Hungry Caterpillar Day Nursery, Perivale

Garden exploration and practical mathematics give Perivale its clearest character: in March 2023, children dug with large spades, moved rocks and counted beans into tubes of different sizes. Learning had something tangible to work with. Hungry Caterpillar Day Nursery, Perivale has capacity for 20 children aged two to four, at Perivale Children’s Centre on Federal Road.

At its 10 March 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. Two improvements matter for parents: giving children longer to answer questions and keeping families informed when staffing changes. These concern everyday conversation and the relationship with a child’s key person, rather than just paperwork.

Paid full days and half days sit alongside a funded-only offer restricted to Mondays and Fridays, so the attendance choice depends on which package a family uses.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care, with play giving children opportunities to practise language, number skills and independence. Perivale’s March 2023 activities illustrate how that can work: counting beans made quantity concrete, while comparing healthy foods introduced ideas about having more or less.

In March 2023, an investigation area contained magnifying glasses for examining animals, drawing on a zoo visit children had made with their families. This was an example of staff using familiar experiences to give an activity meaning. It was not a nursery outing. Children also explored doubling quantities during play, bringing mathematical language into something they were already doing.

Bucket time, an attention activity using toys that interested the children, was another March 2023 example. Children laughed and stayed engaged with it. The useful detail is the connection between attention and an appealing object, rather than a programme name alone.

Current activities include specialist sports lessons, giving physical play a place alongside other learning. Standard fees also include enrichment experiences and external activity providers; families using funded hours encounter a different charging arrangement, explained below.

Outdoor and Community Life

A large outdoor area gives children space to run, explore and play. In March 2023, garden activities involved digging and shifting rocks, while balancing equipment and putting on coats gave children opportunities to do things for themselves. Fruit preparation offered another practical task: children cut fruit to make a salad.

An August 2026 announcement set out plans for a baby room in September 2026, including quieter corners, soft lighting and garden access to a den beneath trees. These were plans for extending care to babies from three months, rather than observations from the graded inspection. For a family considering baby care, that proposed change makes the room’s actual opening and arrangements an essential visit question.

At the March 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received individual plans tailored to their needs. This is a concrete support mechanism: planning could respond to the child rather than relying solely on the activities offered to the whole group.

In March 2023, staff shared information about children’s development and supplied home learning packs, giving parents activities through which to continue learning outside nursery. Communication had a weakness, however. Families were not consistently told about staffing changes, which made it harder to build relationships with key persons and exchange information about learning at home.

Questioning also needed attention in March 2023. Staff introduced new vocabulary through discussion, including how an orange divides into sections, but sometimes repeated a question before a child had time to answer. The improvement sought was practical: leave enough thinking time for the child to process the question and respond.

The proposed baby provision described a small team getting to know babies’ routines and preferences, with regular updates for parents. Those arrangements belong to the August 2026 announcement. They should be assessed alongside the older communication finding, rather than treated as evidence that the earlier improvement has been completed.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Perivale Children’s Centre, Federal Road, Perivale, UB6 7AP. General opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with bank holidays and a week at Christmas closed; attendance and funding are organised across 51 weeks.

Without funding, the minimum booking is two full days per week, from 8am to 6pm, or three core days. The fee schedule also includes half days from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, an early extension from 7.30am to 8am and ad hoc extra hours. Sessions cannot be swapped.

Combined funding and fee packages pair 15-hour funding with two full days, or 30-hour funding with three full days, both from 8am to 6pm. These packages contain paid hours as well as funded hours. They should not be confused with funded-only attendance.

Funded-only sessions run exclusively on Mondays and Fridays. The 15-hour offer can be taken as two mornings from 7.30am to 1pm, two afternoons from 1pm to 6pm, or a mixture; the 30-hour offer uses two full days from 8am to 6pm. Additional sessions each term make up the funded hours not covered by those regular patterns. Funded-only bookings cannot be swapped or supplemented with extra booked hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both 15-hour and 30-hour funding are stretched over 51 weeks. Standard private fees include meals, refreshments, nappies when needed, wipes, sun cream and enrichment; on funded hours, meals and personal care consumables are charged separately through Essentials & Enhanced Provision (EEP), the package covering food, care items and additional activities.

For funded-only attendance, EEP is optional: opting out means supplying personal care items daily, while alternative activities are offered during charged enrichment sessions. Under the meal opt-out policy, children receive nursery-prepared packed-lunch-style food for lunch and tea, breakfast is given at home, outside food is prohibited because of allergy and storage constraints, and reduced attendance options may be offered when a family declines meals for a full day.

Standard bookings carry a non-refundable registration charge to join the waiting list and a deposit to secure an offered place; the deposit is returned when the child leaves but forfeited if the offered place is declined. Joining the funded-only waiting list requires 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.

The nursery is attached to Perivale Primary School. Attendance does not guarantee a Reception place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

• Core-day timing. The minimum-booking terms and daily fee table give different core-day start times. Resolve the start time for the intended booking before agreeing attendance.
• Baby-room change. The August 2026 announcement planned care from three months for September 2026. During a visit, establish whether that room has opened and how sleep, routines and staffing work for babies.
• Conversation and continuity. The March 2023 improvements concerned children’s thinking time and communication about staff changes. Ask how practitioners now allow children to answer and how families are introduced to a replacement key person.
• Funded-only choices. Mondays and Fridays are the fixed attendance days, and opting out of extras changes food and daily supplies. Allergy-affected families should confirm current meal practice and discuss how the opt-out arrangements fit their child.

Perivale merits consideration for families with two-to-four-year-olds who value outdoor space and practical learning, whether they need paid full days, shorter half days or the fixed Monday-and-Friday funded-only pattern. The March 2023 examples give substance to that appeal: number work, investigation and self-help tasks were part of children’s activities.

The decision rests on the attendance package as much as the educational offer. Funded-only sessions have firm restrictions, paid packages include additional hours and charges, and the core-day start time needs resolving. Families considering the proposed baby provision also have a material change to assess beyond the age group covered by the graded inspection.