Lady Bay Pre-School

A paper chain across Waterside Bridge captures Lady Bay Pre-School’s character rather well. In July 2026, children joined a community art project with children from neighbouring primary schools, taking their own contributions beyond the church halls and into the place where they live. Community life supplies real material for learning here.

Based at All Hallows’ Church Halls in West Bridgford, the pre-school welcomes children from age 2 and has 30 places in total. Children of different ages play together rather than being divided into age-specific rooms. That arrangement makes older children’s play and conversation part of younger children’s everyday experience.

Ofsted rated the setting Good on 2 April 2025, with improvements required in mathematics teaching and participation during group activities. Those are useful qualifications to an otherwise positive picture. Term-time attendance includes morning sessions and longer days, with a minimum booking of one three-hour session each week.

Learning and Activities

Learning begins with children’s own ideas. The EYFS Statutory Framework sets the foundation: children develop communication, relationships and physical skills through play, alongside early experiences of numbers, books, creativity and the world around them. Lady Bay’s curriculum description gives particular emphasis to children directing their learning, with staff planning activities that extend what interests them.

Mixed-age play gives younger children opportunities to learn from older peers, while older children can act as role models.

In April 2025, children experimented with making play dough, noticing what happened when wet ingredients met dry ones and connecting this with earlier bread-making. Construction play also held their attention: assembling a train track gave children a practical problem to solve. These examples show how familiar materials can support observation, memory and persistence, rather than simply filling the session.

Books were another part of that April 2025 day. Adults read individually with children and used objects to support storytelling; older children returned independently to familiar books. However, mathematical activities did not reliably extend existing knowledge, and the size of some group story sessions prevented everyone from taking part.

Outdoor and Community Life

Lady Bay Arts Community Project is an annual collaboration rooted in the local area. Its July 2026 project brought the pre-school together with Lady Bay Primary and William Booth Primary on Waterside Bridge, where children’s individual paper links became a shared chain. This gives creative work an audience and a purpose beyond the activity table.

Visits bring different kinds of experience. A bus trip to Central Library in May 2026 combined exploring with reading, while an April 2025 outing to Nottingham Contemporary introduced children to an exhibition of sculptures.

Nottingham Playhouse performed The Little Mermaid at the setting in January 2026, supported by the Lady Bay Community Fund and attended by local families as well as the pre-school community. The theatre visit adds live performance to children’s experience of stories. During summer 2026, People Who Help Us brought visitors in to discuss their work, including a GP, a structural engineer, the community policing team and a community first responder. Children could connect people’s jobs with the services around them.

Outdoor learning has practical roots too. In June 2024, the courtyard contained a mud kitchen, plants grown by the children and a wheelie bin wormery supported by the Lady Bay Community Fund. In April 2025, the adopted Community Planter at Pierrepont Road and Trent Boulevard was replanted as a sensory garden. These dated projects connect growing and environmental care with familiar local spaces; park visits during 2025/26 added opportunities for movement and playing cooperatively.

Relationships matter in the shared-age setting. In April 2025, children separated readily from parents, chose their own activities and received calm help with feelings and friendships. Adults explained considerate behaviour and made resources accessible so that children could organise their own play. Preparing for school included managing personal care and getting along with others, giving independence a practical meaning.

At its April 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective, identified parent partnership as a strength and found that staff sought timely agency advice for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Settling sessions are unlimited under the voluntary registration arrangement, which also covers administration when a child starts. That provides room for a gradual introduction rather than prescribing a fixed number of preliminary visits. The registration charge is added to the first invoice, but remains voluntary.

Parents also have a route into the organisation itself. Lady Bay is a charity overseen by a committee drawn from current and former parents and other members of the local community. Committee involvement gives families an opportunity to contribute to how the pre-school is run.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is All Hallows’ Church Halls, Pierrepont Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 5BP. General enquiries can be made by telephone or email, with a separate email route for fee enquiries.

Monday to Friday attendance follows term time. Four session options start at 9am: collection is at noon, 1pm, 3pm or 3.30pm. The final option includes collection from Lady Bay Primary.

The minimum commitment is one three-hour session per week. Booked sessions remain chargeable if a child is away through illness or holiday, and missed sessions cannot be exchanged. Extra attendance is charged privately on an ad-hoc basis, subject to the separate arrangements for using unused funding described below.

Funding and Paid Extras

Government-funded childcare and privately paid hours can be used here, and tax-free childcare is accepted. Funding includes the universal 15 hours from the term after a child’s third birthday and support for eligible two-year-olds and working families.

Unused weekly entitlement can be stretched across the academic year towards additional sessions. The allocation is calculated half-termly, while invoices arrive monthly: once the allocation is exhausted, further extra hours in that half term are charged privately. This arrangement stretches funding within the academic year; attendance remains term-time.

Snacks carry a separate charge, including when childcare is funded, or parents can provide an equivalent healthy snack for each attended session instead. A voluntary half-termly donation supports enrichment such as baking, plant growing, butterfly kits and community trips.

Pay to Play days are open days outside funded hours, with attendance charged privately; children normally using funding are not obliged to attend. The 2026/27 diary identifies the Christmas Party on 18 December and July dates of 26, 27 and 28, with the Christmas session finishing at 1pm. Current prices come in the pre-school’s written quotation.

Moving on to School

The pre-school describes strong links with Lady Bay Primary School and says that most children move on there. Attendance does not guarantee a Reception place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process. The collection arrangement at Lady Bay Primary is a practical service, separate from the school’s admissions decision.

• Mathematics and shared story times. April 2025 improvement points concerned extending mathematical learning and enabling every child to participate in group activities. During a visit, ask to see how adults pitch number activities and organise stories for the mixed-age children.
• Term-time bookings and funded days. The minimum is one three-hour session weekly, absences cannot be swapped, and Pay to Play attendance is privately charged. Match the regular pattern and the Christmas early finish to your family’s calendar before committing.
• Settling and personal care. Unlimited settling sessions are covered by the voluntary registration arrangement.
• Lady Bay Primary collection. The 3.30pm option uses collection at Lady Bay Primary. Discuss that handover during a visit if it would help your family, while keeping the separate Reception application in mind.

Lady Bay Pre-School suits families seeking either short morning sessions or longer term-time days, with mixed-age play and community participation forming much of its character. The bridge art project, library outing and visiting theatre give that character substance.

The April 2025 mathematics and group-participation concerns deserve attention alongside the positive assessment of care and relationships. For families comfortable with the term-time calendar, separate snack arrangements and non-funded days, this is a pre-school with a clear local identity and concrete opportunities for children to learn beyond the church halls.