Chirpy Chicks Pre-School

Village life gives Chirpy Chicks Pre-School much of its character: children explore local businesses, join the Flower Festival and have a daily choice between indoor and outdoor play. Based within the grounds of Gretton Primary School, this community nursery serves children aged two to four. It has capacity for 30 children in total.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the pre-school Outstanding, with practical problem-solving, conversation and consideration for other children prominent in its findings. That judgement is dated. The current activity programme combines opportunities to practise language, movement and early number skills with outings into the surrounding community.

Attendance follows the school-term calendar, with morning and afternoon sessions offered on weekdays. This is a setting to consider for families seeking preschool education in a village setting, with the practical boundaries of sessional care clearly in mind.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. Here, its areas of learning translate into opportunities to count, explore materials, listen, talk, move and develop relationships through play. These are the foundations of early education, rather than an extra programme unique to Chirpy Chicks.

Music sessions add opportunities to practise communication and rhythm. The activities programme also includes books and poems, exploration of shapes and measures, and art, movement and role-play. For parents, the useful distinction is between introducing early skills and turning the day into formal lessons: play and choice occupy substantial parts of the timetable.

In May 2022, staff used children's interests to develop practical investigations. During one activity, children experimented with a cornflour mixture and considered how changing the ingredients would alter its texture. The adult's role was to extend the conversation, leaving children to propose a solution. That example gives a concrete picture of learning through experimentation.

A second May 2022 example involved the sandpit. Children tried to retain water in trenches, then tested foil as a lining. They repeated the experiment elsewhere in the sand. The activity connected observation, discussion and another attempt, rather than ending with an adult supplying the answer.

Outdoor and Community Life

The morning timetable gives children the choice of playing outside or indoors, followed by tidying and group time. After lunch, free-flow play resumes before the closing group activity. This creates a rhythm of independent choices and shared moments, rather than a succession of adult-led tasks.

Outings include exploration with Nature Nursery and visits to the village shop, a farm and the hairdressers. Children also participate in the Flower Festival. These experiences bring the surrounding community into their learning: places and people become something to explore beyond the preschool setting.

In May 2022, the garden included an allotment area where children watered plants and talked about pollination. The physical task and the conversation belonged together. Filling a watering can gave children something purposeful to do while learning about the needs of growing plants.

Relationships and Communication

In May 2022, the weekly sunshine circle brought children together to discuss teamwork, feelings and care for themselves and others. Its value was in making relationships a subject children could talk about, as well as something they experienced during play.

Other May 2022 observations showed children helping one another with everyday difficulties, including using a glue stick and finding a missing water bottle. These were small exchanges, but useful examples of the social expectations within the group. Staff also used photographs of a baking activity to help children revisit the experience and contribute their own words to a story book.

Working with parents is part of the nursery's stated purpose. In May 2022, families whose children had additional needs or spoke English as an additional language received detailed explanations of the support for their child. That dated example gives more substance to parent partnership than a general promise of good communication.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the May 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received exceptionally effective support and that safeguarding arrangements were effective, including staff recognition and reporting of concerns and supervision indoors and outside.

The current staff structure includes special educational needs and disability coordinator roles. All staff hold Level 3 Paediatric First Aid certificates. These identify practical support and first-aid arrangements; the dated safeguarding judgement remains separate from today's staffing information.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Gretton Primary School, Kirby Road, Gretton, Corby, NN17 3DB. Care is term-time only for children aged two to four.

Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, and afternoon sessions from noon to 3pm, Monday to Friday. Each lasts three hours. Afternoon attendance includes the lunchtime period, so parents supply a packed lunch. The morning routine includes a snack period before group time.

Sessions are allocated in order of application, and the nursery operates a waiting list. Additional sessions can be purchased. An online contact form, email and telephone provide enquiry routes.

Being based within Gretton Primary School's grounds does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still need to use the local authority's school admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded provision includes five sessions each week in term time for three- and four-year-olds, starting in the term after the child's third birthday. Additional sessions are paid for separately, and fees apply where funding is not received. Families can obtain current prices in a written quotation from the nursery; its sessions and pricing page sets out the charging structure.

Parents provide the packed lunch required for afternoon sessions. Non-food consumables carry a separate voluntary charge. These are separate parts of the cost and preparation for attendance, rather than a single all-inclusive arrangement.

Fees remain payable when a child is absent. For families comparing attendance patterns, that matters alongside the session length: a missed booked session does not remove its cost.

• Term-time sessional care. The morning and afternoon patterns end at noon and 3pm respectively, and attendance follows school terms. Families needing care beyond those periods should weigh those boundaries against their working day.
• Payment timing. The pricing information gives both advance half-term payment terms and a term-end deadline for emailed invoices. Obtain the applicable written payment schedule before booking, as the two descriptions do not establish one clear timetable.
• Individual support. Coordinator roles are in place, and the May 2022 judgement recognised effective SEND support. At a visit, ask how the team would plan support and share updates for your child's particular needs.

Chirpy Chicks suits families seeking either a morning preschool session or an afternoon pattern that includes lunch, within a term-time calendar. Indoor and outdoor choice, village outings and music give the current programme a clear shape. The May 2022 Outstanding judgement adds a strong, dated assessment, supported by concrete examples of children investigating problems and helping one another.

The decision rests as much on the practical fit as the educational offer: three-hour sessions, a packed lunch for afternoons and paid bookings that remain chargeable during absence. For families comfortable with that model, the combination of community activity and play-led learning makes Chirpy Chicks a compelling preschool option.