Sunrise Day Nursery

Forest School gives Sunrise Day Nursery its clearest identity: outdoor exploration sits alongside play-based learning and a personal record of each child's development. Based in Queens Park, this nursery cares for children from three months to five years and has 62 places in total. Its appeal is the combination of active experiences and continuity through a child's key person.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Sunrise Good and found safeguarding effective, but called for more consistent language support and fuller sharing of children's learning with parents. Those two improvement points matter alongside the positive judgement. They concern what children hear during ordinary activities and how well families understand their next steps.

Opening hours run from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, with funded attendance organised into specific sessions. The distinction matters: the opening window and the funded booking pattern serve different purposes.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning and care, covering communication, relationships, movement and early skills such as counting and reading. Practitioners observe children's interests and development, then use that information to plan activities. This is the shared foundation for early-years provision; Sunrise's individual progress tracker and Learning Journey make the planning visible to families.

A Learning Journey gathers photographs, artwork and observations from both nursery and home. It records development and helps identify activities to come next. Children can revisit it with their key person, while parents can access it in the child's room. Families keep it when their child leaves. That gives everyday learning a record beyond a brief account of what happened that day.

Languages, early computer skills and beginning reading and writing also feature in the development programme. These sit alongside play rather than replacing it. The practical value is breadth: children encounter different ways to communicate, explore and express their ideas as their interests develop.

In May 2022, counting appeared in baby rhymes and in cooking and construction for older children. Stories prompted imaginative play and artwork, while preschool children practised writing their names on drawings. These examples show how an ordinary activity can connect several areas of learning, rather than treating early number work or literacy as isolated exercises.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds learning in natural surroundings, with opportunities for exploration and physical activity. Regular outdoor learning remains part of the nursery's offer. In May 2022, older children took part in weekly forest school activities involving physical challenges and learning to manage safety outdoors; yoga and outdoor play also formed part of their experience then.

The outdoor emphasis is worth weighing alongside the indoor learning record. One gives children room to explore through movement; the other helps adults follow what captures their attention and how their skills develop. Families attracted by Forest School should distinguish that overall approach from the dated weekly pattern.

Relationships and Communication

Settling sessions introduce children to their key person. That practitioner observes development, responds to feelings and provides comfort, giving a child a familiar adult as they adjust to nursery life. The relationship also creates a clear point of contact for parents, connecting care routines with learning rather than leaving them as separate conversations.

Termly parent meetings provide time to discuss individual needs and progress. Daily information sharing and an open-door approach offer contact between those meetings. The Learning Journey adds another route into the child's experience, including contributions from home. Together, these arrangements give families several ways to contribute, rather than relying solely on a scheduled appointment.

In May 2022, parents received updates about care routines, but detailed learning information was shared unevenly. A useful distinction follows: knowing about meals and other daily routines is different from understanding a child's developing skills. The improvement point concerned that second conversation.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Safeguarding arrangements include staff training, safer recruitment processes and a designated safeguarding lead role. Parents can access the safeguarding and recruitment policies at the nursery. These are concrete arrangements, separate from the dated effectiveness judgement above.

The nursery chef cooks meals on site each day, and seasonal menus follow a four-week rotation. Menus are developed with a paediatric dietician for different age groups, while staff work with parents during weaning so that changes to a baby's food follow the family's lead.

Sessions and Attendance

Sunrise's address is 20a Lancefield Street, Queens Park, London, W10 4PB. It opens Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, across the year, closing for bank holidays and one week at Christmas. Enquiries can be made by telephone or through the contact form, which includes preferences for a start date and session.

Funded attendance uses two daily sessions: 10.33am to 2.16pm and 2.16pm to 6pm. Six sessions across three days provide 22.35 funded hours each week over 51 weeks. This is a specific funded arrangement, rather than an assurance that funding covers every hour within the opening day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes up to 30 hours for eligible working families with children from nine months, universal 15-hour funding for three- and four-year-olds, and additional funded hours for some two-year-olds receiving extra support. The entitlement is calculated over 38 term-time weeks, but Sunrise stretches its funding over 51 weeks. Eligibility codes require renewal every three months.

For funded hours, food and snacks are charged separately when chosen by parents, as are non-food consumables such as wipes, nappies and protective creams; these excluded items are voluntary. Activities beyond EYFS delivery are also voluntary extras supplied by parental choice, while attendance beyond the funded allocation is additional paid childcare. The funding description includes an exception for two-year-olds receiving extra support, so the individual quotation needs to preserve that distinction.

Non-funded childcare is billed across 52 weeks, divided into equal monthly bills. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees and funding page explains how funded sessions and voluntary extras fit together.

• Language during play. In May 2022, support for younger children's language was inconsistent. During a visit, ask how practitioners now extend vocabulary while children play and how that practice is supported across the team.
• Learning information for parents. Termly meetings and Learning Journeys provide routes to discuss development, but fuller progress sharing was an improvement point in May 2022. Ask to see how a current learning update identifies the child's next steps and includes contributions from home.
• The funded timetable. Funding is stretched across 51 weeks and delivered in two specified daily sessions. Match those sessions to your working day and obtain a written breakdown separating extra attendance, requested food and consumables, including the position for two-year-olds receiving extra support.
• Forest School for your child's age. Weekly participation concerned older children in May 2022. Ask how outdoor learning works now for your child's age and what a typical Forest School experience involves.

Sunrise suits families who value outdoor exploration, play-based learning and an ongoing relationship with a key person. Its funded timetable can serve attendance beginning in the late morning or an afternoon session, as well as the stated combined pattern across three days. Those are useful distinctions when planning childcare around work.

The Good judgement from May 2022 gives a positive inspection position with clear qualifications. Language support and communication about learning deserve attention alongside Forest School and the Learning Journey. The strongest fit is a family interested in both what a child experiences and how that development is shared at home.