Tots and Scholars Nursery and Preschool, Shenley

Supermarket vegetables, coffee beans and a nearby corn field gave children plenty to investigate in May 2025. That connection between everyday experiences and deeper learning is the strongest thread at Tots and Scholars Nursery and Preschool, Shenley. At its 27 May 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding, finding exceptionally effective teaching and excellent progress for children.

Based at the Good Shepherd church in Shenley, the nursery accepts children from three months to five years. Its character combines exploration with purposeful adult teaching: children have time to pursue an interest, then staff help them develop the language and understanding behind it. The May 2025 examples make that balance tangible rather than leaving it as an educational slogan.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, linking play and everyday experiences with growing communication, independence and early skills. Alongside it, the nursery combines Montessori principles with its approach to childcare. Montessori is an approach to early learning; here, the practical detail to weigh is how children explore and make choices alongside teaching from adults.

In May 2025, babies revisited a supermarket outing through photographs, recognising their friends while investigating vegetables they had chosen. The experience continued beyond the trip itself. Familiar pictures and real objects gave them different ways to return to the same subject, connecting an outing with activity back at nursery.

Older children investigated coffee beans together, including grinding them, and discussed demanding vocabulary with staff. They could explain dehydration through examples. This is a useful picture of early language teaching: new words were connected to something children were doing, rather than introduced as an isolated exercise.

Spanish and French lessons supplement teaching in English, with dance, drama and sports classes also offered. These additions give families a choice of language, movement and expressive activities alongside the everyday curriculum. They should be considered as additions to the EYFS rather than a replacement for it.

Outdoor and Community Life

In May 2025, a walk near a corn field led to further investigation indoors. Children peeled corn while adults introduced words for its parts. The outdoor experience supplied a concrete subject for later conversation and exploration, showing how a local walk could become more than a change of scenery.

Children also took part in the practical running of the nursery. At that time, visits to a nearby pharmacy helped replenish first-aid supplies, while daily safety checks involved children in thinking about their surroundings. Those examples gave responsibility a real purpose: children contributed to tasks that affected their friends and their learning environment.

At the May 2025 inspection, Ofsted found highly effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), strong cooperation with other professionals and effective safeguarding arrangements. Support included targets that stretched children while remaining achievable, with staff adapting communication to individual interests and needs.

Families played an active part in understanding children's development in May 2025. Parents shared observations from home, and conversations with staff helped identify where further support might be useful. This linked what children did at nursery with what their families noticed elsewhere, rather than treating progress as something only practitioners could assess.

Preparation for a change of room or the move to school was also part of the May 2025 daily experience. Stories and challenging small-group activities helped children practise sustained attention. The emphasis was on building the skills needed for the next stage, including listening and concentration, rather than simply marking a change of age or room.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday for 50 weeks of the year. Closures include bank holidays, a week at Christmas and some inset days, so the attendance calendar matters alongside the daily timetable.

Breakfast club runs from 7.30am to 9am. It provides an early attendance option. The opening timetable gives a 7.30am start, but contains different closing times; that practical point needs resolving before a family builds its collection routine around it.

Getting There

The address is The Good Shepherd RC Church, Black Lion Hill, Shenley, WD7 9DH. Enquiries can be made directly by telephone on 01923 855 290.

Funding and Paid Extras

In May 2025, the nursery provided funded early education for eligible children. Families should obtain current prices in a written quotation from the nursery.

• Closing time. The opening timetable gives a 6pm finish, while the branch's operating description gives 6.30pm. Confirm which applies to the attendance arrangement you intend to book before planning collections.
• Breakfast club and closures. Breakfast club runs from 7.30am to 9am, and the nursery operates for 50 weeks with bank-holiday, Christmas and inset closures. At a visit, discuss how the booking would fit your working week and holiday cover.
• Funding costs. Funded early education was part of the offer in May 2025. Request a written breakdown for your proposed attendance, covering funded hours, additional paid hours, meals and non-food consumables.

Shenley suits families seeking early learning that connects practical experiences with sustained conversation and purposeful teaching. The May 2025 examples are persuasive: babies returned to a shopping trip through pictures and vegetables, while older children used demanding vocabulary during hands-on investigation.

For families interested in language lessons, dance, drama or sport, there are concrete additions to consider alongside the everyday programme. Breakfast club adds an early attendance option. The closing-time discrepancy is the practical issue to settle before committing to a routine; the strongest educational evidence remains the detailed May 2025 account of how children learned and were supported.