Tom Thumb Nursery

An all-weather garden in central Eastbourne and a separate field in Hankham give Tom Thumb Nursery two settings for practical play, from outdoor painting and water experiments to planting, camp building and caring for chickens.

Tom Thumb Nursery occupies 12 The Avenue, Eastbourne, BN21 3YA, and accepts children from six months to 59 months, with 56 places in total. At its November 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good, judged safeguarding effective and identified improvements needed in junior staff's understanding of the curriculum, key-person communication and children's online safety education. Those findings give families both a positive inspection position and specific points to explore.

Inside, the nursery occupies three floors, with play and classroom space on each. Named age groups, individual learning journeys and a key-person system organise children's progression through the setting. Attendance combines a fixed morning session with flexible hours outside it, subject to minimum booking rules.

Rooms and Ages

The Imps caters for six months to approximately two and a half years; The Pixies for two and a half to approximately three and a half; The Elves for three and a half to approximately four and a half. These boundaries outline progression rather than promise birthday moves.

Everyday objects, creative materials and messy play with jelly and shaving foam encourage children to learn through handling and experimenting.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the common educational framework: children develop communication, physical skills and social understanding through play and age-appropriate activities. Tom Thumb plans around children's interests, observes their development and adjusts activities to individual needs. Its curriculum includes a repeating process of planning, assessment and review, with learning journeys shared with families.

In November 2023, preschool children discussed stories, babies joined action songs, and pasta-necklace threading gave children practice in controlled hand movements.

At that time, small groups explored feelings, while staff explained rules during disagreements, connecting emotional learning with everyday relationships.

Outdoor and Community Life

The enclosed all-weather garden brings experimentation outdoors: a water wall, art fence, sand and mud areas offer opportunities for water play, painting and messy exploration.

Hankham adds a two-acre field reached by nursery transport. Mini-beast searches, planting, camp building, balance bikes and chicken care extend outdoor learning beyond the garden.

Relationships and Communication

A key person tracks development and plans with parents around each child's interests and needs. Tapestry, the online learning journey, shares activity updates and home-learning ideas; photos and videos give families concrete examples to discuss.

Three annual parent events provide progress discussions. Written reports cover 27 months and transitions to the preschool floor and school; key-person appointments allow concerns to be discussed between scheduled meetings.

In November 2023, a buddy arrangement supported continuity alongside the key person. Some less experienced practitioners were uncertain about their responsibilities, and communication between junior and senior staff needed greater consistency.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENCO works with parents, key persons and external professionals to set targets and choose resources or activities. Support can include individual time or small-group work, depending on the child's needs. Referrals to speech and language support or the SEND Early Years Service require parental consent, keeping parents involved in decisions about specialist help.

Setting Based Support plans provide a structure for targets and review. Visual timetables on each floor help children understand the sequence of the day, while families using another home language can receive translated policy information and contribute familiar words for staff to use. These are practical mechanisms families can discuss against their own child's needs.

A wellbeing coordinator supports emotional development individually and in small groups. The team includes a SENCO and early years professional, with continuing training, paediatric first-aid certificates and safeguarding lead and deputy roles.

Numerous stairs are too narrow for a stair lift, making the building's physical accessibility a significant consideration for children with mobility needs.

School preparation includes invitations for teachers to meet children, discussion with key persons and the sharing of assessments. Uniforms and school photographs help introduce the change, and a summer parent meeting covers progress and transition. Where external support is involved, a joint meeting can bring the family, nursery, school and agencies together to plan the move.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. The booking structure is more specific: the 9am to 1pm block must be taken as a complete session, with flexible starts and finishes outside it. Bookings are charged by the hour or half-hour, rather than a single session price, so the chosen attendance pattern determines the private-hours bill.

The minimum is three hours in a day and six hours in a week. Between 9am and 4pm, starts and finishes must fall on the hour; outside those times, half-hour boundaries are permitted. Variable bookings are not accepted. That makes this a setting for a regular pattern, even though families have flexibility around the fixed morning block.

Bank holidays and the Christmas break are closures without charges. The Christmas closure runs from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. Four weeks' written notice is required when leaving, and the notice period is charged even if the child does not attend. Changes to regular days or hours are subject to availability and require written notice before the next month's registers and invoices are issued.

Getting There

The address is 12 The Avenue, Eastbourne, BN21 3YA, close to the town centre, with parking behind the nursery. Enquiries and viewing bookings can be made by telephone or email.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the working-family entitlement of 30 hours from the term after an eligible child reaches nine months, the disadvantaged two-year-old entitlement of 15 hours from the term after the second birthday, and the universal 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds from the term after the third birthday. The term-time offer runs over 38 weeks, with funded attendance spread across at least two days; a stretched arrangement is offered only to families taking the full 30-hour entitlement. Additional hours are paid privately, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Snacks and drinks other than formula are included in fees; breakfast, lunch and tea are separately charged choices, with a packed lunch permitted instead of the nursery lunch if it needs neither heating nor cooking. Nappies, wipes and sun cream are included, and the same fee policies apply to funded children: meals remain separate while these consumables are included.

The fees and booking terms set out the attendance rules and charge structure. A family using stretched funding also needs to account for the departure terms: leaving during the term or year can result in a final adjustment for funded hours already used. The funding choice therefore affects more than the weekly timetable.

• Access across three floors. The stairs cannot accommodate a stair lift. During a visit, assess the spaces your child would use and how movement between them would work for their needs.
• Key-person follow-through. November 2023 improvement points concerned junior staff's curriculum knowledge, communication with senior colleagues and children's online safety learning. Ask how support and supervision now connect these responsibilities in everyday practice.
• A fixed morning block. The 9am to 1pm session must be booked together, variable bookings are excluded and minimum hours apply. Test your regular weekly pattern against these rules before choosing attendance hours.
• Funding and departure terms. Stretched funding is restricted to the full 30-hour entitlement, and leaving partway through the term or year can produce a funded-hours adjustment. Discuss the written calculation alongside the four-week notice requirement before committing.

Tom Thumb suits families who value practical outdoor learning and a clear connection between nursery activities and home. Its garden and Hankham field give that offer substance, while Tapestry and scheduled progress discussions make children's learning easier to follow. The attendance model can accommodate a fixed morning session or a longer regular day with flexible hours around it.

The November 2023 Good judgement sits alongside specific improvement work on junior practitioners' curriculum understanding, key-person coordination and online safety teaching. Those are useful questions for choosing care, not details to overlook. For children with physical access needs, the stairs are an equally significant consideration: the support system and the building both need to fit the child.