Playdays

Monthly visits to St Judes residential care home give Playdays a community connection that reaches beyond preschool play. A small group joins residents for songs, dancing and stories, while everyday learning includes garden exploration and time to practise talking with other children. For families choosing care from the preschool years onwards, those concrete experiences give this Sutton setting its character.

Playdays accepts children aged 2–5 and has 24 places in total. Its home is Friends Meeting House on Cedar Road. At its 3 October 2024 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good, found safeguarding effective and recognised consistent progress, including for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The improvement point was specific: staff needed to leave children longer to consider questions before responding.

Attendance combines morning and afternoon sessions with day care during term time. The strongest reasons to consider Playdays are its individual settling arrangements, practical communication with families and opportunities to learn through experiences outside the setting.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage covers children's learning and care, including communication, physical development and early understanding of numbers. At Playdays, children encounter its areas of learning through daily play, with their key person planning individual next steps. This is the shared early-years framework, rather than an additional branded curriculum.

Children's interests shape topics: enthusiasm for dinosaurs redirected an animal topic and prompted a museum visit. Trips need parental permission.

Songs and rhymes accompany registration before children choose indoor or outdoor activities; older children also have an adult-led activity. Puppets, audio and books support storytelling, alongside group movement and dance. Afternoon activities change for children staying longer, while spontaneous learning can alter the routine. Predictable stages leave room for children's ideas.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden contributes to food as well as play. Vegetables grown there in summer become part of snack time, connecting growing with something children can eat. In October 2024, outdoor play also included balancing beams, a slide and wheeled toys; children investigated small creatures with magnifying glasses and matched their discoveries to pictures. These were practical opportunities to move, look closely and compare.

Other October 2024 activities used natural materials in imaginative ways. Play took in invented creatures made from cork and pine cones, alongside potion-making with rose petals. The equipment and materials gave them something tangible to manipulate, rather than making nature a topic confined to conversation.

Community experiences take several forms. The friendship with St Judes residential care home brings a monthly visit for a small group, while an annual park picnic includes parents and children. Trips have also included Pizza Express for cooking and healthy-eating experiences and the local Ecology centre for bug hunting. These are examples of visits already undertaken, rather than a fixed weekly outing programme.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person oversees settling and development. An optional home visit with that practitioner and a manager lets them meet the child in familiar surroundings; settling proceeds at the child's pace. An introductory pack helps parents prepare, while a form about the child starts their learning journey. Families can speak with their key person or managers, with meetings through the year about development and enjoyment.

Tapestry, the online learning journal, shares observations through an app and accepts photographs and updates from home, bringing family experiences into the picture. Each child also has a preschool folder holding work and progress documentation.

Through the Parents Advisory Group, parents and carers discuss children's experience, involvement in learning and fundraising ideas. This gives families a route to contribute beyond individual progress conversations.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Star time uses reserved toys in a daily small group in the lobby to encourage speech, patience and taking turns. It provides a specific communication activity for children with additional needs or English as an additional language.

A SENCO team participates in the Sutton Borough inclusion network. Support can also involve The Portage Team, speech and language therapists and other professionals, with the special educational needs co-ordinator liaising with families and those working with the child. At the October 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND received good support and that staff worked effectively with other agencies to obtain advice and assistance.

In October 2024, a cushion-filled wigwam provided somewhere children could choose a quieter moment away from the group. Everyday independence also received attention: children poured drinks, prepared fruit and practised managing personal-care tasks. These small responsibilities made school preparation part of ordinary activity, while a transition pack helped parents whose children were moving on.

Staff development includes approved training courses, and first aiders are part of the team. Managers hold degrees in Early Childhood Studies and Early Years Professional Status. Those are staff qualifications; they do not replace the need to consider the actual settling, communication and support arrangements for an individual child.

Sessions and Attendance

Playdays operates at Friends Meeting House, 10 Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5DA. Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, during term time, across 38 weeks of the year. Day care runs from 9am to 3pm, alongside morning and afternoon sessional care; the daily routine starts afternoon registration at 12.30pm.

Children can begin after their second birthday and remain until they start school. Families can join the central waiting list by email, and enquiries can also be made by telephone. Following a visit and completed registration form, the joining process includes an offer letter, an acceptance slip and a non-refundable registration charge when a place is accepted.

The pack-away arrangement makes punctual collection important: the premises must be vacated for other users. Late-collection charges apply if collection is more than 15 minutes late. This is a practical constraint for anyone planning the end of the day around work or another child's collection.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for children aged 2–4, with term-time attendance. Eligible two-year-old funding begins from the term after the child's second birthday; universal funding begins from the term after their third birthday. The options are 15 Hours Funding for Eligible 2-Year-Olds, 15 Hours Universal Funding for 3-Year-Olds and 30 Hours Working Families Funding for 2, 3 & 4-Year-Olds. The eligible two-year-old route requires confirmation from the London Borough of Sutton; working-family funding requires an eligibility code, renewed every 3 months.

Private hours are also offered to families paying for additional attendance or without funded eligibility, with payment each half term. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; its fees and funding options explain the charge structure.

Families supply packed lunches and are asked to contribute food for shared snacks; children eat lunch with staff in the main hall. Lunchbox guidance excludes nuts and nut-containing products and requires fruit to be cut into small pieces.

Parents supply nappies, nappy sacks, wipes and tissues, and apply sun cream at home. A separate, entirely voluntary half-term contribution supports emergency consumables, cooking and cultural celebrations; families can decline it. Uniform is optional.

• Term-time timetable. Attendance follows a 38-week year and finishes by 3pm. Weigh those hours against the care needed during holidays and after the preschool day, especially given the pack-away collection deadline.
• Time to answer. The October 2024 improvement point concerned giving children longer to think before answering questions. During a visit, ask how staff now allow that thinking time in stories, play and group activities.
• Settling and communication support. Optional home visits, a key person and daily Star time provide different forms of support. Discuss how those arrangements would work together for your child, especially if speech, language or settling is a concern.
• Food and allergies. Families provide lunch and contribute snack food, while lunchbox guidance excludes nut products. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice for shared snacks and packed lunches before accepting a place.

Playdays suits families seeking morning sessions, afternoon sessions or a 9am-to-3pm preschool day during term time. Optional home visits, Tapestry and monthly care-home visits connect learning with home and community.

The October 2024 Good judgement sits alongside a specific improvement point about thinking time. The timetable, packed lunches and collection deadline are the practical considerations to weigh against its child-led learning and communication support.