St John's Playtime Pre-School

A church hall, an enclosed garden and a quieter space for younger children give St John's Playtime Pre-School its character. This committee-run charity in East Ipswich combines shared play with somewhere to pause or sleep. Parents have a part in its running too: the committee includes families whose children attend or have attended.

Ofsted rated the pre-school Good at its 18 April 2024 inspection. The setting has 32 places in total and accepts children aged 18 months to four years. Its strongest practical features include a key-person system, online learning records that parents can contribute to, and termly opportunities to join children in their activities.

Flexible hours and all-day attendance serve different family routines during term time.

Rooms and Ages

A home corner, messy play, drawing and small-world play areas support imaginative and creative play in the main hall. The enclosed garden includes a sandpit.

Younger children have a separate sensory/quiet room with provision for sleeping when needed. For a child starting at 18 months, the option of retreating from the main room is a useful part of the arrangement. The first-floor space can be reached using stairs or a lift accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs, and there are nappy-changing facilities alongside the toilets.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the statutory framework: children build communication, physical and social skills through play, relationships and planned experiences. Alongside it, the Birth to 5 Framework organises planning across areas including language, mathematics, creativity and understanding the world. Staff use children's interests to choose activities and their next steps; the framework name does not replace that individual planning.

Child-chosen play alternates with adult-led activities. Children choose when to take their rolling morning snack; smaller key-person groups precede shared singing, dancing or storytelling. Morning garden play or local walks and later outdoor time keep movement in the routine.

In April 2024, children explored feelings through doll play, joined action songs and used story props to participate in books. Physical activities included an indoor climbing frame, a wooden balancing board, wheeled toys and digging in the garden sand. Dough and scissors brought smaller hand movements into the mix. The combination linked imaginative play, movement and preparation for later writing.

There was also a teaching weakness in April 2024: some questions put to older children were too simple to develop their thinking or sustain conversation. Staff needed more support to extend learning, especially for the most able. Enjoyable activities and effective challenge are separate questions, and families should weigh both.

Outdoor and Community Life

Walks to local parks and shops sit alongside visits to a gymnastics centre and neighbouring care-home residents. These experiences connect children's learning with people and places beyond the pre-school. In April 2024, regular contact with care-home residents and conversations with church parishioners gave children opportunities to encounter different generations and communities.

Garden play adds daily movement and exploration alongside outings.

Relationships and Communication

Through the key-person/buddy system, each child has a practitioner who observes development and plans around their interests and needs. Observations also inform the two-year progress check, linking daily play with assessment.

Tapestry Online Learning Journeys combines staff photographs and observations with parents' pictures and comments from home. Messages and reminders sit alongside this shared record, which is printed when children leave.

Termly Stay and Play sessions bring families into themed activities. In April 2024, a book-lending library and home-learning packs for changes such as a new baby extended support into family life.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and good progress for children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language, supported by cooperation with parents and outside professionals and appropriate use of additional funding. These are dated findings, alongside current mechanisms that families can understand and discuss.

A lead SENDCo and deputy coordinate additional support. SEN Support Plans set out interventions and are reviewed with parents; the graduated approach follows a cycle of assessment, planning, action and review. Staff are trained in Makaton, a communication support system using signs, and use visual timetables and prompts to support children with SEND. The practical emphasis is on adapting communication and reviewing what helps an individual child.

For complex SEND, start dates depend on safety, wellbeing and access preparations. These may include risk assessments, staff training, healthcare plans or attendance adjustments; families and relevant agencies receive updates during preparation.

Behaviour support uses a stepped process involving the key person, behaviour representative and SENDCo. The ABC method records what happened before a behaviour, the behaviour itself and its consequences to identify triggers and plan support. In April 2024, staff still needed to use praise more consistently and explain the reasons behind boundaries; a written approach alone did not settle the quality of daily interactions.

Sessions and Attendance

The pre-school operates for 38 term-time weeks, opening at 8.15am and closing at 4.15pm from Monday to Thursday, with a 4pm Friday finish. Families can choose flexible hours, and children may attend all day. Flexible attendance must preserve continuity for the children, so the arrangement balances family choice with a stable routine.

Applications are submitted by emailing the completed form. At the start of each term, the allocation sequence first gives existing funded children the opportunity to use their full entitlement, then considers funded children on the waiting list in age order, oldest first, before fee-paying children. This is a booking rule that can affect families choosing privately paid attendance.

Getting There

The address is St. Johns United Reformed Church, 1 Cowper Street, Ipswich, IP4 5JD. The pre-school uses first-floor accommodation, with the accessible lift offering an alternative to the stairs for wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded and privately paid childcare are both offered. The term-time funding arrangements include 15 hours per week for eligible two-year-olds and three- and four-year-olds, plus extended funding of up to 30 hours per week and the two-year expanded entitlement of currently up to 15 hours per week. Extra hours beyond a child's funded allocation are privately charged, as are hours for children who do not qualify for funding; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Parents supply packed lunches and, where needed, nappies and wipes; snacks attract a voluntary contribution, while breakfast includes cereal or toast. The pre-school publishes a no-nut policy and cannot reheat lunches, making cold food and suitable lunch storage part of the daily preparation.

Visiting groups may lead workshops or activities for which families are asked for a voluntary contribution. Children can participate regardless of whether their family contributes. Privately paid hours are invoiced half-termly, with weekly payment possible by agreement; cancelling a non-funded placement during a term leaves fees payable for the rest of that half term, while the funded placement carries no cancellation charge.

Moving on to School

The pre-school describes itself as a feeder for Britannia, Sidegate, St John's, Clifford Road, Rosehill and St Mary's. Attendance does not guarantee a school place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process. Staff liaise with receiving teachers during the summer term to help children prepare for the change, and the SEND policy includes coordination with professionals around transfers.

• Challenge and behaviour guidance. April 2024 improvement priorities covered language-rich interactions, stretching the most able and explaining boundaries through consistent positive praise. At a visit, ask for examples of how staff now extend an older child's ideas and explain a rule.
• Term-time collection. The 38-week calendar and earlier Friday finish need to fit family commitments. An all-day booking still ends at 4pm on Fridays.
• Lunches and allergies. Families pack lunch, and the no-nut policy restricts what can be brought. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food-handling arrangements and how their child's needs will be managed.
• Starting and cancelling. New starters withdrawing a place allocated for the following term must give at least four weeks' notice; late cancellation can attract a charge. For a younger child, use a visit to discuss how the quiet space and key-person relationship will shape settling in.

St John's suits families seeking term-time early education with either flexible attendance or an all-day pattern, and parents who want to contribute to their child's learning and the setting's wider running. The separate quiet space, garden, Tapestry records and termly shared sessions give that offer practical substance.

The April 2024 Good judgement sits alongside priorities for interactions and behaviour guidance. Older children's families should weigh the depth of staff conversation; younger starters may benefit from the quiet room and key-person relationship.