Ladybird Day Nursery

Gardening with real tools and conversations built around treasured objects give Ladybird Day Nursery in Fenstanton a recognisable character. Its converted Victorian house has bright, airy rooms, while daily outdoor learning gives children another setting in which to explore. Garden Champions, a gardening activity covering planting through to harvesting, makes the connection between growing food and eating it tangible.

At its January 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received good support. That judgement belongs to that visit. The nursery accepts children aged 3 to 60 months and has 86 places in total across the setting.

For parents, the strongest combination is practical learning and a continuing relationship with a key person. Children's interests shape activities, and their learning is gathered into a record that families can access and eventually keep.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning and care: play develops movement, communication, relationships and early skills with language and numbers. It is the shared foundation for early-years provision. Here, observations help staff plan activities around each child's development and interests, rather than treating the same activity as the next step for everyone.

Chatter Box Session gives older children a concrete starting point for conversation. At home, they decorate a box with a parent or carer and fill it with favourite objects; in a small group with their key person, they explain those objects and respond to other children's questions. There is something personal to talk about. Listening, taking turns and putting ideas into words are part of the activity, with a clear connection between home experiences and nursery learning.

Wake up Shake Up adds movement through actions that cross the body. It sits alongside the nursery's play-based activities, giving physical participation a named place in the offer rather than making learning solely a seated exercise.

In January 2022, everyday play included comparing the weight of vegetables during pretend cooking, solving wooden puzzles and making birds from modelling dough and feathers. These examples show how language, mathematical thinking and creative choices could share the same activity. Adults introduced vocabulary during play, including words connected with animals and the sensations of cold materials.

Outdoor and Community Life

Garden Champions involves preparing growing areas, sowing seeds, tending plants and harvesting produce with real gardening equipment. Children also consider the safety of the area with a practitioner before starting. That gives the activity two practical dimensions: caring for living things and learning how to handle tools thoughtfully.

Harvested fruit and vegetables are prepared with the nursery chef and used in meals, completing the connection between cultivation and food. The nursery's gardening activity also has support from the Royal Horticultural Society's School Gardening Awards training programme. This is an activity with a process children can follow, rather than a single planting exercise.

Daily outdoor learning is part of the current offer. In January 2022, the garden contained equipment for climbing and sliding, wheeled toys and sand for digging and making marks. Babies used low furniture to practise pulling themselves upright. Those dated examples illustrate the different physical challenges available to younger and older children at that time.

Relationships and Communication

Settling sessions introduce both child and parent to the child's key person. That relationship continues through observations, responses to individual needs and conversations with parents, giving families an identifiable practitioner involved in their child's care and development.

Learning Journeys bring together photographs, children's artwork, observations made in nursery and contributions from home. Families can access them in their child's room, and the record goes home when the child leaves. An individual progress tracker also organises development by area of learning, helping connect observations with the next activities planned.

Termly parent meetings provide time to discuss progress and individual needs with the key person, alongside daily information sharing and opportunities to speak with staff. In January 2022, however, some parents lacked a clear understanding of their child's next learning steps and how to help at home. The improvement required was more consistent communication about this. A collection of observations is most useful when parents understand what to do with it.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In January 2022, staff used picture communication cards and Makaton sign language, a communication method involving signs, to help children express themselves. Books were accessible in quieter spaces, and songs and stories featured during the day. These are dated examples of the ways children could participate through different forms of communication.

A nursery chef cooks meals on site each day, with seasonal menus rotating over four weeks and catering for dietary and cultural requirements. Staff join children at mealtimes, and parents remain involved in decisions during weaning, connecting mealtimes with social interaction and continuity of care.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with an extension to 6.30pm on request at no extra charge. The nursery operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and for a week over Christmas and New Year. The requested extension matters for families whose working day runs beyond the usual closing time.

Getting There

The address is 24 High Street, Fenstanton, Huntingdon, PE28 9JZ. There is on-road parking outside, and the nursery has direct access to the A14 towards Cambridge. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 01480 469166.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 15 hours entitlement for children aged three and four and the 30 hours extended entitlement for eligible families. Funding is stretched over 51 weeks, and fully funded attendance operates at set times, so it should not be assumed to match the whole opening day. The funding and fees information explains this arrangement; current prices for paid childcare come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Home learning conversations. The January 2022 improvement point concerned parents understanding the next steps in learning. During a visit, ask how the key person turns observations into specific activities families can try at home.
• Funded attendance and costs. Fully funded attendance runs at set times within an offer stretched over 51 weeks. Ask for a written outline of the attendance pattern and how meals, snacks and non-food consumables are treated for funded and paid hours.
• The later finish. The usual closing time is 6pm, while 6.30pm requires a request. Families relying on that extension should agree the arrangement when discussing attendance.

Ladybird suits families who value hands-on gardening, small-group conversation activities and a key-person relationship that connects nursery experiences with home. Garden Champions and Chatter Box Session give that offer substance: children grow and prepare produce, then practise explaining objects that matter to them.

Its across-the-year opening and requested later finish add practical value, while funded attendance follows its own set-time arrangement. The January 2022 communication improvement point highlights the importance of clear explanations of each child's next steps alongside the learning record itself.