The Secret Garden Attenborough Day Nursery & Pre-School

A six-baby room with covered outdoor space, a separate preschool and term-time Forest School visits give this Attenborough nursery a clear character: outdoor exploration starts with the youngest children and extends into the surrounding nature reserve for preschoolers. The setting spans two sites, separating baby and toddler care from the older children's preschool environment.

The Secret Garden Attenborough Day Nursery & Pre-School has capacity for 29 children aged two months to five years. Ofsted rated it Good at its July 2021 inspection. That is a dated judgement, rather than an assessment of today's daily practice.

Spanish games and songs, Tuesday music sessions and vegetable growing add concrete substance to its emphasis on natural play. Families considering it have more to weigh than an outdoor philosophy: the baby room's size, the move between rooms and the separate preschool site are practical parts of the choice.

Rooms and Ages

Papillon Room cares for six babies and has a covered outdoor area connected to its indoor space, giving the youngest children opportunities to explore outside as well as inside. Children move to Mariposa once they are walking steadily, so this first transition follows physical development rather than a fixed birthday.

Mariposa Room accommodates 13 toddlers up to about two and a half years, with its own outdoor space containing cars, toys and sensory activities that encourage movement and exploration. Its nursery building is next to the tennis club. This gives toddlers an outdoor environment of their own rather than making the preschool's outings the whole outdoor offer.

Butterfly Room is a separate preschool opposite the cricket club entrance, caring for up to 30 children and using imaginative play to support physical and emotional development. The facilities overview places this room's age band at two and a half to four years. Its separate setting makes the move into preschool a change of environment as well as a change of room.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes learning through play and covers communication, physical development, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive activities. Here, planning also draws on children's interests, with natural materials and outdoor experiences contributing to the day.

Spanish activities give preschool children games and songs through which to explore another language. Rockabillies brings music sessions on Tuesdays during term time. These are concrete additions to the learning framework, with different ways for children to participate beyond imaginative play in their room.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School, an outdoor learning activity based on exploring nature, takes preschool children to the local nature reserve weekly during term time. Sessions use themes planned for each term, with activities including painting with mud, making wildlife feeders and exploring a mud kitchen. A mud slide adds another physical challenge.

Attenborough Nature Reserve also features in nature trails, alongside walks around the village. Back at the nursery, children sow seeds, tend vegetables and use a digging area. These experiences connect outdoor play with growing and caring for living things, rather than treating time outside solely as a break from indoor activities.

An eco garden attracts wildlife, while vegetables and herbs are grown for use in nursery cooking. Reclaimed materials and second-hand furniture are used where possible, and suitable food waste goes into compost bins. The environmental emphasis therefore reaches beyond the activities themselves into resources and food growing.

Moving from Papillon to Mariposa depends on children becoming confident walkers. For a family choosing baby care, that is a useful detail: the next room is linked to readiness for a more mobile toddler environment. The covered baby outdoor area and toddlers' separate outdoor space also keep provision attached to each stage.

The educational approach recognises that children develop at different rates and connects their experiences with individual needs. Partnership between practitioners and parents forms part of that approach. This describes the intended relationship around learning; it should not be read as an inspection judgement about the effectiveness of individual support.

Meals are freshly prepared on site. Growing vegetables and herbs for nursery food offers a link between what children tend outdoors and what is used in the kitchen.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery's address is 235 Attenborough Lane, Attenborough, Nottingham. Its usual opening window is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, with a 7.30am start by request carrying an additional charge. It closes on bank holidays and for a week between Christmas and New Year, so those closures matter when planning care around work.

The April to September 2025 timetable offered full days from 8am to 6pm and half days from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, alongside a full-week option. Those are dated booking terms. They distinguish morning, afternoon and whole-day attendance, but should not be treated as a current quotation.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. Fees are reviewed in April and September; current prices belong in the nursery's written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Butterfly preschool offers funded sessions of up to 15 hours a week for three- and four-year-olds. The April to September 2025 fee terms also included government-funded sessions for eligible two-, three- and four-year-olds and charged meals separately on funded sessions. That meal charge belongs to those dated terms, so families should consider the funded hours and the associated food arrangements together when discussing a place.

• Two sites and a developmental move. Baby and toddler care is separate from preschool, and children leave Papillon when they are steady walkers. During a visit, ask how room transitions and the later move to preschool are managed.
• Dated booking terms. The full-day and half-day timetable covers April to September 2025, while fees are reviewed twice a year. Ask for a current written quotation covering the attendance pattern, funded-session meals and consumables you would use.
• Outdoor participation. Preschool Forest School runs weekly in term time, with mud activities and waterproof clothing forming part of the experience. Consider whether this practical, outdoor emphasis matches the day you want for your child.

This is a nursery to consider for families who value small-scale baby provision and an increasingly adventurous outdoor day as children grow. Papillon's six-baby capacity is a useful starting point; preschool brings a separate environment, Spanish activities and regular learning at the nature reserve.

It merits consideration by families comparing full-day care with morning or afternoon half days, the different patterns in its dated timetable. The strongest reason to choose it is the concrete connection between rooms, outdoor spaces and nature-based activities. The Good judgement dates to July 2021, and a current booking agreement is essential to the practical decision.