Brougham Street Nursery School and Childcare

Woodland sessions at The Wilderness, an allotment at Middletown and communication supported by speech, signs and symbols give Brougham Street a recognisable character. This Skipton setting combines care for babies with a preschool day built around children's interests. Outdoor experiences and individual learning plans are central to the offer.

At its August 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Outstanding, finding an ambitious curriculum that included children with additional needs. That judgement belongs to that inspection date. Today's practical offer includes the Baby Room, Toddler Room and Nursery School Room, with opening hours of 8am to 5.30pm across 51 weeks of the year.

Children are accepted from 3 months to 5 years. Families can use full-day or half-day childcare, while the older children's timetable includes separate morning and afternoon sessions with breakfast, lunch and tea clubs around them. The differences between those arrangements matter when matching childcare to a working day.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room serves children from 3 months to 2 years, with sensory resources and space for active exploration; its learning emphasises communication, movement and early relationships. Stories provide a starting point for experiences rather than sitting apart from the rest of the day. Buster’s Farm, for example, has been used as a core text to develop play and language around a shared story.

Within the Toddler Room, broadly for children aged 2 to 3, connected indoor and outdoor spaces support play, conversation and growing independence, while the Sun Room accommodates messy activities and The Snug provides somewhere to rest or explore sensory experiences. Staff work with parents during the move from nappies to using a potty or toilet. Personal pegs and opportunities to find coats and shoes make everyday routines part of learning.

The Nursery School Room, for children aged 3 to 4, combines books, construction and creative materials with freely accessible outdoor provision, including a pebbled stream, sandpit, mud kitchen and sensory garden. Children can pour their own water and help prepare fruit. These are useful opportunities to practise handling equipment and doing things for themselves, rather than relying on an adult for every small task.

Room moves follow the child's stage as well as their birthday. The usual move to toddlers happens in the term after turning 2, with an earlier move possible where development supports it; the next move follows the term after turning 3. The room pathway allows for developmental readiness alongside age.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the shared early-years framework: children learn through play, developing communication, physical skills and relationships alongside other areas of learning. Brougham Street adds individual curricular goals chosen by the child's key person with a room leader or class teacher. Previous observations, parents' contributions and children's interests help determine what comes next.

Learning Stories bring those observations together into an account of each child's development. For babies and toddlers, the emphasis is on communication, movement and personal and social development. Planning remains responsive to what children do during play, giving staff scope to pursue a new interest rather than keeping every activity fixed in advance.

Makaton combines spoken language with symbols and signs, and is used in daily practice to support communication. It gives children another way to express a need or understand an instruction. This sits alongside conversation, stories and songs, rather than replacing speech.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds child-led woodland exploration and supported challenges to the EYFS day. Toddlers and preschool children have opportunities to take part at The Wilderness. Sessions run in three-week blocks, with a weekly session lasting approximately two hours; the aim is for each child to attend at least six times during the year. That is a block programme, rather than a promise of weekly woodland attendance throughout the year.

Activities have included cooking with a Kelly Kettle, making dens, listening walks and exploring Wilderness Beck. These give children concrete reasons to cooperate, use their senses and work with natural materials. The woodland experience extends the outdoor learning available within the nursery itself.

The Brougham Street Allotment Plot belongs to the Middletown Allotment site. Its fenced space adds gardening opportunities and exploration of how food grows. Across the setting, growing, harvesting, reusing materials and recycling connect environmental learning to actions children can take part in.

Relationships and Communication

Every child has a key person, providing a regular contact for parents and a practitioner who gets to know the child closely. In the Toddler Room, this person helps with settling, observes development and plans individual experiences. Other staff also support the child, so the relationship sits within the room's wider care arrangements.

Babies' usual feeding, sleep and comfort routines are discussed with parents, and staff aim to follow those patterns while responding to the baby's cues. A daily diary travels between home and nursery with information about feeds, meals, sleep and nappy changes. This gives parents practical detail about the day, alongside the learning record.

Tapestry is the online journal used to share observations, photographs and comments, with parents able to contribute experiences from home. Toddler families receive a weekly snapshot through it. A formal discussion around two and a half years accompanies the Two Year Progress Check, helping families and practitioners identify the support a child needs next.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the August 2023 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding arrangements and strong SEND support, including targeted work by an inclusion team and prompt individual plans when developmental delays were identified. Those are dated findings, rather than a substitute for understanding a child's current support arrangements.

The current SEND offer includes a SENCO, links with speech therapists, portage and paediatric physiotherapists, and a speech and language therapist working through All Things Therapy. The therapist's work includes helping staff and families carry strategies into everyday situations. This makes the mechanism of support clear: it involves adults around the child, as well as direct therapeutic work.

Sleep arrangements are described in practical terms. For babies under 6 months, staff remain in the same room; older babies stay within sight and hearing, with physical checks. Toddlers can sleep or rest in The Snug, and children who do not want to sleep can rest quietly or play. Parents' information about routines is revisited as needs change.

Current safeguarding arrangements include designated lead and deputy roles, staff safeguarding training and paediatric first-aid training. These are the organisational arrangements supporting daily care. In August 2023, moves between rooms involved gradual visits, while professionals from receiving settings were invited in and information about individual children was shared to support transition.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Brougham Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 2ES. Opening hours are 8am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. The setting operates for 51 weeks, with bank holidays and a Christmas closure; the term calendar also identifies training and maintenance closures.

For non-funded baby and toddler places, full days run from 8am to 5.30pm, mornings from 8am to 12.15pm and afternoons from 12.15pm to 5.30pm. Additional three-hour sessions are also offered. These childcare sessions differ from the preschool timetable, so the right pattern depends on both the room and the hours required.

Nursery School Room mornings run from 8.45am to 11.45am, with afternoons from 12.15pm to 3.15pm. Breakfast Club operates from 8am to 8.45am and Lunchtime Club from 11.45am to 12.15pm; Early Tea Club runs from 3.15pm to 4pm, while Late Tea Club continues from 3.15pm to 5.30pm. Holiday Club includes full days and morning or afternoon sessions, plus shorter days of 8am to 4pm for younger children or 9am to 3pm for children aged 3 to 5.

The office handles enquiries by email or telephone and supplies application packs. Brougham Street is a standalone setting with no primary-school affiliation. A written report is provided during the summer term before a child starts Reception, supporting the next stage without implying an admissions advantage.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded provision includes 15-hour places from 9 months to age 2, and 15 or 30 hours for children aged 3 and 4, subject to the relevant eligibility conditions. The 15-hour provision is term-time, with additional sessions and Holiday Club bookings available to buy. Funding and paid childcare therefore need to be considered separately when planning care beyond term time.

Meals are charged separately, including meal-only charges attached to funded breakfast, lunch and late-tea provision; qualifying children may be eligible for a free meal where the benefit and attendance conditions are met. Term-time lunches come from Aspens Catering at Parish Church School, while tea is cooked on the premises using a three-week menu rotation, and the nursery's allergy policy asks families to keep nut-containing items out of the setting.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees page sets out the session and club structure, helping families distinguish paid hours from meal charges on funded provision. Uniform is optional, and washable clothes are recommended because painting and other messy experiences are part of the day.

• Room moves and settling. Transitions normally follow the term after the second and third birthdays, with flexibility at the earlier move. During a visit, discuss how that pathway and the key-person arrangements would work for your child.
• Term-time funding and holiday care. The 15-hour offer follows term time, while Holiday Club is a separate booking. Match the room's session timetable and closure calendar to the weeks and hours your family needs.
• Meals, allergies and everyday supplies. Meals carry separate charges and the nursery asks families to exclude nut-containing items. Confirm current allergy practice and ask which nappies, wipes and other personal supplies you should provide.
• Forest School attendance. Woodland sessions run in blocks, with an annual attendance aim rather than continuous weekly participation. Ask how your child's booked days align with the next block.

Brougham Street suits families seeking baby or toddler full days and half days, as well as those choosing preschool morning or afternoon sessions with clubs around them. Its strongest current features are concrete: individual learning goals, daily use of Makaton, woodland blocks and gardening at Middletown.

The August 2023 Outstanding judgement gives those arrangements a strong inspection context. For a family choosing now, the decisive fit is the combination of room pathway, term-time funded provision and separately booked holiday care. The offer rewards careful timetable planning and provides substantial learning beyond the classroom.