The Old Bank Day Nursery

Natural objects, separate sleeping spaces and a preschool base downstairs give The Old Bank Day Nursery a clear character. This Yeadon setting combines rooms organised around developmental stages with an emphasis on exploration: babies have space for sensory play, toddlers can retreat to a quiet den, and older children spend much of their day outdoors. The practical detail matters as much as the approach. Rest and active play have their own spaces.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 9 April 2025, finding safeguarding effective and a curriculum that supported children's progress across the areas of learning. That judgement came with specific improvements around continuity of learning, time to answer questions and staff development.

Children can attend from three months to five years, with capacity for 54 children in total. Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings sit alongside an early extension and school-hours attendance, giving families several ways to organise the week.

Rooms and Ages

Blossom Babies caters for children from three to twenty-four months, with areas for babies who are mobile and those who are not yet moving independently, sensory exploration, mark-making and a separate sleep area. This arrangement gives younger children different ways to investigate their surroundings while keeping rest separate from the main activities.

The Willows takes children aged 24 to 36 months, combining construction and early maths with a role-play area refreshed each week, a quiet den, separate space for art and a sleep room containing cots and mats. For toddlers, that mix supports both growing independence and the continued need for somewhere to pause during a busy day.

Oaks serves children aged three to five years, using the downstairs space as its base for stories, games and crafts while spending most of the day outside, making obstacle courses, exploring different outdoor spaces and caring for local wildlife. Outdoor activity is a substantial part of this stage's routine rather than an occasional addition.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play, including language, early mathematical ideas and physical development. Alongside it, Curiosity Approach and Hygge elements are expressed through exploration of natural materials and a homelike setting with muted colours, daylight, lamps, mirrors and plants. Children can investigate loose parts, construct things and experiment with sand. The useful distinction is the combination of open-ended materials and a deliberately comfortable physical environment.

Child-led activities also include baking, painting and celebrations. Preschool graduation and parent stay and plays extend the experience beyond children's everyday room activities: one marks the move towards school, while the other gives parents an opportunity to participate. Neither needs to be treated as an extra curriculum to have value.

In April 2025, stories and songs featured repeatedly during the day, both with individual children and in groups. Small-group activities gave children opportunities to talk and share ideas. Ofsted's April 2025 inspection identified a need for better continuity when key persons were absent, more thinking time after questions and professional development that made teaching more consistent, including the use of mathematical language and counting.

Outdoor and Community Life

During April 2025, children moved between indoor and outdoor activities, used steps and a slide, and worked together with large wooden blocks to create imaginative structures. These are concrete opportunities to practise movement, cooperation and problem-solving rather than simply listen to instructions.

Outings that month included the local library, park and shops; buying fruit for snack connected an everyday errand with learning about the surrounding community. Current activities also include park visits and exploration of the local area. For parents, the attraction is a nursery day that reaches beyond the playroom, with ordinary neighbourhood experiences forming part of children's learning.

Relationships and Communication

In April 2025, children sought comfort from staff and welcomed adults into their play. Staff helped children settle by responding to their individual needs, while consistent reminders and praise supported routines and boundaries. The examples are reassuringly ordinary: comfort when needed, an adult joining a game and encouragement to finish a task.

Communication at that time included a report each term explaining children's development and what they would work on next, followed by opportunities to discuss it with their key person. That gives families something more useful than a general account of the day: a starting point for understanding what their child is learning and how home and nursery can work together.

The key-person arrangement also needs dependable cover. The April 2025 finding about continuity concerned what happened to planned learning when that familiar adult was away, rather than whether children had a key person at all. Families should weigh that specific improvement alongside the positive relationship examples.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Separate spaces for sleep are part of both the baby and toddler provision. Babies have their own resting area, while toddlers have cots and sleep mats off the main room. This makes the physical arrangement relevant to families whose children still need daytime sleep, as well as those beginning to need less of it.

Potty training can be supported jointly with parents, and the nursery supplies nappies and wipes within its standard inclusive provision. In April 2025, children were also learning about healthy food choices, and parents had recently been asked to send toothbrushes so children could brush their teeth during the nursery day. These were practical health routines at that visit, not simply messages about healthy living.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 14 High Street, Yeadon, Leeds LS19 7PP. Opening hours run from 7.30am until 6pm on weekdays, and enquiries can be made by telephone or email.

Morning bookings run from 8am to 1pm; afternoons start at 1pm and finish at 6pm. A full day is 8am to 6pm, with Early Bird cover from 7.30am to 8am. School-hours attendance runs from 9am to 3pm, and term-time attendance is also offered. These choices matter for families matching care to different working patterns rather than needing the same length of day throughout the week.

The minimum commitment is two sessions each week. The nursery operates for 50 weeks annually, closing for a week around the August bank holiday, between Christmas and New Year, and on national bank holidays. Those closures need to fit the family's wider childcare arrangements.

Fees are collected monthly in advance by direct debit, with payment due on the 27th. A non-refundable retainer secures a booking, and absence through illness or holidays does not attract a refund. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Working Family Funded Childcare covers 30 hours for qualifying families with children aged nine months and over; Universal Funded Childcare For 3-Year-Olds covers 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds. Funded childcare is also offered to eligible two-year-olds, and additional private hours can be booked alongside funding.

Funding can follow a 38-week term-time arrangement or be spread across 50 weeks. Under the stretched arrangement, a 15-hour entitlement becomes 11 hours weekly, while a 30-hour entitlement becomes 22. Term-time bookings follow a first-come rule and are restricted to particular days and sessions, so entitlement and the attendance pattern are separate considerations.

Standard session fees include enhanced provision covering food, toiletries and activities; enhanced provision is charged separately alongside funded hours. A separate contribution-free funded arrangement excludes those enhancements and has a waiting-list process, with families receiving a list of what they need to supply from home.

Meals are prepared by the nursery cook, with a four-week menu covering breakfast, snacks, lunch and afternoon tea; milk and water are supplied during the day. The nursery's policy excludes packed lunches because of allergy and storage considerations, making discussion of an individual child's dietary needs especially important.

Nappies, wipes, tissues and toilet paper are included within standard enhanced provision; the funded-hours contribution also covers these toiletries. Food and non-food consumables therefore have different charging positions between standard paid sessions and funded attendance. Families can review the session and funding terms before agreeing their booking.

• Continuity and teaching. The April 2025 priorities concerned key-person cover, thinking time and consistent teaching. At a visit, ask how learning plans are shared during absences and how staff now support counting and children's responses.
• Funding and attendance. Term-time bookings are confined to particular days and sessions, while stretched funding spreads entitlement across 50 weeks. Request a written quotation for the chosen pattern that separates funded hours, private hours and enhanced provision.
• Allergies and food. Packed lunches are excluded under the nursery's policy. Families managing allergies should confirm current meal arrangements and how their child's requirements will be handled before booking.
• Sleep and closures. Babies and toddlers have separate resting spaces, but the nursery also closes for specified holiday periods. Discuss your child's sleep routine during a visit and plan cover for those closures.

The Old Bank Day Nursery suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day care, with term-time and stretched attendance offering further options. Its strongest practical features are the separate resting spaces for younger children and the substantial outdoor element for Oaks. Natural materials and neighbourhood activities give the day a recognisable shape.

The Good judgement in April 2025 provides a positive inspection position, balanced by clear teaching improvements. For parents, the decision turns on how the room arrangements fit their child and how the chosen attendance pattern, closures and funded-hours charges fit family life.