City Way Day Nursery

African Land Snails, number rhymes and outdoor climbing give City Way Day Nursery a practical, hands-on character. This Rochester setting combines care for babies and toddlers with preparation for Reception, while family support extended beyond childcare in January 2025. Learning has concrete ingredients: things to count, creatures to care for and materials to investigate.

Ofsted rated City Way Outstanding at its 14 January 2025 inspection. The detail behind that judgement matters more than the label: children experimented with ingredients, staff used home languages and signing, and families received help with subjects ranging from first aid to healthy eating.

The nursery’s age range runs from birth to five years, although Baby Room care starts at six months. Alongside nursery attendance, there is sessional preschool provision and school-age wraparound care.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room serves children from six months to two years, combining early communication with mark-making, cause-and-effect toys and physical exploration through soft play, bikes, slides and garden play. Low furniture and walkers support children taking early steps.

Toddler Room welcomes two- to three-year-olds and places emphasis on communication, independence and learning through a mixture of adult-organised activities and freely chosen play. A key-person system gives families a consistent relationship around the toddler’s individual needs.

Pre-School Room takes children from three years to Reception age, pairing free play with organised activities that develop early number work, literacy, cooperation and independence. These activities practise skills children will use at school. Regular updates connect parents with children’s learning and developmental milestones.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for play-based learning, including early literacy and children’s emotional and social development. City Way adapts activities to children’s interests and starting points. Its named learning strands make that approach tangible.

Learning Through Numbers uses everyday counting, number songs and measurement with water and sand. Cups and plates become objects to count, so early maths is attached to familiar tasks rather than confined to a separate activity. Exploring the World Around Us combines experiments and cultural celebrations with caring for African Land Snails. Looking after living creatures gives children something real to observe and discuss.

Creative Hands-on Learning includes painting, playdough and investigation of water, sand and gloop. Active Play and Movement adds outdoor climbing and equipment for physical play.

In January 2025, babies selected favourite books and joined familiar rhymes, while older children explored oregano and cinnamon during playdough-making. Staff introduced scales and helped children work out the ingredients they needed. That example connects vocabulary, measurement and sustained attention within one activity.

Relationships and Communication

Toddler Room’s key-person arrangement provides a clear relationship for children and carers; preschool families receive regular information about progress. These mechanisms give parents a route into the child’s day and help staff connect learning with individual needs.

In January 2025, staff learnt home languages and used signing to support communication and settling. Babies received prompt comfort, and older children explored facial expressions using mirrors. Children also practised greetings in one another’s home languages. The emphasis was on helping children express themselves and recognise other people’s feelings through understandable, everyday actions.

Family support was unusually practical at that time. Translators helped parents participate in first-aid learning, and staff assisted families with access to funding for English learning, qualifications and employment. Sessions addressed healthy eating as well as first aid. Support also covered bereavement and family separation, recognising that circumstances outside nursery can affect a child’s daily experience.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and judged that individual plans, targeted support and communication strategies helped children, including those with SEND, make progress.

In January 2025, children with SEND engaged with illuminated toys and used signing with staff. Assessment information informed targeted interventions, including literacy booster sessions before school.

Health learning also had concrete examples that month: children participated in yoga, explored how foods support their bodies and practised toothbrushing and flossing. The January 2025 account included an in-house chef creating recipes for individual families, while current menus include fish pie, a lentil-and-chickpea curry and chicken or Quorn alternatives. City Way’s dietary policy is to cater for differing requirements; families affected by allergies should discuss the current arrangements before attendance.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 18 City Way, Rochester, Kent, ME1 2AB. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, with year-round operation and closures for bank holidays and Christmas. The Baby Room runs on a 51-week basis, which matters when planning care around the working year.

Nursery session options run from 7.30am to 6pm, 9am to 4pm, 9am to 3pm and 9am to noon. These provide both a longer day and shorter attendance choices. Families can match attendance to work or preschool routines.

School-age services are separate. Breakfast and afterschool care serves children aged four to eleven, with breakfast attendance from 7.30am to 8.15am and afterschool care ending at 6pm. The City Way service collects from and takes children to St Margarets at Troy Town, Balfour Infants and Balfour Juniors Academy. After breakfast club, children are escorted to school by walking bus or minibus. This is a transport service for children already attending those schools, rather than a school-admissions relationship.

Enquiries can be made through a form, by telephone on 01634 845724 or by email at citywaynursery@live.co.uk. Joining involves completing forms and paying a non-refundable registration charge. Visits can be arranged before registration.

Funding and Paid Extras

City Way accepts 15-hour and 30-hour government funding for eligible children, with funded provision for eligible two-year-olds also offered in Toddler Room. Funding can follow a 38-week term-time arrangement or be stretched across 51 weeks; the stretched allocation depends on the entitlement and attendance pattern. Additional hours outside funded sessions are charged privately. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

For funded attendance, meal packages are charged separately according to session length; the 9am-to-noon session has no meal-package charge. The longer-day package covers breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks. Meal-package charges apply on funded days only, so the funded-hours entitlement and food costs need to be considered separately.

Consumables carry a separate session-based charge covering items such as spare nappies, wipes, creams and suncream, alongside specified activities. Families are also asked to bring nappies and wipes when needed, and formula where required; suncream is supplied, with families able to bring their preferred product. Families wishing to supply particular consumables instead of paying for them can discuss that arrangement with the team.

The funding and charges page explains the structure. Tax-Free Childcare can be linked to the nursery account, while Universal Credit reimbursement excludes meal packages and consumable charges. The funding decision therefore involves both the hours covered and the costs attached to the chosen attendance pattern.

• Starting age and the baby day. Baby Room begins at six months within a wider nursery age range extending from birth to five. At a visit, discuss the youngest starting age, settling and how sleep fits around the room’s activities.
• Funding and attendance. Baby Room operates across 51 weeks, while funding has term-time and stretched options. Match the intended sessions to the funded allocation and separate meal and consumable charges before committing.
• Dietary needs. Menus include dairy, eggs and fish, and City Way offers dietary adaptations. Allergy-affected families should confirm how substitutions and food handling work for their child.
• School-age transport. The City Way breakfast and afterschool service covers three named schools. Families combining nursery and school-age care should discuss how the escorted school journeys fit their children’s schedules.

City Way suits families seeking either longer nursery days or shorter preschool sessions, with a separate wraparound service for school-age siblings. Its strongest character comes from practical learning and the breadth of family support documented in January 2025: home-language communication, individual interventions and help that extends beyond childcare.

For babies, physical exploration sits alongside early interaction; for older children, everyday maths, living creatures and creative materials give learning something concrete to work with. Funding arrangements offer different annual patterns, but meals, consumables and the Baby Room’s year-round model deserve careful attention when choosing attendance.