Totally Kidz Day Nursery

Panda, Teddy and Croc give Totally Kidz Day Nursery a clear progression from baby care to preparation for school, while a separate Sensory Room adds a space for exploring light, sound and texture. Opposite Twinkle Park on Borthwick Street, this London nursery takes children from 3 months to 5 years and has capacity for 40 children. Its character comes from practical independence, local outings and close communication with home.

At its 4 December 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, inclusion, and leadership and governance to be at Strong standard, with achievement and curriculum and teaching at Expected standard, and safeguarding standards met. That is a useful distinction for parents: the care judgements sit above the education judgements. Full-day care and morning or afternoon sessions serve different family routines.

Rooms and Ages

Panda Room, for 3–24 months, emphasises movement, communication and emotional development, with a milk kitchen, changing area, sleeping mattresses and toys for sorting and sensory exploration.

Teddy Room, for 24–36 months, brings the full set of learning areas into play through construction and transport toys, sand and water trays, and a pretend kitchen with dressing-up materials.

Croc Room, for ages 3–5 years, combines early letters, numbers and name-writing with children’s own activities and practice in managing coats, toileting, clearing plates and putting toys away.

The Sensory Room contains illuminated features, textured materials, sound and adventure walls, providing a different setting for exploration or relaxation.

These rooms give parents concrete differences to weigh, rather than simply different labels for the same day. For a baby, the care facilities sit alongside exploratory play; for an older child, managing everyday tasks becomes part of preparation for the next stage.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework: activities develop language, movement and relationships, then extend into literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. It is the shared foundation for early years education. Here, planning combines observations of children’s interests with activities initiated by adults and by children themselves.

The additional detail lies in the materials. The letter land resources introduce phonics, while textured letters, number puzzles and games give children things to handle as they begin connecting symbols with sounds and quantities. Painting, sewing and making models from reused materials add different ways to create. The curriculum page describes these activities alongside music, movement and imaginative play.

Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) addresses how children approach learning: experimenting, persisting and developing their own ideas. It sits within the EYFS rather than replacing it. That makes the response to a child’s effort as relevant as the finished picture or model.

At the December 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children progressed from their starting points, but staff sometimes encouraged them to discard creations during clearing up, weakening opportunities to value their work and consolidate learning. This was a specific next step, not a general objection to creative activities. The practical question is how staff help children decide what to keep, revisit or share.

Outdoor and Community Life

Natural materials run through the playrooms: shells, stones, plants and reused logs sit alongside wooden furniture and open-ended resources. These offer children objects to investigate and combine, rather than toys with only one prescribed use. Carpeted or mat-covered areas and quieter corners provide places for less active play too.

Local park visits bring larger play equipment and nature trails into the nursery day, including searching for small creatures and exploring mud. In December 2025, outings to nearby play areas took place daily, with road-crossing routines and safe movement around swings forming part of the experience. Outdoor activity therefore involved both physical play and practising everyday safety.

Croc children finish their time with a Graduation Ceremony, using gowns and certificates before a farewell party. It gives leaving nursery a recognisable ending and makes the move to school something children can mark together.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for connecting individual care and learning with home. Baby’s Day App supplies daily information about eating, sleep and activities, and the key person adds at least one observation each week. Parents can contribute photographs and comments. This gives families both the practical account of the day and a longer view of development.

Communication also has a face-to-face element: parents can discuss progress or concerns directly, and an open-door policy supports that contact. In December 2025, parents and staff worked together on settling, changes around potty training and difficulties with mealtimes. For younger children, exchanges with home helped shape bottle feeds and sleep routines.

Panda’s bedding arrangements are specific: children have individually labelled bags containing sheets and blankets, which are washed on Fridays. Sleep normally follows lunch. That routine gives families something concrete to compare with their baby’s existing pattern, alongside the individual discussions with their key person.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

After a child turns 2, the nursery provides a written review of communication, physical development and personal and social development. Relevant information can be shared with the health visitor and other professionals involved in the child’s care; the health visitor’s check can also take place at nursery. This connects the nursery’s observations with support beyond the room.

In December 2025, staff discussed additional needs with parents and other agencies, adjusted activities and helped families with referrals. For children learning English alongside another language, they gathered useful words from home and included cultural experiences. Activities around celebrations were also adapted for children whose families did not take part in particular festivals.

Most employees hold a recognised childcare qualification, and staff training continues throughout the year. Recruitment includes references followed by DBS checks. These are arrangements parents can understand; the dated safeguarding judgement remains the basis for assessing their effectiveness.

A chef plans food prepared in the nursery kitchen, with a two-week weaning menu and a four-week menu for older children. The nursery’s policy excludes pork and nuts, and colour-coded traffic light place mats distinguish allergies from parental preferences at meals.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7am–6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year; bank holidays and Christmas week are closures. Morning sessions run from 7am to 12.30pm, and afternoon sessions from 1pm to 6.30pm. Full-day care is also offered. The morning and afternoon patterns give families alternatives to booking a whole day.

Applications begin with a registration form sent by email. Where the nursery can meet the requested arrangement, an offer letter follows and payment is required in advance before the start date. A waiting list may be used when the requested days cannot be offered, with parents contacted when a suitable place becomes available. This is a booking rule, rather than a statement about today’s vacancies.

Getting There

The address is 13 Borthwick Street, London SE8 3GH, opposite Twinkle Park. Deptford High Street and Main Road are 5 minutes walk away, giving families a useful local reference point for planning their routine.

General enquiries can be made by telephone on 020 3632 5515 or by email to info@totallykidz.co.uk. An application form also allows families to request a call or make a general enquiry.

Funding and Paid Extras

Government-funded childcare includes 15- and 30-hour education and care entitlements for the term after a child’s third birthday, subject to eligibility. The nursery applies for funding on parents’ behalf and requires a signed declaration. It also participates in Tax Free Childcare. Private full-day and half-day care are offered alongside funded provision.

Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. Joining involves a non-refundable registration charge and a deposit held until the child leaves; the deposit is refundable with a month’s notice and no outstanding payments, while unpaid sums are deducted from it. Payment in advance forms part of the joining arrangements, so the quotation and offer letter matter together.

• Pride in children’s work. The December 2025 next step concerned self-esteem and valuing creations. On a visit, ask how staff now help children preserve, discuss and return to their work.
• Baby routines. Panda normally has sleep after lunch and has its own care facilities. Discuss how an individual baby’s naps and feeds fit that pattern, and see how the room is organised during rest time.
• The funded booking and total bill. Funded hours sit alongside morning, afternoon and full-day care. Before accepting an offer, ask how entitlement is spread through the year and how meals, snacks and non-food consumables are treated within the quotation.
• Dietary arrangements. The pork-and-nut exclusion policy and traffic light place mats shape mealtimes. Families managing allergies should confirm current preparation and serving practice for their child.

Totally Kidz suits families seeking full-day care or a shorter morning or afternoon pattern, with practical independence and regular local outdoor experiences. Panda’s care facilities, Croc’s everyday self-help activities and Baby’s Day App make the offer tangible across different ages.

The December 2025 balance is clear: care-related judgements were stronger than curriculum and achievement, and valuing children’s creations remained a next step. For parents, the most revealing visit will connect those everyday arrangements with how staff respond to an individual child’s efforts, routines and needs.