Mountford House Nursery

Weekly woodland sessions, music from Rattle and Roll and decking outside the youngest children's rooms give Mountford House Nursery a recognisable character. Outdoor play extends beyond a single shared playground: babies have their own decking, toddlers use the front garden, and older children have lawns and space for wheeled toys. The practical appeal is variety, with different environments suited to different stages.

At its January 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good and safeguarding effective, while identifying improvements needed in younger children's hygiene, independence and changes between daily activities.

Mountford House Nursery is at 373 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG5 2DA, and has capacity for 80 children. Its current age offer runs from 6 weeks to 5 years. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 50 weeks of the year.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillars serves babies under one, with a quiet room connected to the next stage through a stable door and patio doors leading to decking reserved for the babies. That connection allows the youngest children to spend time with the older group as they become more settled, rather than making the adjoining room an entirely separate world.

Butterflies caters approximately for children aged twelve to twenty-four months, combining a room that can be divided into active and quieter areas, steps and a slide for physical play, and sole use of the front garden sheltered by two beech trees. This gives toddlers space both to practise movement and to pause for stories or cuddles.

The Bumble Bee room serves children approximately two and a half to three years old, emphasising singing, instruments and movement, with two sets of French doors linking the room to covered decking for play across indoors and outdoors. Its arrangement makes outdoor access part of the room itself, rather than a separate destination.

Preschool 1 serves children rising 3, combining creative materials, quieter spaces for small-group language activities, cooking, yoga and music with outdoor access to wheeled toys, a climbing frame and a vegetable patch. The mix accommodates both energetic play and activities where a smaller setting helps children listen and take part.

Preschool 2 builds early reading through labelled resources, name cards and Jolly Phonics, a literacy scheme using Jolly Songs to introduce phonics, while adding a morning circle activity and weekly experiences including gardening, cooking and Forest School. This stage makes the move towards more organised activities explicit.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play and routines are opportunities to develop language, movement and independence. Mountford House uses ideas from the Curiosity Approach, adapted into its Planning in the Moment curriculum, connecting learning to children's interests through household objects, natural artefacts, creative work, sensory play, cooking and gardening. The emphasis is on experiences children can explore, with staff responding to what catches their attention.

Rattle and Roll provides a weekly music and dance session for the Bumble Bee children. Preschool 1 also has weekly Rattle and Roll music, alongside yoga intended to support listening and managing emotions. Preschool 2 includes Rattle and Roll music and movement and French Fridays, a weekly activity whose name introduces a further element to the timetable.

In January 2023, babies explored a bubble lamp while staff repeated and extended their early words. Elsewhere, pretend pizza-making became a conversation about handling something hot. Both examples show how an ordinary play experience could become a language exchange or a discussion of safety, rather than learning being confined to an organised group activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds weekly visits away from the nursery, using outdoor exploration to encourage curiosity and independence. Gardening and a vegetable patch also bring the natural world into the nursery's own grounds. Children spend time outdoors daily, with a playground, a rubber-crumb surface and lawns providing different kinds of space.

In January 2023, woodland outings included den-building, negotiating uneven ground and talking about feeding birds. Those examples give substance to the outdoor approach: children encountered physical challenges and things to discuss beyond the equipment in their usual play spaces.

Relationships and Communication

A key-person system gives staff responsibility for knowing the children in their care and supporting their development. For families, that relationship offers a consistent starting point for sharing a child's interests and experiences. It also fits the nursery's approach to planning: knowledge of the child informs what happens in play.

In January 2023, staff gathered information from parents and used it to shape activities, including adapting pretend play around children's interest in medical roles. Settling arrangements covered both joining the nursery and moving between its rooms. The connection between Caterpillars and Butterflies provides a physical counterpart to that gradual approach for the youngest children.

The same visit captured small examples of relationships between children, including offering a teddy to a friend after sleep and collaborating on a construction. These are useful details of the nursery day at that time. They show social experiences alongside adult-led support, rather than treating care only as a relationship between staff and children.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff identified emerging developmental gaps, used targeted support and small-group activities, and worked with external professionals to support children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Current safeguarding arrangements include designated safeguarding lead roles, a lead on duty throughout opening hours, induction training and procedures for reporting concerns. These describe how responsibilities are organised; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the inspection.

Younger children's everyday independence needs closer attention. In January 2023, staff often completed tasks for younger children before giving them an opportunity to try, and handwashing routines were not consistently established. The change towards lunchtime was also poorly organised, leaving children unclear about what to do. Older children, by contrast, were practising pouring drinks and serving themselves. The important distinction is between stages: opportunities for independence were stronger for older children at that visit.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and operates for 50 weeks each year. It closes on bank holidays and for a week at the end of August. Those closures deserve a place in a family's childcare calendar, especially where work continues through the summer.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone on 0115 9605676 or by email at enquiries@mountfordhousenursery.co.uk. The address is 373 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG5 2DA. The same setting accommodates babies from 6 weeks through to children aged 5, with room arrangements changing as children develop.

Funding and Paid Extras

In January 2023, the nursery provided funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children.

Preparing for School

Preschool 2 introduces term-time routines following the Nottingham City Schools calendar, together with a uniform and book bag. A daily adult-led circle activity starts at approximately 9am, with structure introduced gradually through the preschool year. For parents, this makes the intended preparation concrete: children encounter organised group time and familiar school-day conventions alongside play, stories and outdoor activities.

• Younger children's routines. January 2023 brought specific concerns about handwashing, opportunities to attempt self-care and the organisation of lunchtime changes. During a visit, ask how these routines now work in the younger rooms.
• Preschool structure. Preschool 2 introduces a uniform, book bag and a circle activity at approximately 9am. Consider whether that gradual move towards organised group time matches the experience you want before school.
• Attendance and costs. The opening window runs from 8am to 6pm, with bank-holiday and late-August closures. What booking pattern and written quotation would cover your family's attendance, including any funded hours, meals and consumables?

Mountford House suits families drawn to outdoor exploration, music and a progression from baby spaces to more organised preschool experiences. Weekly Forest School, Rattle and Roll and the separate outdoor arrangements for younger children give that appeal practical substance.

The January 2023 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, but the younger-room routine concerns remain important visit questions. For a family considering care within the weekday opening window, the strongest reason to look closely is the combination of room environments and concrete activities, rather than any single curriculum label.