La Petite Academy

A padded sensory room, a garden growing herbs and vegetables, and a visiting Cockapoo give La Petite Academy a recognisable character. This Littleover nursery combines spaces for active exploration with somewhere quieter to pause. The practical appeal is the choice: children can investigate light and sound, play outdoors beneath canopies, or follow an interest through activities shaped around their play.

At its November 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good across all areas and found safeguarding effective, with effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). There were also clear improvement priorities: extending children's outdoor ideas and giving preschool children more independence at lunch. Those points deserve attention alongside the strengths.

Children attend from 3 months to 5 years, with age-based rooms spanning baby care through preschool. Morning, afternoon and shorter-day bookings sit alongside full days, so this is an option for families with different working and childcare routines.

Rooms and Ages

Tiddlers covers 3 to 18 months, followed by Tweenies for 18 to 24 months. These stages give families a way to understand the nursery's age progression before the toddler and preschool years. Moving between stages is also a relationship change, making the key-person arrangements relevant throughout a child's time here.

Toddlers, for children aged 2 to 3 years, has two connected base rooms with a gate between them, carpeted spaces for play, cosy corners and surfaces suited to meals and messy activities; building materials, story sacks and sorting games support imagination, language and increasing independence. Having connected spaces gives children choices within their familiar part of the nursery. Progression to preschool usually happens in the term following a child's third birthday, with developmental needs taken into account.

Pre-School, for ages 3 to 4 years, combines creative work and early mathematical and language activities with circle time, stories, sensory exploration and outdoor play at least twice daily. Painting, baking and making things from reused materials put school preparation into practical activities. The emphasis is on developing the skills children will use next, rather than making the day resemble formal lessons.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning and development through play, including communication, physical skills and relationships. La Petite Academy adds in the moment planning: practitioners watch what children are absorbed in, then use conversation or an intervention to extend the learning. An interest can therefore shape an activity rather than simply being fitted into a predetermined task. The curriculum information explains this approach.

Visual timetables help children understand the sequence of the day. Children also contribute to the nursery's golden rules, giving everyday routines a connection to their own decisions. These are concrete ways of making expectations understandable, alongside the freedom to choose resources and activities.

The Sensory Room has padded surfaces, a bubble tube, mirrors, touch-controlled lighting and projected images. Children can investigate changing colours and patterns or spend quieter time with an adult and a book. Its value lies in that different pace: it provides a space away from the busier main rooms, rather than another activity table in the same environment.

Boogie Beats is a separately charged activity currently scheduled for Wednesday afternoons, with the day subject to change between terms. Monthly themed event days also bring a change of rhythm, with dressing up generally optional. Halloween on 30 October 2026 specifically invites spooky costumes, so families attending that day have a clear expectation to plan around.

Outdoor and Community Life

Canopies allow outdoor play in wet weather. The sensory garden contains herbs, vegetables and bedding plants, while a road layout with a roundabout and parking bays creates opportunities to discuss road safety. Tree-stump seating forms an outdoor story corner. These details give the outdoor spaces different purposes: growing, moving and sharing stories.

Children take walks to local parks, and garden-centre visits in the nursery car involve choosing plants to grow. Families supply waterproof clothing and wellies for digging and exploring. Outdoor provision was also a development point in November 2023: a child-led den-building game lost momentum because resources to extend it were unavailable to the children. The question is how resources support an idea once children have started it.

Beckett, the nursery's Cockapoo, visits regularly and is training towards therapy-dog accreditation. He is a recurring visitor, rather than an accredited therapy dog. For children who enjoy animals, that adds another element to nursery life; families with relevant sensitivities will want to discuss the arrangement.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person and a co-key person who takes responsibility when the key person is absent. Settling sessions allow parents to share interests, abilities and individual needs before the nursery routine takes over. The All About Me form provides another starting point for that conversation. Continuity has a practical structure here.

Tapestry, the online learning journal, allows families to see photographs, videos and observations and add their own contributions from home. This makes communication about development a two-way exchange. Parents' evenings take place twice a year: one offers information and presentations, while the other provides an individual discussion with the key person.

In November 2023, children shared books with adults, retold familiar stories and recognised relatives in their family books. Home photographs also became material for conversation. These examples show how familiar people and experiences were used to draw children into language, rather than treating communication as a separate scheduled exercise.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENDCO works with key people and parents on support plans, with termly reviews and referrals to other professionals made with parental consent. A parent-referral form provides a direct route for raising a concern. Speech therapists, health visitors and the local authority STEPS team are among the services involved. Where individual support is needed, the nursery can apply for additional funding.

Physical access includes ramps to the building and both outdoor play areas, double-door access and wheelchair-friendly parking at the front. Neutral room colours and measures to reduce background noise are part of the environment. For children using another language at home, families contribute translated words for a language book and displays, keeping familiar language visible in the nursery day.

At the November 2023 inspection, Ofsted found staff used support plans and involved professionals promptly for children with SEND, while supervision during eating, sleeping and climbing supported children's wellbeing. These are dated findings, rather than a promise about every future experience.

A cook prepares meals daily, with seasonal menus on a four-week rotation and vegetarian, vegan and pescetarian alternatives. For allergies, the nursery develops an alternative menu with families and requires a care plan from a GP or consultant.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 10-12 Highfield Road, Littleover, Derby, DE23 1DG. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays throughout the year, except bank holidays. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve finish at 4pm. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01332 774413 or through the contact form.

Standard-day options run from 8am to either 5pm or 6pm. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, afternoons from 1pm to 6pm, and short days from 9am to either 3pm or 4.30pm. An Early Bird addition covers 7.30am to 8am, and authorised extra hours can be arranged separately. The distinction between opening hours and the booked session matters: an earlier start is an addition to the standard day.

The general minimum is two half-day or short-day sessions, or one full day each week; funded short-day and full-day packages have a two-day minimum. Term-time places are restricted to funded sessions. Parents must arrive ten minutes before their booked session ends to allow handover, and four weeks' written notice is required to reduce or change sessions or end a place.

Getting There

The building sits in a residential crescent opposite a green, away from the main road. Parking is directly in front, with wheelchair-friendly spaces and ramped access providing practical help for families using mobility equipment.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes Flying Start provision for eligible two-year-olds, universal 15-hour funding from the term after a child's third birthday, and up to 30 hours for eligible working families from the term after their child reaches nine months. Families choose a 38-week term-time package or stretched attendance over 47.5 or 52 weeks, and keep that package for the academic year. Spring or summer starts on stretched funding can include weeks charged privately when funding does not cover them.

Meals and activities are voluntary during funded hours, with policy-compliant food from home an alternative recorded on the funding form; changes to the meal arrangement take effect only at the start of a term, with at least four weeks' notice. During private hours, meal and activity charges apply even if food is brought in. Some additional days purchased with the funded short-day package include meals, so the meal position depends on the package. Funded hours also carry a consumables charge which parents can decline by supplying their own items; nappy barrier cream comes from home.

A non-refundable registration charge applies when private care is taken, while funded-only care has no registration charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, alongside the package terms on its funding and fees information. School preparation includes information for families and invitations to local teachers to discuss readiness.

• Outdoor ideas and lunch independence. November 2023 improvement priorities concerned materials for extending outdoor play and preschool self-serving at lunch. During a visit, ask how these work in the current day.
• Choosing a funded package. The attendance package lasts for the academic year, and stretched funding can leave privately charged weeks for spring or summer starters. Match the written quotation to the whole year's childcare requirement.
• Settling and room changes. Visits are offered at 10am and 2.30pm, subject to staff availability. Use one to discuss the transition between your child's age room, key person and co-key person.
• Animals and allergies. Beckett visits regularly, while dietary adaptations require a medical care plan. Discuss animal contact and confirm current allergy arrangements where these affect your child.

La Petite Academy suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as standard or shorter days, with term-time funded and stretched packages adding further choices. Its strongest practical features are the connected toddler spaces, quieter Sensory Room and outdoor areas with purposes beyond running around.

The Good judgement from November 2023 gives a useful inspection anchor. The outdoor-play and lunchtime priorities provide equally useful questions. For families who value learning shaped around children's interests and regular communication through Tapestry, this nursery has a clear identity and an attendance model worth examining closely.