Circus Day Nursery & Pre-school

A Regency house, an enclosed one-acre garden and weekly Forest School give Circus Day Nursery & Pre-school a character that goes well beyond its circus-themed room names. On Pittville Circus Road in Cheltenham, the setting combines outdoor exploration with separate spaces for babies, developing toddlers and children preparing for school. The garden matters here. Children can grow plants, investigate natural materials and spend time outside as part of their nursery day.

At its October 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that individualised support helped children with additional needs make progress. The improvement point concerned the organisation of changes between activities: some children lacked direction while others returned repeatedly to familiar activities. That is a useful distinction for parents weighing the daily experience alongside the overall judgement.

Circus has capacity for 119 children and accepts babies from three months. Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings sit alongside an early breakfast service, so the attendance offer serves more than one working pattern.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Suites combine separate sleeping rooms with sheltered outdoor space, giving babies dedicated spaces for sleep and sheltered outdoor exploration. Staff work with parents to understand individual routines rather than treating the move into nursery as a single fixed adjustment. The protected garden area has artificial grass and equipment chosen for babies.

Clowns Floor supports movement and awareness of space, with two playrooms, daily use of the sensory room and a growing area that children help tend. Moves from the baby provision begin from 15 months according to development, with the next move also dependent on individual readiness. These are stages of development, rather than a promise that every child changes room on a birthday.

Jugglers Floor emphasises communication through songs and stories, with a quiet area and garden opportunities including raised beds, a natural world area and a secret garden. Creative work includes clay, junk modelling and cooking. Giving children words for their needs sits alongside the practical business of exploring materials and learning to manage emotions.

Rising Three’s develops independence through everyday tasks such as managing coats and shoes, supported by an open-plan playroom, separate dining space and bathroom. Pre-School adds self-serving meals and table-setting to exploratory play, with bright classrooms, an adjacent bathroom and a separate dining room. The physical arrangements give these ordinary routines an educational purpose: children practise doing more for themselves throughout the day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes learning through play, covering communication, physical development, relationships and the beginnings of literacy and mathematics alongside creative exploration and understanding the world. This is the shared framework for early years provision; Circus Curriculum applies it through monthly topics and a balance of activities initiated by children and planned by adults. The curriculum outline explains that approach.

Monthly planning can draw on occasions such as Chinese New Year or International Lego Day. These are examples of topics, rather than a fixed annual events calendar. Children’s own interests also influence activities, leaving room for an unexpected question or discovery to change the direction of play.

Makaton, a communication programme using signs alongside spoken words, has a practical place in the day. Children learn signs for everyday requests and routines, including food, drink and the toilet, as well as signs connected with current topics. That gives communication a concrete form children can use before, or alongside, spoken language.

Our Little Library sits between the preschool floors and lends books to families as well as supporting small-group storytelling. Its collection includes books about emotions, different languages and changes in family life. The value extends beyond story time: a book about a new baby or difficult feelings can connect conversations at nursery with those at home.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School brings child-led exploration of nature into weekly sessions, adjusted to children’s development. Bug hunts, den building and the mud kitchen sit alongside activities using natural resources. The daily-access garden also contains purpose-built play areas, so outdoor time includes both open-ended investigation and more structured physical play.

The Secret Garden gives children from Clown Floor upwards a part in shaping their surroundings, including ideas for planting. This is more useful than simply having a large lawn: children contribute to a space that changes with their interests. Outdoor clothing is part of the routine, with families expected to equip children for time outside.

Zoolab visits take place from time to time, bringing animals for children to encounter, while the fire and police services also visit with vehicles. These experiences make the wider world tangible. They are occasional visitors, rather than a weekly timetable of outside specialists.

Relationships and Communication

Each practitioner has key children, giving families a consistent relationship through which to discuss care and learning. For babies, staff gather information about changing needs from parents; later moves between floors use taster sessions so children can experience the next room and begin getting to know its staff before transferring.

Tapestry, the online learning journal, carries photographs and updates, including babies’ bottles, sleep and meals. On Jugglers Floor it also shares the progress check. This connects practical care information with the account of what a child is learning, rather than leaving parents to piece the two together.

In October 2024, children formed close relationships with familiar adults, and staff used information from families when helping them settle. Changes between activities were less consistent: some children moved about with little sense of what to do next. Room moves and moment-to-moment changes in the day are different issues, and both deserve attention.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SEND policy sets out a SENCO-led cycle of assessment, planning, daily support and review, with parents involved in decisions and liaison with outside professionals where needed. Support plans are reviewed after six to eight weeks. That provides a defined route for discussing a concern, agreeing an intervention and examining whether it is helping.

Sleep has dedicated space in the baby provision. Cot rooms have CCTV, and staff also carry out visible checks at ten-minute intervals; cameras sit alongside physical checks rather than replacing them. In Pre-School, The mindfulness room provides a quieter space for yoga, rest or an individual child’s time away from the main activity.

Two chefs cook meals on site and accommodate dietary requirements and allergies. The external-food policy excludes home-packed lunches but allows checked, pre-packed meals with labelled ingredients and a signed disclaimer each time food is brought in.

Preparation for school includes a summer transition record, a meeting with the key person and invitations for receiving teachers to visit in July. Staff can discuss individual development and share the completed record with the teacher. This is a handover of information about the child, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Pittville Circus Road, Cheltenham, GL52 2PZ. Normal opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with the pre-booked Early Birds Club starting at 7.30am and including breakfast. The earlier service is an additional arrangement, not the standard opening time.

Bookings are for morning, afternoon or full-day attendance, and sessions are not split. The funding terms define a morning or afternoon session as a five-hour booking. Circus operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and a week at Christmas; bank-holiday closures are not charged.

Enquiries and personal-tour bookings use the contact form, info@circusdaynursery.co.uk or 01242 253222. This gives families a direct route to discuss their intended attendance pattern.

Funding and Paid Extras

Circus offers the 15-hour and 30-hour entitlements and two-year government funding, with participation extending to eligible children from nine months. Funding is stretched across 51 weeks rather than delivered on a term-time-only basis. Eligibility remains conditional, and the stretched arrangement matters when comparing the childcare covered across a full year.

Outside funded hours, private fees include food and drinks, formula, nappies and other consumables. During funded hours, meals and non-food consumables are charged separately through an agreed charge, which also includes specialist activities. The terms describe these charges as elective and allow families to opt out; children who opt out still take part in activities meeting EYFS requirements.

A registration charge applies to new starters except fully funded children. Permanent session changes also carry a charge, and additional hours beyond the funded entitlement are paid privately. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation; the pricing and funding information sets out the charging structure.

• Changes during the day. In October 2024, some children needed clearer support between activities. During a tour, ask how staff now organise these moments and keep children engaged.
• Stretched funding and elective extras. Funding runs across 51 weeks, while funded-hours food, consumables and specialist activities sit within a separate agreed charge. Discuss the opt-out arrangements and the written total for your intended bookings before committing.
• Food brought from home. The nursery supplies meals. Its external-food policy excludes home-packed lunches and permits checked pre-packed food with a signed disclaimer on each occasion. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice and how an alternative meal would be handled.
• Your child’s floor. Moves depend on development and use taster sessions. On a visit, ask what the usual group size is on the floor your child would join and how the key person supports the move.

Circus suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with an earlier breakfast arrangement for those whose working day starts sooner. Its strongest practical attractions are the substantial garden, weekly nature-based learning, separate baby sleeping spaces and the gradual progression through named floors.

The borrowing library, everyday signing and school-transition handover add useful substance to the account of learning and care. The October 2024 Good judgement provides a dated quality benchmark, while the improvement point about daily transitions remains a sensible topic for a visit. Families using funding should weigh the stretched calendar and separate elective charges alongside the attendance pattern they actually need.