Patacake Day Nursery

Gardening that ends with children preparing their harvest for the nursery kitchen gives Patacake a clear practical identity. Garden Champions, its gardening activity, links growing food with using tools and caring for living things. Inside the light, spacious building at Sedley Court in Cambridge, the emphasis extends from babies exploring familiar photographs to older children sharing objects and stories with their peers.

Patacake cares for children from 3 months to 5 years and has 131 places in total. Ofsted rated it Good at its 13 January 2022 inspection. That is a dated judgement, rather than a description of every aspect of today's provision.

Play-based learning connects home experiences with nursery activities, while termly meetings give parents time to discuss progress.

Rooms and Ages

In the Baby Room, a contrast area uses black, white and red, with Family Boxes placing photographs of familiar people or treasured objects on things babies can handle, accompanied by a sound object. Mobile babies can reach these resources themselves; babies who are not yet mobile explore them with their key person. Familiarity becomes something to look at, touch and discuss.

Activities change with children's development, from younger children naming feelings to preschool children exploring emotions and relationships.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the common framework: children develop communication, movement and relationships alongside early literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. Patacake plans activities around children's interests and development, using observations to decide what comes next. Its curriculum page explains how individual progress trackers connect observations with future activities.

Above and Beyond Educational Experiences adds named activities alongside that framework. Wake Up and Shake Up is a daily fitness session for children over two, around 9am, with younger children invited to participate if they wish. The five-minute session uses songs and movement. It gives physical activity a regular place in the routine.

Chatter Box Session starts at home: older children decorate a box with their family and fill it with favourite items. Back at nursery, they discuss the contents in a small group with their key person, taking turns to speak and ask questions. A familiar possession supplies a reason to talk; listening to someone else's choices gives conversation a purpose.

Emotions Boxes develops from recognising feelings to considering how they affect other people. Staff use resources, stories and activity cards, including animal puppets that demonstrate body language. For preschool children, the activities extend to relationships and managing frustration. The useful detail is the progression: naming an emotion comes before working through what to do with it.

In January 2022, children retold tales with props and tried writing their names; babies explored sounds from sealed bottles and rolled balls down a slope.

Outdoor and Community Life

Weather Boxes Play takes activities outside through resources for stories, making marks, investigation and mobile mud kitchens. Children choose which boxes they want to use in the garden or on a walk. Outdoor time therefore includes opportunities to talk, create and investigate as well as move.

Garden Champions follows the growing process through preparing an area, sowing, tending and harvesting, using real gardening tools. Children help assess whether an activity can be carried out safely and discuss changes if necessary. Produce they pick and prepare with the chef can become part of that day's menu. The link between garden and plate is tangible.

Together, Old and Young brings children and older residents together through regular care-home visits. Children share baking or artwork, with key persons supporting conversation.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who follows their development and responds to their individual needs. Settling-in sessions allow that relationship to begin with parents involved. The arrangement gives families a consistent person with whom to share information about their child.

Learning Journeys collect observations, artwork, photographs and home contributions. Parents can access them in the child's room, children revisit them with their key person, and families keep them on leaving. Individual progress trackers help staff plan next steps across the areas of learning.

Termly parents' meetings complement daily information sharing and conversations with staff at other times. Home observations help shape nursery activities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2022 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding arrangements and effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, with language books and visual prompts helping children learning English alongside a home language. Those findings belong to that visit. Current staff training covers safeguarding, paediatric first aid, health, fire and food safety.

The chef cooks meals freshly on site, with seasonal menus rotating over four weeks. During weaning, staff work with parents so families lead the move towards solid foods, making this a shared care decision rather than a fixed timetable.

School preparation includes practising conversation through Chatter Box Session and developing independence through everyday responsibilities. Older children help set tables and clear away, while children participate in preparing snacks and serving lunch with adult support. These are concrete opportunities to contribute to the nursery day.

Sessions and Attendance

Patacake opens Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, for 51 weeks annually. It closes on bank holidays and for one week over Christmas and New Year. Those closures matter for families planning care across the working year.

Funded attendance uses two daily sessions: 10.33am to 2.16pm and 2.16pm to 6pm. Taking six sessions across three days provides 22.35 funded hours each week over 51 weeks. The earlier daytime session and the afternoon session offer different starting points; using both creates a longer funded attendance period.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01223 411636, by email to manager@pata-cake.co.uk or through the contact form.

Getting There

The address is Sedley Court, Malta Road, Cambridge, CB1 3LW. Road access includes the A14 and M11, while Cambridge train station and the town centre are only a short walk away.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes a maximum of 30 hours for eligible working families with children from nine months, 15 hours of universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, and additional funded hours for some two-year-olds receiving extra support. Entitlements are stretched over 51 weeks, rather than confined to term time. Eligibility remains a condition, and working-family codes need renewal every three months.

For funded hours, food and snacks, nappies, wipes, protective clothing, protective creams and other consumables sit outside the entitlement. These are voluntary extras supplied only at parents' request, as are additional activities beyond delivery of the EYFS; extra hours and sessions also fall outside funded hours. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Private childcare is also offered. Non-funded billing is calculated over 52 weeks and divided equally between 12 monthly bills. That billing basis differs from the 51-week opening year, so it deserves attention when comparing the total arrangement with a family's working calendar.

• Independence in everyday care. In January 2022, some staff did more for children than necessary, limiting opportunities to practise tasks themselves. During a visit, ask how children are now encouraged to manage outdoor clothing and personal-care routines.
• Staff development. The January 2022 improvement priorities included making supervision more effective in developing staff practice. Ask how supervision now translates into changes in day-to-day interactions with children.
• The funded timetable. Funding is stretched across 51 weeks and delivered through the two specified daily sessions. Compare their start and finish times with the hours your family needs, including any additional attendance.
• Your complete care quotation. Food and consumables are outside funded hours and supplied voluntarily on request. Ask for one written breakdown covering the attendance, meals, nappies and activities you want, including how dietary requirements will be handled.

Patacake suits families who value practical gardening, conversation rooted in children's own interests and a clear connection between home observations and nursery planning. Family Boxes gives babies familiar material to explore; Garden Champions and care-home visits extend older children's experiences beyond indoor activities.

Its funded offer can suit families using the earlier funded session, from 10.33am to 2.16pm, or the afternoon funded session, from 2.16pm to 6pm, as well as those combining both. The 2022 Good judgement provides a dated assessment. Practical activities and the connection between home and nursery give families concrete reasons to consider Patacake.