The Cornerstone Day Nursery & Pre-School

Gardens connect the day at Cornerstone: every room has direct outdoor access, children grow produce for the kitchen, and preschool has a building of its own. This Martlesham nursery combines practical independence with space to explore. For babies, a separate sleeping room in Ducklings gives rest its own place alongside sensory play.

The Cornerstone Day Nursery & Pre-School, at Bridge Business Centre in Woodbridge, accepts children from three months to five years. At its March 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good and found safeguarding effective, with supportive relationships and carefully planned developmental assessment. That judgement belongs to that visit. The improvement priority was adapting group activities more promptly to younger children's attention and participation.

Full-day care runs across the year; eligible families can choose term-time or stretched funded attendance under fixed-session rules.

Rooms and Ages

Ducklings serves the youngest children, with a room labelled for ages zero to two, natural materials and music for sensory exploration, a separate sleeping room, its own garden access and a wooden climbing frame. The physical separation of sleep and play is useful for babies whose rest does not coincide with the room's busier moments.

Barn Owls, for children aged two to three, puts listening and exploration alongside direct garden access, while Butterflies is labelled for ages three to five and occupies the separate preschool building, where kitchen facilities and low toilets support practising everyday independence. Preparing snacks and managing personal care give school preparation a concrete form.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage frames learning, development and care through play, conversation and experiences matched to children's abilities. Child-led planning and structured activities give children's interests a place in the day.

In March 2022, imaginative play included rearranging furniture and introducing everyday objects to develop children's ideas, while staff extended conversations with questions and new vocabulary. Water and paintbrushes were used for large movements on a wall, linking physical control with the movements later needed for writing. Children also used simple signs while developing spoken language.

Books have provided a tangible starting point for activities. In March 2023, Barn Owls used the Dear Zoo story sack to explore animals, colours and numbers, copying animal sounds and building together with story blocks. During the same period, Ducklings explored oats and flour using containers and spoons, with words about size and quantity woven into filling and emptying. These are specific examples of language growing out of play.

Outdoor and Community Life

The sensory and growing gardens bring food production into children's experience: produce grown here is used in homemade meals. Direct access from the rooms makes outdoor activity part of the nursery's layout, rather than something dependent on moving a whole group through the building.

Reading also reaches beyond the activity table. In June 2023, Cornerstone opened a lending library and book swap outside the main nursery entrance, allowing families to choose a story together and take it home. That followed a mobile-library visit in May 2023, when children explored the books. Both examples connect nursery reading with something families can share.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person uses observations and interests from home and nursery to plan experiences. Settling sessions establish routines, abilities and needs with parents before an initial development plan is drawn up.

Ducklings aims to follow home arrangements for sleeping, weaning and nappy care as closely as possible. Later room changes involve a handover between key people and coordinated settling sessions, so knowledge about the child moves with them. The emphasis is continuity, including familiar interests and routines.

Parents can contribute to the online learning journal and see eating and sleep updates, helping plan the evening routine. Weekly email newsletters share photographs and activities; telephone updates are also available during the day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO works with key people on individual plans, adapting resources and activities around a child's abilities and interests. With parental consent, support can involve Health Visitors, Speech and Language Therapists and Early Years Inclusion Officers. Parents, the key person and SENCO review plans together, creating opportunities to adjust support as needs change.

Families using another home language are encouraged to share important words with the key person. Transition to school includes inviting new teachers to meet nursery staff and passing on supporting documents; a visit with parents and the key person can also be arranged where suitable. This is preparation and information sharing, rather than an admissions advantage.

Food is prepared in the on-site kitchen, with a three-week menu cycle, dietary adaptations and a weaning programme. The nursery operates a no-nuts policy; families choosing food from home must follow healthy-eating guidance, label it and supply allergen information, and shop-bought or pre-prepared lunches are excluded.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Full-day care operates across the year, with bank holidays and a week at Christmas excluded. An enquiry form provides the joining route, followed by enrolment paperwork and settling arrangements.

Funded childcare follows fixed sessions under the Golden Apples funding model. Session starts are 8am, 9am or 1pm, and the offered lengths are three, four-and-a-half, five, six, seven-and-a-half or ten hours. Sessions cannot be joined together. Earlier collection is permitted, but the complete booked session is still claimed against the entitlement, so collection time and funded time are different considerations.

Getting There

The address is Unit 5, Bridge Business Centre, Top Street, Martlesham, Woodbridge, IP12 4RB. The nursery is close to the A12, the BT offices at Martlesham and Woodbridge station, which has direct London links; these connections make its position relevant to commuting families.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use 15 or 30 funded hours per week in term time, depending on age and family circumstances. The Golden Apples model offers 38-week term-time or 51-week stretched funding; switching is restricted to September, so families need to plan across the academic year.

Additional hours are privately charged. Meals and snacks are charged separately, including during funded sessions, with the option of supplying food from home under the nursery's food policy. Parents must pack nappies, wipes, nappy bags, cream and sun cream daily; a replacement charge applies if required supplies are missing. Funded childcare therefore needs a budget and packing routine alongside the entitlement itself.

The group-wide enrichment package is optional and separately charged, with families able to opt in or out for the term. Its possible activities include gardening, cooking, visitors and trips; these are package examples rather than a guaranteed timetable of activities at Cornerstone. Children whose families opt out still receive the full EYFS provision.

An enrolment deposit is refunded once the child starts. A separate, non-refundable administration charge applies only to families buying private hours, including paid hours alongside funding, and supports settling visits and a meeting about the child's routines and needs. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page provides the route to its price list.

• Younger children's group time. In March 2022, activities were sometimes adjusted too slowly for the youngest children's concentration. During a visit, ask how stories and group sessions now accommodate children who need a shorter activity or a different way to participate.
• The preschool move. Butterflies has conflicting age descriptions: three to five and two to three. It uses a separate building with kitchen facilities and low toilets. Ask which age band applies, when children move from Barn Owls and how settling between buildings works.
• Funding choices last. Switching between stretched and term-time funding is restricted to September, while enrichment choices remain fixed for the term. Consider the whole attendance year before choosing, including private hours and food charges.
• Food from home and allergies. Packed food must follow the healthy-eating and allergen-information rules, alongside the no-nuts policy. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food handling and dietary arrangements before enrolling.

Cornerstone suits families seeking full-day attendance across the year as well as those choosing term-time funded sessions or a stretched funded pattern. Its strongest practical features are direct garden access, a separate place for babies to sleep and preschool facilities that let children practise ordinary tasks for themselves.

The March 2022 Good judgement is a dated quality reference. Fixed funded sessions, food charges and parent-supplied consumables need to fit the family's routine.