Little Monsters Day Nursery

A shaded garden for the youngest children, a courtyard for Tweenies and a small forest school area give Little Monsters Day Nursery much of its character. This Anslow setting combines outdoor exploration with care that follows babies’ home routines. Its emphasis is practical: planting, messy play, conversation and gradually learning to do things independently.

Little Monsters has capacity for 60 children, accepting ages from three months to five years, at The Poplars on Main Road. At its March 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and reported good progress for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Those findings are dated; the improvement priorities were more consistent support for language and better opportunities to explore diversity.

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside a term-time preschool day. The attendance detail matters as much as the gardens for families deciding how nursery will fit their week.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room combines sensory experiences with a gradual move towards more established routines, while staff try to follow the sleeping and feeding patterns familiar from home. Music, quiet periods and messy activities give babies different ways to explore, rather than expecting everyone to follow the same pace.

In the Toddler Room, physical and sensory activities sit alongside early speech, with storytelling, singing and individual time helping children practise communication and playing together.

Tweenies has a quieter back room for books and pretend play, with construction and messy activities in the main space; self-registration and circle-time conversations add manageable steps towards independence.

Pre School combines early writing, number activities and literacy with children choosing their own play, and its free-flow arrangement lets them move between outdoor and indoor spaces.

Room moves are gradual. Children spend time playing, eating and sleeping with Tweenies before completing the change, and progression to Pre School takes account of readiness for a more structured day. Toilet training proceeds at the child’s pace and is not a condition of preschool admission. These arrangements matter for children whose confidence develops differently from their age alone.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the common early-years framework: children learn through play across language, movement, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding their surroundings and creative expression. Here, planned activities led by adults alternate with children’s choices, and key people use observations of individual interests and development to plan what comes next.

Letters and Sounds supports preschool language work through word games and early reading activities. Counting, sorting and comparing give mathematics a similarly practical shape. Screens take a back seat to making, building, reading and conversation, while everyday tasks such as laying tables and putting on shoes provide opportunities to practise responsibility.

Tweenies stages an annual Christmas production for families, and Pre School also puts on a Christmas production. These give parents a shared event within the nursery year, alongside the quieter daily work of learning to speak, cooperate and make choices.

In March 2023, learning included testing whether toys would float, mixing coloured water with pipettes and cutting flowers for pretend potions. These were concrete opportunities to predict, experiment and practise hand movements used in early writing. However, adults sometimes passed over chances to extend vocabulary during activities and mealtimes. Language support was an improvement priority, rather than an unqualified strength.

Outdoor and Community Life

Four outdoor play areas make the grounds more than a single shared playground. The main front garden has raised planting beds and paved space, while the smaller garden used mainly by babies and toddlers has shade, a mud kitchen and a sandpit. A gate between the front gardens allows younger children to play separately or join older children.

For Tweenies, the courtyard offers a rubber surface, gardening space and ride-on toys. Toddlers, Tweenies and Pre School also use the small forest school area for nature-based play. Outdoor lighting extends use into darker months, with portable gazebos supplying shade in warmer weather. That gives outdoor activity a place across the year.

Regular walks take children to the nearby park or towards the village to look for animals and collect eggs from a vending machine. These are small, recognisable encounters with Anslow rather than an abstract lesson about community. In March 2023, babies and toddlers watered plants, while older children investigated insects and helped make a wormery, linking garden exploration with questions about living things.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who maintains developmental records and plans activities around their needs. Parents can see those records and arrange progress discussions, with formal consultation opportunities twice a year. A private meeting room gives families somewhere to discuss sensitive matters away from the play spaces.

For babies, written daily information covers sleep, food and activities, alongside updates on development. Parents can telephone during the day, and concerns prompt direct contact. This helps home and nursery routines connect, especially when feeding or sleeping patterns change.

Settling can involve trial sessions or an immediate start, adjusted to the child and family. An unsettled child receives individual comfort from a familiar practitioner until ready to join others. Familiarity also shapes staffing: the nursery uses its part-time staff to cover absences and does not use agency staff. For parents, the practical value is continuity of the adults their child knows.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Additional-needs support involves work with outside agencies, including speech and language therapists, and specialists can attend by prior arrangement. In March 2023, the special educational needs coordinator and managers worked with other professionals to arrange support around individual needs. Early screening also helped identify children needing extra help with communication.

The March 2023 improvement priorities included making resources about diversity easier for children to access during play. Festival activities alone did not settle that issue. Together with the language priority, this is a useful distinction between having planned experiences and making learning opportunities consistently accessible through the ordinary day.

Staff undertake paediatric first-aid and safeguarding training, while access controls and safety checks form part of the nursery’s arrangements. These mechanisms sit alongside the dated safeguarding judgement; they are not a separate assurance of effectiveness.

Parents provide babies’ food, with nursery meals, drinks and snacks offered from age one; special dietary requirements are accommodated. Disposable nappies and creams come from home, along with spare clothes and clothing suitable for outdoor play. Children who become unwell are comforted while parents are contacted, and those with infectious illness or who are unwell should stay home.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, from 8am until 5.30pm, throughout the year apart from bank holidays and Christmas. Morning and afternoon sessions combine planned learning with child-choice activities. For preschool children aged three to five, the term-time day runs from 9am to 3pm.

A before-and-after-school club provides drop-offs and collections for The Mosley Academy. Children usually walk with staff where possible; a nursery vehicle is used in bad weather or when items need carrying. Families using that service provide clothing appropriate for the weather. Holiday club provision also forms part of the setting’s offer.

The address is The Poplars, Main Road, Anslow, Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire DE13 9QE. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01283 815588 or by email to office@littlemonstersdaynursery.com. An application requires the completed form, a birth-certificate copy and a non-returnable booking/admin charge; reservation confirmation follows in writing by email or post.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare starts from nine months. Nursery Education Funding for three- and four-year-olds begins the term after a child’s third birthday and covers up to 15 hours a week in term time, with a stretched arrangement of 11 hours a week over 50 weeks. Think 2 Funding offers eligible children up to 11 hours weekly across the year.

For the term-time entitlement, funded sessions have a minimum length of two hours and a maximum daily claim of ten hours. These funding limits are separate from the nursery’s opening window and its preschool day. Parents can also divide this funding between two settings.

Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. Babies’ food and the nappies and creams supplied from home should be considered alongside the chosen attendance pattern when planning the practical cost of care.

Moving on to School

The nursery describes links with local primary schools, including The Mosley Academy, and collaboration with Reception teachers about children’s development and preparation for school. This supports transition but does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still use the local authority admissions process.

• Room moves and readiness. Children are introduced gradually to Tweenies, and toilet training is not required for preschool admission. During a tour, discuss how the move would work around your child’s routines and confidence.
• Language and diversity. In March 2023, adults sometimes missed opportunities to extend vocabulary, and resources representing diversity were not consistently accessible. Ask how these priorities now shape everyday conversation and freely chosen play.
• Funding and attendance. The term-time preschool day and stretched funding serve different weekly arrangements. Request a written quotation showing your intended sessions, funded hours, additional paid time and meal arrangements together.
• Food from home. Parents supply babies’ food, while nursery food is offered from age one. Families managing allergies should discuss current handling arrangements and agree how dietary information will be shared before their child starts.

Little Monsters suits families who value outdoor play, gradual room transitions and regular contact with a key person. Its gardens, courtyard and village walks give children concrete things to explore, while written baby updates make routines easier to coordinate with home.

Morning sessions, afternoon sessions and the term-time preschool day provide different attendance options, with school wraparound care relevant to families using The Mosley Academy. The March 2023 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference; the language and diversity priorities remain sensible subjects for a focused conversation. This is a setting to assess through the detail of the child’s day and the fit of the chosen sessions.