Shapes Day Nursery, Banstead

A pirate ship outdoors and a grasshopper slide indoors give Shapes Day Nursery, Banstead a recognisable character: physical play has space both in the garden and under cover. The open-plan building also lets children see activity beyond their own age group, while babies have a separate garden and a peaceful cot room. These are useful differences for families weighing how a nursery balances busy play with quieter care.

At its 16 April 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged all six labelled areas Strong standard and recorded that safeguarding standards were met. The detail behind those judgements matters: children practised independence through ordinary tasks, staff developed learning through conversation, and additional support was planned around individual needs.

With capacity for 86 children, the nursery accepts children from three months to five years. Full days and mornings are offered, alongside specific arrangements for families using only funded hours.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Centre combines sensory and messy activities with familiar songs across two rooms, with its own garden giving babies outdoor space separate from the older children. The Toddler Room brings together pretend play, creative activities and parachute games, alongside an area for sleep or rest. Cooking, messy play and a weekly visiting dance teacher shape the Nursery Room's activities, with turn-taking and cooperation woven into shared experiences. In the Pre-school Room, children explore art, technology and the natural world among displays of their own creations, with visiting Dance and Spanish teachers each week.

These spaces provide different kinds of participation as children grow. A baby can explore materials and movement; an older child can cook, make something with others or practise expressing an idea. The emphasis remains on experiences children can join in with, rather than a timetable of formal lessons.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the educational framework: play and planned activities develop communication, movement and relationships alongside early reading, mathematics, creativity and understanding the world. Written observations and photographs help staff plan around each child's interests and development. Parents receive a learning journey showing what their child has explored and achieved.

Weekly Dance and Spanish teaching in preschool adds visiting specialists to that everyday provision. In the Nursery Room, dance visits support music and movement, while Easter brings the chance to watch eggs hatch and learn about a chicken's life cycle. Cooking gives children another shared activity in which waiting, helping and cooperating have a practical purpose.

In April 2026, babies were learning simple Makaton signs alongside words, giving them another way to communicate. Older children used imaginative play to hold conversations and exchange ideas. A lending library supported shared reading at home, while books within the nursery encouraged children to look, listen and return to stories during the day.

Outdoor and Community Life

Our Garden includes the pirate ship for climbing and imaginative play, roads for bikes and ride-on cars, and spaces for construction, water and sand activities. Children also make marks outdoors using chalk and paint. The garden is used through different weather, with sunshades in summer; outdoor play is part of the nursery day rather than reserved for warm afternoons.

Soft Play is garden-themed, with a grasshopper slide, ball pool and blocks for balancing and building. It provides an indoor setting for climbing and jumping, extending the physical opportunities beyond the garden. The combination gives active children several ways to move, with different equipment and surfaces to explore.

Regular Zoo Lab visits bring nature-related experiences into the nursery. Parents from different cultures are also invited, where possible, to share food and festivals such as Diwali and Chinese New Year. These encounters connect learning with people and experiences beyond the room. In April 2026, children's interest in people who help others had also prompted visits from the ambulance, police and fire services.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who helps them become familiar with nursery life and builds a relationship with their family. In the Baby Centre, feeds, sleep and nappy changes are recorded in a daily diary, and care follows each baby's own routine. That gives parents a practical thread between home and nursery rather than leaving the day's care to a general summary.

Communication also includes newsletters, parent evenings and the child's learning journey. Managers are accessible for conversations, and menus and activity planning are displayed. These channels serve different purposes: the diary covers daily care, while observations and parent meetings help families follow development over time.

A peaceful cot room provides space for babies to rest. In April 2026, staff adapted sleep arrangements to individual children and checked them regularly. Practitioners also learnt babies' home routines so that care could respond to familiar patterns. For families with a young baby, that attention to routine is as relevant as the play equipment.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2026 inspection, Ofsted found that staff identified additional needs early, involved parents in support planning and helped children with SEND make rapid progress; its next step was to sustain high standards while seeking a transformational impact for disadvantaged children, children with SEND, children known to social care now or in the past, and others facing barriers.

In April 2026, support included breaking activities into manageable steps, an attention-building intervention, and fidget toys alongside wobble cushions. Staff planned support, put it into practice and reviewed its effect, with referrals to external professionals supported by their observations. These examples show how additional help was organised around participation in the nursery day.

Current safety arrangements include video-controlled entry, authorised collection procedures and first-aid-trained staff, with procedures for medicines, accidents and fire evacuation. These are practical arrangements for managing everyday care. They sit alongside, rather than replace, the dated safeguarding judgement above.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 28a High Street, Banstead, SM7 2LJ, and the nursery opens Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 6pm. Full-day sessions run from 7.30am to 6pm; mornings run from 7.30am to 1pm. The minimum ordinary booking is two full days or three half days, with those half days on separate days.

Care runs throughout the year, with closures on bank holidays, Christmas Eve and the period between Christmas and New Year. Fees include bank-holiday and Christmas closures, and illness or holidays do not attract refunds. That makes the attendance commitment relevant even during weeks when a child is away.

For families accessing only the 30-hour entitlement, the stretched pattern is Monday and Friday from 8am to 4.30pm, plus Wednesday from 8am to 1pm. Those accessing only the 15-hour entitlement attend Monday and Friday from 7.30am to 1pm. These arrangements differ from ordinary bookings that combine funded and paid hours.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01737 355332. A non-refundable registration charge applies, and a deposit is credited against the final month's fees. Withdrawal requires written notice of one calendar month.

Funding and Paid Extras

Shapes offers Universal 15 Hours funding and Working Parent Entitlement, including eligible children from the term after nine months. Funding is stretched across the year: the full-year allocation gives up to 11.18 hours weekly for Universal funding or 22.35 hours for Working Parent Entitlement across 51 weeks. For children becoming eligible for preschool funding later in the academic year, the weekly allocation varies with the starting term.

Additional private hours are charged separately from funded entitlement. Working Parent Entitlement also requires parents to reconfirm eligibility every three months. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, which should distinguish paid hours from meals and additional services.

For private bookings, meals, snacks and formula milk are included in fees. During funded hours, meals and snacks carry separate voluntary charges, as do additional activities and events; families who cannot or prefer not to pay can discuss reduced or waived charges, and children are not excluded from activities because they wish to participate.

Food is cooked on the premises by the nursery cook, with menus rotating over six weeks and catering for dietary requirements and a vegetarian alternative. The nursery's food-allergy policy rules out packed snacks and lunches, so arrangements for funded meals depend on its alternatives rather than bringing food from home.

• Baby care in practice. The Baby Centre has separate outdoor space and individual daily care records. Use a tour to discuss how your baby's feeding and sleep routine would fit the rooms and cot room.
• A regular attendance commitment. Ordinary bookings require two full days or three half days on different days, while funded-only attendance follows specified weekdays. Choose the pattern around the days your family actually needs.
• Funding and food allergies. Funded meals and additional services carry voluntary charges, with reduced or waived charges among the alternatives. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food practice and how the nursery's packed-food policy would work for their child.
• The next development priority. April 2026's next step concerned the impact of provision for children facing barriers. Families needing additional support can discuss how individual goals and the effect of interventions are reviewed.

Shapes suits families seeking either full-day attendance or a regular morning pattern, and those whose needs match its funded-only timetable. The combination of a separate Baby Centre, garden play and indoor Soft Play gives it breadth across ages and weather.

The April 2026 judgements provide a strong basis for considering it, with concrete examples of communication, independence and planned additional support. The practical decision rests on fit: the minimum attendance commitment, fixed funded-only days and food arrangements need to work alongside family routines. For parents who value active play and detailed communication about daily care, there is plenty here to weigh positively.