Millwood House Day Nursery

A private garden for babies, a separate sleep room and an adapted family house give Millwood House Day Nursery its character. This family-owned setting in Farnham Common combines rooms for successive stages of childhood with substantial outdoor space. For parents weighing baby care, those physical arrangements deserve attention: outdoor exploration and rest each have their own place.

The nursery has capacity for 64 children, with a current age range of 3 months to 5 years. At its July 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good and found safeguarding effective. That judgement comes with clear reservations about consistency in teaching and the help parents received to continue learning at home.

Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings can be combined across the working week.

Rooms and Ages

Ladybird Room, for children under two, combines music and play in a bright playroom with direct access to Ladybird Garden, a separate sleep room with cots and beds, and food preparation and dining space.

For two- to three-year-olds, Caterpillar Room encourages independence, early number and letter understanding and pencil control in a large playroom with garden-facing patio doors, messy play space, dining room and children’s toilets, alongside rest areas and toilet-training equipment.

Butterfly Room serves preschool children, with storytelling, early writing, practical mathematics, independence and computers within the unit. Monthly themes connect activities, with firefighters or police officers visiting when relevant to introduce their work.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the statutory foundation for early years provision. Through play, children develop communication, movement, relationships, creativity and understanding of numbers and the world.

Toddler activities include baking, construction, music, imaginative play and art. Sand, flour, paint and water encourage exploration of textures; balancing, climbing and football bring physical challenges outdoors.

In July 2023, babies explored water while older children experimented with guttering and worked out how to change the flow. Books also featured prominently: babies investigated pictures of faces, and older children retold parts of stories and discussed characters. These examples show how ordinary resources can support both investigation and conversation.

The caution from July 2023 concerns what staff wanted children to learn from those experiences. Activities were planned around children’s interests and development, but their intended learning was not consistently carried through. More effective coaching was also needed to help staff extend learning. An appealing activity and a clear teaching purpose need to work together.

Outdoor and Community Life

Artificial grass and soft surfaces support year-round garden play, with ride-on toys, swings, slides and a climbing frame. Babies have their separate Ladybird Garden.

Graduation Ceremony celebrates the move to school with caps and gowns and a family afternoon tea in the garden.

Relationships and Communication

A key person provides familiarity as children move through the rooms. Stay-and-play lets parents share nursery experiences with their child.

Learning Journal follows each child from Caterpillar Room into Butterfly Room, bringing photographs and examples of development together over time. That continuity gives the preschool team a picture of what came before. Leaver’s reports can also be supplied on request, and progress information can be shared with schools with parental consent to support transition.

Communication needed more attention in July 2023. Parents were not receiving enough guidance about helping their children learn at home, and strengthening that support was an improvement priority. A journal of nursery experiences and useful ideas for home serve different purposes; families should weigh both when judging how communication works for them.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that collaboration with other agencies helped children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive additional support and make good progress. The current team includes a SENDCO role. That gives families a specific role to discuss when considering how their child’s needs would be assessed and supported.

The team’s arrangements include a designated safeguarding lead and paediatric first aid training. Collection procedures require suitable identification for an alternative collector, with a call to the parent before a child is released to someone unfamiliar to staff. This is a concrete procedure parents need to understand when relatives or friends help with collection.

An employed nursery chef prepares home-cooked meals daily, and menus can be adapted as children move through weaning stages. Caterpillar Room’s rest areas and Ladybird Room’s dedicated sleep space give sleep an explicit place in the care arrangements, rather than leaving parents to judge the provision from play facilities alone.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Mill Wood, Collinswood Road, Farnham Common, Slough, SL2 3LH. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across 51 weeks, closing for a week at Christmas and on bank holidays, so families using it across the year need cover for those closures.

AM sessions run from 8am to 1pm; PM sessions run from 1pm to 6pm. Booking both provides a full day from 8am to 6pm. Families can combine morning, afternoon and full-day attendance, with the application form offering these choices for each weekday. This makes the booking model useful for different working patterns, including families who need only part of a day on some days.

A formal offer must be accepted within seven days. Booking patterns are agreed when a place is secured, and later changes require discussion with the manager and depend on session availability. Reducing regular attendance or leaving requires one calendar month’s written notice. Those terms matter if working hours are likely to change.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, including the 15-hour universal entitlement and the working-parent entitlement of up to 30 hours, subject to eligibility. Delivery is stretched across 51 weeks, with up to 11 or 22 funded hours each week. Funded attendance must span at least two separate days, and the nursery can change funded days with one month’s written notice.

Private childcare is also offered, and current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. The fees page includes a calculator for estimating a pattern, but the estimate depends on individual circumstances and funding eligibility. Additional lunches are charged separately; additional sessions are also charged separately.

A non-refundable registration charge applies to children using private childcare or chargeable hours. A deposit is deducted from the final invoice. Regular attendance is billed monthly using an annualised calculation, and fees are not reduced for bank holidays, illness or other absences. This means the monthly bill is not simply a count of the days attended that month.

Enquiries can be made through the nursery’s form, by telephone on 01753 645500 or by email to admin@millwoodhousenursery.co.uk. A digital application records the requested weekday sessions alongside medical and dietary information, bringing the practical attendance requirements and care details together.

• Teaching consistency. In July 2023, planned learning was not always carried through effectively, and staff coaching needed strengthening. During a tour, ask how staff now make the purpose of an activity clear and adapt it as children play.
• Useful communication. Supporting learning at home was another July 2023 improvement priority. Ask for an example of how Learning Journal information becomes a practical suggestion for your child at home.
• Funded attendance and extras. Stretched funding requires attendance on at least two separate days, and additional lunches attract a separate charge. Request one written breakdown covering funded hours, paid hours, food and non-food consumables for your intended pattern.
• Baby routines and settling. Ladybird Room has its own garden and sleep room. Use the visit to discuss how the key person handles settling, naps and outdoor time around your baby’s routine.

Millwood House suits families considering morning sessions, afternoon sessions or a mixture that includes full days, especially those who value dedicated baby facilities and substantial outdoor play space. Ladybird Garden, the separate sleep room and Learning Journal give the offer practical substance.

The July 2023 Good judgement comes with weaknesses in teaching consistency, staff coaching and guidance for learning at home. Effective teaching and useful communication should carry weight alongside the facilities.