Culverstone Green Nursery

A mud kitchen, free movement between indoor and outdoor play, and resident millipedes give Culverstone Green Nursery a practical, hands-on character. Based in the grounds of Culverstone Green Primary School in Meopham, this village nursery uses everyday objects and natural materials to encourage children to investigate their surroundings. There is room for imagination as well as exploration.

Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding on 12 July 2022. It has capacity for 30 children; the children attending in July 2022 were aged two to four, a dated picture rather than a statement of today's accepted ages.

A volunteer committee governs the nursery as a charity. Attendance is term-time only, with full days, mornings, afternoons and combinations of those sessions offered. The practical attraction is the choice of attendance patterns alongside a day built around children's interests.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning and care, with play used to develop communication, physical skills and individual interests. Here, children can choose between indoor and outdoor activity through a free-flow arrangement. That gives an interest room to develop across different spaces rather than keeping every activity tied to one setting.

Teaching responds to what children are doing at the time. Natural materials and everyday objects supply starting points, while cookery, music, dance and signing with makaton broaden the ways children can participate. A messy play area, sandpit and playhouse provide different settings for experimenting, making and pretend play. These are concrete choices within the nursery day, rather than a separate timetable of clubs.

In July 2022, children used spring onions, thyme and lettuce as pretend pizza toppings in the mud kitchen. The activity brought food vocabulary into imaginative play. Conversations about dinosaurs also gave children a reason to describe shape and size, showing how an absorbing interest could become a language activity.

During that same month, repeated stories and rhymes supported vocabulary, and families could borrow books to continue reading at home. Staff also used words from children's other languages. These approaches connected conversation, listening and home reading rather than treating language as a single isolated activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor play includes an adventure play area and an environmental area. Alongside the free-flow arrangement, these give children opportunities to move, investigate and pursue interests outside as part of the ordinary day.

In July 2022, children had access to a substantial outdoor space across the day. They climbed on a tyre swing and assembled a pretend bus from wood and crates, then discussed ways to make their construction safer. Physical play therefore included thinking about the consequences of their choices. Indoors, paper positioned on walls and floors created different ways to practise early marks.

Bingo and Bluey, the nursery's millipedes, add a living subject for curiosity. Handling takes place with adult supervision. The Show & Tell invitation also encourages families to contribute an interest, an unusual pet or an instrument they can play, bringing children's learning into contact with experiences from home.

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and identified exceptional progress, including for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, supported by a proactive special educational needs coordinator who introduced strategies promptly and sought outside expertise when needed. Those findings belong to that inspection date.

In July 2022, home visits and introductory sessions helped staff get to know children and their families before attendance became established. This gave practitioners information about children's starting points and interests, allowing support to begin early. It was a personalised introduction rather than simply an opportunity to become familiar with the premises.

Parent partnership remains part of the nursery's approach. Families are treated as contributors to children's learning, and the nursery invites them to share experiences through Show & Tell. A designated safeguarding lead role and paediatric first-aid provision also form part of its arrangements; these describe responsibilities and provision rather than replacing the dated safeguarding judgement.

Optional lunches come from Culverstone Green Primary School and are charged separately. Snacks sit within a separate sundries charge, so food costs need to be considered alongside paid childcare hours.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Wrotham Road, Meopham, Gravesend, Kent, DA13 0RF. Full days, morning sessions and afternoon sessions can be booked, including a mixture of sessions. This gives families a choice between shorter attendance and a whole nursery day.

Opening hours are 8.45am to 3.15pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Thursday opening ends at noon, starting at 8.45am. The nursery operates during term time and closes on bank holidays, so the weekly pattern has both a shorter Thursday and breaks outside term.

Enquiries can be made by phone or text through the nursery's contact route. Uniform is optional: children can wear their own clothes, and families choosing uniform may buy either nursery items or unbranded red clothing.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can access 15-hour childcare support, and private childcare hours are also offered. A separate sundries charge covers snacks, non-food consumables, cooking ingredients and arts-and-crafts supplies. Optional school lunches carry their own charge. These categories matter because the cost of attendance extends beyond the childcare hours themselves.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees information sets out the structure of hourly charges and sundries.

The nursery occupies the primary school's grounds, but nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still need to make a separate school application. Sharing a site should therefore be considered a practical feature, rather than an admissions advantage.

• Thursday and school holidays. Thursday ends at noon, and attendance is term-time only. Families needing afternoon care throughout the week or holiday childcare should weigh those boundaries against their working pattern.
• Charges beyond childcare. Sundries cover snacks and consumables, while optional lunches are separate. Request a written quotation showing how those charges apply to your intended funded and paid sessions.
• Settling into free-flow play. Indoor and outdoor choice is central to the day. On a visit, ask how introductory sessions and key-person support help your child become confident with that arrangement.

Culverstone Green Nursery suits families seeking term-time morning or afternoon sessions, as well as those wanting full nursery days. Its strongest current features are tangible: free-flow play, a mud kitchen, natural resources and supervised encounters with Bingo and Bluey. The Outstanding judgement dates to July 2022, while the shorter Thursday and separate sundries and lunch charges are practical considerations for today's choice.