Muddy Boots Day Nursery

Nine acres of woodland give Muddy Boots Day Nursery a character that its modest size alone cannot explain. A converted detached house provides the indoor base; Forest School adds woodland exploration, gardening and practical outdoor activities to the day. With capacity for 28 children, this Stoke Bishop setting combines a small overall scale with substantial space beyond the building.

At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding overall and found that its ambitious teaching helped children make excellent progress. The useful detail lies beneath that judgement: children tested a rope-operated outdoor system, babies stretched towards sensory play, and older children worked through practical problems rather than immediately handing them to an adult.

The accepted age range is three months to five years, with Ladybirds and Busy Bees providing the named age-group arrangements. All-day attendance and ad hoc morning or afternoon sessions are offered, subject to a minimum attendance of two days each week.

Rooms and Ages

Ladybirds, for three months to two years, has first-floor accommodation with a discovery room for imaginative play and music, a creation room for sensory activities, and a separate cot room for sleep, while daily planning follows each baby's routine and social and physical development. The separation of lively play from naps is a useful practical feature for families balancing sleep with an increasingly curious baby.

Busy Bees, for two to four years, combines an imagination room for stories and pretend play, an investigation room for science and problem-solving, and an invention room for artistic and sensory activities. Children can choose resources for themselves during parts of the day, alongside shared activities that practise cooperation. These are different ways to participate: a child can pursue an individual idea, then spend time learning with others.

Separate teams work with the two groups. The whole-setting capacity should not be read as the number of children sharing either group's space, and the room arrangement matters as much as the overall size when considering a baby's day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum provides the framework for learning through play, developing relationships, confidence and the skills children need for later learning. Individual play plans connect that framework to each child's interests and development. Group planning also takes account of what individual children need, so personal plans and shared activities work alongside one another.

In July 2024, staff gathered children's interests and opinions on a children's voice board and used those contributions when planning activities. Mathematics also appeared in ordinary routines: babies encountered number language around snacks, while older children estimated numbers before checking them as they prepared for lunch. Learning was woven into useful tasks rather than confined to a separate activity.

Another July 2024 example showed how adults encouraged independent thinking. When a child wanted help carrying a filled watering can, staff prompted the child to consider whether they could manage it themselves. The child tried and succeeded. For parents, that is a concrete picture of adults helping children attempt a manageable challenge instead of taking over.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School brings nature exploration into the nursery programme through activities such as building dens, looking for insects and making bread over a campfire. Base Camp is a clearing in the lower garden used for some sessions; other activities take place across the wider grounds. A Gruffalo trail gives outdoor exploration a story connection, while gardening and observing butterflies and tadpoles introduce changes in living things.

Two enclosed outdoor play spaces have surfaces suitable for different weather conditions, climbing equipment and a vegetable patch. Together with the wider woodland, they provide more than one setting for outdoor play: children can use the spaces beside the house or explore further afield. The programme includes mud painting and tree climbing as well as quieter observation.

In July 2024, children explored the nursery's bee hives with staff, collected honey and learnt about the process. They also encountered foods from different countries and learnt about Ramadan. These examples gave children tangible ways to explore nature and cultural traditions, through things they could handle, discuss and experience.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who works with the family on settling and routines, follows development and takes responsibility for the Learning Diary. Regular parent meetings sit alongside the option to contact that practitioner between meetings. That gives families a continuing relationship through which to discuss changes at home or questions about nursery life.

The Learning Diary brings together artwork, photographs and observations. Parents can add their own notes, pictures or drawings, connecting experiences at home with those at nursery. It stays at the setting while the child attends and goes home with the family when they leave, providing both a development record and something a child can revisit with a parent.

In July 2024, staff helped children talk about their feelings and gently introduced sharing to babies. Parents speaking during that visit described communication that helped them understand their children's next learning steps. Those details sit comfortably alongside the current key-person arrangement, while remaining a picture of practice at that date.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding arrangements and strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, with the special educational needs coordinator working alongside families, practitioners and external professionals. That finding matters because it describes a support mechanism and the people involved, rather than offering a general promise that every need can be met.

For babies, the separate cot room allows sleep to take place away from the main play spaces. Health information is collected before a child starts, and parents must authorise medication through a completed form; the nursery does not administer medicines intended to control temperature. Families whose child needs medication should account for those terms when planning attendance.

A chef prepares meals, with ingredients including locally sourced meat, and the sample menu rotates across seven weeks with vegetarian alternatives. The charging package covers three homemade meals and two snacks each day, making food a substantial part of the attendance arrangements as well as the daily routine.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is on Stoke Hill, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 1JP. Under the September 2026 attendance terms, the all-day session runs from 8am to 5.45pm; morning attendance runs from 8am to 1pm and afternoon attendance from 1pm to 5.45pm, with both shorter patterns offered only on an ad hoc basis.

Children must attend at least two days each week. Provision runs across the year, with a Christmas closure week, another closure week at the end of August and closures on public holidays. This is a regular attendance commitment with some scope for additional shorter sessions, rather than an unrestricted choice of interchangeable days.

Sibling applications receive priority. Applications can be made throughout the year, and enquiries go to office@muddybootsdaynursery.co.uk or 0117 968 4493. Reducing hours or withdrawing requires four weeks' written notice. Parents also make a termly commitment, and funding may not transfer to another provider until the following term. The terms do not permit swapping attendance days or receiving replacement days in lieu.

Getting There

On-site parking is accessed from Stoke Hill, and there is a car drop-off area. Pushchairs and bike trailers can remain at the nursery by arrangement, which is useful for families combining nursery attendance with onward travel.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded hours are delivered across 47.5 weeks each year. The entitlement categories cover working families with under-twos or two-year-olds, universal hours for three- and four-year-olds, and the Working Parent Entitlement for that older age group. Eligibility conditions apply, and working-family codes need reconfirming every three months.

For three- and four-year-olds, the arrangement provides 12 universal hours and 12 Working Parent Entitlement hours each week, which eligible families can combine. The working-family arrangement for younger children provides 24 hours weekly. This stretched structure matters when comparing weekly attendance needs with funded hours.

Private childcare is also offered. Meals are included in private fees, with nappies and wipes supplied free; for funded attendance, meals and non-food consumables are charged through the enrichment package, which also covers trips and activities. The package includes items such as sun cream, nappies, wipes and activity materials.

Participation in that package is all-in or all-out. Funded families can opt out, but the nursery expects participation and asks for a termly commitment to chargeable items. A registration charge is payable before the first day, and current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page provides the funding and enquiry route.

Fees cover 48 weeks, including bank holidays and specified closure days, and remain payable during sickness or holidays. Funded hours falling on a bank holiday are not moved to another day. Those distinctions affect the cost of the year as much as the hours used in an ordinary week.

The affiliation with Trinity College, a theological training college, gives the nursery a Christian ethos. Children from any faith background, including families with no faith, are welcomed.

• A firm weekly commitment. Attendance requires at least two days a week, and morning and afternoon sessions are ad hoc only. At a visit, discuss how the regular pattern and occasional shorter sessions would fit your working week.
• The funded-hours package. Meals, consumables and activities sit within an all-in or all-out enrichment arrangement, with participation expected. Discuss what opting out would involve before signing the termly commitment.
• Baby routines and room arrangements. Ladybirds has first-floor play accommodation and a separate cot room. Use a visit to discuss the number of babies sharing the space and how your child's sleep pattern and outdoor time would fit the day.
• Paid closures and changes. Fees include specified closure days, funded bank-holiday sessions are not rescheduled, and reducing attendance requires four weeks' written notice. Build those terms into the family budget and holiday plan.

Woodland exploration, a separate baby sleep space and a continuing key-person relationship give Muddy Boots a clear identity. Its July 2024 Outstanding judgement adds weight to that practical offer, while the examples of children solving problems and contributing ideas explain the educational appeal.

It suits families seeking regular all-day attendance who may also use ad hoc morning or afternoon sessions, and who value outdoor experiences within a small setting. The two-day minimum and enrichment arrangement deserve equal attention: the right fit depends on the attendance commitment and total charge structure as well as the woodland programme.