Highwood Day Nursery

A dedicated baby sleep room, preschool spaces for making and conversation, and a rear garden with a forest school area give Highwood Day Nursery a clear physical shape. This Burton-on-Trent setting separates the needs of its youngest children from the increasingly independent play of those preparing for school. The useful detail is in those differences.

Ofsted rated Highwood Outstanding at its 11 October 2022 inspection. That is a dated judgement, rather than a description of a visit today; the current offer includes age-based rooms, music and movement, French lessons and an on-site kitchen.

Nursery care runs from the Caterpillar/Fox Cub Room for children aged 12 weeks to two years through to the Ladybird/Squirrels Room for three- to five-year-olds. Big Kidz Club provides before-school, after-school and holiday provision for children aged five to seven. Families can use a standard nursery day, paid extensions or the school-age club, with different conditions attached to funded attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Caterpillar/Fox Cub Room has a self-contained baby unit with a sleep room, spaces for creative play and dining, a physical/soft play room, and age-appropriate play rooms; keeping these functions separate gives feeding, rest and active exploration their own places. A kitchenette supports milk storage and snacks; a dedicated changing area provides privacy.

At two to three years, the Butterfly/Bunny Room combines books, construction, creative materials and malleable play with outdoor access, while its changing and potty-training area gives personal care privacy. Eating and rest remain part of the routine.

Three- to five-year-olds in the Ladybird/Squirrels Room can move between three rooms, combining craft and role play with construction, maths, writing, conversation and a quieter place for reading and self-regulation. Small-world resources and story sacks support language work.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes learning in each room: children learn through play, with adults adapting activities to their development and interests. Highwood combines planning in response to what children are doing with purposeful play and adult-led teaching. That means an interest noticed during play can become a starting point for further learning, alongside activities introduced by practitioners.

Kimbles is a music and movement class for children attending on Thursday mornings, with a donation requested towards the activity. Preschool children also have French lessons on Friday mornings. These are concrete additions to the everyday programme, and their fixed days matter for families choosing an attendance pattern.

In October 2022, babies investigated rice and liquid soap, pairing sensory exploration with new descriptive words. Older children used construction play to explore adding and taking away blocks. These examples show how ordinary materials can support language and early mathematical thinking, rather than requiring learning to be separated from play.

Storytelling also had a practical element in October 2022. Adults used props, and toddlers followed a tiger story with pretend tea-making using cups, teapots and tea bags.

Outdoor and Community Life

A purpose-built building sits back from the road, with an enclosed play area behind it that includes a forest school area. Here, the term describes an outdoor learning space; in October 2022, children used wood and sticks to test ideas and construct a shelter for a toy bear. The task brought cooperation and problem-solving into outdoor play.

In October 2022, children also grew herbs and vegetables, including pumpkins started from seed and harvested when ready. Growing food gave them a practical connection between plants, seasons and eating. Daily garden play included running and climbing, while visiting dentists introduced oral hygiene.

Relationships and Communication

A key worker system links each practitioner with a small group of children and their families, and staff are assigned to particular rooms. For parents, that creates a clear relationship through which routines and development can be discussed. For children, it provides continuity within their room.

Baby settling sessions cover individual needs and development, with the aim of following the baby's existing routine at the start. Daily information is recorded through the Ovivio app and discussed at collection.

Communication extends beyond the app. Daily diaries, termly newsletters and a parents' notice board sit alongside parents' evenings and open days. The open-door policy welcomes parents spending time with their child at the nursery. In preschool, key workers bring observations together in a termly developmental summary, giving families a periodic account alongside day-to-day updates.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and praised SEND support, including changes to activities and routines that enabled children with additional needs to participate.

In October 2022, older children practised recognising emotions and cooperating on shared tasks. Links with teachers at local primary schools supported the move into school. This was transition work, with relationships and preparation forming part of the experience alongside early learning.

Food is cooked on site, with a three-week menu, morning and afternoon snacks, and drinking water accessible throughout the day. Dietary requirements can be accommodated, and the sample weaning menu distinguishes purées from textured food, giving families a concrete starting point for discussing feeding stages.

Sessions and Attendance

Highwood is at 54 Stanton Road, Burton-on-Trent, DE15 9RP. Opening hours are 7am to 6pm, with operation across 51 weeks of the year and bank holidays excluded; the Christmas closure is one week.

The standard daily booking runs from 7.30am to 5.30pm. Earlier care and later collection can extend that day within the opening hours, with an additional charge. This distinction matters: the whole opening window is longer than the day covered by the daily rate.

Big Kidz Club's before-school and after-school service is for children attending Violet Way Academy. Children can be dropped off from 7am, receive breakfast and be taken to school; staff collect them after school, with tea provided back at Highwood. Its on-site holiday club has a planned programme that includes making, games, baking and trips. The school link here concerns childcare and collection arrangements.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children can use the 30-hour working-parent entitlement in either a term-time funding pattern over three days or a stretched pattern of up to 24 hours a week across 48 weeks. Attendance is nevertheless expected throughout the year: these are ways of allocating funding, rather than term-time-only nursery places. The ordinary daily rate applies during periods without funding.

For the stretched offer, funding pauses for two weeks at Easter, the August bank holiday week and one week at Christmas. Food is charged separately on funded days or sessions. Families should therefore distinguish the hours covered by their entitlement from food charges and attendance during unfunded weeks.

Eligible two-year-olds can also access the 15-hour TH2 entitlement. For preschool children, the 15-hour education entitlement operates on a flexible basis, with sessions communicated weekly through Ovivio. That arrangement has different planning implications from choosing the same standard daily booking each week. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Funding across the year. Children using the term-time allocation of working-parent funding are still expected to attend throughout the year, and private daily charges apply when funding is absent. Weigh the whole-year commitment alongside the entitlement.
• Different funded booking patterns. Preschool's flexible 15-hour sessions are issued weekly through Ovivio, whereas the 30-hour term-time allocation is spread over three days. Choose the arrangement that fits how far ahead your family needs to plan.
• A baby-room visit. The Caterpillar/Fox Cub unit separates sleep, feeding and active play. During a visit, ask how your baby's routine would work across those spaces and which consumables you would need to supply or pay for.
• Dietary needs. The kitchen accommodates dietary requirements and has a staged weaning menu. Families managing allergies should confirm current handling arrangements before joining.

Highwood suits families seeking a standard nursery day or an extended day, as well as Violet Way Academy families needing before-school and after-school care. Its strongest practical features are the separate baby spaces, varied preschool rooms and established ways of sharing information with parents. Kimbles and French give the weekly programme additional shape.

The Outstanding judgement dates to October 2022. For a present-day decision, the central trade-off is the attendance commitment: funded hours can be allocated term-time or stretched, but the working-parent arrangements still require attendance across the year. Families comfortable with that structure have a clearly differentiated nursery and school-age childcare offer to consider.