Forget Me Not Day Nursery

A monthly Sensory Bus visit and craft mornings with neighbours in a residential home give Forget Me Not Day Nursery a community life beyond its own play spaces. This Bakersfield setting has capacity for 35 children, accepting ages from 2 to 60 months. Its strongest current character comes from those connections: children meet people, explore their surroundings and take part in practical projects.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 14 December 2022. That is a dated judgement, and the detail beneath it matters: play included making fruit kebabs, exploring ice outdoors and practising everyday independence, alongside two improvements needed in how staff extended learning.

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside full-time and term-time arrangements, giving families more than one way to organise attendance.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage brings learning, development and care together, with play providing opportunities to practise communication, movement and everyday skills. Here, the current emphasis includes following children's interests, outdoor play and contact with the surrounding community. Those experiences give children things to investigate and talk about beyond an adult-led activity.

In December 2022, low furniture helped babies move around and choose objects for themselves. Toddlers made fruit kebabs at small tables, combining snack preparation with practice in coordinating their hands and eyes. Older children used displayed words while composing a letter to Santa. These were different experiences for different developmental stages, rather than one activity applied across the nursery.

The learning improvements from December 2022 deserve equal attention. Staff needed to bring children's individual learning targets into unplanned play more consistently and explain activities more fully. An ice activity illustrated the latter point: handling the material did not include an explanation of how it formed. For parents, the useful distinction is between a child enjoying an activity and an adult helping that child understand something new.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Sensory Bus, linked to The Riley Foundation, visits monthly, changing its visiting day so children attending different patterns can participate. Children of every age can use it, with discovery, imagination and independent thinking forming its purpose. The changing day matters for a family booking only part of the week.

Under Our Senior Friends, children visit the residential home opposite the nursery for shared crafts and familiar songs. This gives them opportunities to communicate with another generation. Community outings also include shops, the post office and a local park; traffic surveys turn the surrounding streets into something children can observe and discuss.

Food bank collections take place each term, with children helping organise donations. Deliveries take place at Christmas, Spring and Autumn. These projects make community participation practical: children help prepare something for other people, rather than only hearing about helping others.

In December 2022, the outdoor area also supported an ice investigation involving frozen dinosaurs and tools to release them. Vegetable growing and preparing fruit connected outdoor experiences with food. These are examples from that period, rather than a timetable of current activities.

At the December 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities appropriately supported through individual targets and cooperation between staff, parents and other professionals. That provides a dated assessment of both protection and inclusion, rather than a general promise about every child's experience today.

In December 2022, children sought comfort from their key person, and parents received developmental information through conversations and an online system. Everyday independence included finding coats, putting on wellingtons, laying the lunch table and serving food. These small tasks gave children opportunities to take responsibility appropriate to their stage.

Games, books and masks depicting emotions helped children discuss feelings in December 2022. Circle-time conversations also included family traditions and celebrations. For families, those examples show how social understanding could be woven into ordinary play and conversation.

Food is freshly prepared in the nursery's kitchen, with menus rotating over four weeks and copies supplied in enrolment packs. Its dietary policy covers vegetarian and gluten-free requirements alongside food allergies, making the arrangements for an individual child's diet a useful discussion before enrolment.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, across 50 weeks of the year. Morning bookings run from 7.30am to 12.30pm; afternoon bookings run from 1pm to 6pm. Packages can also be arranged for full-time, part-time or term-time attendance. The distinction matters: the opening window describes the nursery's operating day, while the morning and afternoon windows describe individual bookings.

Closures include bank holidays, the Christmas-to-New-Year period and a summer week. Families planning care across the year need to accommodate those breaks as well as the regular weekly pattern.

For school-age children, the Before School Club runs from 7.30am to 9am and the After School Club from 3.30pm to 6pm. Holiday Club operates from 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays during school holidays and inset days; its booking arrangements include a waiting list as the year progresses.

The nursery describes a connection with Parkdale Infant and Junior School through its drop-off and collection service. Nursery attendance does not guarantee a school place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

Getting There

The address is 9 Parkdale Road, Bakersfield, Nottingham, NG3 7GL. Red Route 43 serves the Bakersfield Road stop, BF01, and enquiries can be made through the contact form.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for two-, three- and four-year-olds. The 2-year-old early learning entitlement provides 15 hours during term time for children meeting the eligibility criteria, starting from the term following their second birthday. For three- and four-year-olds, the nursery offers the universal 15 hours and the 30-hour entitlement for eligible parents.

Private childcare packages are tailored to attendance needs. Current prices belong in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding page also outlines payment support, including acceptance of childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare.

• Learning beyond planned activities. In December 2022, individual learning targets and explanations were not consistently carried into play. During a visit, ask how practitioners now extend a child's spontaneous interest and explain what they are exploring.
• Care during closures. The nursery closes over Christmas and New Year, for a summer week and on bank holidays. Those breaks need to fit the family's annual care arrangements.
• Individual dietary arrangements. The dietary policy includes allergies and vegetarian or gluten-free requirements. Families affected by allergies should confirm current preparation and serving arrangements before enrolment.
• The complete childcare quotation. Attendance packages are tailored to individual needs. Ask for a written quotation separating private hours, funded hours, meals and non-food consumables.

Forget Me Not suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as those organising full-time or term-time attendance. Its monthly Sensory Bus, residential-home visits and termly donation projects give its community emphasis concrete substance.

The December 2022 Good judgement provides a useful starting point. The learning improvements from that period provide the counterweight: the quality of adult explanations and the use of individual targets deserve attention alongside the activities themselves. Families drawn to community participation have clear reasons to consider it, with the attendance pattern and complete quotation central to the decision.