The Rocking Horse Day Nursery

Three gardens and a day built around children's choices give The Rocking Horse Day Nursery its character. Outdoor classrooms extend learning beyond the rooms, while the high/scope practice centres on children learning through direct involvement with their surroundings. This is an active, hands-on offer, with time to explore an interest rather than simply move between adult instructions.

At its May 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with an effective key-person system supporting children's relationships and progress. The practical scale is 57 places in total, accepting children from 3 to 60 months. Babies, toddlers and older children have named rooms and groups, with different stages of independence reflected in the day.

Flexible hours and full daycare accommodate different family routines.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room is described for babies from 6 weeks to 18 months; Sunshine Room spans 14 months to 2 years, and Raindrop Room takes children from 2 years towards their third birthday. These room descriptions sit alongside the nursery's overall acceptance range of 3 to 60 months. For families, the overlapping stages make the child's development and proposed room an important part of a visit conversation.

Rainbow Room accommodates Red Group and Pre-school Group together, with Red Group covering children approaching their third birthday through to preschool age and Pre-school Group covering children from 3 years to school age. In Rainbow Room, Fascination Station consists of activities prepared around children's interests during their work time. It gives an emerging enthusiasm somewhere to go, rather than treating it as a distraction from the planned day.

The rooms are not the whole learning environment. Each group room has a comfortable area for quiet time, and outdoor provision includes spaces suited to different ages. That provides a useful contrast between busy exploration and a quieter pause, rather than making every part of the day equally energetic.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the statutory framework for learning and care: here, children explore language, movement, relationships, early mathematics and creative expression through play. Alongside that framework, high/scope practice emphasises active involvement and children's own decisions. The practical routine includes a circle gathering, plan-do-review time, group activities and outdoor play. Children can choose an activity, carry it through and revisit what happened.

Adults observe children's interests, join their play and help develop their ideas. Adult-led activities lengthen as children develop; interest-led activities preserve room for individual choices. Adult interaction helps turn those choices into learning.

In May 2025, colour mixing with water and large containers became an opportunity to introduce more descriptive language, including different shades. Ofsted's May 2025 inspection found that mathematical ideas and individual challenge were not consistently developed far enough, and asked for more precisely targeted challenges. This is the central reservation beneath the Good judgement: engaging activities need to stretch each child, not merely hold their attention.

For preschool children, Stretch and Grow is a weekly instructor-led fitness programme that combines exercise with learning about food and the body. Elsewhere indoors, children can choose construction resources, threading, puzzles, clay and water play. Those materials offer different kinds of effort, from manipulating small objects to testing what a structure will hold.

Outdoor and Community Life

The toddler, natural and big gardens, together with an open space, make outdoor play a substantial part of the offer. Children can use the outdoors throughout the day and in different weather; outdoor classrooms begin from 2 years. This gives outdoor learning a place in the routine rather than reserving it for an occasional break.

The bike track takes scooters, cars and bikes. Trees, hills, a wooden platform, balancing challenges, swings, a slide and a large sand pit give children different ways to practise movement.

Mud Kitchen adds a different pace. Natural materials such as bark, pebbles and sticks support experimenting, pouring, sorting and imaginative play. In May 2025, children examined garden bugs through magnifying glasses and practised handling living things gently. The outdoor account therefore includes close observation and care as well as physical activity.

Relationships and Communication

Every child has a key worker who develops a relationship with the child and their parents. That gives families a continuing point of contact for individual needs, rather than treating care as a sequence of unrelated handovers. In May 2025, staff worked with families during the move from home into nursery and offered additional strategies when a child found starting difficult.

Learning stories use pictures and words to capture what children do and say. Staff interpret these observations, share them with children and invite parents' thoughts. For babies and children who are not yet speaking, gestures and expressions also inform the story. This creates a way for home knowledge and nursery observations to inform planning together, including before a child can explain an experience verbally.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staff structure includes a SENCO role and designated safeguarding responsibilities. These are practical points of contact for discussing support and concerns. The nursery also works with outside professionals, allowing children's needs to be considered with input beyond the immediate staff team.

Rest has a place in the routine: children can use the quiet areas during the day, and parents can request a mattress for sleep after lunch. In May 2025, staff recognised early signs of tiredness in babies and responded to them. For families balancing nursery attendance with home sleep routines, the combination of quiet space and parental input is useful.

Mini Meals prepares food on site, and families receive feedback about what their child has eaten. Children and adults share small tables, with opportunities to practise using cutlery, pouring drinks and helping with meals.

In May 2025, younger children practised drinking from open cups while older children served themselves, with adults seated alongside them. These were concrete steps towards independence, also relevant to preparing for school. The transition work described here concerns children's skills and confidence, rather than a link to a named school.

Sessions and Attendance

Open 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, the nursery offers full daycare and flexible hours arranged around parents' requirements. A child's booking sits within that opening window.

Care runs across the year, with bank holidays and a Christmas closure carrying no childcare charge. Two weeks of annual holiday within September to August attract half the usual fee, so family holidays and nursery closures have different charging arrangements.

Getting There

The address is The Kingsway Centre, Kennard Rise, Bristol, BS15 8AF. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and visits can be arranged through contact with the nursery.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funding includes 15 universal hours for 3- and 4-year-olds. The 15-hour offer for 2-year-olds and further 15 extended hours for 3- and 4-year-olds depend on eligibility, so families need to distinguish universal hours from conditional funding.

Private childcare is also offered. A sibling discount applies to the older child's fees unless that child is entitled to funding, and childcare vouchers are accepted. Families should obtain current prices in the nursery's written quotation so that their chosen hours and applicable funding are considered together.

• Challenge beyond engagement. The May 2025 improvement point concerned extending individual learning, including mathematics. On a visit, ask how staff adapt the same activity for children who need different levels of challenge.
• Room progression. Sunshine Room's age band overlaps Baby Room's, and Red Group shares Rainbow Room with Pre-school Group. Ask how a room move is agreed and how the receiving group helps a child settle.
• Flexible bookings and funding. Flexible hours are offered alongside full daycare, and funding depends on the entitlement involved. Ask for one written breakdown covering the proposed attendance pattern, funded hours, meals and non-food consumables.

The Rocking Horse suits families considering flexible hours as well as full daycare, especially those who value child-led play and substantial outdoor provision. Its gardens, outdoor classrooms, Fascination Station and weekly Stretch and Grow sessions give the offer practical substance. Key workers and learning stories provide a clear route for parents to contribute to their child's care and learning.

The Good judgement is encouraging, but the May 2025 challenge point remains relevant to the choice. Families should look closely at how an absorbing activity becomes a demanding one for their own child. This nursery's appeal is clearest in the combination of active exploration, growing independence and continuing contact with home.