Bexley Manor Nursery School

Forest School on Wednesday mornings and football on Thursdays give Bexley Manor Nursery School a clear weekly rhythm. Forest School is an outdoor learning approach, while football adds a regular movement session. Both are practical counterweights to the nursery's play-based day.

In February 2024, Ofsted judged the nursery Good overall and across quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. Safeguarding arrangements were effective. Staff used children's interests and conversations to plan activities, with babies encouraged to communicate through songs and talk.

The setting is at 162 Penhill Road, on the Bexley and Sidcup border. Its own parent pack describes care from birth to five years in self-contained classrooms. The three named rooms, Baby Butterflies, Busy Bees and Little Ladybirds, give the published offer more shape than a generic all-ages nursery description.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Butterflies centres its published description on individual sleeping and feeding routines, weaning and early communication. Singing, talking and listening sit beside free and imaginative play. That gives families with very young children a useful sense of the everyday care priorities, rather than just a room name.

Busy Bees shifts towards outdoor play, emerging friendships, emotional expression and potty training. Little Ladybirds uses the Early Years Foundation Stage alongside planned structured learning and play. The EYFS is England's framework for early learning: it covers communication, physical development, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts. Here, the nursery says it observes each child's progress and adapts support to individual needs.

Children from birth to four explored both indoor and outdoor areas. A recent interest in planets became movement and imaginative play; mathematics included counting, ordering and comparing capacity. Adults needed to make more of routine moments for independence, and management needed stronger supervision and monitoring of teaching.

The parent pack adds a current view of the day: free play sits alongside guided learning, creative and physical activity, indoors and outdoors. The 2024 observations add real texture, including children running in the garden and adjoining field, climbing, and practising kicking, catching and throwing. That gives the weekly football class a natural place in a wider physical offer rather than making it the only active part of the week.

Learning and Named Experiences

Wednesday Forest School and Thursday football are the regular named experiences. The first brings outdoor learning into the week; the second adds a structured physical activity. For a child who responds well to familiar weekly markers, that repeated pattern can make the nursery week easier to anticipate.

Children's interests had real weight in the 2024 visit. Staff followed the planets theme into an alien movement game, used commentary in play and extended vocabulary. Toddlers counted sails during small-world play, while older children compared capacity as they filled teddy boxes. These examples show adults connecting language, mathematics and physical play rather than separating them into formal lessons.

Relationships and Communication

The current settling-in policy starts before the first booked day: it sets out a home visit, an All about me booklet shared with the child's key person, and settling sessions adjusted to how the child is getting on. The practical implication is that family routines and early observations have a route into the child's start, rather than being gathered after it.

Staff gave close attention and sensitive support, including for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They worked with outside services and parents, adapting activities so children could take part alongside their peers. Parents were also kept informed about learning and encouraged to share achievements from home.

Wellbeing, Sleep and Food

Sleep is addressed in a current written policy. It sets visual monitoring for sleeping babies and toddlers, with checks at least every five minutes and sleep recorded on a daily record or EY Log. The policy also says that routines are discussed with families before a child starts, which is especially relevant for babies moving from a home sleep pattern.

Breakfast and afternoon tea are prepared by staff, while lunches are delivered by Zebedee's. The food policy states that peanuts and nut products are not used in the nursery and that dietary needs are recorded before attendance. It also makes mealtimes a place for children to choose, serve food and drink, and feed themselves. Families managing an allergy should discuss the current meal and care-plan arrangements for their child directly.

The nursery is at 162 Penhill Road, Bexley, DA5 3EA. Its own description places the purpose-designed building within walking distance of Albany Park station. Registration and visit enquiries go through the nursery's contact route, including 020 8309 6055.

Sessions and Attendance

The 2026-27 schedule lists full days from 07:30 to 17:30, plus morning and afternoon sessions: 07:30 to 12:00, 07:30 to 13:00, 12:00 to 17:30 and 13:00 to 17:30. It sets out 44- and 51-week schedules. A separate term-dates document also has arrangements for 39-, 42- and 44-week children, with bank-holiday closures and a Christmas-to-New-Year closure period.

Funding and Food Charges

The nursery lists working-family funding from nine months and two years, Play 2 Learn or Free for 2, universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, and working-family funding for three-year-olds. It describes both term-time funding and stretched arrangements in the circumstances set out in its funding document. Food is charged separately on funded hours. Current nursery-specific prices are supplied in the provider's written quotation.

• Baby routines. Baby Butterflies publishes individual feeding, sleep and weaning arrangements. Discuss how a child's home routine and settling plan will be carried into their booked days.
• Weekly activities. Forest School is on Wednesday morning and football is on Thursday morning. Check how those sessions fit the child's room, age and attendance pattern.
• Funded-day food. Food is charged separately on funded hours. Families using funded entitlement should confirm the current daily food arrangement and any dietary adaptations.

Bexley Manor Nursery School is best suited to families looking for a play-based nursery with named rooms, regular Forest School and football, and a clear inspection picture. Its latest inspection found warm settling and thoughtful adaptation for individual needs, while also identifying independence in routines and staff monitoring as improvement points.

Its published timetable can suit families needing full days as well as those using morning or afternoon sessions, with several annual schedules described. Families should confirm their session choices and any minimum attendance directly with the nursery.