Fairytales Nursery

French lessons for older children, an Art Room and a Project Room give Fairytales Nursery in Great Barr a recognisable character beyond its age-group rooms. Learning has room to spread out. The offer spans babies through to children preparing for school, with a garden and a sensory room adding different spaces for play and exploration.

At its 7 July 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective, while identifying improvements needed in support for children with SEND and the clarity of instructions during changes of activity. That gives parents a balanced starting point: a positive overall judgement alongside specific questions about daily practice.

Fairytales has capacity for 53 children aged 1 to 60 months. Morning, afternoon and all-day sessions give families different ways to organise attendance, rather than a single daily pattern.

Rooms and Ages

The age-group rooms follow a clear progression: Blossoming Babies covers 0 to 18 months; Talented Toddlers spans 18 to 24 months; Terrific Two's & Three's serves 24 to 36 months; and Thriving Three's & Four's covers 36 to 60 months, with educational play becoming more prominent in Terrific Two's & Three's as children move towards preschool. These room bands describe the organisation of care; the nursery's accepted age range starts at 1 month. Blossoming Babies has one member of staff for every three children.

For children aged two, the usual staffing arrangement is one adult to four children, better than the statutory minimum of one to five. That is a meaningful staffing difference for this age group. It does not establish the number of children sharing a room or the size of a particular day's group.

An Art Room and Project Room provide additional activity spaces, while the sensory room and garden broaden the physical setting beyond the age-group rooms. For parents, the useful distinction is between where a child is based and the other spaces they can use: an age band alone does not describe the whole nursery day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the shared framework for early learning and care, with children developing through active play, exploration and creative thinking indoors and outside. Communication, movement and social development lead into learning such as number work, early literacy and making things. Activities are adapted to children's interests and needs, rather than requiring every child to work through the same task.

Alongside that framework, The Curiosity Approach is used to encourage curiosity and exploration in surroundings intended to feel familiar and homelike. The nursery's curriculum also emphasises kindness, empathy and respect for people and the environment. Those aims give parents something concrete to look for in how staff handle sharing, disagreements and everyday choices, rather than judging the approach by its name alone.

French lessons add a separate language experience for children aged 3 to 5, with visiting teachers coming every two weeks. This brings another adult-led experience into the older children's day. It is an addition to the ordinary early-years learning framework, rather than a substitute for it.

In July 2025, babies took part in yoga and garden play involving bubbles and water. Children aged two to three joined stories and singing, while preschool children experimented with paint, dough and a cornflour mixture, connecting their creations with a story. These examples show how the day could combine physical activity, language and making things, with different experiences for different stages.

Outdoor and Community Life

In July 2025, the wider programme included forest school sessions, providing an outdoor learning experience, and organised seaside trips. A local doctor and the fire service had also visited. Such experiences take learning beyond nursery materials: children encounter people with different jobs and places beyond their usual rooms.

Current parent partnership arrangements include organising visits from dentists, opticians, police and the fire service, alongside outings. These are planned visitor links, rather than a claim that every visitor attends on a fixed timetable. The combination gives families a useful picture of the nursery's interest in its surrounding community.

Relationships and Communication

In July 2025, each child had a key person, and staff used observations to plan what the child would work on next. Babies turned to familiar adults when they needed comfort. For families, this connects emotional care with learning: the adult who knows a child also helps decide which activities will build on their interests and development.

Communication has several practical routes. A parent partnership coordinator organises family events each month, and parents can request a prospectus in English, Polish or Ukranian. The open-door policy allows parents to ask to see their child during the day. These arrangements give families different ways to understand and take part in nursery life.

At age 2, parents receive a written progress summary covering language and communication, physical development, and social and emotional development. It identifies strengths and areas needing more help. That creates a specific opportunity to compare what staff see in nursery with what parents notice at home.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The July 2025 inspection found that staff needed to use SEND resources and strategies more fully across the day, and to make instructions clearer when children changed spaces or tidied up. Both points matter because participation depends on children understanding what happens next and receiving support that works throughout their routine, rather than only during a planned activity.

In July 2025, the nursery drew on local inclusion and speech and language teams. It also ran community support groups, including a breastfeeding clinic. The current professional links include the Sandwell Early Years Development Team, giving the nursery a named route for working with outside specialists.

Staff development includes further qualifications, short courses and training within the nursery, with qualifications across the team extending from NVQ Level 3 to degree level. These describe the team's training and development arrangements; they do not replace the need to consider how individual children are supported in practice.

Fresh meals are prepared for children at different developmental stages, and children are encouraged to choose healthy snacks. On funded bookings, meals and non-food consumables, including nappies, wipes and sun cream, fall within a voluntary enhanced resources charge. Enhanced resources are free with full-time bookings, and families unable or unwilling to pay can discuss alternative arrangements with the nursery manager.

Preparation for school includes working with local schools and the wider community. This is transition support: helping the child move into a new setting, rather than an admissions advantage at a named school.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 6 Birmingham Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, B43 6NR. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and the nursery operates throughout the year, closing for bank holidays and Christmas. The opening window is longer than the standard morning booking, so families should distinguish the nursery's operating hours from their child's contracted session.

Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm; afternoon sessions are 1pm to 6pm; and All Day runs from 8am to 6pm. Full-time attendance is also offered Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Early bird sessions can be added as a permanent booking, and hours beyond a funded allocation are charged privately.

The enquiry form takes a proposed start date, the child's age and the days requested. Families can also telephone 0121 713 1663. Holiday care packages serve children aged 3 to 5, with the option to spread payment monthly, offering a separate arrangement for families organising childcare during school holidays.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible working families from 9 months to school age, as well as the universal entitlement for children aged three and four and eligible two-year-old funding. The working-parent offer is 30 hours a week; eligibility conditions apply. Funding is stretched across the year, spreading the allocation over more weeks rather than retaining the term-time weekly total.

The lower stretched allocation requires at least two sessions across two days; the higher stretched allocation requires four sessions over at least two days. The maximum funded allocation is 10 hours in a day. These conditions matter when matching funded hours to a morning, afternoon or all-day booking. Current prices should be obtained in the nursery's written quotation.

For funded attendance, a voluntary enhanced resources charge covers food, non-food consumables and additional activities. Enhanced resources are free with full-time bookings, and families unable or unwilling to pay can discuss alternative arrangements with the nursery manager. Food comprises breakfast, lunch, snacks and tea according to the booked session; the consumables package includes nappies, wipes and sun cream. The charge structure also provides for additional private hours, so a funded allocation and a child's complete childcare bill are separate considerations.

• SEND support throughout the day. July 2025's improvement point concerned making fuller use of available strategies and resources. During a visit, ask how support now carries through group activities, free play and changes of routine for a child with similar needs to yours.
• Moving between activities. Clearer instructions during tidying and changes of space were another July 2025 priority. A tour is a useful opportunity to discuss the cues staff use to help children understand and cooperate with these everyday changes.
• The funded contract. Funded hours sit alongside paid additional hours and a voluntary enhanced resources charge, with enhanced resources free on full-time bookings and alternative arrangements to discuss if families cannot or do not wish to pay. Match the written quotation to the actual sessions you intend to book so that meals, consumables and extra attendance are accounted for.

Fairytales suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance as well as those booking all-day or full-time care. Its French lessons, additional activity rooms and community visitors give parents concrete reasons to consider it, while year-round funding can help align entitlement with continuing childcare needs.

The Good judgement from July 2025 is balanced by clear priorities around SEND participation and everyday instructions. Families whose children need extra help with communication or changes of routine should make those points central to their visit. The strongest fit is a family that values age-group care, varied learning spaces and involvement in nursery life, and whose chosen attendance pattern works with the funded and private charge structure.