Little Plums Nursery Stapleford

An 18-place Baby Plums room, a large outdoor play area with a soft surface, and learning shared between home and nursery give Little Plums Nursery Stapleford a clear practical character. The setting occupies a corner plot on Brookhill Street, with wooden furniture selected for the children's age groups. Its nursery age range is 6 to 60 months.

At its 28 May 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with close relationships between children and their key people. That judgement came with two priorities: more consistent challenge for older children and stronger teaching of counting and number. Both matter when weighing the preschool offer.

Families can book full days or either of two half-day patterns, alongside funded childcare and additional paid hours. The combination serves different weekly routines, while the separate meal charge on funded sessions deserves attention when comparing costs.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Plums has a stated room size of 18 and covers 0 to 24 months, with sensory experiences and resources supporting crawling and walking. This room figure gives parents a starting point for judging the scale of baby care.

Little Plums emphasises independence, conversation and solving problems. Big Plums is the preschool room, emphasising social skills and greater independence before primary school. Room transitions therefore involve a change in what children practise as well as a change of space.

Light rooms, neutral colours and furniture suited to the children's ages shape the indoor environment. Outside, the large play area has a soft ground surface; the Little Plums room information also identifies a Playcentre. These are concrete spaces for movement and play, alongside the indoor resources.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, with play used to practise communication, physical skills and independence. It is the baseline for the nursery's work. The group-wide Little Plums Nursery Intent adds an emphasis on language, using conversations to introduce stories, creative work, shapes and numbers through experiences beyond table activities.

Planning combines parents' information with staff observations of what a child can already do. The parent app shares progress and accepts home observations, helping practitioners understand achievements beyond nursery.

Visiting specialists bring music, language and science activities, while community outings extend learning beyond the premises.

In May 2025, toddlers practised hand control by transferring oats between containers, while older children experimented with drawing materials and selected wipe-clean boards to revise their pictures. Children could choose activities and adapt their ideas. The same visit identified occasions when adult interaction stopped short of extending what older children could do, and number activities were not delivered consistently enough.

Outdoor and Community Life

Community experiences include local trips, with regular library visits forming part of the day in May 2025. Books therefore featured beyond nursery story sessions, giving children another setting in which to share reading. Outdoor access also provided opportunities for fresh air during that visit.

Activities take place inside and outside. Events across the year, a parent group and feedback opportunities give families ways to participate in nursery life.

Relationships and Communication

A dedicated keyworker and a free settling period are part of the joining arrangements. Staff training addresses attachment and settling, with children's circumstances considered individually. This is especially relevant for a child transferring from another setting, where familiar routines and relationships need to be understood before new ones take shape.

In May 2025, staff comforted babies and followed individual routines. Older children helped each other find play materials, with adults modelling considerate behaviour.

Play At Home Activities provides families with activities to complete together, including Number and Shape, Nursery Rhymes and Den Making. Parents can send photographs or short videos through the parent zone app for use in tracking development at home. This creates a practical route for sharing learning, with activities that families can choose around their child's interests.

Books and activity packs also supported families in May 2025, including help with preparing a child for a new sibling. That is a useful example of home support extending beyond nursery tasks to a change in family life.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

When children also attend another early years setting or receive care from a childminder, relevant developmental information is shared. Where a childminder handles collection or delivery, communication can reach parents directly by telephone or email. This helps the adults involved work from the same information about the child.

Daily independence had a practical emphasis in May 2025: children washed their hands before food, practised using the toilet, served themselves and cleared their dishes. These small routines give children opportunities to manage familiar tasks before moving on to school. At lunch during that visit, children ate freshly prepared meals and snacks together.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 19 Brookhill Street, Stapleford, Nottingham, NG9 7BQ. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm on weekdays, across 51 weeks of the year. Earlier starts and later finishes can be arranged separately, so they are additional arrangements around the standard day.

Full Day Sessions run from 8am to 6pm. Half Day bookings run from 8am to 1pm or from 1pm to 6pm, giving families a morning or afternoon option as well as a whole day. Flexible hours are also offered. Regular bookings and occasional private sessions have different charging arrangements, with a surcharge applying to sessions outside a regular ongoing pattern.

Bank holidays and a week at Christmas are closures, and Christmas Eve finishes at 3pm. Those dates affect care planning even for families attending across the year. All 51 chargeable weeks, apart from the Christmas closure week, form part of the payment arrangement.

Getting There

The corner site has secure parking on the premises for parents collecting and bringing children. That provides an on-site option for families travelling by car.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare covers children aged over nine months and eligible two-year-olds, as well as three- and four-year-olds. The entitlement descriptions include 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds, up to 30 hours for working parents of that age group, and up to 15 hours over 38 term-time weeks for eligible two-year-olds. Funding can be used during term time or stretched across 51 weeks.

Funded hours are applied first at no cost; hours remaining within a partly funded session are charged, and extra sessions use private rates. For partly or fully funded sessions, meals carry a separate daily charge, with alternative arrangements offered. The important distinction is between the funded hours themselves and the additions around them.

Fees are paid in advance at the start of each calendar month. Childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare payments are accepted with advance discussion. Late collection, late payment and session amendments have separate charges, and an extra hour added to an existing booking is subject to availability. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding terms explain the charging structure.

• Older children's challenge. In May 2025, extending older children's learning and improving number teaching were development priorities. During a visit, ask for examples of how staff now build on a child who has already mastered an activity.
• Room allocation. The room guide gives Little Plums as ages two to three and Big Plums as three to five, while the home information gives 24 to 48 months and 48 to 72 months respectively. These conflicting bands make the proposed room and transition plan a useful joining question.
• Funded-session costs. Meals are charged separately on partly or fully funded sessions, and hours beyond the funded allocation are paid.
• Baby room scale. Baby Plums has a stated size of 18. Ask how the room is organised around individual routines and how the free settling period would work for your baby.

Little Plums Nursery Stapleford suits families seeking either full-day attendance or morning and afternoon half days, with the option to combine funded hours and private care. Its strongest practical features are the baby room's stated size, outdoor play space, on-site parking and routes for sharing children's learning with home.

The May 2025 judgement gives it a positive starting point. More consistent challenge for older children and stronger mathematics teaching remain the priorities to weigh when choosing preschool care.