Caterpillar Day Nursery

A baby room capped at six children gives Caterpillar Day Nursery a concrete starting point for families choosing their first childcare. This converted Victorian house in Market Harborough combines separate stages of nursery life with a conservatory for creative play, a garden and visiting music and sports providers. Its appeal lies in those everyday arrangements: space for messy exploration, continuity around individual routines and activities that extend beyond the house.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 9 July 2025. It has capacity for 47 children aged two months to five years. Room moves take account of development and parents’ wishes, rather than relying solely on age, so the progression through nursery can respond to the individual child.

BabyGigs supplies weekly music for babies and toddlers, while Premier Education Group runs weekly sports for the older groups. Morning, afternoon and full-day attendance patterns give families different ways to use the nursery.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Caterpillars combines sensory exploration using natural materials and wooden toys with a designated garden area, separate milk preparation and changing facilities, and a sleep area within the main play space. The baby-room maximum is six children. That is a room cap, rather than a claim about how many babies attend on a particular day.

Crawling Caterpillars gives toddlers a conservatory for creative activities and another room for stories, singing and role play, with rest fitted around individual routines. Wriggly Caterpillars encourages children to select their activities and move between two rooms, while retaining a nap area and separate facilities for changing and toileting. Butterflies emphasises independence and personal, social and emotional development, bringing children together with their peers for approximately the year before school.

These stages provide a progression from sensory exploration towards greater choice and independence. They are flexible stages: development, abilities and parents’ preferences influence the room decision. For a child who still needs a daytime sleep, moving beyond the baby room does not mean abandoning that routine.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) guides activity planning: children learn through play, with staff using their interests and existing abilities to plan what comes next. This is the framework for early learning and care; Caterpillar’s additions include visiting music and sports sessions, alongside outdoor learning.

An electronic Learning Journey brings together observations, photographs and information about development. Through Parent Link, the app used to share it, parents can see those entries remotely and contribute information themselves. That gives interests from home a route into nursery planning, rather than leaving communication entirely to the end of a session.

Play follows a free-flow pattern, allowing children to return to unfinished activities. For babies, daily sensory experiences include paint, water and dough; toddlers explore materials such as soil and cornflour. These are hands-on opportunities to investigate texture and make choices, with the activity shaped around the child rather than a finished product.

Weekly BabyGigs music sessions reach both Baby Caterpillars and Crawling Caterpillars. Wriggly Caterpillars and Butterflies have weekly sports from Premier Education Group, giving physical activity a recurring place in the week. Butterflies also has imaginative story sessions, adding another way to engage with storytelling.

In July 2025, staff developed language during ordinary play by describing children’s actions, repeating vocabulary and combining signs with speech. Counting appeared in routines and songs, while familiar stories encouraged children to contribute remembered phrases. These examples show how conversation and early mathematics were woven into the day, rather than confined to a separate lesson.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds outdoor exploration of nature alongside the indoor programme. Wriggly Caterpillars takes part at the local park; Butterflies has weekly sessions at Ridgeway Primary School with the nursery’s own Forest School leader. The school site is an activity venue, and those sessions should not be read as an admissions advantage.

The enclosed garden combines grass and bark with hard surfaces and safety surfacing. Trees and sun sails provide shade, and babies have their own designated outdoor area. Different surfaces broaden the opportunities for movement and play, while the separate baby area gives the youngest children space suited to their stage.

Babies also take regular community walks in triple pushchairs, and the older rooms arrange outings to local places of interest. In July 2025, children’s outings included the park and library. These experiences brought the surrounding community into their learning as well as taking them beyond the nursery garden.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is assigned to each child, and settling-in visits give parents time to explain routines and interests. Those conversations have a practical purpose: the nursery can begin with knowledge of the child’s home life, rather than waiting to discover preferences after attendance starts.

Communication combines Parent Link with spoken feedback at the beginning and end of sessions. Children under two have daily diaries; outside the older children’s rooms, a whiteboard covers activities and forthcoming events. Parents can also arrange a conversation with their child’s key person, and a dedicated Parents’ Room provides somewhere to speak privately.

Annual Parent Involvement Week includes opportunities to play alongside children, attend workshops or share a meal. It gives families a more substantial view of nursery life than a brief exchange at collection, and complements the ongoing electronic updates.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and identified timely support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including work with external agencies that helped children participate and progress. Current arrangements include special educational needs co-ordinator and designated safeguarding lead roles. The useful distinction for parents is between these support mechanisms and the dated assessment of how they worked in practice.

Access controls include an intercom, visitor signing-in and supervision, plus identity and password checks when somebody else collects a child. These are concrete collection arrangements. They sit alongside care routines that continue to accommodate sleep and help with toileting in the older rooms.

A full-time chef prepares food on site, with dietary requirements gathered from families and vegetarian or allergy alternatives offered. Staff record food and fluid intake and discuss it with parents, helping families follow what their child has eaten and drunk during a session.

School preparation includes the Butterflies emphasis on making choices and managing personal routines, supported by relationships with surrounding schools. In July 2025, children practised serving lunch, pouring drinks and handling personal care. These are useful everyday steps towards independence, rather than promises about a future school place.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at 88 Northampton Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HF. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year.

A full day runs from 7.30am to 6pm; the morning session finishes at 12.45pm after a 7.30am start, and the afternoon runs from 1pm to 6pm. Part-time flexible sessions and full-time places are also offered. The separate morning and afternoon patterns matter for families whose childcare needs occupy only part of the day.

Bank holidays and the period between Christmas and New Year are closures for which nursery fees are not charged. Fees continue during other absences, including holidays and illness. That distinction affects the cost of a regular booking even when a child is away.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with the fee terms covering 15hrs or 30hrs FEEE subsidised funding. For children receiving that funding, breakfast, lunch, tea, snacks and milk attract a separate meal charge. Families should distinguish the funded childcare hours from the food charge when comparing attendance patterns.

Additional paid hours are offered, and fees are invoiced monthly in advance. Payment routes include electronic transfer, Tax-Free Childcare and existing childcare vouchers. Current prices should be obtained in the nursery’s written quotation; the fees page sets out the charging structure.

Butterflies sports and story activities are free, while the general fee terms allow possible charges for activities, celebrations and special events. The scope of each activity therefore matters when agreeing a booking.

• Group activities and behaviour. In July 2025, some children lost interest during lengthy circle times, and staff did not consistently explain behavioural boundaries. Ask how group sessions now accommodate different learning needs and how practitioners agree their responses to unwanted behaviour.
• Baby sleep arrangements. The baby sleep area shares the main play space, and the room has a maximum of six children. During a tour, discuss how your baby’s sleep routine fits around activity in that space.
• Funded hours and extras. Meals are charged separately for children receiving FEEE funding, and some activities or events may attract charges. Ask for a written breakdown for your chosen sessions, including the treatment of nappies, wipes and sun cream.
• Dietary needs. Dietary information is collected from parents and alternatives are offered for allergies. Families managing an allergy should confirm current preparation and serving arrangements before agreeing attendance.

Caterpillar suits families who want morning or afternoon sessions as well as those seeking full-day or full-time attendance. Its strongest practical details are the six-child baby-room cap, flexible room progression and the combination of Parent Link with direct conversations. Weekly music, sports and Forest School give the older and younger stages recognisable activities of their own.

The July 2025 concerns about group-time engagement and consistent behaviour guidance deserve attention alongside that offer. For parents, the decision rests on how well the room arrangements, care routines and attendance pattern fit their child, with funded-hours meal charges included in the comparison.