Highley Minors Childcare Centre

A child's ambition to become a clock maker became a construction and drawing activity at Highley Minors Childcare Centre: in March 2024, children built Big Ben with magnetic shapes and added hands to a clock drawing. It is a telling example of staff using children's interests to shape learning, rather than letting a question end with a quick answer.

Based at The Severn Centre in Highley, the nursery accepts children from three months to five years within its early-years provision. At its 12 March 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Good and found safeguarding effective. The practical offer includes full-day care and educational sessions.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care; here, the March 2024 examples show learning through play, conversation and everyday tasks. Children matched written numbers with quantities, explored shapes and discussed size and position. Toddlers investigated the difference between an oblong and a square. These are concrete ways of bringing mathematical language into play rather than reserving it for a separate lesson.

Children's questions also prompted staff to use technology to investigate answers in March 2024. The clock-making example combined construction with drawing, giving an interest more than one route into learning. For a parent, that matters because a child's own idea can become the starting point for an activity.

Language support included talk boost programmes in March 2024, with staff receiving specialist training to deliver them. Signs, pictures and physical objects accompanied spoken vocabulary, while adults repeated words and demonstrated clear speech. The combination gave children several ways to connect a word with its meaning.

Outdoor and Everyday Play

In March 2024, toddlers practised controlling bicycles outdoors through a game involving stopping and starting. Self-opening scissors helped children cut paper, and action songs exercised fingers and thumbs. Movement featured at different scales: steering a bicycle and handling a tool both had a place in the day.

The youngest children's experience needs closer attention. In March 2024, the arrangement of activities and resources in the baby room did not consistently draw babies into purposeful play. Older children's activities were adapted more readily to sustain their involvement. That difference is material for families choosing care for a baby.

At the March 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefited from sensitive support, including communication aids, individual time and signs that helped them express choices. A mealtime example involved signing for a spoon so a child could communicate which cutlery they wanted. Support was tied to an everyday need.

In March 2024, staff brought parents and health visitors together to discuss the developmental check for two-year-olds. They also used attention-building games recommended by other professionals. For families working with several people around a child's development, those shared approaches help connect nursery support with the wider conversation.

Independence was practised through small tasks in March 2024. A step helped children climb onto the changing table under supervision; after lunch, children emptied food remnants from their bowls and took part in tidying. Adults also talked with children about toothbrushing and healthy food. Care routines doubled as opportunities to practise doing things for themselves.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens on weekdays from 7.45am to 6pm. Full-day care and educational sessional care provide different attendance options, while the opening hours describe the operating window rather than the length of every booking.

It operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and one week at Christmas. That Christmas closure is a practical consideration for families whose work continues through the holiday period.

Getting There

The address is The Severn Centre, Bridgnorth Road, Highley, WV16 6JG. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01746 860005 or by email to enquiries@highleyminors.com.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers 30 hour government funding, with application through the local authority, and 15 hour government funding for children aged three years and over. It also offers 24U funding, subject to application through the local authority. These are separate funding routes; none amounts to a guarantee that an individual family qualifies.

• Baby-room play. In March 2024, activities and resources did not consistently engage the youngest children in purposeful play. On a visit, ask how the baby room now supports sustained exploration.
• Oversight of teaching. In March 2024, monitoring of staff practice needed strengthening. Ask how the manager now reviews teaching and follows up with practitioners.
• Booking and total cost. Full-day care and educational sessions are offered. Ask for a written quotation for your intended attendance, including how funded hours are arranged and who pays for meals and consumables.

Highley Minors suits families considering either full-day care or educational sessions, with weekday opening hours and operation across the year. Its March 2024 examples give substance to the nursery day: children's interests prompted activities, mathematical ideas entered play, and daily care included opportunities for independence. Families choosing for a baby should give the organisation of play particular weight, alongside the need for stronger oversight of teaching identified in March 2024.