Forest Hall Private Day Nursery

Treasure baskets for babies, three activity rooms for toddlers and a quieter adjoining room for preschool children give Forest Hall Private Day Nursery a clear progression through the early years. The physical arrangements matter: rest, messy play and independent exploration each have space, rather than having to compete for the same corner.

At its April 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities positively. That is a dated assessment. The improvement priorities from that visit also deserve attention, especially the suitability of preschool activities and the order in which children were learning new skills.

Based at Springfield Park in Forest Hall, the nursery accepts babies from three months and provides care through the preschool years. Tiny Tots, Little Tykes and the Early Years Rooms organise that progression. Funded attendance can follow either a term-time or stretched arrangement, while school-age children have separate breakfast, after-school and holiday provision.

Rooms and Ages

Tiny Tots serves children from three months to two years, combining songs, sensory exploration and treasure baskets with cots for younger babies and a corner for resting. Food preparation and changing have their own areas. The room's staff-to-child ratio is 1:3, the statutory minimum for children under two. Sleep and changing are built into the room's design.

Little Tykes caters for two-year-olds, with a maximum of 24 children in the group and three rooms dividing construction and small-world play from messy experiences and quieter stories or rest. Its bathroom and cloakroom belong to the toddler provision. The emphasis is social as well as practical, helping children make friendships, follow routines and begin managing their responses to other people.

For children aged three and four, the Early Years Rooms combine independently accessible resources with a smaller adjoining room for quieter group activities. Children can investigate and choose materials themselves, with space for less bustling activities too.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning through play, including communication, physical development and relationships. It is the shared early-years framework, rather than an additional programme unique to this nursery. Here, its everyday expression includes babies handling natural materials, toddlers exploring dough and water, and older children developing ideas through investigation.

Little Tykes adds imaginative play with trains, cars and small-world resources, plus painting, dance and music. Jigsaws offer a quieter alternative.

In April 2022, activity examples included babies investigating shredded paper, two-year-olds exploring compost and water and preschool children painting sunflower reflections on a mirror. Older children counted and recognised numbers, while stories drew responses from both toddlers and preschool children. Those examples show the breadth of the day at that visit, from sensory exploration to early mathematics.

The same April 2022 assessment exposed a weakness in how some preschool learning was pitched. A letter game demanded recognition skills that some children had not yet developed, and their attention fell away. Ambition needed better timing. The important question for families is how activities meet a child's present stage, rather than how quickly they resemble school tasks.

Outdoor and Community Life

Daily outdoor access is part of the routine, with families supplying weather-appropriate clothing. Walks and outings to shops, a park and a library extend children's exploration into the neighbourhood.

Indoors, resources within children's reach support independent choices. Sofas and cushions offer places for stories or rest alongside creative and messy-play areas.

Graduation, Summer or Winter Fayres and Christmas activities give families opportunities to share nursery life. Newsletters, posters and secure online learning journals carry event notices.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person supports settling, follows development and maintains their learning journey. This gives families an identified practitioner who offers reassurance, introduces unfamiliar activities and shares information.

A familiar member of staff gives a daily handover covering eating, sleep or rest, activities and how the child has been. The password-protected online learning journal adds photographs and comments that parents can view on a phone, tablet or computer. Families can contribute their own pictures and observations too, giving the key person information about life beyond nursery.

In April 2022, babies received frequent conversation and singing, and staff responded to signs of tiredness. Older children explored feelings by associating emotions with colours and making potions. These dated examples illustrate two different kinds of attention: reading a baby's signals and helping a preschool child put feelings into words.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Links with health visitors and other professionals provide access to developmental and speech-related advice. The key person's records and exchanges with parents offer another channel for sharing concerns.

Security arrangements include controlled entrances and collection by authorised adults; alternative collection arrangements require prior agreement with the manager. If a child becomes ill, staff provide quiet care while a senior colleague contacts the family, with a familiar practitioner offering reassurance until collection. These are useful operational details for understanding how responsibility passes between nursery and home.

Meals and snacks are made fresh on the premises by a cook, and the nursery's catering policy accommodates allergies, religious requirements and parental choices. Menus are displayed in the rooms, with information about what a child has eaten included in the daily handover.

April 2022 also brought an improvement point about everyday independence. Some younger children were given food without enough preparation to help them use cutlery, while older children received more help than their stage required. The issue was the sequence of learning, not simply whether children ate independently. Monitoring also needed to detect such inconsistencies more effectively.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Weekends and statutory bank holidays are closure days. Telephone and email enquiries go directly to the nursery at Springfield Park, Forest Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 9AG.

School-age provision has its own attendance patterns. During term time, Breakfast Club runs from 7.30am to 9am and After School Club from 3.15pm to 6pm, with meals and transport to or collection from selected local schools included. Holiday Club serves primary-school-aged children from four to twelve, with construction, crafts, games, outings and outdoor play in the woodland garden.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes 15 hours, or 30 hours for eligible three- and four-year-olds, with provision also covering eligible two-year-olds. The stated entitlement starts after the term in which the child's second or third birthday falls, as applicable. Delivery can be term-time over 38 weeks or stretched across up to 50 weeks, subject to the nursery's arrangements and availability. Additional private hours can be purchased. These alternatives matter for families comparing a school-term routine with childcare spread across more of the year.

Parents provide personal-care supplies, including nappies, wipes and creams, as well as suitable outdoor clothing and sun cream. Breakfast and after-school meals are included in those club prices. Fees are payable monthly in advance, and a sibling discount applies when two or more children attend; current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Tiny Tots size. The baby-room page gives a maximum of 10 children, while the home page gives 12 for the same age band. Ask which limit applies and how the room is organised during a visit; the difference matters when judging the scale of baby care.
• Preschool learning. April 2022 improvement priorities included better-matched activities, a clearer sequence for developing skills and stronger monitoring. Ask for examples of how today's preschool activities are adapted when a child is not ready for the next step.
• Catering and the quotation. Meals are prepared on site and the catering policy covers dietary requirements. Allergy-affected families should confirm current arrangements, and families using funded hours should ask how nursery meals and any additional charges are treated in their written quotation.

Forest Hall suits families who value separate age-stage environments, daily outdoor opportunities and a key person who combines settling support with ongoing communication. Tiny Tots' rest facilities, Little Tykes' separate activity spaces and the quieter preschool room give that offer substance. The dated Good judgement supports the overall assessment, while the April 2022 learning and monitoring concerns remain useful questions for a visit.

The attendance options serve different routines: term-time funded care and stretched funded care, plus breakfast and after-school arrangements for school-age children. For families with children at different stages, that combination is a practical reason to consider the setting. The baby-room limit and the detailed funded-hours quotation deserve attention before committing.