Rolleston Kindergarten

Brook Hollows Spinny gives Rolleston Kindergarten a recognisable village setting, while an enclosed garden and designated play spaces give children room to explore closer to home. This is a play-led nursery with a practical emphasis on independence: choosing activities, investigating materials and learning to do things for themselves.

At its July 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the kindergarten Good and found safeguarding effective. The strongest examples were concrete rather than grand: children deciding where to play, adults extending their ideas and outdoor activities that brought movement and early mathematics together.

The kindergarten has 30 places in total, with a current early-years age range of two to five. A Baby Unit launched in January 2026 marks an expansion of its offer. Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside K:Hub, its before- and after-school care and holiday club, giving families different ways to use the setting as children grow.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Unit is the newest named part of the kindergarten, launched in January 2026. Nursery and preschool provision continue alongside it. For a family considering the youngest provision, the important decision is how that new unit fits their child's stage and daily care needs.

Designated play areas, child-sized toilets and an enclosed garden support the broader emphasis on children becoming more independent. These are useful everyday features: learning to manage small tasks matters alongside organised activities. A kitchen and outdoor play area complete the physical picture.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play, including language, physical development, relationships and early literacy and mathematics. Rolleston adds its own Child led, Play Based, Inclusive Curriculum, which builds activities around children's interests and puts independence into the daily programme. It is an approach within the EYFS, rather than a replacement for it.

In July 2023, children made choices about their activities and whether to play inside or outside. Adults joined their play and offered ideas that developed their thinking, rather than taking over. A dressing-table activity, for example, became shared play with staff. That gives parents a useful picture of what child-led learning meant in practice at that time.

Messy play and baking also form part of the staff team's activity repertoire. They give children opportunities to handle materials and explore sensory experiences, with baking producing something they can eat. The emphasis is on doing and investigating, rather than treating learning as a sequence of formal lessons.

Outdoor and Community Life

In July 2023, the sandpit supported both practical independence and early mathematical language: children removed their shoes and socks, filled buckets and explored what full and empty meant. Tubes, balls and tunnels brought different movement challenges into outdoor play. The physical activity was varied, with digging, crawling and climbing alongside experimenting with how objects moved.

Brook Hollows Spinny is part of the kindergarten's outlook, not a claim about organised trips there. The more concrete community connection is K:Hub's service for children attending John of Rolleston Primary School. It provides continuity of childcare beyond the preschool years, including opportunities for siblings using the different parts of the provision to interact.

A keyworker system gives families a regular practitioner connection, and involving parents in their child's nursery experience is an explicit part of the setting's approach. That matters because the relationship runs both ways: staff need to understand the child, while parents need useful information about their day and development.

At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted found effective parent partnerships and strong SEND support, with the SENCo coordinating targeted help, working with families and involving other professionals; children with SEND were making good progress from their starting points. The useful detail is the mechanism: visiting agencies supported children and their key person, rather than inclusion resting on a general statement of intent.

In July 2023, children who were upset received comfort and reassurance, while new starters developed confidence in their relationships with staff. Adults used calm conversations to support sharing and turn-taking. These observations describe care at that point in time, with emotional support woven into play rather than treated as a separate activity.

School preparation also had a practical dimension in July 2023. Staff worked with schools, took children on walks to them and used school grounds for play. Familiarity with those places can help make the next stage less unfamiliar; it does not confer an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 4 The Lawns, Rolleston-on-Dove, Burton-on-Trent, DE13 9BZ. The kindergarten opens from 8am to 5.30pm on weekdays during term time. Morning sessions run from 8am to noon, afternoon sessions from 1pm to 5.30pm, and a lunchtime period bridges noon to 1pm.

K:Hub provides before- and after-school care for John of Rolleston Primary School, with opening hours matching the kindergarten. Its holiday club opens from 8am to 4pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during specified holiday periods: February, May and October half terms, Easter and four weeks in summer. Holiday sessions are booked in advance, and the Christmas break is excluded. This is a separate holiday arrangement, rather than year-round nursery attendance.

Enquiries can be made by telephone or email. For families coordinating nursery with an older child's school day, the distinction between term-time sessions and the holiday club is central to planning dependable childcare.

Getting There

Parking is directly in front of the building, on the driveway or turning circle. That is a useful practical detail for families transporting more than one child, although it should not be read as a guarantee of a space at a particular time.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible two-year-olds and for three- and four-year-olds, with entitlement of up to 30 hours a week subject to eligibility. Children attending a maintained nursery class receive the standard 15 hours there; any additional hours they are entitled to can be used at Kindergarten. Nursery attendance is term-time, and additional paid hours are also offered; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Children bring a packed lunch for the lunchtime period. For before- and after-school care, breakfast and an afternoon snack are included in the fee, so the food arrangement differs between nursery lunchtime and K:Hub.

• The new Baby Unit. Its January 2026 launch expands the setting beyond its established nursery and preschool offer. On a visit, ask how admission ages, settling and everyday care work in the new unit, and how non-food consumables are handled.
• Waiting between activities. In July 2023, the change from tidying up to snack involved prolonged sitting, and some children lost interest. Ask how those transitions are organised now, especially if your child finds waiting difficult.
• Term-time planning. Nursery sessions follow term time, while holiday care operates on specified days and during selected breaks. Families needing consistent childcare through school holidays should consider whether that pattern fits their working week.

Rolleston Kindergarten suits families seeking morning or afternoon nursery sessions with child-led play and an emphasis on independence. Its village setting, enclosed garden and practical learning activities give it a clear character. K:Hub adds a useful option for families combining preschool childcare with before- and after-school care for an older child.

The July 2023 judgement provides a positive inspection foundation, but the Baby Unit is a later development and should be assessed on its own arrangements. The other decision is straightforward: term-time nursery attendance and selected holiday-club days need to fit the family's calendar.