Explorers at Sundorne

Friday Forest School, turns at Tuesday gymnastics and visits to Attingham Park give Explorers at Sundorne a day that reaches beyond indoor play. Its school-ground setting makes outdoor learning a practical part of the week, while community visits give children opportunities to meet people and explore places beyond nursery.

At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Outstanding across all five judgement areas. The early-years provision caters for children aged two to five and has 80 places in total; school-age childcare is a separate part of the offer. These are whole-setting places, rather than a measure of the number sharing an activity or space.

Families can choose shorter morning or afternoon sessions as well as longer nursery days, with term-time and year-round attendance options. The important distinction is between the regular nursery booking and holiday care, which needs a separate booking.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: here, children build language, independence and understanding through play, supported by practitioners who extend their ideas. Much of the play is led by children themselves. Adults observe their interests, join an activity when useful and use questions or demonstrations to help an idea develop.

Daily small-group activities build on children's current interests, while independently chosen resources leave room for their own investigations.

In July 2024, learning extended into visits to places of worship, where children explored artwork and discussed shapes, structures and time. A station visit introduced transport through a real place rather than pictures alone. These examples show how an outing can become material for conversation and mathematical thinking, rather than simply a change of scene.

Children also used water, containers and tubes to investigate how to move boats more quickly in the garden in July 2024. Older children helped younger ones adjust the flow. It was a practical example of children testing ideas together, with a physical result they could see.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School is a weekly Friday-morning session on the school grounds, using a natural outdoor space for exploration and practical learning. Trails and treasure hunts sit alongside counting collected objects, comparing twigs and making pictures with natural materials. The activities connect movement, language and mathematics to things children can handle and investigate.

Outdoor play is also accessible whatever the weather, with indoor and outdoor resources available for children to select. Families choosing a morning pattern should pay attention to which days their child attends: Friday carries the Forest School session, while Severn Gymnastics takes place on Tuesdays, with children taking turns to participate.

Children have opportunities to explore Attingham Park and, through Montgomery House visits, share activities with Montgomery Care home residents and build relationships across generations.

Community visits include the local library, church, shops and park. In July 2024, weekly outings included care homes, country parks, gymnastics and the library.

Relationships and Communication

A key person links each child's nursery experience with home. Parents can contribute to learning stories, and Tapestry, the online learning journal, holds photographs, observations and comments connected to the EYFS. Families can add their own photographs and comments too. That gives practitioners a way to connect something a child does at home with their play and learning at nursery.

Book Bag provides a paper counterpart to Tapestry: a library story to share at home and a communication book for questions, information and feedback.

Settling includes a pre-visit with the child, allowing time to meet staff and become familiar with routines and other children. A home visit is also offered, involving the key person and another practitioner. Meeting in the child's own surroundings gives them an opportunity to share familiar experiences to help develop their relationship with the key person.

In July 2024, children discussed the day's highlights and their feelings in reflection meetings, and those conversations helped shape later planning. Staff also asked permission before helping with toileting and offered choices about the next activity. These are concrete ways of making a young child's views part of everyday care.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children made rapid progress, children with SEND received exceptional support and safeguarding arrangements were effective. The current support structure includes an SEN Assistant role, work with outside professionals and a close relationship with the CDC centre to support children's developmental pathways.

Early intervention and referrals are part of that work. For a family already working with other services, the useful feature is the nursery's involvement with those professionals and the exchange of information around an individual child's needs.

Snacks come with milk or water, and a morning snack bar lets children help themselves to food and drinking water. A child chooses the snack for friends each day, making eating a small opportunity for participation as well as a social part of the routine.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Harlescott Junior School, Featherbed Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 4QN. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Nursery attendance can be term-time or year-round, and holiday care is booked separately.

Standard nursery sessions include 7.30am to 6pm and 9am to 3pm, alongside mornings from 9am to noon or 1pm, and an afternoon from noon to 3pm. A noon-to-6pm session is another option. Those different finishing times matter: a shorter morning, a school-length day and an extended afternoon support different family routines.

Big Explorers is the school-age childcare offer. Breakfast Club runs from 7.30am to 9am, with breakfast served until 8.30am; an 8am start is also offered. After-school bookings run from 3pm to either 4.30pm or 6pm, with collection from Sundorne Infants and Harlescott Juniors. Additional hours can be arranged around families' needs.

Holiday Club runs from 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays for children from age two to the end of Year 2. A 9am-to-3pm holiday booking is also offered for school children. Children help staff plan activities around their interests. Enquiries and enrolment use the contact form, telephone or email; joining involves a registration form and a non-refundable deposit.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for two-, three- and four-year-olds, including 24U funding through Shropshire Council for eligible two-year-olds. The nursery directs eligibility checks through the relevant funding routes. Its times and prices page sets out session choices; families should obtain current prices in a written quotation.

Moving on to School

Explorers sits within the grounds of Sundorne Infants and Nursery School and provides early-years wraparound collection from Sundorne Nursery school. In July 2024, school preparation included teacher visits, visits by children to their future school and opportunities to practise dressing in school uniform.

These arrangements support familiarity with school life. Attendance does not guarantee a Reception place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

• Days shape the experience. Forest School is on Friday mornings and Severn Gymnastics takes place on Tuesdays, with children participating in turns. At a pre-visit, discuss how a morning, afternoon or longer-day booking would fit those activities and settling.
• Holiday food needs clarification. Holiday Club information gives conflicting arrangements: one version requires a packed lunch and provides snacks and tea, while another provides food throughout the day. Confirm which arrangement applies to the booking.
• Funded-place costs. Funding covers the stated age groups, and enrolment requires a non-refundable deposit. Ask for a written breakdown of the funded attendance pattern, private hours, meals, consumables and any activity charges before agreeing terms.
• School care and Reception are separate decisions. Collection arrangements and school-ground provision can help organise family routines, but nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Keep the local authority application separate from childcare bookings.

Explorers suits families looking for an outward-looking nursery experience: natural-space learning on Fridays, gymnastics on Tuesdays and opportunities to visit Attingham Park or share activities with care-home residents. Tapestry, Book Bag and the key-person relationship give parents several practical ways to contribute to their child's day.

It also serves more than one attendance pattern. Short morning or afternoon sessions sit alongside longer days and term-time or year-round care, with school-age provision available through Big Explorers. The Outstanding judgement dates from July 2024; the strongest current reasons to choose it are the concrete activity programme, parent communication and breadth of session choices. Holiday bookings and funded-place terms deserve careful attention before committing.