Milby Nursery & Kids' Club

Woodland activities, a weekend visit from Milby Bear and two rooms with outdoor access give Milby Nursery & Kids' Club a recognisable character. This independently run charity sits beside Milby Primary School in Nuneaton. Milby has 50 places in total. Its nursery age range is two to five, with separate club provision for older children.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good and found safeguarding effective. The practical strengths include a paired keyperson system, an outdoor sensory den and a preschool room organised around increasing independence. Children can build and experiment in Yellow Room before moving into Red Room for the year preceding primary school.

Attendance combines a core nursery day with an extended option for three- and four-year-olds. The important distinction for families is between the nursery day, its funded hours and the additional club provision: these have different conditions and should be considered separately.

Rooms and Ages

Yellow Room takes children from age two until their preschool year, with a construction area for experimenting with materials, solving problems and building alongside others, plus access to toilets and outdoor play throughout the day.

Red Room serves children in the year before primary school, combining a home corner with pretend kitchen equipment, construction, small-world play and mark-making, while direct toilet access and free-flow outdoor play support increasing independence.

These are different stages rather than interchangeable rooms. Younger children have opportunities to investigate how things fit together; preschool children have household role play and resources for practising the skills they will use at school. Outdoor access belongs to both rooms, so it is part of their everyday environment rather than solely a separate excursion.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the required framework: children's experiences develop language, movement and relationships alongside literacy, mathematics, creative expression and understanding the world. Activities are planned around each child's developmental stage. Milby's additions include woodland learning, yoga and a nursery mascot that links home experiences with conversations back at nursery.

Outdoor Adventurers is a nature-based programme sharing the Forest School ethos, held in woodland on Milby Primary School grounds for preschool children. Activities include finding insects, identifying plants, climbing trees and using tools, with cooking over campfires among the experiences described. A qualified Forest School leader attends for the higher-risk activities, and session leaders hold paediatric first aid certificates. This gives the outdoor offer substance beyond simply having a playground.

Yoga sessions are part of the routine. Yoga sessions include partner challenges, with breathing regulation and emotional control among their intended benefits. These sit alongside physical play rather than replacing it, giving children another way to practise movement and pay attention to how they feel.

Milby Bear visits children's homes for a weekend, travelling with a suitcase and diary. Families can add drawings and photographs before children share the experience with friends. It is a concrete bridge between home and nursery, with a familiar object giving children something personal to talk about.

In September 2025, daily activities included making marks with pine cones, investigating water and manipulating play dough to music. Children also practised using tweezers to pick up small objects. These examples connect sensory exploration with the hand control needed for later writing, rather than treating preparation for school as worksheets.

Outdoor and Community Life

The outdoor sensory den provides space for children to practise coping skills and regulate their emotions, as well as offering sensory stimulation. That is a different use of outdoor space from active woodland exploration: a child can need somewhere calmer as well as somewhere to climb.

Dental nurses visit the setting, and oral-health activities use large model teeth for cleaning practice, supported by books and information for parents. World Oral Health Day is also part of this work. The emphasis is practical: children can rehearse a familiar care routine with resources designed for them.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a keyperson who supports settling, learns their individual needs and exchanges information with parents. Practitioners work in pairs so that another keyperson can provide continuity during sickness, training or holidays. This matters when a child's usual adult is away: the relationship has a planned backup.

Observations of Play and Learning (OPaLs) is the assessment system used by keypersons to establish starting points, contribute to the progress check at age two and plan subsequent learning. Other staff also contribute to the child's learning journal. Assessment therefore connects observations of play with what the child will be supported to try next.

Famly brings observations, family updates, nursery news, documents and billing into one app. Parents can contribute information from home rather than only receiving messages. There is also an opportunity for parents to join the management committee, giving families a role in the running of this independently managed charity.

In September 2025, the nursery employed 14 childcare staff, and adults used language modelling and visual prompts during interactions. However, some exchanges stopped before children could explore an idea more deeply. Further staff guidance on extending children's thinking was an improvement priority. For parents, the useful question is how practitioners now develop a child's comment into a longer conversation or investigation.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENDCO coordinates support, with links to speech therapists, psychologists and the Integrated Disability Service (IDS). The sensory den adds a physical resource to those arrangements. At the September 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that early identification, targeted interventions and work with external agencies provided highly effective support for children with SEND and helped children make good progress from their starting points.

Safeguarding arrangements include a lead practitioner and other staff trained to take responsibility, concern-recording procedures and referral to Warwickshire Family Connect. Operation Encompass is a joint initiative involving Warwickshire Police that helps the setting support children who have experienced or witnessed domestic violence. These are the mechanisms in place; the dated safeguarding judgement is set out above.

Lunch comes from home in an insulated lunchbox with an ice pack, while snacks are covered by a separately requested, non-mandatory contribution for funded attendance; the lunch policy excludes nuts and foods containing them because of serious allergies. Families managing an allergy should confirm current practice and discuss their child's needs.

In September 2025, closer work with parents on healthy packed lunches was another improvement priority. The current lunch guidance sets out food groups and restricts confectionery, salty snacks and soft drinks. It gives families a concrete basis for preparing lunch, while the improvement point concerns how well that message is reinforced together.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Milby Drive, Nuneaton, Warwickshire CV11 6JS. The nursery operates across 51 weeks, closing on bank holidays and for approximately a week around Christmas. The Christmas-to-New-Year closure also applies to the clubs.

The core nursery day runs from 9am to 3pm. Parents may book any number of days per week, subject to availability. An extended day is offered to children aged three and four, but those extra hours cannot be paid for through Early Years Funding. This distinction matters when comparing the hours a family needs with the hours covered by its entitlement.

Kids' Club serves children aged three and over attending the nursery or Milby Primary School. Morning opening is 8am; the afternoon session begins at 3pm for nursery children and after school for older children, with closing at 5.15pm. Younger children use the nursery rooms and outdoor resources, while older children have activities such as table tennis and board games in the school hall and community room.

Holiday Club takes primary-school-aged children from any primary school, operating from 8.30am to 4pm. Bookings follow a first-come, first-served rule, and forms are sent three to four weeks before each school holiday. Families can telephone to join its emailing list; nursery waiting-list requests are also made by telephone.

Enquiries and bookings for a look around go through the nursery on 024 76343161. Milby Primary School is adjacent, and some club activities take place on its grounds, but the nursery is independently run. Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers Universal funding, working families funding and 2help funding, subject to the relevant eligibility rules. Its usual arrangement stretches funding across 50 weeks; children eligible for 2help or Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) access it across 47.5 weeks. Remaining nursery hours are paid privately, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

For funded attendance, an Essentials and Extras contribution is requested separately for snacks and drinks, non-food consumables and additional experiences. It is non-mandatory and is not a condition of taking funded hours. The consumables covered include wipes, paper hand towels, sun cream and seasonal protective items; additional experiences include visitors, celebrations and enrichment activities.

Funding paperwork includes a declaration signed each term and proof of the child's date of birth. Parents using working families funding must revalidate their eligibility code every three months; those using 2help provide their eligibility letter. Bills arrive monthly through Famly. The funding and fees information explains the structure of funded and paid attendance.

• Conversation and thinking. Extending children's thinking was a September 2025 improvement priority. On a look around, ask how staff now build on children's questions and comments during play.
• Packed lunches and allergies. Families supply lunch, and the lunch policy excludes nuts. Discuss allergy arrangements and how staff reinforce the healthy-lunch guidance, following the September 2025 priority on partnership with parents.
• Funding and longer attendance. The core day is 9am to 3pm, while extended hours for three- and four-year-olds sit outside funded entitlement. Compare the proposed booking and written quotation with the stretched funding arrangement and the non-mandatory extras contribution.
• School-site connections. Red Room prepares children for school and Outdoor Adventurers uses the neighbouring school's woodland. These connections do not confer a Reception place; consider nursery provision and the school application separately.

Milby suits families seeking a core nursery day or extended attendance for a three- or four-year-old, with separate club arrangements for eligible children. Its strongest practical features are easy to identify: outdoor access from both rooms, preschool woodland experiences, paired keypersons and a sensory den.

The September 2025 Good judgement provides a dated quality benchmark, with clear improvement priorities around deeper conversations and healthy lunches. For families comfortable supplying lunch and working with stretched funding, the combination of everyday independence, home communication and outdoor learning gives this nursery a coherent offer.