Nursery Rhymes Day Nursery

An orchard garden, ducks sharing the outdoor spaces and children collecting fruit for baking give Nursery Rhymes Day Nursery its character. This is a rural Leckhampton setting where outdoor play has a practical role: children investigate living things, build with large materials and practise doing things for themselves. The gardens are part of the ordinary nursery day, rather than reserved for special occasions.

At its February 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, with mathematics and communication with parents among its strengths, while requiring better toddler-room organisation, quicker implementation of improvement plans and more accurate teaching of letter sounds. That dated judgement gives useful context alongside the current rooms and activities.

Nursery Rhymes accepts children from birth to five and has 70 places in total. Tiny Explorers, Little Learners and Big Creators & Preschool organise the experience around different stages of development. Families can book mornings, afternoons or full days, with a minimum booking of two sessions.

Rooms and Ages

Tiny Explorers serves children under two, combining sensory play and movement with time in the orchard garden. Its smaller baby setting puts familiar routines and exploration together: the indoor environment supports the youngest children, while outdoor access brings changes in weather, plants and movement into their day.

Little Learners combines activities shaped by children's interests with growing independence, including cutting fruit using child-safe knives, pouring drinks and exploring the gardens. These are useful everyday tasks. Staff remain on hand, so practising a new skill does not mean being left to manage it alone.

Big Creators & Preschool links imaginative play, outdoor construction and everyday responsibilities with preparation for school routines. Children help organise meals and clear up afterwards, and learn the expectations of circle time. The emphasis is on participating in the day, rather than simply being told what to do next.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework shapes learning through play, with children's interests helping staff decide which experiences to develop. Parents contribute information about what currently engages their child and where support would help; practitioners combine that with their observations to plan activities. This gives home interests a route into nursery learning.

In February 2022, a child's comment about a storm prompted an experiment using water, foam, pipettes and coloured paint. Staff extended the conversation into observations about how colour moved through the water. It was a concrete example of an ordinary remark becoming an investigation, with children able to change the activity as their ideas developed.

Language also received attention in February 2022 through new vocabulary during play and games involving matching initial sounds. The limitation mattered: staff sometimes demonstrated those sounds incorrectly. For families thinking ahead to reading, the distinction is between enjoying language games and hearing accurate examples to copy.

Outdoor and Community Life

The wild garden, main garden and orchard garden provide different things to explore. Little Learners turn logs to look for insects and gather orchard fruit for baking. Older children use large loose parts to devise obstacle courses and vehicles, giving construction a social purpose as they solve problems together.

Garden access takes place in both parts of the day. Wellies, waterproof clothing and sun hats are supplied, helping outdoor play continue across changing weather. The ducks add another reason to watch closely: children share the gardens with them and observe their movements and behaviour.

Outdoor Classroom Day is an annual event for Big Creators & Preschool in the wild garden, extending the nursery's usual outdoor play into a day of activities and meals outside. Den building, scavenger hunts, clay faces and a mud kitchen give children several ways to investigate and create. Lunch takes place around a pretend campfire, keeping the activity clearly within imaginative play.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, whom parents meet during the initial settling session. That meeting is used to share information about the child, giving the relationship a practical starting point. For babies, parents explain bottle and sleep patterns so that nursery routines can follow those used at home.

The Famly app provides daily information about babies, alongside a spoken handover at collection. The combination matters: an app update gives parents something to return to, while a conversation allows the details of that particular day to be discussed. Care and learning sit together in these exchanges.

In February 2022, daily conversations with parents covered care routines, children's interests and ways to continue learning at home. Children also practised small acts of independence, such as using utensils, feeding themselves and washing their hands after disposing of tissues. These observations belong to that visit, rather than being a description of every current day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and judged that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received skilled support and made good progress, with early intervention and board games used to help children who found larger groups uncomfortable. The example is useful because it identifies an actual adjustment to participation, rather than relying on a general promise of inclusion.

Current care arrangements include following parents' approach to potty training and supporting changes to sleep routines. All staff have first aid training. These are practical arrangements; the dated safeguarding judgement remains a separate assessment.

Meals are cooked each day in the nursery kitchen by its own cooks, with three weekly menus and provision for individual dietary requirements. Morning fruit, lunch, an afternoon snack and tea form the food routine, while breakfast is not provided.

School preparation includes practising independence and familiar routines. A graduation ceremony marks the move on, with families invited, gowns and caps supplied, songs, entertainment and stories about children's time at nursery. It gives the change a shared celebration.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Peacecroft, Kidnappers Lane, Leckhampton, Cheltenham, GL53 0NR. Nursery Rhymes opens Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm, across the year, closing on bank holidays and for a week at Christmas. Those closures need to fit a family's wider childcare arrangements.

Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm and include lunch; afternoons run from 1pm to 6pm and include tea. A full day runs from 8am to 6pm, covering both meals. The minimum booking is two sessions, so the attendance model accommodates shorter sessions as well as whole days.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form, and a registration form can be downloaded. Fees are paid monthly in advance. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, allowing families to consider their chosen sessions and funded hours together.

Funding and Paid Extras

Nursery Rhymes offers 30 hours funding and additional privately paid hours. For privately paid sessions, meals, drinks and snacks are included in the fee, along with nappies, formula and sun cream. The use of outdoor clothing is included too.

Funded hours have a separate charge structure for food, non-food consumables and activities. The activity category includes celebrations, outdoor classroom days, graduation ceremonies and animal encounters. Parents may opt out of consumable charges, but must supply the items otherwise included and comply with the nursery's packed-food policy. That condition makes the choice more involved than simply removing a charge.

A booking deposit applies. For children using only funded hours, it is refunded during the first term; where privately paid hours are also used, the childcare agreement governs the terms. The general booking terms make the deposit non-refundable if the reservation is unused, and return it on the final invoice when the account is settled and at least four weeks' notice has been given.

The nursery accepts childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare payments. These payment options sit alongside the distinction between funded hours, extra private hours and the associated charges.

• Toddler organisation and early reading. February 2022 findings included interruptions to stories, unnecessary waiting, toddler-room organisation and inaccurate initial sounds; existing improvement plans also needed faster implementation. At a visit, ask how those points have been addressed in daily practice.
• The funded-hours package. Food, non-food consumables and activities have separate charges alongside funded hours. Opting out of consumable charges requires supplying the corresponding items and following the packed-food policy, so consider the practical work as well as the quotation.
• Outdoor play throughout the day. Children use the gardens morning and afternoon, with outdoor clothing supplied. For a child who needs help adjusting to animals, muddy play or changing weather, discuss how that adjustment would be supported during settling.
• Meals and family routines. Breakfast is not provided, although morning sessions include lunch and afternoons include tea. Families managing dietary needs should confirm the current arrangements for their child before agreeing the food package.

Nursery Rhymes suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full days, especially those who want gardens and practical independence to shape nursery life. Orchard fruit, free-roaming ducks and large outdoor construction materials give that offer substance. The annual Outdoor Classroom Day builds on an everyday pattern of garden access.

For babies, the strongest practical details are the key-person relationship, home routines carried into settling and daily communication. The February 2022 improvement points deserve a direct conversation, while the funded-hours package requires careful attention to what the family will pay for or supply. This is a setting to assess through its concrete daily arrangements, as well as its dated Good judgement.