Dicky Birds Day Nursery and Preschool Wimbledon, Dundonald Road

Dundonald Park gives this Wimbledon nursery a clear sense of place. It sits directly opposite the park, and children visit for outdoor learning and play days, alongside daily time outside in the nursery garden. Plant growing, movement and exploration give the day practical substance.

Dicky Birds accepts children from 3 to 60 months and has capacity for 55 children in total. At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and found safeguarding effective. That judgement belongs to that visit; the current offer includes sports activities, yoga and a growing garden where children tend plants.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes the curriculum: here, children learn through exploration and play, with experiences supporting communication, social interaction and physical development within a structured routine. Children’s interests help shape their learning. That gives parents a concrete picture of the educational day, with talking, movement and relationships running through it.

PE sessions add organised physical activity, while yoga provides opportunities to practise coordination, flexibility and mindfulness. Forest School experiences bring an outdoor learning approach into the activity mix. Boogie Mites is also an enrichment activity offered here. Families interested in that programme should use a visit to explore what its sessions involve.

In February 2023, babies explored materials including shaving foam and sand. Older children practised movement outside and worked on ball skills with a sports teacher. These were hands-on experiences: babies could experiment with texture, while older children had opportunities to test balance and coordination.

Books and drawing also featured in February 2023, alongside opportunities to hear and use numbers. Staff added words to children’s play through songs, stories and conversation. Discussions about dinosaur footprints and melting ice prompted questions and exchanges of ideas, giving language learning a connection to what children were doing.

Rooms and Ages

A baby room, toddler rooms and preschool spaces organise the nursery around different stages of development. Children move between rooms according to readiness. For families, that makes the room transition a developmental decision, with independence encouraged as children grow.

In February 2023, the role-play area supported children’s own ideas: they acted out family life, pretended to prepare food and made imaginary hot drinks. The space gave them material for conversation and imaginative play, with familiar routines providing a starting point.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden is used for outdoor play each day. Its growing garden adds a different kind of activity, with children tending plants and learning about their surroundings. This gives outdoor time both movement and a practical task.

Dundonald Park extends that outdoor offer beyond the nursery. Children take part in play days and learning there, and regular community outings include nearby parks and local spaces. The park’s position opposite the nursery is a useful physical detail for parents assessing how outdoor experiences fit into the day.

The nursery app connects home and nursery through updates about daily routines, learning and children’s progress. Parent evenings and events provide further opportunities for communication. For parents, these routes offer both day-to-day information and time to discuss development more fully.

A SENCo role supports children with additional needs, and the team includes staff working with language delay, physical disabilities and special educational needs. At the February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff used observations and assessments to identify learning gaps, made prompt referrals for additional support and helped children, including those with SEND, make good progress from their starting points.

There was an important qualification to language support in February 2023: children learning English as an additional language needed more opportunities to hear and use their home languages. Individual staff training needs also required more precise monitoring. Both points matter to families because they concern how support is adapted to a child and how practitioners develop their work.

Everyday independence was part of the February 2023 nursery experience. Children helped put toys away, and those ready to do so managed toileting themselves. Praise and attention supported participation, while babies were beginning to share play alongside one another.

Meals are prepared at the nursery by a chef. Mealtimes also provide opportunities for social interaction and independence.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at 52a Dundonald Road, Wimbledon, SW19 3PH. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with year-round opening and closures for bank holidays and Christmas. Those closures are relevant for families planning care across the working year.

A branch enquiry form provides routes to send a question or book a visit. Parents can include a preferred start date and details about their child when making contact.

Funding and Paid Extras

In February 2023, the nursery received funding for early education for children aged two, three and four. This establishes participation at that date. Families planning funded attendance should make the way funding fits their proposed booking part of their joining discussion.

• Home languages. February 2023 identified a need for more opportunities to use children’s home languages during play and learning. Ask how staff would incorporate your family’s language into your child’s day.
• Practitioner development. Individual training needs required sharper monitoring in February 2023. A useful visit discussion is how staff development now responds to the children in each room.
• Planning attendance. Opening runs from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, with bank holiday and Christmas closures. Ask which booking pattern and funded-hours arrangement would fit your proposed attendance, including how meals and care products are handled.
• Activity detail. Boogie Mites sits alongside PE and Forest School experiences. Ask what Boogie Mites involves for your child’s stage and how those activities fit into the room’s routine.

Dicky Birds suits families who value outdoor experiences and practical learning, with Dundonald Park, plant tending and physical activities providing concrete reasons to consider this branch. The app and parent evenings give communication a clear place in the offer. Its February 2023 Good judgement provides a dated assessment of quality, balanced by specific development points on home languages and staff training. Those are useful subjects for a visit, especially for multilingual families.