Paper Moon Day Nursery, Gamston

A small baby room within a purpose-built nursery gives Paper Moon Day Nursery, Gamston its clearest practical character. There are 70 places in total, with care for children aged three months to five years at Gamston District Centre. Fresh food is prepared on site, and the activity offer includes a sports coach.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 5 October 2022 inspection. That is a dated judgement, with useful detail beneath it: children used stories, songs and signs, while two improvement points concerned indoor movement for one-year-olds and equipment for two-year-olds learning to care for themselves.

Full-time attendance and funded sessions form part of the offer. The choice deserves attention alongside the baby-room environment, rather than treating the opening hours as the whole decision.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and everyday routines are opportunities to build language, physical skills and independence. At Gamston, the current activity offer names Rattle and roll, alongside a sports coach. These add named activities to the nursery day; families considering them can explore their content and timing during a visit.

In October 2022, songs and accompanying signs helped children connect words with meaning. Staff also introduced vocabulary while playing beside them. This made conversation part of play, rather than reserving it for a separate activity, and gave children ways to participate while their spoken language was developing.

Stories had a physical dimension too. In October 2022, older children acted out familiar tales and took a pretend bear hunt into the garden, joining in with recurring phrases. Books about feelings used colours to explore emotions. Together, those examples show how a story could prompt movement, conversation and imaginative play within the same experience.

Outdoor and Everyday Learning

In October 2022, outdoor slides gave children opportunities to experiment with movement under staff supervision. Indoors, staff moved toys to encourage babies who were not yet mobile to roll over. These were different responses to different stages of physical development.

The limitation concerned children who were already more active. In October 2022, one-year-olds were sometimes redirected towards another activity instead of having their interest in indoor movement extended. For parents of an energetic young toddler, the important question is how the baby-room day now accommodates that urge to move.

In October 2022, children sought help from staff and supported one another with practical tasks, including removing outdoor suits. Encouragement took concrete forms: staff acknowledged persistence with gestures and praise, and toilet-learning achievements received stickers. Care and learning overlapped in these small exchanges.

At the October 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and praised the collaboration between staff, families and professionals supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For those children, shared communication strategies connected nursery practice with home, giving families a practical example of coordinated support.

In October 2022, staff used words from children's home languages to help explain instructions and routines. Books could also be borrowed for reading with parents. Both arrangements connected nursery experiences with home life, through familiar language and shared stories rather than expecting learning to stop at the nursery door.

Independence needed more consistent attention. In October 2022, children helped themselves to food and practised judging portions, but two-year-olds did not consistently receive suitable equipment for developing self-care, including open cups. This matters because ordinary routines can either give children a manageable task to practise or leave adults doing it for them.

Fresh meals are prepared at the nursery. Having preparation on site is a concrete part of the daily care offer.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Gamston operates for 51 weeks each year, excluding bank holidays, and closes for a week at Christmas. Families planning care across the year therefore need to accommodate those closures in their working arrangements.

Full-time places are offered, alongside funded sessions for children aged nine months and upwards. Opening hours describe the operating window; the attendance choice also needs to fit the child's age and the family's funding arrangements.

Getting There

The address is Gamston District Centre, Gamston, Nottinghamshire, NG2 6PS. Enquiries can be made through the Gamston contact form, by telephone on 0115 982 2220 or by email at gamston@papermoonnurseries.co.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered from nine months upwards. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, allowing families to consider paid attendance alongside funded sessions without assuming that the two have identical terms.

• Indoor movement for younger children. The October 2022 improvement point concerned extending one-year-olds' interest in being physically active indoors. During a visit, ask how the baby room supports children who want to move and explore.
• Everyday independence. The October 2022 improvement point also concerned suitable self-care equipment for two-year-olds. Ask how cups and other everyday resources now help children practise these skills.
• Funded attendance and extras. Funding starts from nine months upwards. How would your proposed attendance use funded hours, and what would the written quotation include for meals, consumables and Rattle and roll?

Gamston suits families seeking full-time attendance or funded sessions in a purpose-built setting with a small baby room and food prepared on site. The October 2022 examples give the most useful picture of its practice: conversation during play, stories carried into the garden and links between nursery learning and home.

The two age-specific improvement points deserve equal weight. For families with one- or two-year-olds, today's arrangements for indoor movement and self-care are central to deciding whether this nursery fits their child.