Shapes Day Nursery, Epsom

A separate Baby Centre with its own indoor soft play, dance classes from Inspire Academy of Dance and regular Zoo Lab visits give Shapes Day Nursery, Epsom a recognisable character. Physical play has room to happen indoors and outside, while visiting teachers add experiences beyond the everyday room routine. For parents weighing care for a baby alongside activities for an older sibling, that combination matters.

At its April 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall. The setting has 100 places in total and accepts children aged 3 to 60 months. Its home is Federation House on West Street in Epsom.

Full days, mornings and afternoon sessions give families different attendance options. The important distinctions are the minimum booking pattern, the timetable for funded-hours-only attendance and the separate treatment of food charges during funded hours.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Centre occupies two spacious rooms, with sensory and messy activities, familiar songs, garden play and its own indoor soft play containing soft bricks and a ball pool. This gives the youngest children physical play resources alongside quieter exploration, rather than making every activity depend on the main nursery spaces.

Toddler Room uses two open rooms for imaginative and creative play, parachute games and a sleep or rest area. The combination gives energetic play and rest a place in the same stage of care.

Nursery Room, for children aged 2.5 to 3.5 years, spans two large rooms and brings together cooking, messy activities, creative work and weekly visits from dance teachers. Shared activities also give children occasions to practise taking turns and cooperating.

Pre-school Room combines artwork displays with craft, messy activities, technology and exploration of the natural world, alongside weekly Dance and Spanish teacher visits. Preparation for school includes communicating needs and making friends, so the emphasis extends beyond recognising letters or numbers.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) shapes the day through play and activities that develop communication, movement, relationships, early literacy and mathematics, creativity and understanding of the world. Written observations and photographs help staff plan around each child's interests and stage of development. The framework is the starting point; visiting teachers and practical experiences add variety to how children encounter it.

Inspire Academy of Dance provides dance classes on site for children, and preschool children have sessions with a visiting Spanish teacher. Regular Zoo Lab visits bring nature into the nursery experience. These are concrete additions to the room activities, with different ways to move, listen and explore.

In April 2023, books, water play and building blocks were used to develop language and mathematical thinking. Adults encouraged conversation about sea creatures during water play, while block towers created opportunities to count and compare shapes and sizes. Learning was embedded in activities children were already enjoying.

Physical activity also had a clear place in April 2023. Wall-mounted sensory resources encouraged babies to reach and stand, and older children took part in daily movement activities incorporating yoga and breathing. Those examples show how movement could be adapted to different stages rather than treated as one activity for everyone.

Outdoor and Community Life

Our Garden has a climbing frame, routes for bikes and toy cars, construction areas and opportunities to experiment with sand, water, paint and chalk. All age groups use the garden across the seasons, with sunshades for warmer weather. There is scope both for energetic movement and for children who want to build or make something.

Soft Play provides an indoor alternative, using blocks for building and balancing alongside a ball pool. That is a useful complement to the garden: physical play has a dedicated indoor setting as well as an outdoor one.

Where possible, parents from different cultures are invited to share food and festivals, including Diwali and Chinese New Year. Garden planting also connects with conversations about where food comes from. These experiences link children's learning with family life and everyday meals.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who helps them become familiar with the nursery, plans care around individual needs and builds a relationship with parents. This gives families a particular practitioner with responsibility for understanding their child, rather than leaving that relationship entirely to whoever is nearby.

Baby routines follow those used at home, and daily diaries record feeding, sleep and nappy changes. A separate cot room supports sleep away from the main activity spaces. Together, these arrangements give parents continuity between home and nursery and a practical account of the baby's day.

Communication includes a learning journey, daily feedback diaries, newsletters and invitations to parents' evenings. Observations record what children have enjoyed and achieved, while written and photographic information contributes to planning. The distinction matters: knowing how a child ate or slept is useful, but understanding what they are learning serves a different purpose.

In April 2023, developmental feedback did not reach parents consistently enough to help them extend learning at home. Staff supervision also needed a more regular, thorough structure to support practitioners' development. These were the two improvement priorities, and they remain useful subjects for a conversation about current practice.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities were well supported through individual adaptations, and that safeguarding arrangements were effective. Examples included visual timetables and advance reminders for children who found changes difficult. Those practical tools made the next activity easier to anticipate.

Current arrangements include video-controlled entry and procedures restricting collection to parents or authorised adults. Medicines, accidents and evacuation have set procedures, with risk assessments and fire drills forming part of the nursery's safety arrangements. These describe the systems in place; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to April 2023.

Meals are cooked on the premises, with a six-week menu cycle, vegetarian alternatives and provision for individual dietary needs. Staff share mealtimes with children, making eating part of the social day as well as a care routine.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Federation House, 21 West Street, Epsom, KT18 7RL, and the telephone number is 01372 877863. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; the nursery operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year.

Full-day sessions run from 7.30am to 6pm, mornings from 7.30am to 1pm, and afternoons from 1pm to 6pm. The minimum attendance pattern is two full days or three mornings. That minimum is a material commitment for families considering a smaller weekly booking.

Funded-hours-only attendance follows its own timetable. For the 30-hour entitlement, sessions are Monday and Friday from 8am to 4.30pm and Wednesday from 8am to 1pm; for the 15-hour entitlement, they are Monday and Friday from 7.30am to 1pm. These fixed days make funded-only attendance a different proposition from choosing standard sessions and using funding towards them.

Funding and Paid Extras

Universal 15-hour funding and Working Parent Entitlement funding are offered, with funded hours stretched across the year. Working Parent Entitlement includes eligible children from the term after they reach nine months; Universal funding starts from the term after the third birthday. Eligibility and the start term determine the applicable arrangement.

For children taking more than funded hours, standard session times apply and additional hours are charged privately. Funded attendance therefore needs to be understood as a combination of entitlement hours, any extra care hours and the treatment of meals and services, rather than as a single inclusive booking.

Private fees include snacks, meals and formula milk. During funded hours, meals and snacks are charged separately through a voluntary contribution, alongside voluntary charges for additional services; families who prefer not to pay can discuss reduced or waived charges. The nursery's policy rules out packed lunches and snacks because of children's food allergies, and children are not excluded from activities because they wish to participate.

A non-refundable registration charge and a deposit apply, with the deposit credited against the final month's fees. Withdrawal requires one calendar month's written notice. Fees include bank holiday and Christmas closures, and absence through illness or holidays does not attract a refund. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Developmental feedback and staff support. April 2023 improvement priorities concerned feedback on children's progress and the regularity and scope of staff supervision. During a tour, ask how learning updates now help parents support their child at home and how practitioners' development is reviewed.
• The weekly commitment. Standard bookings have a minimum of two full days or three mornings, while funded-only attendance uses fixed days. Compare the actual timetable with your working week before choosing an attendance pattern.
• Food and funded extras. Funded meals and additional services carry voluntary charges, with reduced or waived charges open to discussion, while packed food is excluded under the allergy policy. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food-handling practice and how their child's needs will be managed.
• Baby care in practice. The Baby Centre combines a cot room, home routines and daily care diaries. A tour is the opportunity to discuss how settling will work for your baby and how feeds and sleep will be coordinated with home.

Shapes suits families seeking either full-day attendance or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, with a separate timetable for funded-hours-only care. Its strongest practical attractions are the Baby Centre, indoor physical play, garden resources and visiting dance, Spanish and nature activities. There is substance beyond a general promise of learning through play.

The April 2023 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference, while the improvement priorities make communication and staff supervision sensible discussion points. For families, the decision rests on both the child's experience and the booking: the minimum commitment, fixed funded-only days and voluntary food charges deserve as much attention as the activities.