Nursery Rhymes, Stoneygate

Connected baby spaces, a toddler area spread across two levels and enclosed gardens give Nursery Rhymes, Stoneygate a clear physical identity. This Leicester nursery cares for children from 3 months to 5 years and has 70 places in total. Its offer combines separate spaces for different stages with French Lessons for preschool children and Sing and Sign for babies, using gestures to support communication before speech.

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good overall, with Outstanding behaviour and attitudes and personal development, found safeguarding effective and praised the support and progress of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. That is a dated assessment, but its detailed examples help explain the nursery's character: children explored ingredients, investigated insects and developed ideas through imaginative play.

Full-day and part-day childcare serve different attendance needs, while funded hours are stretched across the year. The important distinction is that part-day sessions are for children attending without funding.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Area, for children up to 2 years, comprises connected spaces for play, messy activities and sleep, with cots in the sleep room and a dedicated nappy-changing area. Reading has its own green area, alongside sensory resources and contrasting black-and-white materials. Separating rest from active exploration gives families a concrete arrangement to weigh when choosing care for a baby.

For children aged 2 to 3, the Toddler Area occupies two levels and connects directly with the garden, allowing children to move between outdoor and indoor activities. Resources are stored within children's reach, using clear containers or pictures to help them choose, and toilets on the lower level support children who are ready for toilet training. The practical emphasis is independence through manageable choices.

The Pre-School Area serves children aged 3 and over, with opportunities to develop independent thinking. Elsewhere, the Creative Room supports exploration with materials such as jelly and pasta, while the ICT Room introduces technology through cameras, walkie-talkies and light boxes. These are concrete resources for making, investigating and experimenting, rather than simply more toys.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS framework guides learning around children's individual interests and development, with play and activities shaped around their next steps. It is the common early-years foundation; the additions here include language, movement and signing sessions.

French Lessons introduce preschool children to words and phrases in another language. Music & Movement brings babies, toddlers and preschool children into active sessions using familiar music, props and dance routines. Sing and Sign gives babies gestures they can use to communicate before they have spoken words. Each addition has a different purpose, making the programme relevant across the nursery's age range.

Exercise / Sports takes place in rooms and the garden for toddlers and preschool children, introducing movements and physical skills. Cooking, gardening and activities with water and sand also form part of the offer. For children who enjoy learning through handling materials and being active, there is plenty of practical content to consider alongside early maths and phonics.

In July 2022, children used a mud kitchen menu linked to food eaten at home, searched for ingredients and measured with a jug. Elsewhere, their pretend recipes became activities involving mixtures and careful pouring. These examples show how everyday interests brought language, early writing and mathematics into the same experience.

In July 2022, improvement points included stronger support for staff practice and giving children more time to connect ideas before answering questions. The issue matters because an engaging activity needs space for a child to think, as well as an adult ready with the next prompt.

Outdoor and Community Life

Enclosed gardens provide space for daily outdoor play. The toddler area's direct access makes the garden part of its play arrangement, rather than a wholly separate destination.

In July 2022, children examined garden insects with magnifying glasses, took turns with resources and used a pretend bus for imaginative journeys. Tree climbing gave them opportunities to take managed risks with staff guidance. These were inspection-time examples, but they offer a useful picture of how the outdoor space was used for investigation, conversation and physical challenge.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, and learning is planned with individual interests in mind. For toddler starters, the Starting Point Questionnaire and All About Me help the keyworker and team get to know the child and support settling.

After registration, the team arranges settling sessions and a start date. Families complete their child's details, including allergies, dietary information and permissions, through Famly, the nursery's communication and booking app. It also carries photographs, notices and event information, alongside invoices and the option to record illness or a day away.

Toddler families receive online daily diaries from their child's key person covering food and activities. Parents can reply with changes to routines or interests from home. That two-way exchange is useful when a child's needs change between nursery days, and it gives families something more specific than a general end-of-day update.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In July 2022, staff took care to pronounce words in children's home languages correctly and encouraged parents to send video clips of themselves speaking those languages. This gave families a way to share their home language with practitioners.

The Colour Monster, a book used to explore feelings, helped younger children recognise emotions in July 2022. Babies joined stories and action songs with adults using expressive voices and props. These examples illustrate different ways of supporting communication, from naming feelings to responding through sounds, gestures and eye contact.

An in-house chef prepares breakfast, fruit, hot lunch and tea in the nursery kitchen, with a separate baby menu and parents supplying bottle feeds. The nursery's allergy policy restricts food brought onto the premises and provides for dietary needs; weekly menus are displayed for families.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 13 Knighton Grange Road, Leicester, LE2 2LF. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with operation across the year and closures for bank holidays and Christmas.

Full Days run from 8am to 6pm. Part Days run from either 8am to 3pm or 9am to 4pm, with a minimum booking of two days a week. Part-day sessions are not offered to funded children, so the shorter options and the funded attendance arrangements need to be considered separately.

The allocation policy may prioritise full-time applications over part-time ones, and full-day, year-round bookings over part-day or term-time-only requests. This is a durable booking rule that matters to families planning attendance around a particular working pattern. Contact is through the Stoneygate enquiry form or telephone, and personal tours can be booked.

Getting There

Drivers are asked to keep neighbouring driveways clear on Knighton Grange Road and avoid turning across the road. The travel information identifies Arriva's Leicester-to-Oadby bus service, No.31, and encourages walking, cycling and shared journeys.

Q-Bell, an app-based door system, lets parents contact their child's room so staff can collect the child from the door. Famly carries much of the daily feedback, giving these two systems different jobs: one handles the collection arrangement, the other communication about the day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded 15 hours and Funded 30 hours are offered on a stretched basis over 51 weeks. The nursery delivers the universal entitlement as 11 hours a week and the larger entitlement as 22 hours a week. Funding information covers children from 9 months to 4 years, with eligibility conditions applying to the working-parent offer.

Meals and drinks are included in non-funded fees. For funded attendance, the Gold Package adds a weekly charge covering meals, consumables and enhanced activities; the Basic Care Package is for parents choosing to leave out those extras. Non-funded fees exclude nappies, creams, wipes and formula, and parents provide bottle feeds. Families should distinguish the childcare hours from what is included alongside them.

The FEEE-only route carries no additional charges, has specific attendance hours and is allocated at the beginning of each term. A registration charge applies except on that route. Care-package charges are reviewed annually, with at least 28 days' notice of changes.

Funding Loop is the online system used to collect funding information and the parental declaration. Instructions are emailed approximately four weeks before the new funding term, and the required information must be completed before funding can be applied. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding information explains the package structure.

• Funded attendance and shorter days. Part-day sessions are excluded for funded children, while full-day and year-round applications may receive allocation priority. At a tour, discuss how your intended pattern fits those rules.
• Time to think. The July 2022 improvement points concerned staff support and allowing children time to develop answers. Ask how practitioners now make room for children to connect their ideas during activities.
• Food and care packages. The Gold Package charges for meals, consumables and enhanced activities, while the Basic Care Package leaves out those extras. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food arrangements and how their chosen package works with the restriction on bringing food in.

Nursery Rhymes, Stoneygate suits families choosing either full-day attendance or shorter, non-funded part days, with stretched funding providing a separate route across the year. Its strongest practical attractions are the baby sleep arrangements, toddler garden access and age-specific additions such as signing and French.

The July 2022 assessment gives a positive quality reference, with a clear educational improvement point to discuss. For families weighing this nursery, the decisive fit is between the child's stage, the attendance pattern and the care package they intend to use.