Once Upon a Time Day Nursery & Preschool

An upstairs baby play room and sleep room, a downstairs messy play room and a garden vegetable patch give Once Upon a Time Day Nursery & Preschool a recognisable shape. This Westbury-on-Trym setting occupies a detached former house just off Stoke Lane, with capacity for 30 children aged from two months to five years. Its appeal lies in the combination of separate spaces for younger children and opportunities to join older friends in shared activities.

At its February 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good and safeguarding effective, and found that staff used children's interests and starting points to shape learning, with strong relationships supporting settling. There was a clear improvement point too: children sometimes spent too long waiting at mealtimes and lost interest in what followed. That matters in a setting where learning and care are closely connected throughout the day.

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside full-day and half-day bookings, with extra hours possible around a standard session. The practical flexibility is useful, but the strongest reason to consider this nursery is the continuity of care: each child has both a Key Person and a Buddy Key Person, giving families a main relationship and a supporting one.

Rooms and Ages

Four named stages organise children's progression. Caterpillars are the under-ones, Butterflies the under-twos, Cubs the under-threes and Lions the preschool group, which children join when they turn three. These are stages within the nursery rather than four isolated groups spending the entire day apart: children also come together for singing, stories and other shared activities.

Caterpillars use the upstairs baby accommodation, where a separate sleep room sits alongside the play space and care follows familiar home routines. Butterflies share the baby accommodation, with garden play and pushchair outings adding outdoor experiences to their day. Cubs move downstairs for creative activities, including cooking, role play and messy play. Lions have a more structured preschool day, with preparation for school becoming a clearer part of their learning.

The physical layout deserves attention. Younger children have somewhere quieter to rest, while the downstairs spaces include the messy play room and access to the garden. A conservatory and kitchen are also part of the building. The house format creates several different places for activities, although stairs and changes of level are an important practical consideration for some families.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS guides children's learning and development through everyday play, conversation and care. Here, that means learning is woven into activities rather than reserved for a formal lesson: stories support language, shared play gives children practice in cooperation, and handling their own belongings builds independence.

In February 2025, younger children practised listening and counting through a pretend space launch. Older children explored how time passes with sand timers and learnt about ice forming. These are useful examples of staff taking an ordinary resource or playful idea and giving it an educational purpose. Children can encounter number, new vocabulary and scientific ideas in experiences they can take part in directly.

Shared activities include music, movement and drama, while Cubs' activities also include art and cooking. The garden has a sand pit and vegetable patch, so outdoor time can involve both physical play and watching plants develop. In March 2024, the front garden was given a Supertato theme, connecting the stories with vegetables, potatoes and herbs that children could grow and use in cooking. It linked books with something tangible.

Outdoor and Community Life

Community experiences extend beyond the garden. In February 2025, children walked to a local shop and visited a care home for crafts and singing with residents. Those outings gave children opportunities to communicate with people beyond their usual nursery group and take part in shared activities in a different setting.

Family events have their own place in nursery life. The annual Christmas Party took place at Westbury on Trym Village Hall in December 2024, bringing children, siblings and wider families together. An annual graduation ceremony also marks the move to school, with mortar boards included. These events give families a shared occasion to celebrate children's time at nursery; they are separate from the everyday learning programme.

Relationships and Communication

The Key Person system gives each child a main practitioner, supported by a Buddy Key Person who also gets to know them. Settling arrangements are discussed with families, and babies' home routines inform their care. That makes the relationship practical: staff need to understand a child's sleep, comfort and communication habits, as well as their interests.

In February 2025, staff made home visits before children started, helping children meet them in familiar surroundings. They also lent books to families and supplied let's do it together bags with parenting guidance, including help with potty training. These were concrete ways to connect home and nursery, rather than treating learning and care as separate responsibilities.

Day-to-day conversations are supported by a Learning Journal and a scrapbook of children's experiences. For babies, a daily diary adds another means of communication. Families therefore have both immediate exchanges about the day and a longer account of development to follow over time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A designated SENCO coordinates additional support with the key person, family and outside professionals. The SEND approach uses Assess, Plan, Do, Review: staff consider a child's needs, plan support, put it into practice and review how it is working. Individual Education Plans set out targets, strategies and review arrangements, with parents involved in discussion and consent sought before external agencies are brought in.

At the February 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that staff responded promptly to developmental concerns, discussed them with parents and sought professional support where needed. The published support mechanisms give that finding practical context: parents have a named role to approach, a planning process and a way to contribute to decisions about their child.

The building brings access constraints. Stairs lead to the baby room, steps connect the lower-floor space with the preschool toilets, and further steps lead into the back garden. The nursery leases the house and cannot make structural alterations. Families whose child needs help moving between spaces should consider the actual layout alongside the support arrangements.

Food is prepared daily with seasonal ingredients from local suppliers, and the sample menu includes vegetarian alternatives alongside dishes such as turkey with potatoes and fish tagliatelle. Private fees include meals and snacks; funded hours have a separate charging arrangement, explained below.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 2-4 Downs Cote Drive, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS9 3TP. Core opening hours run from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, with afternoon sessions from 1pm to 6pm; full-day and half-day bookings are also offered.

A breakfast club runs from 7.30am to 8am with reduced capacity. Extra hours can be added around a standard session when capacity permits, giving some scope to extend a booking rather than changing the whole attendance pattern. The nursery operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and over Christmas, from midday on 24 December until the first working day in January.

Enquiries go through the Register Interest form or by telephone on 0117 962 5203. The same form can be used to request a show around. On-street parking serves the residential location just off Stoke Lane.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for children over nine months, subject to eligibility. Private fees include food, nappies, wipes and creams, together with outings and visiting specialists in drama, music and sport. For parents paying privately, these categories are part of the fee rather than separate everyday additions.

Funded hours have a different structure. Meals are excluded from the funded entitlement, and a separate hourly consumables charge covers services such as snacks, classes and visits; the nursery describes that charge as non-voluntary. A registration charge is required to reserve a place. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, allowing families to consider their intended booking and the funded-hours charges together.

Moving to school is supported through preparation and transition work. The nursery describes links with schools including Elmlea, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym to help children make the move. Attendance does not guarantee a school place: families still use the local authority admissions process for a state school or the school's own process for an independent school.

• Mealtime organisation. In February 2025, some children waited too long for others to finish eating and became restless. During a visit, ask how lunch and tea are now organised and how children who finish first stay engaged.
• Access through the house. Babies are upstairs, and steps separate other important spaces. Families with mobility or access needs should discuss the route to the baby room, toilets and garden during a show around.
• The funded-hours bill. Private bookings include food and everyday consumables, while funded hours carry separate charges. Ask for a written quotation showing how your chosen attendance pattern divides between funded time, private time and extras.

Once Upon a Time suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as those considering full-day or half-day bookings. Its house layout gives babies separate play and sleep spaces, while older children have creative activities downstairs and a garden for play and growing. The Key Person and Buddy Key Person arrangement adds continuity to that progression.

The February 2025 Good judgement supports its appeal, with the mealtime improvement point providing a specific issue to explore. For families comfortable with the stairs and steps, the combination of familiar routines, shared activities and community experiences makes this a worthwhile option in Westbury-on-Trym.