Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Cheltenham

A dedicated floor for babies and younger children, spacious rooms and an enclosed garden give Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Cheltenham a clear physical character. Age-specific areas organise the indoor space, while children's interests shape the experiences planned around them. This is a setting where the layout matters as much as the activity list.

At its 13 August 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children with additional needs received support through collaboration with parents and external agencies. The nursery has capacity for 32 children and accepts ages from 5 to 60 months. Flexible sessions carry a minimum booking of two sessions per child.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room, Toddler Room and Preschool Room provide the named stages of the nursery's indoor organisation. A floor dedicated to babies and younger children gives the youngest age groups their own part of the building. Spacious rooms and curiosity-inspired surroundings support play built around children's interests; the enclosed outdoor space adds another environment to explore.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage frames learning through play, including physical movement, language and early mathematics. The August 2024 examples below connect these areas to dancing, conversation and measuring ingredients. Practitioners monitor individual development and use that information to plan enrichment. The practical value is the connection between what a child is learning and what staff offer next.

In August 2024, babies practised movement by dancing and imitating actions to music. Older children made play dough, using pouring and mixing to exercise the muscles needed for writing, while quantities and shared decisions brought mathematics and conversation into the same activity. These examples show how everyday play can carry several kinds of learning together.

The August 2024 inspection also identified a need for staff to develop children's thinking more consistently during play, including giving them greater opportunity to explain ideas and solve problems themselves. That is a meaningful qualification to the positive curriculum picture: an engaging activity needs thoughtful adult interaction to take learning further.

Outdoor and Community Life

Enclosed outside space gives children another environment to explore beyond the rooms. In August 2024, an obstacle course offered practice in balance, with staff nearby, while trolley games involved children inventing scenarios together. Local walks included library visits, connecting time outdoors with books and experience of the wider community.

The group's activity offer, described for this branch, also includes mud kitchens, sensory areas and stories. These add different materials and experiences to play, although the strongest picture of this nursery's day comes from the concrete examples of music, dough-making and garden games.

Relationships have practical substance here. In August 2024, key persons recognised gaps in development and worked with those overseeing special educational needs and disabilities to agree targets and strategies. Parents and outside agencies contributed to that work, giving support a shared direction rather than leaving it solely with the nursery.

Settling periods are tailored to the individual child. The communication app carries updates about care and activities alongside the child's educational plan, so parents can follow both the immediate day and the learning being planned. In August 2024, staff also shared daily updates with families and invited parents to share cultural traditions.

Seasonal lunches and daily snacks are served, with dietary requirements accommodated and support for babies during weaning. Families are asked to tell the team about dietary needs before their child starts. All staff are undertaking paediatric first aid training; this describes the training arrangement rather than guaranteeing that every member has completed it.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.45am to 5.45pm, Monday to Friday. Flexible sessions are offered, with at least two sessions booked for each child. That minimum is a useful consideration for families seeking a very small weekly commitment.

The nursery opens for 51 weeks of the year and closes on bank holidays and over Christmas. Its calendar therefore supports attendance across the year, with those closures to factor into family childcare plans. New-parent enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 0800 699 00 44.

Getting There

The address is 49 All Saints Road, Cheltenham, GL52 2HF. This is the All Saints Road branch, with indoor age-specific areas and its own enclosed outside space.

Funding and Paid Extras

In August 2024, the nursery received funding for free early education for children aged two, three and four. Current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Learning conversations. The August 2024 improvement point concerned extending play through discussion and children's own problem-solving. On a visit, ask how practitioners now build on a child's question or idea rather than supplying the answer.
• A two-session minimum. Flexible attendance still requires two sessions per child. Establish how the proposed bookings fit your weekly routine before joining.
• Your child's care plan. Settling is individual and dietary needs should be shared before the start date. Discuss how your child's routines will be incorporated, and ask how funded hours, meals and consumables would be treated in your quotation.

Cheltenham suits families seeking flexible attendance across the year, especially those who value separate space for younger children, garden play and app-based communication. The August 2024 examples give the learning offer substance: music for babies, dough-making for older children and outings to the library. The improvement point about adult questioning deserves attention too. A visit should test how those interactions work alongside the rooms and routines.