Jelly Bears Day Nursery

Cooking, gardening and play shaped around children's interests give Jelly Bears Day Nursery its character. This family-run Gloucester setting accepts children from birth to five years and has 30 places in total. Younger children use Jelly Babies / Jelly Tots; Jelly Beans is the preschool provision. The younger children's accommodation spans two rooms, with changing facilities between them. That physical arrangement is a useful starting point for parents comparing baby and toddler care.

At its October 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, with staff supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities through plans developed with families and other professionals. The judgement is dated. Its two improvement priorities also matter: more consistent communication about children's development and closer attention to individual staff training needs.

Full-day, morning, afternoon and School Hours bookings provide several ways to organise attendance. Funded childcare follows a term-time model rather than being spread across the year.

Rooms and Ages

Jelly Babies / Jelly Tots accommodates the birth-to-two stage across adjoining rooms with changing facilities in the middle, while Jelly Beans emphasises developing preschool children's skills for the move to school. The younger provision has a clearly described physical layout; the preschool emphasis connects play and learning with preparation for the next stage.

The children's newsletters give these room names substance. In October 2025, babies experimented with sound using household objects and recycled materials. Tots practised threading, freeing toy animals from sticky tape and dressing through role play. These examples show how simple resources can turn into opportunities to explore sound, use hands carefully and practise everyday independence.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the statutory framework here: children learn through play, conversation, physical activity and experiences that develop their growing independence. Alongside that shared framework, staff plan around each child's interests, using information from parents and settling sessions to get to know them. Adult-led activities sit alongside play children initiate themselves, so the day includes both guidance and opportunities to make choices.

Cooking is practical rather than just a topic for discussion. Children work with ingredients and recipes to make pizza, bread and fruit salads, and learn to prepare sandwiches. Gardening introduces growing and caring for fruit and vegetables. Reading brings familiar and new words into the day, while activities involving investigation and decisions give children opportunities to solve problems. The curriculum information explains how these experiences fit together.

In October 2021, children explored pumpkins through touch and sound, and used broad paintbrushes for mark-making. Staff extended conversations by connecting a plate's shape with circles children had previously drawn outdoors. Toy cars and a tape measure became materials for counting and comparing lengths. These are dated examples, but they make the learning approach tangible: ordinary objects supplied reasons to talk, remember, count and compare.

Outdoor and Community Life

Indoor and outdoor learning are both part of the current curriculum. An October 2025 family newsletter reminded parents to provide suitable footwear and coats because children went outside in all weather. Gardening therefore sits within a broader outdoor offer rather than being the only reason to use the garden.

Named activities add further detail. In October 2025, Jelly Beans explored the story Pumpkin Soup through play in the Mud Kitchen, and took part in Sporty Little Stars sessions involving football and rugby skills. The latter activities included practising balance, coordination and working together. These are examples from that month, rather than a promise of a particular weekly timetable.

Relationships and Communication

Settling is organised around familiarity with the key person and surroundings. The nursery recommends at least two settling visits, giving children repeated opportunities to become accustomed to the people and spaces involved in their care. Information shared by parents during this process also helps shape learning activities, linking the settling arrangements with the child's subsequent day.

Emails, messages and newsletters keep families in touch with nursery life, and staff provide ideas for learning at home. A monthly Children's Interests at Home form was also described in December 2025. That gives parents a specific way to share experiences beyond nursery and helps connect home interests with activities during attendance.

At the October 2021 inspection, Ofsted found that staff used words supplied by families to help children learning English as an additional language, but identified inconsistent sharing of learning information with parents and insufficient precision in identifying individual staff training needs. The communication concern was about learning and progress, rather than simply whether families received messages. Both priorities deserve attention when judging how the nursery works with parents today.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The team includes designated safeguarding lead roles and a deputy SENCo role. These are practical points of responsibility within the staffing structure. They sit alongside the dated inspection finding about targeted support, rather than replacing it with a general promise about outcomes.

A nursery cook prepares fresh homemade meals each day, and the Spring/Summer 2026 menu includes vegetarian and vegan alternatives. Food is therefore part of the planned nursery day, with alternatives shown alongside the main choices.

In October 2021, children were growing herbs and vegetables, harvesting them and passing them to the cook for meals. This connected the garden with what children ate. It is an inspection-era example of making food's origins understandable through participation, rather than only explaining them in conversation.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 239a Bristol Road, Gloucester, GL1 5TL. Opening hours are 7.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, with year-round operation excluding bank holidays and Christmas. Contact is through an enquiry form, telephone or email, and a child registration form is also provided.

Full Day runs from 7.30am to 5.30pm. Morning runs from 7.30am to 12.30pm, while Afternoon runs from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. School Hours is the shorter middle-of-the-day option, from 9am to 3pm. An hourly booking option is also offered, capped at three hours per day, and late pickup can be booked to 5.45pm. These choices serve different schedules; the opening window is not the only attendance pattern.

Places are allocated first to siblings of children already attending, then to waiting-list children, then on a first-come, first-served basis. This is an allocation rule rather than an indication of how many places are currently free.

Fees are paid monthly in advance, with payment due by the first of the month. Charges cover 51 weeks, including bank holiday closures, and continue during a child's illness or holiday. Leaving requires one month's notice. For privately paid term-time attendance, the holiday retainer allows children to use half their usual sessions during those holidays. That condition matters when comparing term-time and year-round arrangements.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 15- and 30-hour arrangements, with age bands covering nine to 24 months, two to three years and three to five years. Funding applies during term time for 38 weeks; it is not stretched across the year. Attendance outside funded term dates is privately charged, and funded hours use fixed session windows rather than hours that can be saved or moved to another day.

Private daily fees include refreshments, snacks and meals. Nappies, creams and suncream are supplied, with formula milk supplied until the first birthday. During funded hours, food is an optional additional payment and consumables are charged separately; the opt-in package covers food, nappies, wipes, suncream and resources. Families should compare the attendance pattern and the extras together, rather than treating funding as the whole charging arrangement.

A registration charge applies. For children using funded hours alone, with no additional hours, it is credited against the first month's invoice; adding paid hours removes that credit. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the fees and funding terms explain the charging structure.

• Learning updates. October 2021 brought an improvement priority around consistent information about children's progress. During a visit, ask to see how observations, next steps and parents' contributions are now shared for the room your child would use.
• Staff development. Individual training needs were another October 2021 priority. Ask how staff supervision identifies those needs and how training feeds into activities and care in Jelly Babies / Jelly Tots or Jelly Beans.
• Funding and holidays. Funded attendance covers 38 term-time weeks, while private fees cover 51 weeks and include bank holiday closures. Request a written quotation for the actual combination of funded sessions, holiday attendance and opt-in extras your family intends to use.
• Dietary arrangements. The menu includes vegetarian and vegan alternatives, and families are asked to keep allergy and intolerance information up to date. If your child has a dietary requirement, confirm current preparation and serving arrangements before joining.

Jelly Bears suits families seeking either full-day attendance or shorter morning, afternoon and School Hours bookings, with cooking, gardening and interest-led play forming a substantial part of its offer. The split accommodation for younger children and named preschool provision give parents clear stages to compare. Its Good judgement dates from October 2021, so the strongest decision combines that assessment with close attention to present communication and staff development. For families using funding, the term-time model and separate extras are central to the practical fit.