Cygnets Day Nursery

A vegetable allotment, separate baby sleep rooms and doors from every room to the garden give Cygnets Day Nursery a clear character: practical learning with plenty of outdoor space. The purpose-built setting at Hartwood House in Bordon has capacity for 75 children, with a current age range of 2–60 months. Its rooms take children from Hummingbirds through Nightingales and Kingfishers to Flamingos, with surroundings and activities adapted to each stage.

At its 6 February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Cygnets Good and found safeguarding effective. That judgement sits alongside two useful cautions: staff needed a clearer shared understanding of the curriculum, and children needed more explanation of how their behaviour affected others. These are practical points about the consistency of children's everyday experience, rather than reasons to overlook the nursery's substantial offer.

Outdoor learning has concrete substance here. Children grow ingredients, explore changes in caterpillars and take part in Forest school outings to a nearby nature reserve. Families can also choose morning, afternoon, school-day and full-day sessions, with additional early and late bookings.

Rooms and Ages

Hummingbirds has a purpose-designed baby unit with cushioned spaces for stories and quiet play, separate rooms for sleep and milk preparation, and its own garden, allowing rest, feeding and exploration to occupy different spaces. The baby day follows each child's existing routine rather than imposing one timetable on everyone. Sensory materials, songs and books sit alongside construction play, while summer outings include the shops and park.

Nightingales and Kingfishers combine windows children can see through, access to a sheltered outdoor area, sleep mats and activities such as pouring, modelling and imaginative play, giving toddlers room to practise both movement and independence. Daily experiences include cooking, sorting, threading and making marks. Toilet training and managing mealtimes are part of this stage too, so developing independence has a practical place in the day.

Flamingos has separate spaces for mathematics, books, language, technology and imaginative play, together with direct access to covered outdoor play, giving preschool children different ways to explore ideas. Its day adds science, phonics, problem solving and planting. Walks to the library and park extend learning beyond the room.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: everyday play develops communication, physical skills, relationships and early understanding of books, numbers and the world. Cygnets Curriculum is the group's approach to organising that learning around four named aspirations. Its value lies in the activities attached to them, rather than the title alone.

Growing in the world around us connects recycling with planting and observing living things. Children transform discarded household materials into art, follow caterpillars as they become butterflies and tend a vegetable allotment. Measuring and comparing plant growth brings early mathematics into an activity children can return to over time.

Cooking turns ingredients into opportunities to mix, knead and chop, while introducing differences such as liquid and solid or hot and cold. Children can grow vegetables and then follow a recipe using them. Read to succeed combines daily stories, songs and music with acting out books and a book borrowing station for parents. That gives families a straightforward way to continue shared reading at home.

Creative movement includes sensory exploration, making art and expressing feelings through games, stories and movement. Children choose their subjects and materials, with expressing feelings during art-making valued above the finished work. Together, these aspirations give parents concrete examples of what the curriculum involves.

Outdoor and Community Life

Garden access is built into the nursery's layout. Every children's room opens outside, and AstroTurf supports outdoor play through changing weather. Babies have a separate garden; toddlers also have a mud kitchen. These physical details make outdoor activity part of the ordinary day rather than an occasional addition.

The +Youth programme begins at age 2 and uses imaginative exercise, stories and play to develop locomotor skills, stability and object control. Forest school outings take children to a local nature reserve for outdoor learning, while weekly French lessons add another language experience. In February 2023, community outings also included visits to a residential home for older people, giving children contact with people beyond their own age group.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is selected before a child starts and works within that child's room. This creates an identified contact for care, observations and communication. Settling begins with two sessions: an hour with the parent present, followed by two hours with the key person and room staff. The arrangement lets both child and parent become familiar with the people providing care.

The eyLog online journal carries children's learning observations and lets parents add experiences from home. Monthly newsletters include information from individual rooms, and twice-yearly Zoom meetings provide another opportunity to discuss progress. Parents can also discuss care or development at other times through the open-door policy. Communication therefore has several routes, from day-to-day contact to a scheduled conversation about next steps.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that the special educational needs coordinator helped staff develop targeted plans and work with parents and other professionals to support children with SEND. The current parent partnership arrangements describe a specific response to developmental concerns: observation and monitoring, followed by close discussion with parents. That is a process families can understand, rather than a broad promise about support.

Sleep arrangements differ by stage, with separate baby sleep rooms and mats for toddlers needing rest. Staff undergo reference and DBS checks, have paediatric first aid training and receive continuing professional development. These are care arrangements; they do not replace the dated safeguarding judgement.

The nursery's chef prepares food on site using a three-week menu rotation, with provision for special diets and baby weaning food. Parents supply bottle feeds.

In February 2023, preparations for school included inviting teachers to meet children at nursery, helping them begin a relationship before moving on. Room changes also had planned transition arrangements. These are useful examples of supporting change, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

Cygnets opens Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm, for 51 weeks of the year. It closes on bank holidays and for approximately a week at Christmas. The opening window is broader than the standard sessions, so attendance can be assembled around different working patterns.

Morning bookings run from 8am to 1pm; afternoons run from 1pm to 6pm. The School Day Session is 9am to 3pm, while Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm. Early Bird covers 7am to 8am and Twilight Session covers 6pm to 7pm. Full-week and ad hoc morning or full-day bookings are also offered. Some term-time sessions operate over 38 weeks, subject to conditions.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email or by telephone. Hartwood House is on High Street, Bordon, GU35 0AU, and has a large car park for collecting and dropping off children.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes 15 Universal hours and 30 hours funding. Private hours can be booked alongside funding. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and booking terms explain the charge structure.

Meals, snacks and drinks are included in ordinary paid fees, while meals and snacks are charged separately for funded attendance. Funded hours also carry charges for additional services, consumables and sundries; parents supply nappies, creams and bottle feeds. This distinction matters when comparing a funded booking with one paid for privately.

Non-funded bookings involve a non-refundable registration charge and a refundable deposit, and those rules also apply when private hours are added to funded hours. Totally funded places have no registration charge. Payment is monthly in advance, and absences or family holidays do not bring reduced fees or replacement days. The notice clauses need particular attention before a booking is agreed.

• Consistency in everyday learning. In February 2023, curriculum intentions were not applied consistently, including opportunities to build self-care skills. During a visit, ask how staff now agree children's next steps and encourage independence across rooms.
• Explaining behaviour. In February 2023, staff sometimes stopped unwanted behaviour without explaining its effect on others. Ask how practitioners help children understand why an action needs to change.
• Notice and deposit terms. The fee terms specify eight weeks for a deposit refund but also one month for withdrawal, with forfeiture of the deposit. Obtain the agreed notice and refund conditions in writing before reserving a place.
• Funded booking costs. Separate food and sundries charges affect the total cost of funded attendance. A written quotation should distinguish funded hours, private hours, food and other additions for the sessions your family needs.

Cygnets suits families looking for morning or afternoon sessions as well as school-day or full-day care, with early and late extensions. Its strongest practical attractions are the separate baby facilities, direct garden access and a curriculum made tangible through growing, cooking and shared reading. The key person and eyLog arrangements give parents clear ways to stay involved.

The Good judgement dates to February 2023, and the cautions about curriculum consistency and behaviour explanations deserve attention. Alongside those questions, clear written funding charges and notice terms will help families decide whether the nursery's everyday offer and booking arrangements fit their needs.