Saffrons Park Nursery

Child-led exploration gives Saffrons Park Nursery its character. Its Curiosity Approach puts adaptable materials and children's questions into play, rather than prescribing a single outcome: wooden blocks, fabric and natural objects can become whatever a child imagines. For families who value independent thinking, that is a clear educational starting point.

Based at Saffrons Sports Ground in Eastbourne, the nursery takes children from birth to five and has capacity for 110 children. At its August 2021 inspection, Ofsted judged it Good overall and found safeguarding effective, with Outstanding judgements for behaviour and attitudes and personal development. Those findings belong to that visit, rather than describing a newly assessed position.

The current curriculum combines responsive planning with nature, movement and storytelling. Funded daytime attendance can be combined with private hours, including a tea session for younger children.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the seven areas of learning that run through the curriculum: children's play supports their communication, physical development and understanding of the world. Alongside that shared framework, Saffrons organises its own curriculum into six strands. These give its child-led approach a practical structure alongside the EYFS.

Personalised Learning Environments means adapting spaces and resources to children's interests and ways of exploring. Staff observe repeated patterns in play, such as spinning or movement, and use those observations to change the materials children encounter. Planning responds to an interest as it develops. For a child absorbed in investigating something, the next learning opportunity can grow from that curiosity.

Nature Infused Learning connects seasonal changes with planting, harvesting and weather observation. Environmental Sustainability adds recycling, reuse and upcycling. Indoors, children have resources they can reach independently, areas for creative activity and quieter places to pause; outdoor experiences bring changing textures and sounds into their exploration. The curriculum overview explains how these strands fit together.

Future Ready Programme develops curiosity, confidence, communication, creativity, collaboration, problem solving, resilience and independence through everyday play and exploration. Its emphasis extends beyond recognising letters or holding a pencil: making choices, trying another solution and expressing an idea also matter. That gives parents a useful picture of what preparation for the next stage means here.

Outdoor and Community Life

In August 2021, outdoor learning included daily forest school sessions, giving children regular opportunities to explore and learn outside. Preschool children used a fire pit for preparing snacks, stories and conversation. Toddlers could reach the garden using a soft play stairway once they felt ready, connecting physical confidence with greater independence.

Other August 2021 examples made investigation tangible. Children consulted books about insects discovered in the garden, while a projector supported shadow-puppet exploration. Babies watched reflections in objects moving in the wind. These were experiences in which a real observation could become a question, an experiment or a conversation, rather than an activity with one predetermined answer.

Relationships and Communication

Individual routines matter for babies. In August 2021, staff followed babies' familiar routines closely, and children used photographs of their homes and families during play. Familiar people and places therefore became part of nursery conversation, helping connect the child's life at home with the setting.

Current sleep practice centres on understanding the individual child. Staff work with families on sleep patterns, familiar routines and signs of tiredness, rather than treating every child's rest needs alike. For parents managing changing naps, that creates a practical starting point for continuity between home and nursery.

Support also extends to adults through Curious Parents Circle, which brings together guides, checklists, workshops and opportunities to connect with other parents. Hands-on workshops use a log cabin, yurt and garden. The offer gives families ways to explore playful learning and behaviour support alongside other parents, beyond their child's attendance.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the August 2021 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received close support, backed by professional partnerships, and that children progressed well across different circumstances. This is a dated finding about support in practice, rather than a blanket promise about every future child's experience.

The current approach to toddler distress treats behaviour as communication. Adults look for what a child needs, acknowledge feelings and maintain appropriate boundaries. Giving children words for emotions and manageable choices makes this more concrete than simply expecting them to calm down.

There is also a specific teaching issue to weigh. In August 2021, toddler language support was not consistently effective: adults sometimes spoke rapidly or used sentences that made important words harder to grasp. Strengthening staff support in this area was the improvement priority. It deserves attention alongside the positive findings about relationships and independence.

Sessions and Attendance

Saffrons Park Nursery is at Saffrons Sports Ground, Compton Place Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 1EA. Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 6pm, across 51 weeks of the year.

Funded hours have different daytime windows by age. For children under three, they can be used between 8am and 4pm; a privately paid tea session runs from 4pm to 6pm to extend attendance to a full day. For children aged three and over, funded hours run between 9am and 3pm, with private hours before or after that window. The distinction matters when matching childcare to a working day: opening hours and funded hours are different things.

Enquiries can be made by email, and parent, fees and funding packs are offered through the nursery. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and additional private hours are both offered. The under-three entitlement described is 30 hours a week over 38 weeks for families meeting the government's eligibility conditions, stretched to up to 22 hours weekly across the nursery's 51-week year.

For children aged three and over, universal funding provides 15 hours weekly over 38 weeks, stretched to up to 11 hours across the year. Eligible families can receive the extended 30-hour entitlement, stretched to up to 22 hours weekly over 51 weeks. These are entitlement and delivery limits, rather than a promise that every family qualifies or can use funding throughout the opening day.

• Toddler language support. The August 2021 improvement priority concerned the pace and clarity of adults' speech. On a tour, ask how practitioners now adapt conversations so toddlers can hear, understand and practise important words.
• Funding and the working day. Under-three funded hours run from 8am to 4pm, while the window for older children is 9am to 3pm. A written booking quotation should distinguish funded attendance from the private hours needed around it.
• The complete cost of attendance. When discussing a booking, ask how meals, snacks and non-food consumables are handled for funded and private hours, so the quotation covers the child's whole day.

Saffrons Park Nursery suits families who want learning to grow from children's questions, practical exploration and independent choices. Curiosity Approach materials, the Future Ready Programme and responsive planning give that preference substance. Parent workshops add another useful dimension for adults who want to engage with the same ideas at home.

Its attendance arrangements serve families using funded daytime sessions as well as those combining them with private hours for a full day or adding the afternoon tea session. The Good judgement from August 2021 provides a positive, dated assessment; toddler language support remains the specific point to examine closely when choosing care for that age group.