Harvey Road Day Nursery

Mud kitchens, a climbing wall and food-growing patches give Harvey Road Day Nursery an outdoorsy character in central Cambridge. Youngest children have resources within reach; older children help shape projects around their interests. Choice has a practical place here.

At its February 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found good progress, alongside inconsistency in how staff extended children's learning. Teaching consistency is the improvement priority.

Harvey Road has capacity for 45 children aged three months to five years. Its address is 9-10 Harvey Road, Cambridge, CB1 2ET. Full-day attendance and a separate funded morning pattern serve different family routines; the room-specific hours deserve attention before making a commitment.

Rooms and Ages

The Koala room covers three to 26 months, combining songs and stories with sensory play, an emphasis on language and growing independence, child-height resources and access to the garden's mud kitchen. Being able to reach and choose materials gives even the youngest children a practical part in deciding what to do.

The Polar room accommodates up to 25 children aged two to five, organised into younger and older groups, with natural materials, activities shaped by children's interests and morning access between the room and garden. This room capacity is separate from the nursery's total capacity. Children can mix across the groups as well as take part in activities suited to their age.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the statutory framework for learning and development: children learn through age-appropriate play. Adult-guided activities alternate with children's own choices, including art, puzzles, water play and pretend play. Meals structure the day; activity selections change between sessions.

Older children help shape projects around their interests, with staff support. Twice-daily circle time brings the older group together, giving individual exploration a place alongside shared discussion.

Show and Tell sessions take place weekly. Polar families receive a weekly room update covering upcoming plans and information about these sessions.

In February 2025, children explored how paint behaved on ice, tried again after warm water removed it and turned to books about icebergs. The sequence is revealing: practical experimentation led into looking for information. Books were also used beyond story time, with older children exploring recipes and supermarket magazines, then performing familiar stories with puppets or other props.

At that time, younger children used simple signs; stories and rhyming games developed vocabulary and sound play. Yoga involved balance and controlled movement, sometimes led by children themselves. Communication and movement ran through everyday activities.

Outdoor and Community Life

Mud kitchens, growing patches, bicycles and tricycles share the garden with a climbing wall for older children. A large sand-pit and quiet seating provide alternatives to active play; grass and paving support year-round use.

Two garden sessions are the daily aim, with morning access between indoors and outdoors for Polars. Digging and climbing complement the Koalas' messy play.

Central Cambridge also provides opportunities beyond the nursery. Polar children can visit parks, museums, the market, concerts, the cinema and the botanical garden. These are possibilities within the nursery's local offer, rather than a fixed timetable of trips.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person helps with settling, learns their needs and shares progress and difficulties with parents to shape learning. Room moves bring a new key person, making the handover an important step.

Koala staff discuss eating, sleep, routines, cultural practices and family concerns before a child starts. The recommended one- or two-week transition precedes the agreed start date and is charged hourly, so settling has its own cost.

Tapestry is the electronic learning journal used to share observations, photographs and videos. Parents can respond to nursery entries and contribute material from home themselves. It is a two-way record: a child's interests outside nursery can become part of the conversation about their development. Polar families also receive their weekly room update.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In February 2025, children discussed feelings and how their behaviour affected others. They also made displays with national flags and greetings in different languages, and used family photographs to talk about households, traditions and recent experiences. Those concrete activities gave children ways to recognise differences through their own lives.

All staff hold paediatric first-aid certification and receive continuing training and supervision. Two annual whole-team training closures require alternative care, with at least three months' notice for parents.

Afternoons allow for sleep or rest; children who have stopped napping can spend a quieter period with books or other restful activities. In the Polar room, the key person also works with families around toilet training and other developmental milestones. The practical emphasis is on sharing information between home and nursery as routines change.

Fresh meals are prepared by the nursery's chef, with menus approved by a Food For Life nutritionist and food grown in the nursery garden contributing to the offer. Harvey Road publishes a nut-free policy, and families are asked to update the nursery about dietary and allergen requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

Full-day attendance is offered as five days each week. The Cub Koala pattern runs from 8.15am to 5.15pm; the Polar Room pattern finishes later, running from 8.15am to 5.30pm. Children should be collected at least five minutes before their session ends, so the final minutes need to be factored into a working-day plan.

The stand-alone 15-hour funded pattern runs on weekdays from 9am to noon. It serves a different purpose from the five-day full-day arrangement. The nursery also offers 30 hours Early Years Entitlement Funding to eligible parents.

Closures include bank holidays, the period between Christmas and New Year, and two annual staff-training days. Places are offered for a fixed term with an end date in the offer. A shorter contract should therefore be understood as ending on that date, rather than assumed to continue automatically.

Getting There

The nursery is at 9-10 Harvey Road, Cambridge, CB1 2ET. Pay-and-display bays are on Harvey and Gresham Road; payment is currently not required before 9am.

The waiting-list route is through the nursery office, by telephone between 10am and 4pm, with an application form to complete. General enquiries can also be sent to office@hrdn.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

The fees page sets out the stand-alone 15 hours Early Years Funded Entitlement for children nine months and over. These places use the weekday morning window. Funded-entitlement-only children are exempt from the waiting-list registration charge; stand-alone 15-hour funded places also require no deposit.

For other places, joining the waiting list carries a non-refundable registration charge and accepting an offer requires a deposit. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Fees are payable throughout the year, including absence through illness or family holidays, and the transition period is charged separately before the start date.

Deposit repayment when a child leaves depends on giving six weeks' written notice or leaving on the agreed contract end date, with outstanding fees deducted. An accepted place's start date cannot be changed. These terms make the contract dates as important as the daily timetable.

• Five-day commitment. Full-day patterns require five days a week, and the Cub Koala day finishes earlier than the Polar day. At a visit, establish which room-specific timetable would apply to your child and how a room move would affect collection.
• Teaching consistency. In February 2025, staff sometimes missed opportunities to develop children's play further. Ask how staff now use children's ideas to deepen an activity, especially in the older group's projects.
• Funded mornings and extras. The stand-alone 15-hour offer is tied to weekday mornings. Ask for a written breakdown of how meals and non-food consumables are handled for your proposed funded or private arrangement, and confirm current allergy practice if relevant.
• Contract dates and settling. Transition time is charged before the start date, and places have a fixed end date. Those dates determine the care period, while withdrawal conditions affect deposit repayment.

Harvey Road suits families seeking either five-day full-day care or the stand-alone funded morning pattern, with outdoor play and child-led exploration prominent in both its rooms and daily activities. The garden, older children's collaborative projects and two-way Tapestry journal give parents concrete reasons to consider it.

The February 2025 judgement was Good, with teaching consistency the clear improvement point. The choice rests on whether the attendance commitment and contract terms fit family life as well as the play-based day fits the child.