points for parents to weigh alongside the physical facilities.

Full days, mornings, afternoons and shorter days sit alongside fully funded session options. The nursery's scale and separate provision for babies will interest families seeking a smaller setting, while the indoor spaces give active children somewhere to move as well as somewhere to concentrate.

Rooms and Ages

Babies (0-18 months) has space for six babies, with a play room for stories, music and messy activities and a separate cot room for sleep. For parents choosing care for their youngest child, that room cap is more useful than the whole nursery's capacity: it describes the baby provision itself. The nursery accepts children from three months, within that youngest age band.

Toddlers (18 months – 2 1/2 years) move into the main nursery after joining activities there beforehand, retaining contact with the baby room and having their own story time, outdoor play and access to the indoor gymnasium. The move is introduced through familiar experiences rather than beginning with an entirely new setting on the day of transfer.

Older Children (2 1/2 – 5 years) use the nursery's activity areas for developing basic skills, stories and number rhymes, with beds or cots available when parents want a daytime sleep. Rest remains an option as children grow. The emphasis is on extending what children can do, alongside the ordinary routines of eating, playing and sharing their work with home.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, bringing play, relationships and growing independence into the same day. Hillbury House puts hands-on experiences alongside quieter individual work: painting and model-making in the creative room, imaginative play with dressing-up clothes and a home corner, and work on shapes, matching and pencil control in the quiet room.

These spaces serve different purposes. Water play, sand and cooking give children materials to manipulate; the quiet room allows work at an individual child's level. Balls, trikes and scooters in the sports hall offer a more energetic change of pace. Families whose children enjoy movement as much as making things have concrete facilities to consider here.

Children's interests can shape projects. An enthusiasm for trains can lead to songs, stories and an actual train journey, with photographs used afterwards to revisit the experience. Ideas from home, including a favourite book or a new pet, can also inform the day. That gives parents a practical way to contribute something their child already cares about.

In October 2023, children enjoyed a space topic and could identify planets, but some tasks demanded more than their abilities allowed. Adults also sometimes took too much control of younger children's activities, reducing their interest and room for creativity. The distinction matters: an appealing topic needs an appropriate task if the child is to remain involved.

Outdoor and Community Life

Community outings connect nursery activities with everyday experiences, including using money in shops and noticing shapes in buildings. Babies also go to parks, beaches and other places of interest with parental consent. These are opportunities to carry learning beyond the nursery's own rooms, rather than treating an outing as separate from the day's play.

In October 2023, children visited shops and care homes and joined sponsored community walks for charity. Contact with people beyond their immediate families formed part of their experience. Back at the nursery, summer parties and Fancy Dress Days involve the children, including babies; dressing up is part of the latter event.

Relationships and Communication

Settling is flexible. Parents can make several visits before their child starts and stay initially if they wish; a familiar comforter or toy can accompany the child. Baby routines can follow those used at home, and parents receive an account of their baby's day at the end of a session. That combination gives families something specific to work with when introducing care away from home.

In October 2023, babies sought comfort from their key person after sleep, while older children returned to theirs for stories and play. Learning bags and shared home projects helped connect nursery activities with family life, and regular coffee mornings gave parents time with staff. The relationship extended beyond a brief exchange about the day's practicalities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and SEND support good, with the SENCo coordinating targeted plans alongside families, key persons and other professionals. These are dated judgements, rather than guarantees about every child's experience.

The current SEND policy sets out an assess, plan, do and review process. Parents help agree a support plan, staff put it into practice, and its effect is reviewed; outside agencies can become involved where progress remains below expectations despite support. This gives a family a sequence for discussing needs and reviewing whether an intervention is helping.

The inclusion policy adds practical measures: adapting routines and activities, representing different families in resources, and using families' cultures, languages and traditions in stories, food and music. Its value lies in those mechanisms, rather than a general promise that every child will find the same approach suitable.

Families can send labelled meals and drinks from home, or choose separately charged meals through Little Tums catering. Parents supply nappies, wipes and other personal hygiene items, so these need to be part of the child's everyday bag.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 81 Denmark Villas, Hove, BN3 3TH. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with bank-holiday closures and a break around Christmas and New Year. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and the nursery has a contact form.

Paid attendance includes a Full Day from 8am to 6pm, Morning from 9am to 1.30pm and Short Day from 9am to 4pm. Afternoon sessions start at 1.30pm, with different finishing times across the fee tables: 5pm in the non-funded session table and 6pm in monthly tables and funded-session arrangements. Flexible part sessions and ad hoc hours are also offered.

Fully funded term-time options run over 38 weeks. For 15 hours, the choices are 9am to 3pm, 9.30am to 12.30pm or 1.30pm to 4.30pm, up to the weekly entitlement; the 30-hour option uses daily 9am to 3pm sessions. Stretched provision runs over 50 weeks: the 11.4-hour options are two weekly sessions from 9am to 2.30pm or three from 9am to 12.45pm, while the 22.8-hour option uses daily 8am to 12.30pm sessions.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use 15 Hour Funding or 30 Hour Extended Funding, with term-time and stretched arrangements. Additional hours beyond fully funded sessions are optional. Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers are also accepted; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Meals are optional paid extras, including on fully funded sessions, and families may provide their own instead. The Christmas Party is another optional extra, with families free not to attend. Parents provide personal hygiene consumables; neither funding nor an additional paid session changes the need to send nappies and wipes.

Fully funded places have no deposit or registration charge. Other arrangements include a refundable deposit, subject to the leaving-notice condition, and a non-refundable registration and administration charge. Monthly payments are collected in advance. Termination terms specify one month's notice for EYFE-only contracts and contracts where EYFE cannot be separated from non-funded hours, while general leaving terms specify two months; session changes require one month's notice.

Getting There

A shared off-street car park can be used for collection and drop-offs. This is a practical benefit for families transporting a baby and an older child together, although the parking is shared rather than exclusive to the nursery.

• Activity level and behaviour. In October 2023, some tasks were too demanding and adults sometimes over-directed younger children's play; inconsistent responses also left children repeating unwanted behaviour. On a visit, ask how staff now adjust tasks and maintain shared expectations.
• Afternoon finishing time. The fee tables give both 5pm and 6pm finishes for an Afternoon beginning at 1.30pm. Agree the finishing time for the particular booking before organising work and collection.
• Leaving terms. Termination terms specify one month for EYFE-only contracts and contracts where EYFE cannot be separated from non-funded hours, while general leaving terms specify two months and attach a condition to returning the deposit. Establish which terms apply to the contract being signed.

Hillbury House suits families looking for a small independent nursery with a separate baby suite, several activity spaces and experiences that extend into the community. Its attendance choices cover morning sessions, afternoons, shorter days and full days, as well as defined fully funded patterns.

The sports hall, quiet room and six-baby provision give parents tangible reasons to consider it. The October 2023 concerns about activity matching and behaviour consistency deserve equal attention. A useful visit would concentrate on how those practices work now, alongside the room and session arrangement that fits the child.