Ashgrove Park Day Nursery

A sensory garden and play that follows children's interests give Ashgrove Park Day Nursery its character. This Ashley Down setting has capacity for 31 children aged one month to five years. Its scale is useful context for families, though the whole-nursery total is not a measure of the number sharing any particular activity.

At its April 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), were progressing well. Two improvements matter to parents: reducing the time children spend waiting during everyday routines and strengthening the conversations through which staff extend their language.

Outdoor play and individual relationships are the strongest threads here. The current day includes garden time for babies and opportunities for older children to move between outdoor and indoor play, while key-person meetings give parents a regular place to discuss development and changing interests.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the educational foundation: children develop language, physical skills, early mathematical understanding and knowledge of the world through play and everyday experiences. These are the shared early-years areas of learning, rather than an extra programme unique to Ashgrove.

Alongside that foundation, the two sister nurseries use Planning In the Moment, a child-led approach in which practitioners respond to an interest as it develops instead of redirecting children towards a previously selected task. The practical distinction is the starting point for learning: something a child notices or chooses can become the subject of further exploration. Parents contribute information about current interests through their key person. The learning and development page explains this shared approach.

In April 2025, children discussed the garden's tadpoles and how they would change into frogs. That example makes the approach tangible: an encounter outdoors became a reason to explain an idea and use new knowledge. Songs and stories also supported language, although staff sometimes asked questions children could not answer and missed opportunities to keep a conversation going.

School preparation includes cooking, painting and letter writing across the sister nurseries. These activities give preschool children opportunities to handle materials and practise skills, rather than making preparation solely about written work. In April 2025, everyday independence was also visible in children serving food, clearing their plates and managing coats and shoes with help where needed.

Outdoor and Community Life

Ashgrove shares the sister nurseries' provision of an all-weather outdoor area and a sensory garden. Bikes, building materials and water play offer different ways to be active and explore. This makes outdoor space part of the day rather than a single scheduled break.

The Ashgrove routine for older children includes several periods of movement between the garden and nursery room, with adjustments for weather. Babies have garden periods alongside indoor activities and stories. Families therefore have two different daily arrangements to consider, rather than assuming the same timetable applies across all ages.

Bristol Aquarium and Gloucester Road feature among outings undertaken across the sister nurseries. These are examples of past visits, rather than promises of a particular trip or frequency. They show how learning has extended beyond the nursery premises into places children can recognise in their wider community.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person. Across the sister nurseries, Spotlight meetings take place twice a year, during the child's birthday month and halfway between birthdays, bringing together developmental milestones, examples of learning and parents' updates about interests. That gives home and nursery a recurring opportunity to compare what a child is doing and enjoying.

Settling is adjusted to individual needs. For babies, sleep follows their own routine; older children who need a sleep also have a place for it in the daily timetable. In April 2025, staff followed babies' home routines and their relationships with key people helped them settle securely.

Ashgrove has a manager, deputy manager and baby lead, giving the youngest children's care a specific leadership role. The manager holds a Level 5 qualification. This describes the team's structure and experience, rather than establishing a current staffing ratio or group size.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Support for additional needs involves parents, relevant professionals and developmental observations. The sister nurseries work with Bristol City Council, read professional reports and attend review meetings where appropriate. These are concrete mechanisms through which care can be adjusted to a child's needs, with settling arrangements adapted as well.

Food comprises snacks and a lunch prepared each day by a chef. The nursery's allergy policy provides alternatives for dietary requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 60 Ashgrove Road, Ashley Down, Bristol BS7 9LQ. Opening hours are 8.15am to 5.45pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Bank holidays and the period between Christmas and New Year are closures, and there is an annual staff-training closure.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0117 951 3123 or through the enquiry form, selecting Ashgrove Park. Admissions give priority to families purchasing additional hours and take account of siblings already attending and time spent on the waiting list. These are decision rules, not an indication of current vacancies.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and privately paid hours are offered. Funding terms refer to universal funded hours, working parent entitlement hours and eligible two-year-old provision; eligibility remains a condition of accessing the relevant entitlement. Working-family eligibility codes require reconfirmation every three months.

Food is charged separately on funded days, with an opt-out arrangement leading to a nil-cost session; families must email the manager to opt out because the default is participation. The privately paid daily rate has no separate consumables or additional-services charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the funding and fees page sets out the charge structure.

Families buying additional hours pay a registration charge, consisting of a portion credited to their first invoice and a non-refundable registration element; it does not apply to Friday nil-cost sessions. The notice terms deserve close attention: for new parents booking an agreed start date, declining the place or reducing agreed days requires a minimum of six months' notice, while additional hours or extra charges have a one-month notice period. Funded attendance involves a termly commitment, with a shorter one-month notice period for eligible two-year-olds.

• Waiting during routines. In April 2025, children sometimes lost play time while waiting for everyday tasks such as meals. On a visit, ask how those transitions now work and how children remain occupied.
• Conversation as well as questions. The April 2025 language improvement concerned extending children's exchanges with adults. Ask for an example of how staff develop a child's idea during child-led play.
• Funding and booking commitments. Food has a funded-place opt-out arrangement, and the notice terms differ between booked days, additional charges and funded attendance. Before accepting a place, clarify the current funded timetable and obtain the applicable commitments in writing.
• Individual care arrangements. Baby sleep follows the child's routine, and the allergy policy provides alternatives. Use a visit to discuss sleep and, where relevant, confirm how dietary needs will be handled day to day.

Ashgrove suits families who value outdoor play, learning prompted by children's interests and a regular relationship with a key person. Its garden-based routines and Spotlight meetings give those priorities practical form.

The April 2025 judgement supports a positive assessment, tempered by the improvements required around waiting and conversation. For families combining funded childcare with paid hours, the food opt-out and differing notice commitments are consequential parts of the choice.