Kiddywinks Nursery

A garden for babies, a tree house for older children and outings to Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden give Kiddywinks Nursery a clear outdoor character. Based at The Pear Tree Centre in Chipping Campden, it combines age-specific rooms with opportunities to grow vegetables, explore stories and practise doing things independently. There is plenty here for children who enjoy getting messy.

At its 7 March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. The improvement priorities were equally concrete: smoother movement between rooms during group activities, stronger coaching for staff caring for the youngest children, and better responses to children's spontaneous interests.

Kiddywinks accepts children from birth to five. Morning, afternoon, school-day and full-day sessions give families several attendance patterns to consider.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby room emphasises sensory exploration and continuity with home routines, with access to a garden specifically for babies. That separation gives the youngest children an outdoor space of their own.

Toddler and early explorers emphasises emotional development and child-led play, using role play and miniature-world resources to help children develop their ideas and communicate with others.

The Pre-School room combines self-care practice with early number, shape and phonics activities, while name labels help children recognise their names before attempting to write them. Preparing for school includes practical independence, rather than concentrating solely on letters and numbers.

Toddler small-group activities practise taking turns and paying attention; preschool songs and circle time introduce shared routines.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the framework for learning and care: children develop communication, physical skills and early understanding through play and everyday routines. At Kiddywinks, sensory play includes cornflour mixtures, paint, dough and mud. Children can experiment with materials that families may prefer to keep out of the living room.

Books also extend into outdoor play. In March 2025, older children acted out familiar stories in the garden, turning sticks into pretend wands and mops into flying broomsticks; babies handled story spoons outside. This connected language with movement and imagination, giving children different ways to participate in storytelling.

In March 2025, adults sometimes missed chances to develop children's invented games, and staff caring for the youngest children needed support to extend learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

A tree house, creative house and large sandpit occupy the shared garden used by toddlers, early explorers and preschool children. The vegetable garden is accessible to all children, with a sensory area and opportunities to care for growing fruit and vegetables. Outdoor play therefore includes making, investigating and tending plants, alongside physical activity.

Outings include Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden and local parks, while the town centre and library extend experiences beyond the nursery grounds. These destinations give children concrete things to talk about afterwards: places, books and the community around them. Kiddywinks encourages outdoor play in different weather conditions, so its outdoor emphasis extends beyond sunny-day activities.

Relationships and Communication

The key person takes particular responsibility for a child's everyday care, including feeding, changing and comfort. For babies, continuing established home routines is part of the arrangement. This makes the relationship relevant to ordinary moments throughout the day, rather than simply assigning a contact name to each family.

Tapestry, the online system for photographs and observations, provides a continuing link between home and nursery. Parents can contribute news and achievements from home as well as receive updates about nursery experiences. Babies also receive daily feedback alongside conversations with their key person, giving parents both an immediate account of the day and a record they can revisit.

In March 2025, babies sought comfort from familiar adults, while older children made choices about their play. Staff also exchanged information with parents about children's next learning steps, and leaders used questionnaires to gather families' views. The combination of everyday conversation and recorded observations gives parents more than one way to contribute.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities made good progress through individual plans, advice from external agencies and timely referrals for specialist help. These mechanisms matter because support can be adjusted around the child rather than relying on a general promise of inclusion.

Everyday independence was visible in March 2025: babies practised feeding themselves and using open cups, toddlers managed outdoor clothing, and older children poured drinks and attended to toileting. Staff explained simple behavioural expectations gently. Those examples show how care routines can become opportunities to practise skills, with adult help available as children learn.

Sessions and Attendance

Kiddywinks operates at The Pear Tree Centre, Pear Tree Close, Chipping Campden, GL55 6DB. Its standard opening hours are 8am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, with closure for bank holidays and Christmas.

The full-day session runs from 8am to 5.30pm. A morning session lasts from 8am to 1pm, and the afternoon runs from 1pm to 5.30pm. The school-day pattern is 8.30am to 4pm. Private attendance can be booked across the year or for term time only, allowing families to match the attendance calendar as well as the length of the day.

Early Birds offers a booked 7.30am start, with milk, cereals and fruit for breakfast. Late collection extends pickup to 6pm.

Enquiries can be made on 01386 848868 or through the contact form. Admissions are first come, first served, with a waiting list when a place cannot be offered.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, including the universal 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds from the term after their third birthday, with an additional 15 hours for eligible families under the extended entitlement. Working-parent and eligible two-year-old funding are also included in the funding arrangements. Eligibility conditions apply, and parents using an eligibility code are responsible for keeping it renewed.

On funded sessions, food and non-food consumables carry separate voluntary charges; parents can also opt out of charges for activities and the digital learning platform by giving written notice before the term begins. Opting out of food charges means supplying the meals needed during the booked session. Families can use the funding and charges page to understand that structure; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Meals are made fresh at the nursery each day, and dietary requirements can be discussed with staff. The packed-food policy requires ready-to-eat meals in a named cool bag, excludes nuts and several snack foods, and requires ingredients and allergens to be identified.

Pre-booked attendance is invoiced monthly in advance, with payment due on the first day of the relevant month. Funded attendance involves a commitment for the term, while cancelling additional hours requires at least one calendar month's notice. Food and consumables charges are not refunded for absence or holidays, and bank holidays remain chargeable. These terms matter when budgeting for attendance beyond the funded entitlement.

• Group-time interruptions. In March 2025, older children passing through the toddler area disrupted younger children's activities. On a visit, ask how movement between rooms is now organised so that toddler groups can maintain their attention.
• Support for the youngest children. The March 2025 priorities included staff coaching and extending children's own ideas during play. Ask how the Baby room team develops these skills and how your child's home routines would shape their nursery day.
• Funded attendance and extras. Food and consumables charges on funded sessions are voluntary, but opting out requires notice before the term. Establish whether your entitlement would run during term time or be stretched across the year, and include the attendance commitment in your budgeting.
• Packed meals and allergies. Bringing food involves a named cool bag, ready-to-eat meals and clear allergen information. Families managing allergies should confirm current handling arrangements and discuss whether nursery meals or packed food best meet their child's needs.

Kiddywinks suits families seeking an outdoor emphasis and a choice between morning or afternoon attendance, school-day sessions and full days, with private term-time and year-round patterns. Separate baby outdoor space, gardening and Tapestry give that offer practical substance.

The Good judgement in March 2025 supports a positive assessment, while the priorities around group transitions and staff responses to children's interests deserve attention. The strongest reason to consider Kiddywinks is the combination of hands-on play, everyday independence and communication with home.