Peter Pan Day Nursery

A stable-block setting, a walled garden and pond dipping at Coombe Abbey give Peter Pan Day Nursery a recognisable countryside character. Children can grow plants, explore outdoors and meet visiting birds of prey, while babies have a separate sleep room away from their main play space. These are practical differences in the nursery day, rather than simply a rural address.

Based at Peter Hall Lane in Coombe Fields, Coventry, the nursery has 28 places in total and accepts children aged two months to five years. At its 3 November 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged it Good overall and found safeguarding effective. That is a dated judgement, rather than an assessment of today's provision.

The current offer combines a Baby Unit with toddler and preschool areas, with gradual moves between them as children become ready. A standard day runs from 9am to 4pm, alongside a morning session and before-care and aftercare arrangements. The minimum booking is two days a week.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Unit occupies a large, open-plan space on the ground floor, with outdoor access for developing physical skills and a separate sleep room for rest. That separation matters: sleeping and active play have their own spaces. Individual bed linen is washed at the nursery, and observations and photographs help the key worker plan activities suited to each baby's stage of development.

Toddlers and preschool children share areas, creating opportunities to play with children of different ages. The home room supports household role play, the paint room provides space for art, and the quiet room combines reading with a laptop and touch-screen tablets for older children. These spaces give imaginative, creative and quieter activities different homes rather than treating them as interchangeable parts of the day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning and development: children learn through play and practical experiences, with observations helping staff plan what comes next. At Peter Pan, the preschool activities include making things, early writing, music and exploration with water and sand. Art activities allow children to investigate materials with limited adult interference, giving them room to try their own ideas.

In November 2022, children used dolls, pushchairs and pretend medical equipment in imaginative play; babies explored toys concealed in shredded paper. Stories, songs and actions also featured in their day. These examples show how early language, movement and imagination could develop through shared activities, rather than through formal lessons.

Nature Explorers adds outdoor experiences such as making dens, growing plants, digging and looking for insects. It complements indoor learning with opportunities to handle natural materials and investigate the surroundings. The emphasis is on supervised exploration, so outdoor time has a learning purpose as well as providing space to move.

Outdoor and Community Life

The walled garden includes a large grassed area, with opportunities to grow vegetables and flowers. Surrounding arable land also gives children a view of crops developing and being harvested. This makes changes in the natural environment something they can observe close to their own play areas.

Coombe Abbey outings include meadow walks, pond dipping and searching for bugs, with face painting in a teepee tent. Preschool children also visit a local supermarket in connection with their learning topics, while preschool leavers have enjoyed annual trips to a butterfly farm or zoo. The destinations connect nursery activities with experiences beyond the building.

A local falconer makes regular visits with birds of prey and small animals. Children also explore cultural festivals through creative activities, dance and songs, and birthdays bring shared celebrations. These experiences add encounters with animals and different traditions to the everyday mix of play.

Relationships and Communication

For babies, a daily diary gives parents and the key worker a way to exchange information about routines, preferences and the nursery day. Parents can contribute from home, rather than relying entirely on a conversation at collection. This is useful when a baby's routines change and staff need the detail that only their family can provide.

Observations and photographs form part of children's development records, which parents can access through their child's key worker. An annual parents evening provides a further opportunity to discuss development, future targets and the learning journal. The combination offers both day-to-day information and a longer discussion about learning.

In November 2022, key persons shared information within the staff team about children's individual needs. However, some parents did not understand the next learning steps clearly enough to extend those activities at home. The improvement requested was more useful information about development, rather than simply more updates about what children had done.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Moves from the baby area towards toddler and preschool provision are gradual, with familiar staff helping children become comfortable before moving forward. Shared mealtimes in the baby room also bring children of different ages together, including siblings, and allow them to become familiar with the wider team. The arrangement links changes of room with relationships children already know.

Staff receive training in first aid, safeguarding responsibilities and PREVENT. In November 2022, the nursery also needed to give children more consistent opportunities to practise doing things independently across different situations. For parents, the useful distinction is between an activity children enjoy and a routine in which they can make decisions or manage tasks themselves.

Lunch comes from home, snacks carry no separate charge, and breakfast is included with the 8am before-care session but excluded from the 8.30am option. This makes the food arrangement depend partly on the attendance pattern chosen.

Sessions and Attendance

The standard non-funded day is 9am to 4pm. The morning session runs from 9am to 11.30am. For eligible working-parent funding, the funded block runs from 11.30am to 4pm, taking in lunchtime and afternoon activities. Universal-only funding is spread across 51 weeks at two hours a day. These are different booking patterns, not simply different descriptions of the opening window.

Before care runs from 8am to 9am with breakfast, or from 8.30am to 9am without it; aftercare runs from 4pm to 5pm. Breakfast club and aftercare can be booked in half-hour slots. The fee timetable gives opening hours of 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, with activities between 9am and 4pm.

A minimum of two days each week is required, with the nursery linking this to continuity in relationships and learning. The fee terms describe 51 weeks of operation, with a closure over Christmas and New Year whose dates are set each year. The separate opening-times information also identifies bank holidays as closures.

Getting There

The nursery occupies the stable block at Peter Hall, Peter Hall Lane, Coombe Fields, Coventry, CV2 2DR. Parking is at the top of the drive to Peter Hall; road access includes the M6 at Junction 2, M69, M1 and A45.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 02476 613997. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, allowing families to compare the pattern they intend to use with its associated charges.

Funding and Paid Extras

Universal Funding and working-parent funding are offered, with funding spread across the nursery's 51 operating weeks. The fee terms describe universal and extended funding together for eligible three- and four-year-olds, and extended funding for eligible children from nine months to three years. Eligibility is a condition of the working-parent offer, rather than something attendance itself establishes.

Additional hours and days are voluntary and are not required to take up a funded place. Funded-only days are allocated flexibly each month; guaranteeing particular days involves a place-holder charge, which is offset when additional sessions are purchased. This distinction matters for families whose work requires the same days every week.

For funded attendance, parents supply lunch and snacks have no separate charge. Before care, morning sessions and aftercare have separate charges where they sit outside the funded allocation. Standard fees are invoiced by calendar month and payable within seven working days; breakfast and aftercare are billed after use and payable on receipt. Tax-free Childcare can be used for payments alongside funding.

• Collection time. The fee timetable ends the day at 5pm, while the opening-times information gives 6pm. Before agreeing an attendance pattern, establish which collection time applies to your booking.
• Predictable funded days. Funded-only attendance is allocated flexibly each month, with a place-holder charge for guaranteed days that is offset by purchased sessions. The distinction matters for families needing the same attendance days each week.
• Independence and learning updates. In November 2022, improvement was needed in opportunities for children to manage tasks themselves and in explaining their next learning steps to parents. During a visit, ask for examples of both in your child's age group.
• Baby-room routines. The Baby Unit combines a separate sleep room with a daily diary and shared mealtimes. These arrangements make sleep and feeding routines central to the daily exchange with the key worker.

Peter Pan suits families who value outdoor exploration, a countryside setting and care that connects babies with the wider nursery as they grow. Nature Explorers and Coombe Abbey outings give that character substance, while the separate sleep room answers a practical need for younger children.

Its attendance offer serves families using a standard day, a morning session or a funded afternoon block, with before care and aftercare extending the pattern. The decision turns on matching those arrangements to work and family routines, especially where fixed funded days or later collection are essential.