Beeches Nursery

A garden with a mud kitchen, outdoor sandpit and Bug Hotel gives Beeches Nursery a practical, hands-on character. Its single-storey building sits within school grounds in Burnham, with playing fields and countryside around it. For children, that means space for messy exploration alongside quieter indoor play, rather than a day centred on table activities.

Beeches takes children from 3 months to 5 years and has capacity for 35 children in total. At its January 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that tailored learning targets and professional advice supported children needing additional help.

Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions provide different ways to organise attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room combines areas for rest and quiet exploration with space for more active movement, while the Two to Five’s Room places resources within children’s reach and provides places for both sleep and play. That organisation gives children opportunities to choose an activity, move between different kinds of play and pause when they need a quieter moment.

For babies, activities include exploring everyday objects, manipulating puzzles and experimenting with textured materials. Play gyms and toddle boxes support movement; paint, water and cornflour mixtures invite sensory investigation. Songs and picture books add language to these experiences. The emphasis is on communication, physical development and relationships, rather than pushing babies towards formal tasks.

Older children combine their own play choices with activities led by adults. Blocks and miniature figures support building and storytelling, while role play allows children to work through familiar experiences together. Writing materials are placed around the room so that making marks can become part of play, including creating a shopping list. Children can use tools and materials for a purpose, with room to try their own ideas.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children’s learning and care: play develops communication, movement and social confidence alongside early literacy, mathematics and understanding the world. Planning is adjusted to each child’s age and development, and assessments include the progress check at two years old. This connects the day’s activities with the skills a child is developing.

Letters and Sounds adds phonics activities centred on listening, speech sounds and combining or separating sounds orally. Beeches uses Phase One activities, linking language with practical experiences.

Key Group Time brings each key-person group together twice a day for an aspect of learning. This gives adult-led activity a place within a day that also allows children to follow their own interests. Heuristic Materials, collections of everyday natural objects, provide another route into learning: children can sort, move, stack and pour them, exploring what objects do through repeated actions.

In January 2024, babies used sand and spoons, while older children practised serving food with utensils. Stories prompted preschool children to discuss what they had heard, and smoothie-making introduced food preparation. These examples show how practical tasks, conversation and books connected within the inspection-era day.

Outdoor and Community Life

The older room opens directly onto secure garden space, and babies and toddlers under two go outdoors daily. Grass, rubber and tarmac create different surfaces for play. A climbing frame and wheeled toys support movement, while covered spaces extend the outdoor options, including a quieter area for children who are not yet mobile.

Planting flowers and vegetables gives children something to tend and observe. Minibeast searches lead to the Bug Hotel, a place for creatures found in the garden, while the mud kitchen and water area support mixing and pouring. These are concrete ways to explore natural materials and changes outdoors.

Regular walks include the park, feeding ducks and visiting the local library. Some outings include a picnic or drawing materials, allowing children to respond to their surroundings through play and art. Discussions about roads and water make safety part of these experiences. Beeches also describes a relationship with St Peter’s School that allows use of its outdoor spaces for larger physical activities during holidays.

Relationships and Communication

A key person provides a consistent point of contact for each child and family. Settling sessions and the option of a home visit help introduce that relationship before nursery becomes familiar. Conversations about feeding, sleep, nappy changing and toileting guide routines, making continuity with home a practical part of care.

Communication combines informal conversations and parents’ evenings with the group-wide Famly App, which shares photographs, messages and learning observations and lets parents contribute information.

In January 2024, staff comforted children needing reassurance and displayed family photographs and flags associated with home countries. Children also practised looking after themselves, including cleaning their noses and washing their hands. These inspection-era details show the small, everyday interactions through which care and independence were expressed.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Activities are planned for individual children rather than solely by age group. Beeches adjusts learning experiences for different stages and needs, with regular assessment informing what comes next. For parents, the useful mechanism is the connection between observation, planning and discussion with the key person.

Sleep and feeding are discussed with families as part of personal routines, and both rooms provide places to rest. The group’s food arrangement includes meals made by nursery cooks and healthy snacks, with provision for special diets. Dietary requirements belong within those individual care conversations.

School preparation includes toileting, using cutlery, communication and confidence in learning. These are practical foundations for the next stage: children are supported to manage more for themselves and participate in shared activities, rather than school readiness being reduced to letters and numbers.

Sessions and Attendance

Beeches is on Minniecroft Road, Burnham, Slough, SL1 7DE. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with closures on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas.

A morning session runs from 7.30am to 1pm, an afternoon from 1pm to 6pm, and a full day from 7.30am to 6pm. Half-day bookings use either the morning or afternoon window. Extra sessions follow the standard session times and depend on availability and the manager’s discretion; they are not a separate flexible-hours arrangement.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by calling 01628 603800. Families can also book a tour.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded places cover 9 month olds, 2 year olds and 3 & 4 year olds, with entitlement stretched over 51 weeks. Private childcare is also offered. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, allowing families to distinguish their funded entitlement from additional paid attendance.

For funded sessions, snacks and high tea, consumables and additional services are charged separately. The funded session windows are 8am to 1pm and 1pm to 6pm; when claiming a fully funded day, attendance from 7.30am to 8am is privately charged.

Although Beeches occupies school grounds and describes opportunities to use St Peter’s School’s outdoor space, nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

• Developing physical challenge. In January 2024, staff were asked to extend their teaching more consistently and better support physical challenge and risk-taking, including dressing skills and using bike pedals. During a tour, ask how practitioners now develop these skills in the rooms and garden.
• Funding and the early start. Funded morning attendance begins at 8am, while the private morning session begins at 7.30am; funded sessions also carry separate charges for snacks and high tea, consumables and additional services. Request a written quotation for your intended pattern so the distinction is clear.
• Sharing the school grounds. Beeches describes holiday access to St Peter’s School’s outdoor spaces. This offers opportunities for larger activities, but attendance does not secure a Reception place, so plan the nursery choice and school application separately.

Beeches suits families choosing morning, afternoon or full-day attendance who value practical play, regular outdoor experiences and a key-person relationship. The garden gives the day plenty of substance: planting, water play and minibeast exploration sit alongside books, sound activities and opportunities to manage everyday tasks independently.

The January 2024 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, with a clear qualification around extending teaching and physical challenge. Funding stretched across the year adds another attendance option, while the separate funded-session charges and paid early start deserve careful budgeting.