Chestnuts Nursery TW1

A garden with a playhouse and garden room gives Chestnuts Nursery TW1 a clear outdoor character. At 22 Strafford Road in Twickenham, the setting has capacity for 25 children, with a current age range of two to five. Natural materials, practical responsibilities and imaginative play give families a concrete picture of the learning on offer.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its August 2025 inspection, finding effective safeguarding and targeted support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The judgement came with two teaching priorities: more tailored development for practitioners whose teaching skills need strengthening and better use of spontaneous opportunities to extend learning. Those qualifications matter alongside the headline grade.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) takes practical form through caring for plants, sharing resources, making marks and exploring number. Children receive weekly responsibilities, including feeding the fish, helping with lunch and watering plants. These are manageable jobs with a purpose: children contribute to the setting while practising independence.

Mathematical learning uses everyday objects for sorting, counting and comparing. Creative materials include clay, dough and collage, while puppets and dressing-up clothes give children ways to develop their own stories. Musical instruments introduce different sounds and opportunities to respond to rhythm. The curriculum connects these experiences with communication, physical development and relationships.

In August 2025, children selected songs for circle time and joined in with movements; books were also a popular part of their day. Block construction provided opportunities to discuss shape and practise counting. Paintbrushes and chalk supported hand control, with older children also practising cutting. The useful thread is learning through things children can handle, choose and discuss.

Outdoor and Community Life

Chestnuts Garden provides space for exploration and imaginative play. The outdoor pre-school has both a playhouse and a garden room for shelter, giving outdoor activity a physical base. Natural materials and loose parts support experimentation, while growing plants introduces the responsibility of caring for something over time.

Outdoor access extends across different weather conditions. Families provide suitable seasonal clothing, including waterproofs, warm layers and appropriate footwear. This has a practical consequence: dressing for nursery means preparing for outdoor play as well as indoor activities.

In August 2025, visits to a local care home introduced children to elderly people and discussions about helping others. These visits broadened the people children encountered beyond staff and their own families. No frequency is attached to that inspection-time activity.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a Key Worker who acts as the family's main contact and maintains their learning records. Parents can view observations, photographs, examples of work and progress records remotely. That gives conversations about development something specific to build on, rather than relying only on a brief verbal update.

Before the official start date, families arrange three settling sessions lasting 1.5 hours each; these are charged, with lunch charged additionally if taken. The planned introductions give children time to become familiar with the setting before their normal attendance begins.

In August 2025, children had close relationships with their key person and other practitioners, and staff exchanged information with parents about care and learning. Children practised managing personal routines and discussed feelings, including vocabulary for emotions that could be difficult to express. Hearing their home language during activities also supported children learning English as an additional language.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the August 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that staff used individual learning plans for children with SEND and that children developed skills for their next stage, while identifying a need for more consistent teaching and fuller use of everyday learning opportunities. For families whose child needs additional support, the important mechanism is the targeted plan and how practitioners use it.

Behaviour guidance emphasises understanding expectations, considering other people's feelings and developing ways to cope with difficult situations. Staff explain turn-taking and help children find language for their emotions. Toilet training receives practical support, including spare clothing for accidents.

Staff undertake continuing development in safeguarding, special needs and food safety, and the majority hold current paediatric first aid certificates. Care Catering supplies catered food, with a six-week lunch rotation adjusted seasonally, vegetarian options and provision for specific dietary requirements. Families managing allergies should discuss current arrangements as part of their visit.

Sessions and Attendance

The opening window is 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Chestnuts operates for 51 weeks each year, closing on bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year. Before and after school care is also offered.

Funded attendance uses three- or six-hour blocks, with families required to take their full 15- or 30-hour allocation, subject to eligibility. Work patterns of working parents receive booking priority; sessions for non-working parents are agreed according to availability and may change each term. These rules make the shape of the booking important alongside the total hours.

Getting There

The address is 22 Strafford Road, Twickenham, TW1 3AE, near Twickenham Station. Families can register interest using a form that includes their required start date, or contact the nursery on 020 8892 0011.

Funding and Paid Extras

The additional-support entitlement offers eligible families 15 hours per week for 38 weeks where parents or carers receive qualifying benefits, the child receives Disability Allowance or the child is looked after, from the term after the second birthday until the end of the term in which the child turns three. The Working Parents Entitlement covers eligible working parents of children from nine months, while the Universal Entitlement for three- and four-year-olds begins the term after the third birthday. The funded booking requires the full allocation in three- or six-hour blocks; the delivery and timing terms need resolving before a family commits.

Privately paid attendance has additional charges for breakfast, catered lunch and tea, and both morning and afternoon snacks. Breakfast, lunch and tea are also charged on funded hours, alongside a full and enhanced provision charge for two-, three- and four-year-olds. Additional hours are paid separately. For current prices, ask the nursery for a quotation.

An administration payment is refundable if the correct notice is given. Funded agreements require four weeks' notice to change hours or leave, while purchased hours require 12 weeks. Famly brings account information, booked sessions and payments into one app, helping parents keep track of the financial side of attendance.

• Funding timetable. The funding terms describe term-time delivery but also a stretched Working Parents Entitlement, and give a late-afternoon block alongside a restriction to 9am to 3pm. Before booking, establish the applicable timetable, delivery pattern and extras for your child's entitlement.
• Teaching consistency. August 2025 brought recommendations for more tailored staff development and better use of incidental learning, including at meals. During a visit, ask how practitioners now extend children's ideas and receive support with teaching.
• Outdoor kit and dietary needs. All-weather outdoor access requires suitable clothing, and catered menus accommodate specific dietary requirements. Use the visit to discuss your child's needs and current allergy arrangements.
• Notice commitments. Purchased hours carry a 12-week notice period, compared with four weeks for funded agreements. Families expecting work patterns or childcare arrangements to change should weigh those commitments before signing.

Chestnuts suits families who value outdoor exploration, practical independence and access to their child's learning records. Morning and afternoon funded blocks, alongside before and after school care, serve different attendance needs. The garden's sheltered spaces and everyday responsibilities give its educational approach substance.

The August 2025 Good judgement supports consideration, with teaching consistency still a clear development point. Funding arrangements require careful agreement, and the notice period for privately purchased hours is a substantial commitment. Families comfortable with those terms have a setting with a concrete outdoor identity and useful mechanisms for communication.