Number 9 The Nursery

A Victorian house, a garden with a track for wheeled toys, and a Rainforest Room for newly mobile toddlers give Number 9 The Nursery a recognisable character. This South Croydon setting combines separate spaces for younger children with dance, signing, sport and early reading activities. There is plenty to distinguish the day beyond the building itself.

Children attend from 3 months to 5 years. At its 25 July 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good. The strongest practical attractions are the separate baby garden, creative rooms and communication with parents through a key person and digital diary. Attendance runs across the year, with both private full days and fully funded day patterns.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room serves children aged 3 to 18 months, with sensory exploration, music and messy play, air conditioning and a separate garden used when the weather allows. Rainforest Room takes children from 1 year to 24 months, supporting movement, early speech and self-feeding, with air conditioning and access to the baby garden and suitable parts of the larger garden. Baby Art Room gives the youngest children a space for creative exploration with child-safe materials. These arrangements give younger children their own settings for movement and play rather than making the older children's spaces do every job.

From age 2, children move downstairs, where the ground floor rooms open onto a playground; the age groups are 2 to 3 and preschool children aged 3 to 5. Pink Room emphasises literacy and understanding the world, while Art Room gives creative work a designated space where children can express ideas through different materials. Discovery Room supplies dressing-up resources and small-world play, with a different role-play theme each term. Garden Room connects directly to the Baby and Toddler garden and has a designated phonics area. The rooms give different kinds of play a clear physical home.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the shared framework for learning and care: children learn through play, with language, physical development and relationships among its areas of learning. Here, planned experiences sit alongside opportunities for children to choose their own play, and staff monitor development individually. The additional classes give this everyday framework more specific forms.

Sing and Sign teaches signs through songs, with regular workshops so parents can use the same signs at home. Weekly Baby Ballet brings dance and music into the day, while weekly Pro Stars sessions introduce physical games. Preschool French sessions are run by Petit Rendezvous, using stories, action songs and new vocabulary. These are concrete additions, with different ways for children to communicate and move. Activity days can change, so a particular weekday should not be treated as a permanent promise.

Read Write Inc Phonics introduces the first set of sounds after work on listening, rather than rushing straight into reading. The Home Reading Library lends books for all ages, including picture books and books in different languages. That makes shared reading something families can continue at home, alongside the nursery's early literacy activities. Parents can see more about the approach on the activities and curriculum page.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden offers different kinds of physical and exploratory play: a large sand area changes between activities such as digging for dinosaurs and hunting for treasure, while flowers and herbs create a sensory area. A track accommodates scooters, bikes and cars; tunnels and slides sit on a soft grassed area. Garden Studio, also called The Clubhouse, adds another named space outdoors. Resources are taken outside for learning as well as active play.

Animal visitors recur across the year, including ducklings, goats, owls and reindeers. Trips have included Godstone Farm and a classical music concert locally. These experiences bring animals and performance into children's learning, but the outings do not follow a stated weekly pattern. They complement the garden rather than replacing everyday outdoor play.

Relationships and Communication

Settling centres on the Key Worker System, which encourages a child to form an attachment to a member of staff. That person plans activities around individual needs, prepares a daily report and meets parents to discuss next steps. The intention is to retain the same key person for as long as possible, with families informed when room changes require a different arrangement. Continuity is the aim, with a planned handover when it changes.

eyLog records development and sends photographs and updates to the eyParent app, which also carries a daily diary. Parents can contribute photographs, videos and observations from home. Weekly bulletins and termly meetings provide other points of contact, so communication includes both the day's care and longer-term development.

The move downstairs at age 2 is prepared through short visits before the permanent change. Care and developmental information passes between staff on a transition form, and families hear how the trial sessions went. A familiar comfort item can accompany the child. This gives the change a sequence rather than making it a single abrupt move.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role supports children with additional needs. At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and referrals to specialist services timely, with children including those with SEND making good progress, but identified excessive waits before younger children's meals that could leave them unsettled. That mealtime finding remains an important question for families with babies and toddlers.

Millie’s Mark accreditation is accompanied by paediatric first-aid training across the team. This is a specific training arrangement, separate from the dated safeguarding judgement. Sensory Room contains a colour-changing bubble tube and a projector for songs and nursery rhymes, and can also provide a quieter place with a book. After lunch, children can sleep, have quiet time or continue playing; babies' individual routines shape their day.

Food is made from scratch by an on-site chef, with menus rotating weekly; the nursery holds Advanced Accreditation through the Early Years Alliance Nutrition Support Programme. Its dietary policy accommodates medically diagnosed allergies or intolerances, vegetarian and pescatarian diets and religious requirements, while other food preferences do not qualify for menu changes.

School preparation includes recognising and writing names, preparing snacks and setting the table. Before children leave, teachers are invited to visit and a transition report passes on their achievements. The Transitioning to School workshop gives parents a place to discuss the move, followed by a graduation ceremony celebrating children's time at nursery. These are preparation and information-sharing arrangements.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 9 South Park Hill Road, South Croydon, CR2 7DY. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Private full days use that window, with a minimum booking of 3 days a week including Monday or Friday. Term-time-only attendance is not offered.

Fully funded day plans run from 8am to 6pm: the 15-hour entitlement has a one-day plan, and the 30-hour entitlement has a two-day plan. An optional Early Bird Session covers 7.30am to 8am. Plans combining funding with private hours use full days from 7.30am to 6pm. The shorter funded plans therefore sit separately from the usual private booking minimum.

Enquiries use an online form, followed by contact from the admissions team. Bank holidays, staff inset days and the Christmas break are closures for which fees remain payable. For the coming Christmas break, the nursery closes at 3pm on 24 December 2026 and reopens at 7.30am on 5 January 2027. Missed booked days through illness or holidays are not refunded or exchanged.

Getting There

A forecourt provides parking for collection and drop-off. Bus routes 64 and 433 serve the nursery, and South and East Croydon train stations are within walking distance.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 30-hour entitlement for eligible working families with children aged 9 months to 4 years, support-based funding for 2-year-olds, and universal 15-hour funding for children aged 3 and 4. Funding is stretched over the year: the 15-hour entitlement becomes 11 hours weekly, and the 30-hour entitlement becomes 22. The fully funded one-day and two-day plans use 10 and 20 funded hours respectively; accessing the full stretched allocation involves additional private hours.

Private full-day fees include meals and snacks, formula or cow's milk, nappies, wipes and extra activities. On funded days, food, activities and consumables sit in a separately charged, non-mandatory supplement; parents can decline it and discuss other options. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, alongside its fees and funding information.

A non-refundable registration charge and a deposit apply. The deposit is credited against the final month's fees only with a full month's notice and attendance lasting more than three months. Children aged 3 and over must wear the nursery uniform, with a book bag for home activities. These terms matter alongside the attendance pattern when assessing the overall commitment.

• Younger children's mealtimes. In July 2023, lengthy waits could unsettle babies and toddlers. On a visit, ask how food preparation and seating now keep those waits short.
• Private days or funded days. The private minimum is 3 days including Monday or Friday, while fully funded plans have shorter weekly commitments and later starts. Discuss which arrangement matches your working week and whether the optional Early Bird Session is useful.
• Diet and supplement choices. Menu substitutions follow defined dietary grounds, and the funded-day supplement is non-mandatory. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice and discuss the alternatives before choosing whether to add the supplement.
• Vaccination policy. The nursery expects age-appropriate immunisations and does not allocate places to children who have not received them, while asking families to disclose medical reasons preventing vaccination. Raise any such circumstances during the joining discussion.

Number 9 suits families wanting year-round attendance through either private full days or fully funded day plans, with optional early starts for the latter. Separate younger-child spaces, the changing Discovery Room and a garden equipped for active play make the physical offer substantial. Signing, dance, French and reading add variety with clear purposes.

The choice is also a practical one: private booking carries a minimum weekly commitment, funded plans require careful attention to hours and supplements, and preschool brings a uniform requirement. For families whose routines fit those terms, the combination of creative spaces, parent communication and planned transitions gives this nursery a clear appeal. Younger children's mealtime routines deserve close attention.