Cherry Trees Day Nursery, Cranfield

A nesting-box camera, the Sunken Sand Pit and the Wizard Story House give Cherry Trees its strongest character: children can investigate living things, invent stories and play outdoors as part of the nursery day. This Cranfield setting combines environmental learning with practical independence, from growing produce to helping children manage everyday tasks for themselves. The garden is a daily resource, rather than an occasional change of scene.

At its 23 April 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding overall, with the same judgement across education, behaviour, personal development and leadership. The useful detail behind that judgement concerns children making decisions, staff extending their questions into investigations and parents contributing knowledge about their children. These are substantial reasons to consider it, beyond the headline grade.

Cherry Trees has capacity for 95 children, accepting ages from 2 to 60 months, at 1 Duncan Road, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0ZU. Its weekday opening window runs from 7.30am to 6.30pm, with care across the year except public holidays and inset days. For parents, the combination is a substantial setting with a clearly recognisable outdoor identity and continuity from early infancy towards school age.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillars serves the youngest children, with early vocabulary, understanding and social development supported through a consistent key person and attention to the child's home routine. That emphasis makes the relationship with the adult central to the baby's day, rather than treating communication as something that starts later.

Ladybirds emphasises language alongside physical and social development, while encouraging children to choose and attempt things independently. Bumblebees develops vocabulary, thinking and self-help through investigation and play, with key-person attachments supporting growing independence. Preschool extends communication and self-care, using Ready, Steady, Grow for school preparation and Read, Write, Inc for phonics, alongside learning in small groups.

Across the rooms, relationships and communication lead into independent choices and practical preparation for the next stage.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play, communication and everyday routines are opportunities to build understanding and skills. Cherry Trees adds concrete experiences to that foundation, including planting and harvesting, phonics in Preschool and opportunities to investigate children's own questions.

In April 2024, children adjusted a dough mixture themselves, deciding whether it needed flour or water, then peeled an orange and added its juice. The activity joined practical problem-solving with creative choice. Adults supported the process while leaving children meaningful decisions to make; the learning lay in testing an idea and seeing what happened.

Questions also travelled beyond the activity table. In April 2024, a discussion about glass led to a bus outing to see stained-glass windows, then further exploration of transport. It is a useful example of an interest becoming a sequence of experiences, rather than a question being answered and set aside. Staff alternated between adding challenge and allowing time for children to experiment independently.

Tiny Mites adds a recurring activity every other Thursday for all age groups alongside everyday room learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

Daily garden access supports both imaginative play and observation. The Sunken Sand Pit and Wizard Story House offer different starting points for children's ideas, while the external camera allows them to look inside nesting boxes. Children also plant, grow and harvest produce, connecting care for living things with something tangible they can follow over time.

Eco-Schools, the environmental programme operated in the UK by Keep Britain Tidy, gives this work a structure: the nursery chooses subjects for activities and has achieved Green Flag status. The value for children is participation in environmental learning through things they can do and investigate. It complements the garden's practical opportunities, rather than leaving environmental awareness as an adult message alone.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with time together in the child's room. Before the starting date, families meet the key person and spend time with their child, allowing staff and parents to learn about each other. For Caterpillars, continuity with home routines is an explicit part of care, so information about familiar patterns has a direct place in planning the day.

Parentzone carries regular nursery updates and allows parents to add information from home. Conversations also cover progress, changing interests and routines. This gives communication a purpose beyond reporting activities: adults can respond to what is happening in both parts of the child's life. Childbase@Home is the group's parent resource, providing books, online experiences and workshops alongside those everyday exchanges.

In April 2024, key persons helped families with changes such as toilet learning and preparing for school. Parents could borrow books and resource sacks from the lending library, making support something they could take home and use. School preparation here included practical help for families, alongside the Preschool learning programme.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and excellent progress among children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those learning English as an additional language, with individual needs shaping daily experiences. That is a dated judgement about practice and outcomes, rather than a promise about any individual child's support.

In April 2024, parents recorded greetings in the language their children heard at home, and staff learned songs in different languages. Babies encountered signs to help them communicate. Books and dolls supported conversations about feelings, while timers gave children a practical way to manage turns and sharing. These examples connect communication and emotional development to things children could hear, handle and use.

The branch also uses Childbase's group-wide Harry health, safety and environment character to introduce awareness of these topics. Everyday independence had a similarly concrete expression in April 2024: children used mirrors when cleaning their faces, found tissues themselves and discussed handwashing. A box displaying meal ingredients prompted conversations about food and health.

Meals and snacks are included in the private fee, and practitioners join children's mealtimes to support conversation, manners and independence. Formula, nappies, wipes, nappy cream and sun cream are included too, reducing the supplies families need to organise for the nursery day.

Sessions and Attendance

Cherry Trees opens Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 6.30pm, across 52 weeks, excluding public holidays and inset days. Those closures matter when planning work and family cover across the year. The opening window provides an early start and an evening collection point.

Enquiries can be made through the branch form, by telephone on 01234 751900 or by email at cherry.tree@childbase.com. Registration leads to a written offer where the requested booking can be accommodated; otherwise, the nursery uses a waiting list. Before the start date, settling sessions introduce the child and family to their room and key person.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for two-year-olds and children aged three to four. The private package includes activities as well as food and non-food supplies, so parents comparing quotations should distinguish that inclusive package from their proposed funded arrangement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

The inclusive service also gives nursery parents access to Childbase@Home. For families who use its workshops, books or online experiences, this adds material for home alongside the updates and conversations about their own child.

• The youngest room. Caterpillars places care routines and the key-person relationship together. On a tour, ask how room size, sleep and staff continuity will work for your baby, and use settling time to discuss their familiar routine.
• Funded attendance. Cherry Trees offers funding for two-year-olds and three- to four-year-olds alongside an inclusive private package. Ask for a written explanation of how your funded hours are scheduled and how meals and consumables are handled within that booking.
• Tiny Mites. Sessions run every other Thursday across the age groups. Ask what the activity involves for your child's stage and how it fits into the room's day.

Cherry Trees suits families who value daily garden time, environmental learning and a gradual emphasis on children doing more for themselves. Caterpillars' attention to familiar routines gives the youngest children a different starting point from Preschool's phonics and school preparation. Parentzone and the lending-library example also give parent partnership practical substance.

The April 2024 Outstanding judgement supports serious consideration. Year-round weekday opening suits parents needing early-to-evening cover, with the funded or private arrangement central to their choice.