Shanklin Day Nursery

A climbing wall, a garden for babies and French lessons give Shanklin Day Nursery a character that goes beyond its family-run identity. Outdoor play has real substance here: children can grow vegetables, investigate insects and tackle climbing challenges, while younger children have a separate space suited to their stage. This Stoneygate nursery combines practical care with opportunities to explore.

At its September 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Shanklin Good overall, recognising thoughtful learning plans and secure relationships with children, finding safeguarding effective and SEND support strong, and identifying improvements needed in children's control of their play and staff's modelling of pronunciation. That judgement gives parents a useful starting point, with clear strengths and specific teaching questions to pursue.

The nursery caters for children from infancy to five, with named baby rooms followed by the Ladybird Toddler Room and Butterfly Pre-School Room. Its London Road address puts all these stages within the same setting. Full-day bookings sit alongside stretched funded childcare, allowing eligible families to spread their entitlement across the nursery year.

Rooms and Ages

The baby accommodation separates stages of development rather than treating infancy as one undifferentiated group. Bumblebee Room serves babies from six weeks to 18 months. Honeybee Room covers 12 to 24 months. Busybee Room takes children from 18 to 24 months and has direct access to the baby garden. The overlapping ages mean the room names describe developmental stages as well as birthdays.

Across the baby area, sensory experiences accompany the early work of moving, interacting and exploring; a milk preparation kitchen and dedicated changing area keep everyday care close to the children's spaces. The separate garden gives babies opportunities for outdoor movement and exploration apart from the older children's more challenging equipment.

Ladybird Toddler Room, for two- to three-year-olds, combines singing, physical play and early mark making with a dedicated messy and creative room, giving children opportunities to choose activities as they encounter more adult-led learning. Butterfly Pre-School Room, for three- to five-year-olds, emphasises early reading, phonics, writing and mathematics, with access to a computer suite and its own messy and creative room.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets the standards for children's care, development and learning: here, play and planned activities support communication, movement, relationships and early number and literacy skills. It is the common early-years framework. Shanklin's additional experiences give the day its own shape, while planning draws on children's interests and what they are learning at home.

Fun French brings preschool children language lessons on Monday afternoons, led by an external provider. Kits Academy Football Coaching runs on Thursday mornings, introducing preschool children to exercise through sports sessions. These are concrete additions to the day rather than curriculum names alone. Their timing also matters: a child's attendance pattern determines whether they coincide with either activity.

In September 2023, staff used everyday comparisons of size and spontaneous number talk to build mathematical understanding. Reading included a caterpillar puppet and toy fruit, giving children an active part in retelling a familiar story. The examples show how early learning could be woven into conversation and play rather than confined to a formal teaching slot.

There was a teaching balance to improve. In September 2023, adults sometimes intervened in children's exploration too soon, reducing their chance to make choices and follow their own ideas; they also missed opportunities to repeat children's words with accurate pronunciation. Both points matter in a play-based day, where adult involvement should extend an idea while leaving room for children to pursue it.

Outdoor and Community Life

The larger garden contains a climbing wall, obstacle courses and trees for climbing, with an all-weather surface supporting physical play. A mud kitchen encourages shared imaginative activity, while a water wall and threading areas bring practical challenges into the outdoor space. There is more here than room to run.

A vegetable patch and fruit trees link growing with cooking: children help care for produce and use it in food preparation. The mini beast hotel gives them something living to observe closely. These features make the garden useful for investigating how things grow and change, alongside the balance and coordination demanded by climbing equipment.

Regular local outings include The University Botanical Gardens, sometimes for a picnic, as well as visits to the Post Office or Newsagents. Parents and grandparents are sometimes invited to join. The outings connect children's nursery experiences with recognisable places and everyday activities beyond the garden.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with introductory sessions, usually lasting one to two hours, before the child's start date. Families meet the room staff and discuss their child's needs. For a baby, that conversation is especially relevant because staff work with parents to adapt care to routines at home, rather than treating the first day as the first opportunity to exchange essential information.

Babies and toddlers have a key person who completes a daily diary about care, activities and wellbeing. That gives parents a practical account of the day. Learning Journey folders serve a different purpose: they record achievements and development across the areas of learning, helping staff plan what comes next.

Parents contribute updates about interests and developments at home, and Parent Evenings provide time for fuller discussion of progress. The combination matters. Daily care information can travel through the diary, while a longer conversation can consider how a child's interests and learning connect across nursery and home.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In September 2023, the special educational needs coordinator worked with other professionals to coordinate support for children. That liaison connected nursery care with professional input beyond the setting.

Current arrangements include SENCO and nominated safeguarding roles, staff training in paediatric first aid and safeguarding, supervised visitors and an authorised-collection database. CCTV covers the building and entrance, with monitoring screens in the manager's office and foyer. These are specific procedures and facilities; the inspection judgement remains the basis for assessing safeguarding effectiveness.

Toilet training in Ladybird is coordinated with parents, with dedicated changing and toilet facilities supporting children at different stages. In September 2023, independence also appeared in smaller tasks: babies practised feeding themselves and older children helped clear up after meals. Such routines give children useful responsibilities alongside their play.

Fresh hot food is cooked daily by the nursery cook, including home-grown ingredients, with vegetarian choices and dietary requirements catered for through a four-week menu cycle. Meals are included in nursery fees, and a Leicester City Council partnership provides free toothbrushing for children, bringing oral care into the day.

Sessions and Attendance

Shanklin's address is 443-445 London Road, Stoneygate, Leicester, LE2 3JW. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks each year, excluding bank holidays. The hours describe the nursery's operating window; full-day attendance is an established booking pattern.

A discount applies when a child attends five full days each week. The sibling arrangement is narrower: where both children attend full days Monday to Friday, the eldest child's fees receive the discount, which stops once the child receiving it becomes eligible for government-funded childcare. Families comparing quotations need to weigh those conditions alongside their actual attendance pattern.

Enquiries and enrolment discussions can start through the contact form or by telephone on 0116 2704603. A separate booking form accepts requests for a nursery show-around, including a preferred date and time. Introductory settling sessions then provide a chance to discuss the child's care with the relevant room staff before starting.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible children aged nine months to four years, with 15- and 30-hour entitlements depending on eligibility. The funding categories include working families, universal funding for three-year-olds and funding for two-year-olds with special circumstances. Participation does not itself establish a family's eligibility.

Shanklin stretches funding across 51 weeks: the 15-hour entitlement becomes 11 hours each week, and the 30-hour entitlement becomes 22. That spreads the allocation across the nursery year and changes the weekly number of funded hours. For parents working throughout the year, the distinction between an entitlement's headline hours and its stretched delivery is central to planning attendance.

The help with fees page explains these arrangements. Private childcare is also offered, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The useful comparison is the charge for the family's intended pattern after funding and any applicable discount have been taken into account.

• Children's control of play. In September 2023, adults sometimes redirected exploration too quickly and missed opportunities to model pronunciation. During a visit, ask how staff now extend children's ideas and language while allowing them to make choices.
• Attendance and activities. Fun French takes place on Monday afternoons and Kits Academy Football Coaching on Thursday mornings. Consider whether the intended booking pattern includes the activities that appeal to your child.
• The stretched funding calculation. Across 51 weeks, the two entitlements provide 11 or 22 funded hours weekly. Ask for a written quotation showing how meals, non-food consumables and any activity charges are treated within the intended funded and private hours.

Shanklin suits families seeking full-day attendance and eligible parents who want funding spread across the year. Its strongest practical combination is the progression through named rooms, a separate baby garden and outdoor equipment that gives older children genuine physical challenges. French, football and local outings add variety with identifiable content.

Daily diaries and Learning Journey folders give parent communication a clear structure, while settling sessions allow care needs to be discussed before a child starts. The September 2023 Good judgement supports the overall picture, but the teaching improvements deserve attention. For families drawn to outdoor exploration and a play-based day, children's freedom to pursue their own ideas is the key point to explore.