Nutkins Nursery 1, Squirrels Heath Infant School

A small preschool setting with 23 places, Nutkins Nursery occupies the Rainbow Room within the grounds of Squirrels Heath Infant School. Its offer is tightly centred on children aged two to four, with a spacious outside play area alongside the indoor room. Ofsted rated the provision Good in March 2023, judging education, behaviour, personal development and leadership Good and safeguarding effective.

The dated detail gives this setting more character than the headline grade alone. In March 2023, children became absorbed in role play, stories, songs, painting and physical activity, while adults threaded conversation and early mathematics through the day. Morning and afternoon sessions run on weekdays during term time.

Rooms and Ages

The Rainbow Room is the nursery's named base. Children can use a collection of equipment and activities indoors and a safe, spacious outside play area. The current provider record gives an age range of two to four, making this a focused preschool environment rather than a nursery spanning babies through to school age.

Learning and Named Experiences

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes learning through seven areas, including communication, physical development, personal and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts. In practical terms, activities should respond to each child's needs and interests while building skills through play, active exploration and creative and critical thinking.

During the March 2023 visit, that approach included counting friends at circle time, finding words beginning with a chosen letter, mixing colours and investigating animals frozen in ice. Children also took part in dough disco, moulding and moving play dough in time with music. This combines physical movement with hand control in a format young children can readily join.

Language was a clear strength in March 2023. Adults held purposeful conversations, shared familiar stories and helped children broaden their vocabulary. Early literacy was taking shape, with children developing confidence in recognising and recording language. A useful boundary tempers that praise: teaching needed to stretch critical thinking and problem-solving across more experiences.

Outdoor and Imaginative Play

The outside area adds daily fresh air and physical activity to the Rainbow Room base. In March 2023, children sustained imaginative play in the home corner, caring for dolls, preparing pretend meals and building stories around a picnic. The value is not the equipment alone, but the chance to practise language, cooperation and ideas through self-directed play.

A key person supports each child from induction. Families can accompany their child on a settling visit, share care information through the My Unique Child form and agree a consistent approach between home and nursery. WOW boards give children a way to bring achievements from home into the setting, while learning journeys, parent meetings and daily conversations keep development visible to families.

The SEND arrangements are unusually well explained. The setting describes individual plans shaped with parents, observation-led decisions, visual timetables, sensory resources and Makaton. Its SENCO can work with an Area SENCO, an Early Years Advisory Teacher, speech and language therapy and other health professionals. In March 2023, children with SEND made timely progress through targeted support and clearly identified goals.

Care practice in March 2023 included healthy snacks and drinks, daily fresh air and a recently introduced toothbrushing routine. Ofsted found safeguarding effective in March 2023, with trained staff able to recognise and respond to concerns, secure premises and hygiene controls. One developmental point deserves attention: children sometimes struggled to express and manage emotions, and the provider was asked to strengthen support in this area.

Sessions and Attendance

Nutkins publishes two weekday patterns during term time: a morning session from 8.30am to 11.30am and an afternoon session from 11.45am to 2.45pm, Monday to Friday. School holidays are the stated closure period. This gives families a clear session-based model rather than an all-day nursery timetable.

Getting There

The nursery is at Squirrels Heath Infant School, Salisbury Road, Romford, RM2 5TP. Its Rainbow Room base is within the school grounds, while the nursery remains a separately registered childcare provider.

Funding and Paid Extras

In March 2023, the nursery received funding for free early education for children aged two, three and four. Families should request a current written quotation and confirm how funded hours apply to their chosen morning or afternoon pattern.

• Session gap. The morning session ends at 11.30am and the afternoon begins at 11.45am. Families seeking continuous care should establish how the two published sessions can be combined.
• Emotional development. The March 2023 findings asked the provider to help children express and manage feelings more effectively. Ask how current practice has developed since that visit.
• Critical thinking. Inspectors also wanted teaching to extend problem-solving across more experiences. A visit can show how practitioners now sustain children's thinking when an activity becomes challenging.

Nutkins is best suited to families seeking a small, term-time preschool with a choice of morning and afternoon sessions. The Rainbow Room, outside play space, dough disco and well-developed SEND processes give the setting a recognisable identity, while its Good March 2023 judgement gives families an independent quality benchmark. The two improvement points are meaningful rather than cosmetic, so families should look for stronger emotional coaching and deeper problem-solving in current practice.