The Cottage Day Nursery Mickleover

A Builders Yard for toddlers, butterfly investigations and preschool visits to a nursing home give The Cottage Day Nursery Mickleover a character that extends beyond its playrooms. Different ages have different spaces, with a separate outdoor area for babies and larger playground access for older children. Practical exploration runs through the offer: building, making, watching living things and meeting people outside the nursery.

The setting cares for children from three months to five years at Huffen Heath on Uttoxeter Road, Mickleover, Derby. At its August 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall and found safeguarding effective. The important qualification concerns younger children's conversations: staff needed to give them more consistent time to answer and extend their language.

Full-day, morning and afternoon bookings provide different ways to use the nursery.

Rooms and Ages

Babies, aged up to two, use themed spaces including an Art Room, Main Playroom and Imaginative Room, with access to a Sensory Room and their own playground area; creative, sensory and pretend play sit alongside opportunities for movement. Having an outdoor area of their own gives the youngest children a space separate from older children's playground activity.

For Toddlers, aged two to three, an Art Room, a Main Playroom incorporating small-world and imaginative play, and a Sensory Room support exploration, while the larger playground adds a Builders Yard, Block Play area and mud kitchen. These are concrete resources for moving between making things, pretending and investigating materials.

Preschool, for three- to five-year-olds, occupies the second storey, with an Art Room, Playdough station, block play, imaginative space and interactive whiteboard across two large rooms, plus use of the larger playground. This stage also reaches beyond the premises through regular Forest School visits and sessions at a local nursing home.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS connects learning with everyday play, conversation, physical development and growing independence. It is the common early-years framework; the added interest here lies in how activities bring those areas together. A butterfly project, for example, can combine observation, new words, stories and creative work rather than treating each as a separate lesson.

Butterfly Week linked a caterpillar-growing kit with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, garden searches and artwork exploring wing patterns. Children observed changes, learnt life-cycle vocabulary and released butterflies into the garden, connecting the story with living insects.

In August 2025, preschool children helped construct a bug house using child-safe tools under staff guidance. They handled materials, worked together and considered where the wooden pieces should go. The finished structure linked the task to habitats for insects, giving the building activity a purpose beyond the construction itself.

A Spanish course completed in July 2024 used weekly themes covering greetings, numbers, colours, animals and food. Games, songs and role-play introduced another language through familiar subjects.

In August 2025, children explored dinosaur names and characteristics after staff followed their interest in the creatures. Older children also predicted what might happen when vinegar met bicarbonate of soda. Both examples show learning starting with something children could discuss or investigate, rather than vocabulary being introduced in isolation.

Outdoor and Community Life

Regular Forest School visits add outdoor learning through exploration and play. Preschool children also visit a local nursing home for intergenerational Boogie Beats sessions, bringing children and older people together. These are two different kinds of experience: investigating outside and spending time with another generation.

The Treetops Reindeer Dash is a recurring Christmas fundraising activity, with children wearing antlers and face paint while running to raise donations for Treetops. Christmas celebrations have also included preschool postcards followed by a walk to the post box, and singalongs involving babies, toddlers and their parents. These examples connect nursery activities with giving, communication and family participation.

The group-wide Famly app provides messages, photographs, nursery updates and developmental observations. Instant messaging supports communication during the day; assessments help parents follow learning over time.

In August 2025, staff shared potty-training approaches with parents and passed information to schools to help children move on with consistent care and learning. Everyday independence received attention too. Younger children practised feeding themselves with spoons, while older children used safety knives to prepare food and cleared their plates afterwards. Staff demonstrated tasks when children needed help, including opening a yoghurt pot, then allowed them to continue themselves.

At the August 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children, including those with SEND, progressed well, with early referrals and individual learning plans informed by outside agencies supporting children who needed additional help. The useful detail is the mechanism: identifying a developmental gap, seeking advice and adapting interactions to the child's targets.

Emotional learning was also visible in August 2025. Staff discussed characters' feelings during stories, and children recognised similar emotions later in the book. Turn-taking involved clear, calm reminders when children shared a funnel and jugs. These examples put feelings and social expectations into situations children could understand.

Chefs prepare meals using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, and the nursery has arrangements for dietary requirements and allergies. Menu updates include parental input. Families managing an allergy should discuss how those arrangements apply to their child, rather than treating a general policy as a substitute for an individual conversation.

External doors use keypads, with codes restricted to parents. Staff training covers safeguarding, first aid and safer sleep.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Huffen Heath, Uttoxeter Road, Mickleover, Derby, DE3 9AX. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year, with closures for bank holidays and a week at Christmas. This is an all-year setting with shorter sessions as well as full days.

A Full Day runs from 7.30am to 6pm, Morning from 8.30am to 1pm, and Afternoon from 1pm to 5.30pm. Additional or part hours are also sold. Breakfast requires an earlier start than the Morning session offers.

Holiday absences remain chargeable, while bank holidays and the Christmas shutdown are not charged. Enquiries can be made through the nursery's enquiry form, by telephone on 01332 515100 or by email at mickleover@cottagenursery.co.uk.

Getting There

On-site parking is available at the Uttoxeter Road premises, just up from Derby Royal Hospital. That is a useful practical feature for families combining nursery care with work or other journeys in this part of Mickleover.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with Mickleover funding tables covering children from nine months and the two- and three-year age groups. Those tables combine funded hours with privately paid hours in full-day bookings. Funding therefore needs to be considered alongside the session purchased, rather than assumed to cover its whole length.

For funded full-day bookings, meals and non-food consumables are charged separately, and the tables also identify activity charges and additional private hours. Tea is included in the private afternoon session. The meal position consequently differs by booking: a private afternoon session includes tea, while funded full-day bookings carry a separate meal charge.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the timetable and fees page sets out attendance choices.

• Younger children's response time. The August 2025 improvement point concerned giving younger children enough space to answer and extend their language. During a visit, ask how staff now build pauses into songs, questions and conversation.
• Preschool beyond the nursery. Regular Forest School visits and intergenerational Boogie Beats at a nursing home broaden preschool experiences. Ask what a typical Boogie Beats session involves and how visits are organised for the children taking part.
• The complete funded booking. Mickleover's funding tables separate meals, consumables, activities and private hours from funded care. Request a written quotation for the exact attendance pattern so the comparison includes those categories.
• Dietary arrangements. Chefs accommodate allergies and dietary requirements, with parents contributing to menu updates. Confirm the current preparation and serving arrangements for your child's particular allergy before joining.

The Cottage Day Nursery Mickleover suits families seeking either full-day care or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, with age-specific play spaces and preschool experiences beyond the premises. The Builders Yard, butterfly projects and nursing-home visits give parents concrete reasons to consider it. Its Good judgement from August 2025 provides the inspection context, while the younger-child language improvement point deserves a direct conversation. The decision rests on whether those environments, attendance choices and separately charged funded-booking extras fit the child and the family.