Little Stars Nursery

A quieter sleeping room for babies and a mud kitchen reached directly from preschool give Little Stars Nursery a clear progression from early care to more independent play. This Folkestone setting has separate spaces for babies, two-year-olds and preschool children, with different arrangements for rest, exploration and outdoor access. The room design matters as much as the activity list.

At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Little Stars Good and judged safeguarding effective. That judgement has a clear qualification: younger children needed more opportunities for imaginative exploration, while the most able needed greater challenge. These are useful questions to carry into a visit, rather than treating the grade as the whole story.

Morning, afternoon, full-day and extended-day bookings sit alongside term-time and year-round attendance, giving families several ways to organise care.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room accommodates up to 12 babies aged 3 to 23 months, combining sensory play and black-and-white areas with a separate sleeping side room and a nursing chair for feeds or settling. Keeping sleep apart from the main activity space gives rest its own place in the day. For parents choosing first childcare, that is a concrete detail worth weighing alongside the room's maximum size.

For children aged 24 to 35 months, The 2 Year Old Room has a maximum of 24 children and combines carpeted play space, a washable area for meals and messy activities, a separate rest area, a story corner and role play whose theme changes each term. Garden access happens at designated points in the day. Its layout allows energetic play and quieter moments to have different spaces, rather than asking every activity to share the same floor.

The Pre-School Room accommodates up to 36 children aged 3 to 5 years, with spaces for construction, creative work, books and technology, imaginative settings such as a shop or florists, and direct access to a garden containing a mud kitchen, bikes and a moveable obstacle course. Interest in early reading and writing is encouraged as part of preparation for school. The outdoor arrangement gives these older children more freedom to move between indoor and garden activities than the timed access in the younger room.

Learning and Activities

EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) provides the framework for learning and development: here, play and planned activities cover its areas of learning, with staff using each child's next steps to shape what comes next. It is the common foundation for early years provision, rather than an extra programme. Weekly planning also draws on children's interests shared by parents, so information from home has a practical role in the activities staff prepare.

In February 2023, sensory experiences included babies handling textured materials and older children investigating cooked spaghetti while adults introduced words describing how it felt. Other activities used painted cars rolling down a slope to prompt predictions about speed and colour mixing. These examples show how ordinary play materials can open conversations about movement, texture and change.

The limitation was how far those experiences developed. In February 2023, activities did not stretch the most able sufficiently, and younger children had too few opportunities for play with no predetermined outcome. A busy activity schedule alone does not answer either concern; the important question is how staff adapt an experience once a child becomes interested.

Relationships and Communication

Contact with a child's key worker is built into collection and drop-off, while Baby Room families also have contact books. A parent portal carries daily or weekly updates, and parents' evenings take place twice a year. Together, those channels provide both everyday information and a longer conversation about development, which serve different purposes for families.

Progress records are shared with parents regularly, and parents can access their own child's files. The confidentiality policy requires parental permission before key workers give other professionals access to children's records. That creates a defined boundary around information sharing while allowing parents to stay involved in the account of their child's learning.

Rest is most clearly planned in the baby and two-year-old spaces. Babies have a separate sleeping room and a chair used for bottle feeds or rocking; the two-year-olds have a designated resting area as well as a story corner. These physical arrangements give children places to pause during an active day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that SEND support combined detailed developmental plans, work with other professionals and additional resources for small-group activities. This is a dated assessment of how support worked, alongside the nursery's continuing arrangements for identifying needs and involving families.

A SENCO coordinates support with the child's key person. The process includes assessing needs, agreeing intended outcomes and interventions with parents, and setting a review date; specialist advice can be sought with parental agreement. Parents are involved in decisions, rather than simply receiving a finished plan. Transition support includes agreeing with parents what information should pass to a receiving school or setting.

In February 2023, staff used emotion cards to help children express feelings and visual sequences to explain what would happen next. Those are concrete tools for communication and routine. Current collection arrangements include a locked entrance with staff key-fob access, a password procedure for unfamiliar collectors, and supervised visitors who sign in and out.

Health needs have a separate process. Parents complete medication forms before administration, and regular medical care is reviewed jointly with staff; complex needs can prompt medical advice and specialist training. The sickness policy requires children who have had vomiting or diarrhoea to remain away until 48 hours after symptoms stop, a practical consideration when arranging backup care.

Sessions and Attendance

Little Stars Nursery is at Unit 3 Centurion Park, Caesars Way, Folkestone, CT19 4AH. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and parking is possible directly outside the door.

The booking menu separates the opening window into several patterns. Breakfast runs from 8am to 9am, morning from 9am to noon, afternoon from noon to 3pm, and evening from 3pm to 6pm. A full day means 9am to 3pm; an extended day means 8am to 6pm. That distinction matters: the full-day label does not cover the entire working-day opening window. Flexible hours are also offered.

Attendance can be year-round or term-time. The nursery operates for 50 weeks, closing for bank holidays and two weeks at Christmas; funded arrangements include 38-week term-time attendance or funding stretched over 48 weeks. Those different calendars need to fit a family's working year as well as its daily timetable.

One month's notice by email applies when ending a place or changing requested hours, for both funded and fee-paying children. Private fees are payable monthly in advance, and ordinary absence does not reduce them. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funding includes Working Parents eligibility funding from 9 months for eligible families, Free for Two funding for children meeting its criteria, and 15 hours of Free Early Education from the term after a child's third birthday. Extended 30 hours funding is also accepted. The entitlement offered and a family's eligibility remain separate questions.

For extended 30 hours funding, at least two weekly sessions must fall between 3pm and 6pm, and breakfast cannot be funded. Funded hours appear at zero balance on invoices, with other fees separated. This is a meaningful timetable condition for parents considering funding across shorter daytime sessions.

Breakfast food is included in that session; lunch and hot evening meals are charged separately, while families may instead supply a packed lunch with a cold pack, and supplied meals must be ordered in advance. Parents provide nappies and summer sun cream, with charges possible if these are repeatedly omitted; those consumable terms also apply alongside funded attendance.

Kidz Planet discounts give attending children reduced-price entry, except during February and October half-term weeks. This is a benefit for family outings, rather than part of the learning programme.

• Challenge and imaginative play. In February 2023, the most able needed harder learning opportunities and younger children needed more exploratory play. During a walkaround, ask how staff now extend a child's interests and offer materials with several possible uses.
• Baby-room routines. The Baby Room's maximum is 12, with a separate space for sleep. Use a visit to discuss how your baby's feeding, sleep and settling routines would work within that arrangement.
• Funding timetable. Extended 30 hours funding requires at least two weekly sessions between 3pm and 6pm, while breakfast falls outside funded time. Compare the complete attendance pattern and separate charges with the hours your family actually needs.
• The annual calendar. Year-round operation covers 50 weeks, while stretched funding covers 48 weeks. Christmas and bank-holiday closures, together with the email notice requirement for changing hours, deserve a place in family planning.

Little Stars suits families wanting morning or afternoon sessions as well as those combining a full day or extended day with term-time or year-round attendance. Its strongest practical details are tangible: a baby-room cap, separate sleeping space, differentiated room layouts and preschool access to the garden.

The February 2023 Good judgement provides a dated quality assessment, while the two learning improvements keep the decision balanced. Parents weighing this nursery should pay particular attention to how staff develop children's ideas beyond the initial activity, alongside whether the funding timetable matches their working week.