Saplings Day Nursery

Family books, a garden stage and rooms named Daffodils, Daisies and Sunflowers give Saplings Day Nursery a recognisable character. This community nursery operates within Cadland Primary School in Holbury, with a management committee drawn from parents and professionals. Its purpose-built premises serve children aged three months to four years and eleven months.

At its March 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Saplings Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that staff worked with families and other professionals to secure early support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The practical detail beneath that judgement matters: children explored language through objects, used pretend shopping to practise writing and learnt about emotions with mirrors.

Attendance is term-time, with full-day, school-day, morning, afternoon and Twilight Session options. That breadth gives families several ways to fit nursery around their week, though school-holiday care needs separate planning.

Rooms and Ages

Daffodils, for babies up to 20 months, emphasises confidence and exploration, with a music area, busy board, cosy space and baby garden. Those physical spaces give the youngest children different settings for active play and quieter moments.

Daisies spans 20 months to three years, with independence and managing emotions as its emphasis, supported by role play, small-world play and a cosy corner. Sunflowers serves three- to four-year-olds, encouraging curiosity, resilience and independence through spaces for role play, small-world play and quieter activity.

The room names make the progression easy to understand. The emphasis shifts from exploring with confidence towards doing more independently, rather than presenting every age group with the same description of nursery life.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: here, play gives children opportunities to practise communication, movement, early number skills and independence. Concrete activities make that framework understandable to parents.

In March 2024, children took objects from a bag, explored them and tried naming them, while adults repeated vocabulary and tested understanding through questions. This was language practice built into a game. Family books in a quiet area also prompted conversations about relatives and pets, giving children something personally meaningful to talk about.

Early mathematics and literacy had similarly tangible starting points that March. Children searched a dinosaur tray for hidden numbers, while pretend shopping led to food vocabulary and lists on an electronic writing pad. Older children also played with initial sounds. These examples connect early learning to children's interests rather than treating it as a separate lesson.

Outdoor and Community Life

A garden stage supports performances with staff and children, while gardening and bug hunting introduce children to creatures and how to care for them. The garden therefore has uses beyond running around: it provides material for conversation, investigation and imaginative play.

In March 2024, older children used water and rollers to make marks on a large garden blackboard, practising broad arm movements. Babies used brushes to clear foam from toy dinosaurs. Both examples linked physical activity with the hand and arm control children would later use for writing.

Relationships and Communication

Key children are part of practitioners' work, with activities shaped around their interests; the nursery also has a policy covering the key person's role and settling in. For babies, staff describe helping them become comfortable enough to join activities, alongside songs and rhymes to support communication.

In March 2024, families received information about their children's care, forthcoming learning and ways to continue activities at home. That gives communication a useful purpose beyond describing the day: parents can connect nursery experiences with what their child does at home.

Family books also had a social role that March. Children showed one another photographs and talked about important people in their lives. It was a concrete way to make family identity part of nursery life, with space for children to learn about one another.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The team includes an inclusion officer, a SENCO and a designated safeguarding lead. Activity adaptation is part of practitioners' work, including adjusting experiences so children can participate. These are specific mechanisms for support, rather than a general promise that every need will be met in the same way.

New staff undergo enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks before starting employment, and induction covers nursery procedures and policies. Staff receive paediatric first aid training, with continuing professional development supported through regular training. These arrangements describe how the nursery organises staff preparation; the dated safeguarding judgement remains the relevant assessment of effectiveness.

In March 2024, mirrors helped children explore facial expressions and discuss feelings. Children also helped establish behavioural rules. However, changes between activities were sometimes poorly organised, especially after lunch, leaving some children unsettled and slower to resume play. Better preparation and smoother changes of activity were the improvement priority.

Sessions and Attendance

Saplings operates Monday to Friday during term time. Full-day bookings run from 8am to 4pm or 8am to 3pm; the school day runs from 8.30am to 2.30pm. Morning sessions are 8.30am to 11.30am, and afternoon sessions are 11.45am to 2.45pm.

The Twilight Session runs from 4pm to 5pm on weekdays, extending care into the later afternoon. These are separate attendance choices, so the shorter sessions deserve as much attention as the longer day when matching a booking to family routines.

Five staff-training closure days fall within the school academic year, with fees adjusted for them. The nursery can be contacted by telephone or email through its main contact details.

Getting There

The address is Cadland Primary School, Whitefield Road, Holbury, Southampton, SO45 2HW. Although Saplings operates within the school, attending nursery does not guarantee a Reception place.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded nursery education includes the 15-hour weekly entitlement from the term after a child's third birthday, delivered during term time across 38 weeks. Extra attendance beyond those funded hours is charged privately, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Evening snacks for children aged three and over are outside funding. A one-off registration charge applies to children who are not entitled to a funded place, payable when enrolment forms are returned and before settling sessions begin.

• Term-time coverage. School holidays sit outside the attendance pattern, and there are five staff-training closure days during the academic year. Families needing continuous weekday childcare should weigh those breaks against the choice of shorter and longer sessions.
• Changes between activities. In March 2024, the improvement priority concerned preparation and organisation, especially around the period after lunch. During a visit, ask how staff now help children move calmly from one activity to the next.
• Funding extras. Evening snacks for children aged three and over are charged outside funding. What meal and non-food consumable arrangements would apply to your child's booking?
• The school connection. Sharing Cadland Primary School's site does not secure a Reception place. Treat choosing the nursery and applying for school as separate decisions.

Saplings suits families seeking a community nursery with a choice between morning or afternoon sessions, a school day and longer attendance with a Twilight Session. Its room progression and practical play spaces give the offer substance: babies have their own garden area, while older children have role-play spaces and opportunities to perform outdoors.

The March 2024 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, balanced by a clear improvement priority around changes between activities. Term-time operation is the decisive practical boundary. For families whose childcare needs fit that calendar, Saplings offers several attendance patterns rather than a single fixed day.