Hippitots

Six babies at most in The Baby Room, a toddler space opening onto The Yard, and preschool children spread across adjoining rooms: Hippitots has a clear progression through its Coxhoe nursery. The small baby-room cap is the strongest practical detail for parents starting childcare early. Beyond it, the emphasis shifts towards choosing activities, managing personal care and testing ideas through play.

Hippitots occupies The Tarka Centre on Commercial Road West, Coxhoe, Durham, DH6 4HJ, with capacity for 48 children and an accepted age range from birth to 12 years. Its named nursery rooms run from babies through to preschool. At its 23 June 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged Hippitots Good overall and found safeguarding effective.

A traditional building and an enclosed rear garden give the setting its physical character. Communication and growing independence shape the curriculum, while Famly brings messages and updates together for parents. Families can choose full days or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, with both year-round and term-time attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room takes children from birth to 18 months, with competent walking also part of its transition description, accommodates up to six babies, and combines soft furnishings with sensory exploration, movement and action rhymes. For families weighing the size of their baby's first childcare space, that room cap is more useful than the whole nursery's capacity. Individual routines also remain part of the room's approach.

Little Rainbow Room serves children from 18 months to three years, has a maximum of 16 toddlers, and combines communication, shared play and early self-care with bathroom access and movement between activities, The Yard and the garden. The physical layout matters here: children can practise independence indoors and take their play outside. Potty-training readiness is supported through the room's bathroom facilities rather than treated as separate from the day.

The Jigsaw Room accommodates three- and four-year-olds across two adjoining spaces, with reading materials, mark-making resources and practical mathematical experiences supporting literacy, problem-solving and children's own ideas. Children can reach materials independently. That gives them scope to decide what to make and how to represent experiences, while adults introduce challenges and discussion.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning and care: children develop language, movement and relationships alongside early literacy, mathematics, creativity and understanding of the world. Hippitots builds its play-based curriculum around communication and emotional development. Talking about feelings, making friendships and becoming more independent are part of the intended learning, rather than separate lessons added to the day.

Observation informs what happens next. Practitioners consider children's existing understanding and interests, then plan further learning and follow their progress. Adult interaction is central to the curriculum approach: staff model language, ask questions and describe what children are doing. For parents, this makes the distinction between simply providing toys and using play to develop understanding.

In June 2022, staff adjusted activities to children's individual learning needs and helped develop their ideas: older children tested blocks and tape, while younger children explored buried treasure. Those examples show the curriculum working through children's interests. They are also dated observations, rather than a promise that those particular activities will feature in a child's current week.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Big Garden & The Yard provide two outdoor settings: a walled garden for larger-scale play and a smaller area reached from the toddler room. Plant care, mud pies and opportunities to run, climb and investigate make outdoor time more than a break from indoor activities. Children can explore weather and nature while working out which physical challenges they can manage.

Football skills adds a scheduled option for children after their second birthday. It runs on Wednesday mornings during term time, introducing different ways to move through football activities. Participation is optional, requires parental permission and carries a separate charge. Families can therefore decide whether to add it to their child's nursery experience.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is allocated from the start, and children have short settling visits before their attendance begins. Baby-room staff work with parents to understand individual routines and respond to children's signals. This gives families a specific relationship through which to share changes in sleep, feeding or confidence, rather than relying only on general messages to the setting.

Each play space has its own daily routine, with eating and sleeping providing predictable points around free play. In June 2022, babies' routines were adjusted when they needed longer sleep, and parents' information helped staff respond to their care needs. The useful principle is responsiveness: the routine should support the child as well as organise the room.

Famly gives enrolled parents access to messages and updates, including observations, photographs and videos. It also carries invoices and payment receipts. Keeping communication and billing in the same app offers a convenient place to follow nursery information, while telephone and email remain routes for reporting absence.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Current safeguarding arrangements include a designated lead role, staff training, recruitment checks and ongoing suitability discussions. Staff personal phones are restricted to breaks, and personal devices cannot be used to photograph children. These are concrete procedures families can understand; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the June 2022 inspection.

In June 2022, staff consulted health professionals about support for children and families, and exchanged information with schools before and after children moved to Reception. School preparation also included name writing and understanding how books work. This was transition support, with dialogue used to inform preparation for the next group of children.

The same visit identified two areas needing attention: management checks did not catch small differences in staff practice quickly enough, and some children lost interest during larger group activities. Both matter to daily care. Consistency between adults and engaging routines deserve as much attention as the activities themselves.

Food includes snacks, a lunch with two courses and a savoury tea, with weaning discussed with parents and allergens identified on menus supplied in the welcome pack and displayed in rooms. This gives families a starting point for discussing their child's food needs.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Tarka Centre, Commercial Road West, Coxhoe, Durham, DH6 4HJ. Initial enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and each room has its own waiting list. Places are offered on a first come first served basis, with an offer linked to the family's chosen days.

For private hours, including bookings with a funding deduction, full days run from 8am to 5.45pm. Morning sessions finish at 12.30pm after an 8am start; afternoons run from 1.15pm to 5.45pm. These are different attendance choices, rather than simply permission to use any part of a longer opening window.

Funded-only bookings have their own timetable: full days are 8am to 5.45pm, the school day session is 8am to 3.30pm, mornings are 8.30am to 11.30am, and afternoons are 12.45pm to 3.45pm. The distinction is consequential for work schedules because the shorter funded sessions start and finish at different times from the private sessions.

Year-round stretched attendance and term-time attendance both require at least two full days or four half days each week; the term-time pattern covers 38 weeks. Hippitots operates for 51 weeks, closing for a Christmas week, bank holidays and training days. Booked sessions cannot be exchanged for different days, so the regular pattern needs to fit family life.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both private childcare and funded entitlement are offered. The funding options include EYE funding 15 hours and EYE funding 30 hours (working parents), with term-time delivery or hours spread across the year. Eligibility and the required documentation apply, including a working-family code where relevant, a parent declaration and proof of the child's date of birth.

Snacks and meals are included during private fee hours; during funded hours, families pay separately for nursery food or supply their own snacks and meals. Consumables such as sunscreen and extra baby wipes carry no separate charge, including alongside funding. Football skills remains a separately charged choice rather than part of the funded entitlement.

A retainer secures a confirmed place and is credited against the first monthly invoice, but is lost if the agreed place is not taken up. The fees policy specifies four weeks' written notice for ending private hours and no notice for funded-only places, although its later general cancellation clauses also require written notice. Families should resolve that distinction in their contract.

Invoices arrive through Famly, with private hours, funding and food charges separated. Charges are calculated monthly rather than annualised, so totals can change between months. The fees and funding page explains the attendance choices; current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Consistency and group routines. June 2022 improvement points concerned staff monitoring and children's attention during group activities. During a tour, ask how supervision now identifies differences in practice and how larger gatherings are adapted for children who disengage.
• Building access. The admissions policy warns that access to parts of the building can restrict an offer. Families with mobility or access needs should discuss the route through their child's room, bathroom and outdoor spaces during the tour.
• The weekly pattern. The minimum is two full days or four half days, and booked sessions cannot be swapped. With separate room waiting lists, use the interest and tour process to discuss a pattern that fits, then review the agreed times before accepting a place.
• The full contract. Closures remain chargeable, food is treated differently during funded and private hours, and notice clauses need clarification for funded-only attendance. Request a written quotation and a clear cancellation term before signing; families managing allergies should also confirm current food practice.

Hippitots suits families who value a small baby room, a clear progression towards independence and outdoor play connected to the toddler space. It serves both full-day attendance and shorter morning or afternoon patterns, with year-round and term-time choices. The most persuasive details are practical: a six-baby cap, a named key person and accessible materials that let older children make decisions about their play.

The June 2022 Good judgement gives a dated quality reference, alongside improvement points about staff consistency and group engagement. Those points, the building's accessibility and the precise funding contract should shape a family's assessment. For parents whose needs fit the session timetable, there is a concrete childcare offer to consider, from early settling through to preparation for school.