Teeny Days Nursery

Daily toothbrushing, Wednesday cooking and a lending library give Teeny Days Nursery a practical character: children practise habits that families can carry into home life. Growing Healthy Families accreditation brings nutrition, movement and oral health into the nursery day, while the garden and large outdoor play area give children space for physical play.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 8 March 2022. That is a dated judgement, rather than a description of every aspect of today's provision. The clearest current strengths are the concrete routines: supervised brushing with the Dental Wellness Trust, food cooked on site and a named key carer for each child.

At 360 Selbourne Road, Luton, LU4 8NU, Teeny Days has capacity for 50 children, with a current age range of 12 to 60 months. Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside flexible booking arrangements, giving families more than one way to organise attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room combines stories, music and singing with first-hand exploration of dough, paint, water and sand. These are different ways for young children to investigate texture, sound and movement, rather than relying on adult-led group activities alone.

Separate rooms accommodate two-year-olds and three-year-olds, with equipment for play inside and outside. The Pre-school Rooms each take up to 26 children per day and organise activity spaces so children can choose what to do. That figure is a room maximum, separate from the nursery's total capacity.

Light-filled rooms, a garden and a large outdoor play area provide the physical setting. Outdoor access extends across most weather conditions, so opportunities to move and play are not confined to fine days. The room arrangements matter alongside the activities: children have choices of materials and places to use them.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets expectations for children's learning, development and care; here, children learn through play and exploration, with adults supporting communication, physical development and early understanding of number. It is the shared framework for early years provision. The nursery's curriculum guide explains how individual interests and adult support fit together.

Wednesday cooking gives children something concrete to investigate. One activity involved making heart-shaped pizzas with vegetables, bringing colours, tastes and textures into the same experience. The useful point is the hands-on exploration, rather than a claim that cooking alone produces a particular outcome.

A home corner sits alongside changing themed role-play spaces. Baby Clinic Role Play used dolls and pretend medical care within the All About Me theme; Dentist Role Play formed part of People Who Help Us. These examples give children shared situations to talk about and act out. They also make the room's resources easier to picture than a general promise of imaginative play.

In March 2022, practitioners helped younger children listen by talking at their level and reducing distractions. Repetition and small extensions to children's words were part of that language work. Counting also appeared in group activities, including clapping, but support for deeper mathematical investigation was less consistent. The improvement priority was to help children reason, tackle problems and investigate shape and measurement more fully.

Outdoor and Community Life

Growing Healthy Families is a public-health initiative covering food, physical activity and oral health. Teeny Days holds its accreditation and uses it in everyday routines, including fruit bags sent home to encourage healthier snack choices. A lending library also sends books home for families to read together, linking nursery resources with time spent together outside childcare.

The Dental Wellness Trust partnership supports supervised toothbrushing each day. Children practise brushing together rather than only hearing instructions about it. Luton House Dental Practice has also visited to demonstrate brushing on model teeth, after which children had a turn with the dentist's guidance. That visit is an example of outside expertise being used for a practical activity, not a promise of a recurring visit schedule.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a nominated key carer, providing a familiar adult and a point of contact for parents. Conversations about routines, toileting, behaviour or teething sit within that relationship. The emphasis on continuity is useful for families who want care discussions to build on what staff already know about their child.

Before a baby starts, parents can spend time together in the nursery and discuss individual needs and routines with the adult who will care for them. This gives settling a concrete shape: time together, an introduction to the carer and an exchange of practical information. Grandparents are welcome to be involved too.

Learning diaries and individual development folders record children's experiences and progress, alongside conversations with carers. Parents therefore have both written material to revisit and opportunities to talk through what it means. For babies, notes and learning journals accompany the sensory play, stories and musical activities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its March 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that children, including those with SEND, made good progress and that safeguarding arrangements were effective. Those findings belong to that visit. In March 2022, staff gathered information from parents before children started, adjusted activities around individual interests and worked with professionals when additional support was needed.

A SENCO role forms part of the current team structure, and staff hold paediatric first-aid certification. These are practical arrangements for discussing additional needs and responding to health incidents; they do not replace a conversation about an individual child's support plan.

Hot lunches are cooked fresh on site by the nursery's chef, with meals checked by the Growing Healthy Families team. Children can instead bring lunch from home, and snacks, milk and water are provided during the day.

Preparation for school includes links with local schools. In March 2022, children practised putting on their own shoes and coats, while younger children experienced shorter group activities before moving into preschool routines. The emphasis was on manageable steps towards independence and familiarity with group learning.

Sessions and Attendance

The April 2026 arrangements set opening hours at 8am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 50 weeks of the year. Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, and afternoon sessions from noon to 3pm. Full-day attendance is also offered, with flexible arrangements for families needing a different pattern.

The distinction matters: opening hours describe the nursery's operating window, while the morning and afternoon times describe specific sessions. A family choosing a shorter session can plan around a defined start and finish rather than assuming that every booking uses the whole opening day.

Getting There

The address is 360 Selbourne Road, Luton, LU4 8NU. Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone on 01582 584 900 or by email to admin@teenydays.co.uk.

Leagrave train station, the M1 and Luton & Dunstable Hospital are named nearby connections. Their relevance will depend on the family's own route and working day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered alongside privately paid hours. The entitlements include the universal offer of 15 hours per week for three- and four-year-olds, for 38 weeks of the year, 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds and, from September 2025, 30 weekly hours for eligible working parents with children aged nine months to four years. Eligibility conditions apply; entitlement does not guarantee a place or a preferred timetable.

For three- and four-year-olds, funded hours can be distributed across two to five days, subject to availability, and extra childcare can be purchased. The two-year-old funding arrangement describes 15 hours over 38 weeks, with attendance across at least two days. These patterns should be matched to the child's circumstances rather than treated as interchangeable offers.

Hot lunches for full-day children are an optional separate charge, and an optional snack contribution is requested each half term; packed lunches are another choice. The fees page explains the structure, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Tax-free childcare and childcare vouchers are accepted.

• Starting age. The current age range is 12 to 60 months, while the Baby Room description includes younger babies. If seeking a start before a child's first birthday, ask which starting age applies to the proposed booking.
• Mathematical exploration. In March 2022, support for reasoning about shape and measurement needed development. During a visit, ask for examples of how practitioners now extend children's questions and problem-solving.
• Funding and daily costs. Morning and afternoon sessions have fixed times, while hot lunches and the snack contribution sit separately from childcare charges. Request a written quotation for the exact attendance and food choices you intend to use, including any funded hours.

Teeny Days suits families seeking morning sessions, afternoon sessions or a flexible attendance arrangement, with practical health routines woven into the day. Daily supervised brushing, Wednesday cooking and books lent for home reading give the offer clear substance. The Good judgement from March 2022 provides a useful inspection reference, while its mathematical-development priority remains a sensible topic for a visit. The strongest fit is for parents who value a familiar key carer, hands-on play and nursery habits they can continue at home.