Cambridge Day Nursery

A designated sleeping room for babies and preschool children serving their own meals give Cambridge Day Nursery a practical emphasis: care changes as children become more independent. This Seven Kings setting caters for children from 3 months to 5 years and has 36 places in total. Its scale is worth keeping separate from the number of children in any individual room.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 27 September 2024 and judged safeguarding effective. The strongest detail beneath that judgement concerns language, relationships and individual support, alongside a clear qualification: focused teaching needed to engage children more consistently, especially the youngest.

Full Day Care and Sessional Day Care are offered across the year. The differences between those attendance patterns matter as much as the overall opening window.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby room / Caterpillar Room caters for children aged around 3 months to 2 years, combining a designated sleeping room with a large play space arranged for construction, sensory exploration, quieter play and messy activities. Sleep has its own space. For parents choosing care for a baby, that physical separation is a useful feature to weigh alongside the play provision.

For children aged 2 to 3, the Toddler room / Ladybird Room has a large indoor play area, with painting, playdough and water play alongside daily music, stories and imaginative play. Activities respond to children's interests and attention. This makes the toddler stage about both exploration and learning to spend time with other children.

The Pre-school / Butterfly Room serves children aged around 3 to 5, placing greater emphasis on independence and preparation for school. Practical routines carry that emphasis: children can help themselves to water, serve food themselves and clear away their cups and plates. These are concrete opportunities to practise doing things for themselves.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, bringing play and everyday routines into their education. Here, painting, stories and role play sit alongside opportunities to communicate, explore materials and practise independence; the framework itself is the common foundation for early years provision.

Cardboard construction adds a recognisable strand to the nursery's play approach. Children use it to make a bus and the three bears' house, while puddle jumping and malleable materials give them further ways to explore. The emphasis is on things children can handle, change and imagine.

In September 2024, staff chose new vocabulary deliberately, then repeated words and used clear speech to help children understand them. They also gathered information about children's home languages and their ability to understand and speak. That gives parents raising a child with more than one language a concrete example of how staff approached communication at that time.

Outdoor and Community Life

People Who Help Us brings police officers and firefighters into the nursery to talk with children about safety and independence. Planned visits to the local park and library take learning beyond the room, connecting children's experiences with people and places around them.

During September 2024, community police visited to discuss safety, and staff visited a local primary school to help children become familiar with the next stage. This was transition preparation rather than an admissions advantage. The nursery also has an outdoor garden, adding another physical space to consider alongside its indoor rooms.

A key person supports toilet training in the Ladybird Room before children move to preschool. That links a familiar adult with a specific developmental step, rather than treating the room move simply as a birthday milestone. Preschool routines then extend independence through drinking, eating and tidying up.

At the September 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that support for children with SEND included environmental adaptations, a sensory room and individual learning plans, while children developed confident communication and strong emotional wellbeing. The sensory room offered different textures and lighting, making the adaptation tangible rather than a general assurance about inclusion.

In September 2024, staff worked with external specialists and the special educational needs coordinator attended training and passed knowledge to colleagues. Staff also helped children who found changes between activities difficult. These examples describe the support in place at that visit; families should weigh them alongside their child's particular needs.

Parents took part in regular events during September 2024, including teddy bears picnics, workshops and trips. Those activities created opportunities to join in with nursery life and discuss children's development. Everyday care also included teaching handwashing, toilet use and toothbrushing, connecting independence with health routines.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, across the year, with closures on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. It offers Full Day Care and Sessional Day Care. Opening hours describe the nursery's operating day; the attendance pattern a family books is a separate decision.

Cambridge Day Nursery is at 38 Cambridge Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, IG3 8LU. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 020 8598 8059 or through the contact form. This is also the appointment route.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through Free Early Learning for children aged 2 and for those aged 3 and 4. Paid childcare is also offered. Participation in funding does not itself establish a particular family's eligibility or attendance arrangement.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. For a family comparing sessional care with full days, the useful comparison is the cost of the attendance pattern they intend to use.

• Engagement during focused teaching. In September 2024, the youngest children were not always helped effectively to concentrate during adult-led activities, and staff needed more consistent opportunities to exchange teaching practice. On a visit, ask how activities are adapted when a child loses interest and how colleagues share successful approaches.
• Preschool toilet training. Children are expected to be fully potty trained when entering the preschool room, while the Ladybird Room's key person supports that preparation. Discuss how the move would work for your child, including any additional needs.
• Room arrangements. Room names, age bands and size labels differ between the room overview and the detailed descriptions. Ask to see the room your child would use and establish its age grouping and maximum size before joining.
• Attendance and total cost. Full Day Care and Sessional Day Care run within an 8am to 6pm opening day, with funded childcare also offered. Request an itemised quotation for your chosen sessions and funded hours, covering food and everyday supplies.

Cambridge Day Nursery suits families considering either full-day attendance or sessional care, with play spaces for younger children and practical independence built into preschool routines. The baby's designated sleeping room, Ladybird Room's creative activities and People Who Help Us visits give parents concrete features to assess.

The September 2024 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, qualified by the need for more consistent focused teaching and sharing of good practice. For babies, the care space deserves close attention; for older children, the fit depends partly on readiness for the preschool routines and toilet-training expectation.