Hungry Caterpillar Day Nursery, Hanwell

Conversation and hands-on play give Hanwell its character: in January 2023, children explored water with containers, discussed pollution and practised handling noodles with tongs and chopsticks. These were opportunities to build language, solve problems and develop physical skills through ordinary play.

Hungry Caterpillar Day Nursery, Hanwell accepts children aged 3 to 59 months at 25a Laurel Gardens, London, W7 3JG. Ofsted rated it Good on 24 January 2023. That judgement sits alongside two practical improvement points: staff hygiene and the organisation of babies’ routines.

Attendance choices include full days and half days, with a separate funded-only offer. The important distinction for family budgets is between standard fees, which include meals and personal care supplies, and funded attendance, where these sit within additional charges.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care: play, conversation and everyday routines are opportunities to practise skills. At Hanwell in January 2023, language and social development shaped the curriculum. Discussions about rubbish in the sea gave children a reason to learn new vocabulary and use it in conversation, connecting words with something they could understand.

Water play brought a different kind of learning. In January 2023, children used containers to scoop and measure water, building early maths skills and practising how to solve problems.

The role-play area also supported physical practice at that visit. Moving noodles between dishes with chopsticks and tongs exercised small hand movements. Outdoors, children practised balance and rode tricycles, bringing larger movements into the day. The outdoor area was accessible frequently during the January 2023 visit; that observation describes the nursery at that time.

Rooms and Ages

Babies’ experience deserves separate attention. In January 2023, settling arrangements gave them time to develop relationships with their key person, with parents involved in the process. However, some babies waited too long when moving between activities or areas, became unsettled and lost opportunities to play. The strength of those relationships did not remove the need for better organised routines.

Relationships and Communication

In January 2023, babies developed familiar relationships with their key person and separated comfortably from parents. For families starting childcare, the useful detail is the connection between settling time, parental involvement and a familiar adult, rather than a general promise that every child will settle quickly.

Communication at that visit included updates about learning and parents’ evenings where families discussed progress. This gave parents something concrete to build on at home. Children also practised independence through feeding themselves and putting on coats, while staff used conversations about emotions and kindness to support their behaviour.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its January 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities making good progress, with staff drawing on professional advice to plan individual support. Activities addressing listening and attention were one example of that support at the time.

Hygiene was a weaker point in January 2023. Staff sometimes cleaned children’s noses without washing their own hands afterwards, so children did not consistently see good practice modelled. This matters both for daily care and for how children learn habits themselves. Together with the delays in babies’ routines, it is a specific issue to explore during a visit, rather than a reason to overlook the positive findings or assume the concern has since been resolved.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 6pm, across the year, closing for bank holidays, Christmas and five annual training days. Its address is 25a Laurel Gardens, London, W7 3JG.

For attendance without funding, the minimum booking is two full days each week, running from 8am to 6pm, or three core days. Additional half days alongside a qualifying full-day or core-day booking run from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, and an extended morning option covers 7.30am to 8am. The core-day timing needs clarification before a family bases working hours around it.

Funded-only attendance is 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 mixture of morning and afternoon. For the 30-hour entitlement, the pattern is two full days from 8am to 6pm. These weekly patterns do not exhaust the annual entitlement, so residual sessions, additional sessions each term, make up the difference.

Funded-only sessions cannot be exchanged, and extra hours or sessions cannot be added to that booking. This is a fixed arrangement, with different practical limits from a package combining funded and paid hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

Hanwell offers 15-hour and 30-hour funding options stretched over 51 weeks. Packages combining funding with paid care use two full days for 15-hour funding or three for 30-hour funding; they include charges for private hours and Essentials & Enhanced Provision (EEP), the package covering meals, personal care supplies and additional learning experiences.

Standard fees include food and drinks, plus nappies when needed, wipes and suncream. During funded attendance, meals and consumables are charged separately through EEP; funded-only families can opt out, supplying personal care items daily, while the nursery provides a packed lunch-style meal for lunch and tea and breakfast is given at home. The meal opt-out policy excludes food brought from home because of allergy and storage constraints, and reduced sessions may be offered for children whose parents decline meals on a ten-hour day.

EEP is optional for funded-only attendance. Children whose families decline the enhanced activities receive an alternative, with opportunities to pay individually for some events. This separates the funded session itself from the additional services around it.

Standard attendance carries a non-refundable registration charge for joining the waiting list and a deposit to secure an offered place. The deposit is returned when the child leaves, but is lost if the offered place is declined; funded-only waiting-list applications require neither charge. Funded-only terms require a month’s written notice to leave or opt out of EEP. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

• Babies’ routines and hygiene. January 2023 brought concerns about waiting between activities and inconsistent handwashing by staff. During a visit, ask how babies’ transitions now work and how hygiene practice is monitored.
• Core-day clock times. The minimum-booking terms give 8am to 4pm, while the daily fee table gives 9am to 4pm. Resolve that difference before choosing the three-core-day pattern.
• Funded-only flexibility. Attendance falls on Mondays and Fridays, with no swapping or additional hours. Consider whether that fixed pattern, including the termly residual sessions, fits your week.
• Meal opt-out and allergies. Food from home is excluded under the meal opt-out policy, and declining meals may affect a ten-hour booking. Allergy-affected families should confirm current meal arrangements and practice before agreeing their attendance pattern.

Hanwell suits families considering full-day attendance with additional half days, or a fixed funded-only morning or afternoon pattern. Its January 2023 observations give substance to the learning offer: conversation, water exploration and physical play, alongside familiar relationships for babies. The reservations are equally concrete. Babies’ transitions and staff hygiene merit attention, while funded-only restrictions and the core-day timing discrepancy need to fit the family’s plans. The charge structure rewards careful reading: an inclusive standard fee and funded attendance with additional services are different choices.