Sunflower Day Nursery, Crediton

A converted chapel, a six-baby unit and a garden with a climbing wall give Sunflower Day Nursery, Crediton a recognisable character. Its High Street setting also brings everyday town life into children’s activities, from buying baking ingredients to borrowing library books. There is more here than indoor play.

The nursery has capacity for 73 children, with accepted ages of 9 to 59 months. Ofsted rated it Good on 23 June 2022, although the curriculum needed to give the most able preschool children greater challenge. That dated judgement is useful context for families weighing the current offer.

Babies occupy the ground floor, while older children use the first floor. Opening hours run from 8am to 6pm on weekdays; morning and afternoon attendance also form part of the booking arrangements.

Rooms and Ages

The under 1’s unit accommodates up to six babies per day, with cots, low tables, a changing station and cosy spaces, giving the youngest children a smaller setting within the nursery. Carpeted and wipe-clean flooring support different kinds of activity. Individual care routines shape babies’ experience, rather than expecting each child to fit the same timetable.

Ground-floor provision serves babies and younger children and includes a sleeping room. Upstairs, large windows and air conditioning serve the older children’s space. The 2-year room supports interaction with preschool children across a low partition, while the Pre-School room gives children access to construction, pretend play, early maths and materials for making marks and exploring textures. A literacy/sleep room shares this floor.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care: play supports language, physical skills and relationships alongside everyday routines. Here, planned play also encourages children to use familiar resources, try their own ideas and connect activities with home and community life.

In June 2022, babies experimented with paint rollers, while toddlers explored how water moved through funnels and tubes. Preschool children decorated alien pictures with sequins. These examples show the different kinds of participation across the ages: repeating an action, investigating materials and making creative choices.

The same June 2022 account identified a specific weakness for older children. Some staff did not consistently translate the curriculum plans into practice, and the most able preschool children needed more demanding interaction. Adults’ conversations matter as much as the resources on the shelves.

Outdoor and Community Life

A mud kitchen, water wall and sand tray give the garden several kinds of hands-on play. The climbing wall adds a physical challenge, while weather and emotion boards bring words and feelings into outdoor activity. Stories are shared outside daily. In June 2022, however, preschool children did not regularly have books available for their own outdoor reading.

Trips extend the nursery day into Crediton. Children visit High Street shops for baking supplies, use the local park for physical play and borrow books or share stories at the local library. A visit to the police station has also introduced children to its vehicles. That last example is a past visit, rather than a recurring promise.

Individual routines are central to the baby provision. Feeding, rest and other care needs are considered as children settle into daycare, helping families connect home habits with nursery life. The sleeping room on the ground floor gives rest a defined place within the day.

At the June 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and assessed support for children with additional needs very positively, with staff, parents and outside professionals working together on targeted help. Those are dated findings, rather than a guarantee about any individual child’s experience today.

Communication had practical substance in June 2022. Staff shared care and development updates online, offered ideas for learning at home and used a parents evening for discussions with each child’s key person. This gave families more than a brief account of activities: it connected nursery learning with what they could do together at home.

In June 2022, children also borrowed books from the lending library, and the nursery participated in a national supervised toothbrushing programme, giving children supported practice in an everyday health routine. A cook prepared meals at that time. These details place reading and healthy habits alongside play, rather than treating them as separate occasions.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 82 High Street, Crediton, EX17 3LA. Two entrances serve the building, one at ground level and another on the first floor. The division of provision between floors makes access to a child’s room a useful consideration for families.

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. There is a week’s closure at Christmas and three training days annually. Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside funded attendance and additional paid hours; those extra hours are charged when they extend beyond a child’s funded allocation.

Families can contact the nursery by telephone or email, and visits can be arranged through that route.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funding is accepted from the term following a child’s nine-month, second or third birthday, with eligibility conditions applying to some funding. Additional private hours are charged separately. Tax free Childcare payments and bank transfers are accepted, and current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

Daily-session prices include all meals and consumables. For children attending solely through two- or three-year-old funding, lunch and high tea carry separate charges. Those families may instead supply both meals, in which case the nursery neither supplies nor charges for that food. This choice matters when comparing the cost and practical work involved in a funded attendance pattern.

• Challenge for preschool children. In June 2022, the most able children needed more demanding learning and richer adult interaction. During a visit, ask how staff now extend an older child’s ideas and conversations.
• Care across two floors. Babies use the ground floor and older children the first floor, with entrances at both levels. Discuss which entrance and route would work for your family.
• Funded meals. Nursery-provided lunch and high tea are charged separately for children attending solely on two- or three-year-old funding. Compare those charges with daily-session prices, which include meals, when considering your attendance pattern.

Sunflower suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance as well as care within a longer weekday opening window. Its smaller baby unit, practical garden resources and use of Crediton’s shops and library give parents concrete reasons to consider it. For preschool families, the decisive question is how the curriculum now stretches children who are ready for more, following the June 2022 finding.