Fordfield House Nursery & After School Club

A heated indoor swimming pool, an allotment that supplies ingredients for meals, and woodland walks give Fordfield House Nursery & After School Club a practical, outdoors-minded character. Growing, cooking and exploring suit children who enjoy learning by doing.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 20 June 2023 and found safeguarding effective at that inspection. The strongest examples from June 2023 were tangible: young children experimented with play dough while staff introduced new vocabulary, and older children explored water, movement and growing food. There were also two clear priorities for improvement: planning more closely around each child's next learning steps, and helping children take responsibility for leaving possessions safely.

Fordfield accepts children aged six months to five years. Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings provide different ways to organise attendance, while the annual calendar includes summer and Christmas closures. The preschool timetable, daily toothbrushing and food grown in the allotment give families more to weigh than the length of the childcare day alone.

Rooms and Ages

Jemima, Marmaduke, Barnaby, Dillon and Preschool are the Fordfield classroom names. Preschool serves children aged three to five, with learning indoors and outside and an emphasis on communication, early writing and number skills through both adult-guided activities and children's own choices. Recognising and writing their name is part of that preparation.

Planting ingredients for soup, testing a marble run's speed and counting birds on woodland walks connect preschool learning about growth, movement and number to practical activities.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, preschool children learn through play, guided activities and exploration inside and outdoors. Swimming, woodland walks, baking and allotment gardening sit within the weekly preschool timetable. That gives the week a combination of physical activity, making things and investigating the natural world.

In June 2023, babies and younger children explored play dough as staff supplied words for the actions they were trying. Children were encouraged to attempt those words themselves, connecting language to something they could feel and do. Other activities used topics such as holidays, with a suitcase and its contents prompting discussion and imaginative ideas.

The limitation in June 2023 was how consistently those experiences were matched to individuals. Some practitioners needed a clearer connection between an activity and the particular knowledge or understanding a child should develop next.

Outdoor and Community Life

The allotment connects gardening with food children actually eat. Children help grow and harvest some ingredients used in meals, so planting is linked to an everyday outcome. Woodland walks also belong to the preschool week, bringing observation and exploration beyond indoor activities.

During June 2023, outdoor play included puddles, collecting water and using the mud kitchen. An obstacle course gave children another way to investigate their bodies: they felt their chests before exercise and compared the sensation afterwards. Those examples show how physical play was used to prompt questions, rather than simply filling a break between indoor sessions.

Swimming has a substantial physical base: a 10m heated indoor pool. A lifeguard attends each pool session, and swimming lessons are for existing clients. The on-site pool avoids a separate destination for lessons; swimming charges affect attendance costs.

Relationships and Communication

In June 2023, children developed close relationships with their key person, and staff working patterns allowed that person to speak with families at both ends of the day. A secure electronic app supplied additional information about children's experiences. Together, those arrangements offered parents both direct conversation and details they could return to later.

Famly now carries itemised invoices separating funded hours, privately paid hours, food, non-food consumables and swimming. Parents can distinguish the entitlement from other costs.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2023 inspection, Ofsted found effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, with staff collaborating with parents and outside agencies and passing relevant information to staff at the child's next school. This was support organised around the individual child across home, nursery and the move to school.

The my smile programme adds supervised toothbrushing to the preschool day: after lunch, children collect their brush and toothpaste and clean their teeth with staff supervision. Its practical value is the repeated routine. Oral care becomes something children practise during the day, alongside the other habits they are developing.

Meals are cooked in the nursery's commercial kitchen, using seasonal produce and local suppliers across a four-week menu. Dietary requirements are catered for, and some ingredients come from the children's allotment work.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Fordfield Road, Millbrook, Bedford, MK45 2HZ. Nursery opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The three booking patterns are a full day from 8am to 6pm, a morning from 8am to 1pm, and an afternoon from 1pm to 6pm.

Fordfield operates for 48 weeks annually, closing for two weeks in summer, two at Christmas and bank holidays. The next Christmas closure starts at 4pm on 18 December 2026, with reopening at 8am on 4 January 2027. Families planning year-round childcare need to account for those breaks as part of the booking decision.

There are also handover windows to build into the day. Morning arrivals take place between 8am and 9am, with evening collection between 5pm and 6pm; the change between morning and afternoon sessions takes place between 1pm and 1.30pm. Those arrangements matter if a parent's work schedule depends on using the very beginning or end of a session.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01525 405524 or through the preschool Fordfield enquiry form. Management-team visits and trial sessions can be arranged. The preschool funding arrangement requires at least 15 hours to be used at the setting.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, including 30 hours for eligible working families with children aged nine months to five years. The funding arrangement distinguishes 38 funded weeks from ten unfunded weeks, with stretching across the 48-week opening year possible when the weekly hours claimed exceed those used. Eligibility and the chosen attendance pattern remain material to how that works for a particular family.

Food is included in private session fees: a full day covers breakfast, a morning snack, lunch and afternoon tea; mornings cover breakfast, snack and lunch, while afternoons include tea. During funded hours, food and non-food consumables are charged separately, with swimming also itemised as an additional charge on invoices. The fees and sessions page sets out that structure; current prices belong in the nursery's written quotation.

Nappies and disposable cleansing supplies are provided until a child is 24 months old, after which parents supply nappies. Families bring bottles and any formula or expressed milk each day; formula must arrive without being made up.

• Younger-child arrangements. The age range extends from six months to five years, while the Fordfield contact route is labelled preschool only. For a younger child, ask how care at the Millbrook site and the named classrooms fit together before choosing a booking.
• Individual learning and safe habits. The June 2023 priorities were more precise next-step planning and more consistent encouragement to put possessions somewhere safe. A visit is the opportunity to ask for examples of how both work in your child's daily routine now.
• Funding and swimming costs. Funded attendance carries separate food and consumables charges, and swimming is separately itemised. Obtain a written quotation for the exact session pattern, including how stretched funding and swimming apply to it.
• Annual breaks. The 48-week calendar includes summer and Christmas closures as well as bank holidays. The next Christmas break begins at 4pm on 18 December 2026, so families need to plan for that earlier finish and the closure period.

Fordfield suits families choosing between morning, afternoon and full-day attendance who value practical preschool experiences: growing food, woodland exploration, baking and swimming. Daily supervised toothbrushing adds another useful routine. The June 2023 Good judgement gives a dated quality benchmark, while the individual-planning and safe-habits priorities remain sensible discussion points when visiting.

The decision is also financial and logistical. Separate funded-hours charges, swimming costs and the annual closures should be weighed alongside the activities. For families whose pattern fits, the pool and allotment give the nursery offer a clear identity.