Leaps & Bounds Day Nursery

Two gardens and three animal-named classrooms give Leaps & Bounds Day Nursery a clear shape: babies start in Lambs, toddlers move to Lemurs, and older children develop independence in Leopards. The Eastbourne setting combines spaces arranged by age with individual routines and a key worker for each child. Those are useful foundations for families looking for continuity as their child grows.

At its 18 March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. The judgement comes with two practical improvement points: staff needed to explain activities more clearly and give quieter children more opportunity to contribute. These matter as much as the headline grade when considering how an individual child will experience the day.

The nursery accepts children from six months to five years and has 63 places in total. Its town-centre address is 42 Ashford Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3TB. Full-day, morning and afternoon bookings provide different ways to use the setting, rather than requiring every family to follow the same attendance pattern.

Rooms and Ages

Lambs, the room labelled for children aged 0 to 2, combines space for early play with a separate changing room and a key worker who follows each child's individual routine. For babies, that emphasis on familiar rhythms is more useful than a timetable built around everyone doing the same thing together.

Lemurs, for ages 2 to 3, brings together messy play, a role play area and a book corner, with child-height washing and toilet facilities supporting growing independence. Children have different ways to participate: exploring materials, acting out familiar experiences or spending time with books.

Leopards, for ages 3 to 4, emphasises independence and imaginative play, with its own toilet area and planning shaped around children's interests and abilities. Preparation for school is expressed through confidence and self-reliance, rather than a promise about admission to any particular school.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning and care, covering communication, movement, emotional development and later skills such as literacy and mathematics. Here, observation of children's interests and development informs planning, so activities can respond to what a child enjoys and what they need to practise next.

In March 2025, some activities lacked a clear explanation of their purpose. Children's interests provided a starting point, but learning was sometimes incidental.

In March 2025, babies explored instruments alongside rhymes, while stories prompted older children to offer ideas about what might happen next. Games and story props extended the activity beyond listening. These examples show several routes into communication, from sound and movement to prediction and shared storytelling.

Outdoor and Community Life

Two gardens provide outdoor space alongside the classrooms. In March 2025, children used a garden for running and also took walks around the neighbourhood, with visits to parks and libraries. Outdoor movement and experiences beyond the nursery therefore formed part of the inspection-era day.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key worker. In Lambs, that relationship includes following the baby's individual routine; in Leopards, knowledge of a child's interests, preferences and abilities feeds into activity planning. The role connects everyday care with learning, giving parents a familiar adult whose understanding can develop over time.

In March 2025, staff gathered information from parents about routines and preferences and used it when arranging activities and changes during the day. Babies sought comfort from familiar adults, and predictable routines helped older children understand what came next. For a child who finds transitions difficult, that combination of parental information and consistent adult responses is relevant.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that targeted support helped children with SEND and those at risk of falling behind make good progress, with staff working alongside advisers and speech and language therapists. This is evidence of support in practice at that date, rather than a general promise that every need will be met in the same way.

During March 2025, additional funding paid for sensory resources intended to help children feel calmer and broaden their learning experiences. Regular toothbrushing also formed part of the day. These were concrete elements of care: resources responding to individual needs alongside a routine children could practise themselves.

The same visit exposed an important qualification to the account of relationships. More outspoken children sometimes drew adult attention away from quieter peers. A child can be comfortable with staff and still need active encouragement to contribute; that is why participation deserves attention alongside settling and affection.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with closure at weekends and on bank holidays. The booking options are explicit: full days run from 7.30am to 5.30pm or 8am to 6pm; mornings run from 7.30am to 12.30pm or 8am to 1pm; afternoons run from 12.30pm to 5.30pm or 1pm to 6pm.

Those alternatives matter when matching childcare to a working day. An earlier full-day start comes with an earlier finish, while morning and afternoon sessions give families shorter attendance options. The nursery also offers flexible hours. Funding examples combine full days and shorter sessions, with the arrangements subject to availability rather than constituting a promise of a particular booking.

Enquiries go directly to the nursery on 01323 410585 or at info@leaps-bounds.net. The address is 42 Ashford Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3TB, in the town centre near The Beacon.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered alongside privately paid care. The funding arrangements cover 15 hours from the term after a child's third birthday, 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds, and 30 hours from nine months for eligible families. Eligibility conditions apply; the nursery's participation does not itself establish a family's entitlement.

Families can use funding over 38 term-time weeks or stretch it across the year. The stretched offer gives 22.8 hours a week from the 30-hour entitlement, or 11.4 hours from the 15-hour entitlement. This is a different distribution of the funding, so the weekly childcare pattern changes even though the underlying entitlement is the starting point.

With the term-time option, attendance during school holidays is paid privately. Additional attendance beyond funded sessions is also paid care. Choosing between term-time and stretched funding therefore involves the whole year's pattern, rather than simply comparing the weekly headline hours; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Meals and non-food consumables, including baby milk and nappies for children under three, are included in fees; funded sessions carry no additional lunch or consumables charge. Morning bookings include a hot lunch and snack, while afternoon bookings include a light tea, making the food provision relevant to the session chosen.

A cook prepares food on site, with vegetarian options and sample dishes including butterbean chilli with brown rice and macaroni cheese. The nursery's stated allergy arrangements allow dietary needs to be accommodated; allergy-affected families should discuss their child's requirements and current practice as part of choosing a place.

• Quieter children's participation. In March 2025, more vocal children sometimes received disproportionate attention. During a visit, ask how staff now draw quieter children into shared activities and give their ideas space.
• Purposeful activities. The March 2025 improvement points included clearer explanations of activities. Ask for an example of how staff explain what children are doing and extend the learning through conversation.
• The funding pattern. Term-time funding covers 38 weeks, while stretching reduces the weekly funded hours. Match the option to holiday attendance and the full-day or shorter sessions your family needs.
• Food and allergies. Meals are prepared on site and included, with allergy arrangements and vegetarian options. Families managing allergies should confirm the practical arrangements for their child before joining.

Leaps & Bounds suits families seeking full-day care or morning and afternoon sessions in central Eastbourne, with an inclusive charge structure that covers meals and consumables. Lambs, Lemurs and Leopards make the progression through the nursery easy to understand, and the gardens add outdoor space to a town-centre setting.

The March 2025 Good judgement supports a positive overall assessment, while the two improvement points keep the choice grounded. For parents of a quieter child, participation is the sharper consideration; for others, the balance of individual routines, age-specific rooms and flexible funding patterns may carry more weight.