The Nest Day Nursery & Pre School

Library books, garden discoveries and trips to Queens park give The Nest Day Nursery & Pre School a recognisably Brighton childhood. Children choose books at Brighton Library, while visits to the local farmers market turn buying fruit into practice in conversation and making choices. Learning reaches beyond the nursery rooms.

At its June 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good. The setting has 50 places in total, for babies and children up to 5 years old, at 89 Islingword Road, Brighton, BN2 9SJ. A play village, direct garden access and a separate preschool sleep area give play and rest their own physical settings.

Attendance can combine full days and half days, with year-round and term-time options. That practical flexibility sits alongside a gradual settling process and everyday learning through stories, sensory exploration and outdoor activity.

Rooms and Ages

Wrens Nest accommodates babies. Their communication experiences include songs, daily books and simple signs used with speech: gestures for needs such as milk or more give children another way to express themselves before words come easily. Adults also spend individual time responding to sounds and naming objects, bringing language into ordinary care routines.

Preschool children have a play village and a separate sleep area. The distinction matters: imaginative play has a physical setting, while rest has a space of its own. Younger children's rest follows their individual needs rather than a single timetable for everyone.

Learning and Activities

Children learn through play, communication, movement and exploration. At The Nest, this takes concrete forms: counting snack-time crockery, comparing block constructions and experimenting with marks made in sand. Numbers and early writing belong to everyday activity rather than isolated exercises.

Phonics with Robot Reg adds regular sessions supporting early phonics. Elsewhere, puppets and acted stories help children explore narrative, while practitioners introduce vocabulary during conversation. Children can also invent stories that adults write down, perform or make into books, giving their ideas a visible purpose.

Messy play includes water, paint, mud and materials with different textures. Practitioners plan experiences for different ages, and children can experiment rather than reproduce a set finished object. For preschool children, science includes testing floating and sinking, building structures and watching ingredients change during cooking. These are opportunities to compare, predict and try again.

Outdoor and Community Life

Queens park is a regular destination, with road-safety practice on the walk and equipment to explore once children reach it. Brighton Library visits involve choosing books to take back. These outings connect nursery interests with places children can recognise beyond their usual day.

A recent preschool visit to Dobbies involved examining plants and searching leaves for insects. At the local farmers market, children choose fruit and hand over payment. The value is in participation: they have something real to select, discuss and bring back.

The garden also supports hands-on discovery. Children collect flowers for mixtures with water, explore leaf patterns through rubbings and use chunky chalks for drawing. Outdoor learning here includes close observation and small movements as well as energetic play.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with sessions alongside a parent or carer, allowing children to become familiar with staff and routines before attending independently. Each child has a key person, and families can share comforting habits, preferences and home routines before starting. The All About Me form makes those details part of the preparation.

Comforters and familiar toys can come from home. For babies, staff follow home routines as closely as possible, including the cues that help them settle and sleep. Updates during the day can accompany the settling period when needed; the Tapestry Parent App also forms part of parent communication.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Emotional support has practical tools. Staff use emotion charts, breathing exercises and conversations about feelings, alongside role play about sharing and disagreements. Adults wait until a child is calm before discussing an upset, then work with parents to align approaches with what helps at home.

The Colour Monster is one book used to explore emotions. Predictable routines and key-person relationships support this work, while children are encouraged to practise manageable tasks such as fastening a zip. School preparation similarly emphasises independence, communication and familiarity with routines, giving children everyday skills to take into Reception.

Sessions and Attendance

Full-day options include 8am to 6pm and 8am to 5pm. Funded plans also include 8.15am to 4.45pm and 8.30am to 4.30pm. Morning choices run from 8am to noon or 1pm; afternoon choices run from 1pm to 5pm or 6pm.

Prebooked flexible sessions are another choice. Across 51 weeks, half days have a four-hour minimum and full days an eight-hour minimum; across the 42-week term-time option, those minimums are four-and-a-half and nine hours respectively. Year-round minimum attendance is two days/16 hours, while term-time attendance requires 36 hours weekly. The 42-week full-day package also requires at least four days a week. Tea time restricts session finishing times.

Enquiries use the contact form, telephone or admissions email. A deposit holds a place, with refund timing depending on whether families use only funded entitlement or add private hours; cancellation makes it non-refundable. The registration charge is waived for funded-only places, and cancelling funded attendance requires one full month's notice.

Funding and Paid Extras

Early Years Free Entitlement (EYFE) includes 15-hour and 30-hour eligibility packages. Funding is stretched across either 51 weeks, providing 11 or 22 free hours weekly, or 42 weeks, providing 13 or 27. Additional private hours can sit alongside these plans, and optional enrichment covers Music, Yoga and Phonics classes.

Breakfast, snacks, dairy milk, nappies and wipes are included in both fees and funded hours; lunch and tea are charged separately on funded attendance, with home meals permitted under the Food from Home policy. For private year-round days lasting nine hours or longer, meals are included, while shorter days and term-time sessions have separate meal charges; fruit replaces desserts.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees and session options explain the attendance packages and charge structure.

• Young babies. Before arranging a baby's start, what minimum joining age applies to Wrens Nest, and how will the settling sessions fit their feeding and sleep routine?
• Weekly commitment. The 42-week option requires 36 hours each week. Families considering term-time half days should weigh the total commitment as well as individual session lengths.
• Funded extras. Lunch and tea carry separate charges, while enrichment is optional. Families planning meals from home should discuss the Food from Home policy when agreeing their attendance plan.
• Later regulatory record. Ofsted's records list a concern dated 16 December 2022; its outcome is not published, so families may want to ask the nursery about it.

The Nest suits families seeking full-day attendance or morning and afternoon half days, with a choice between year-round and term-time patterns. Its strongest practical appeal is the combination of gradual settling, individual baby routines and learning that extends into Brighton's parks, library and shops. The weekly minimums deserve careful thought, especially for term-time attendance. For children who enjoy books, materials and outdoor discovery, the daily experiences offer plenty to engage with.