Hungry Caterpillar Day Nursery, Acton Park

Ice experiments, a garden mud kitchen and children having a say through a children's council give Acton Park a recognisable character. These were features of nursery life during August to November 2024, when practical exploration sat alongside opportunities to become more independent. Based at Acton Park Children's Centre, the nursery has capacity for 26 children aged three months to five years.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its inspection dated 15 August to 5 November 2024 and judged safeguarding effective. The useful detail beneath that judgement is a day built around children's interests, with two clear teaching priorities: taking learning further and allowing children longer to formulate answers.

Full days and shorter morning or afternoon attendance provide different ways to use the nursery. Funded-only attendance has its own rules, separate from privately paid care and packages combining funding with paid hours.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and everyday experiences help children build language, physical skills and independence. It is the baseline for provision here, rather than an extra programme. Acton Park's practical examples make that framework easier for parents to picture.

During August to November 2024, children experimented with melting ice containing toys, exploring changing colours and textures as they worked. Babies handled toy farm animals and explored textured materials. These experiences gave children something concrete to investigate and talk about, rather than relying entirely on adult explanations.

Physical learning also happened through small, manageable tasks. During the same period, threading encouraged careful finger movements, while older children manipulated dough by stretching and shaping it. Staff encouraged children to persist when threading became difficult. The activities combined practice with an opportunity to work through frustration.

Songs accompanied younger children's play, and adults described their actions and surroundings. Older children encountered unfamiliar vocabulary and questions intended to develop their thinking. The limitation was pace: adults sometimes moved on before children had enough time to answer. A stimulating activity needs room for a child's own response.

Outdoor and Community Life

During August to November 2024, the garden offered tricycles and boards for balancing. Children invited friends to ride with them and tested their balance, combining physical challenges with shared play. The mud kitchen added another kind of learning: filling bowls prompted conversations about weight and quantity.

A children's council let children contribute their views about nursery life during that period. It gave them a role beyond choosing toys or activities. Alongside the parents forum, it also provided a way for management to hear how the nursery day worked for the people using it.

At the August to November 2024 inspection, Ofsted found effective settling and transitions, attentive monitoring of development, and extra help organised with parents and other professionals when learning gaps emerged. For families whose child needs additional support, that finding concerns the way adults identified and responded to needs, rather than a blanket promise about every child's experience.

During that period, children sought adults out to join their play and turned to them for comfort. Settling sessions helped children become familiar with the setting before concentrating on activities. These relationships mattered as much as the resources: children had someone to approach when they needed reassurance.

Communication extended beyond brief conversations. During August to November 2024, online applications kept parents involved in learning, while recurring curriculum evenings explained the children's activities. The parents forum offered another route for feedback. Together, these arrangements connected everyday updates with opportunities to discuss the nursery's direction.

Independence was practised in ordinary routines during the same period. Babies tried feeding themselves; older children served food, poured drinks and dressed for outdoor play. Helping wipe tables or sweep up gave children useful responsibilities. Handwashing before meals was another part of the day, linking self-care with practical habits.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Acton Park Children's Centre, Acton Park, East Acton Lane, London W3 7LJ. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year, with Christmas closure and five annual training days.

A Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm. Half Day options run from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, and an Extended Day addition covers 7.30am to 8am. For privately paid attendance, the minimum booking is two full days or three core days each week; the core-day timing needs resolving before committing.

Funded-only sessions are restricted to Mondays and Fridays. The 15-hour entitlement can be taken as two mornings, from 7.30am to 1pm, two afternoons, from 1pm to 6pm, or a mixed morning-and-afternoon pattern. The 30-hour option uses two full days from 8am to 6pm. Funding is stretched over 51 weeks, and additional residual sessions each term make up the difference between these patterns and the full entitlement. Funded-only sessions cannot be exchanged, and extra hours or sessions cannot be added.

Funding and Paid Extras

Packages combining funding and paid care link 15 hours of funding to two full days, or 30 hours to three full days. They include chargeable private hours and Essentials & Enhanced Provision (EEP), a package covering food, personal care supplies and additional learning experiences. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Standard private fees include meals and refreshments, plus nappies where needed, wipes and sun cream. On funded attendance, meals and personal care supplies carry separate EEP charges; funded-only families can opt out, supplying personal care items daily and using alternative activities when enhanced provision takes place.

Freshly cooked food forms part of the inclusive service; funded-only meal opt-out arrangements instead provide nursery-made packed-lunch-style food for lunch and tea, with breakfast eaten at home. The nursery's policy excludes food brought from home because of allergy and storage constraints.

A non-refundable registration charge secures a standard-fee waiting-list place, while a deposit secures an offered place and is returned when the child leaves unless the offer is not taken up. Neither payment is required to join the funded-only waiting list. Funded-only attendance requires one month's written notice to leave or opt out of EEP.

• Core-day timing. The minimum-booking terms and Core Day rate line give different start times. Resolve this difference in the written booking agreement so the shorter-day option fits your working hours.
• Funded-only restrictions. Mondays and Fridays are the designated days, and extra sessions cannot be added. At a visit, discuss how the termly residual sessions would fit your child's attendance.
• Teaching pace. During August to November 2024, adults needed to extend activities further and leave more thinking time. Ask how staff now challenge more capable children and allow quieter children to respond.
• Meal opt-out and allergies. Funded-only families cannot bring food from home, and reduced attendance options may be offered when hot meals are declined. Allergy-affected families should confirm current meal practice before agreeing a pattern.

Acton Park suits families weighing full-day care against shorter morning or afternoon attendance, including those considering a tightly defined funded-only pattern. Its strongest inspection-era examples are tangible: experiments, garden play, everyday independence and routes for children and parents to contribute their views.

The choice turns on matching the attendance pattern and extras to family needs. The Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, while the teaching priorities give a useful subject for a visit. Core-day timing and the restrictions on funded-only attendance deserve careful attention before a booking is agreed.