Cheeky Cherubs Nursery

Mud kitchens, a nursery allotment and swimming at Dudding’s Pool give Cheeky Cherubs Nursery a practical, outdoors-facing character. This Minehead setting combines separate spaces for babies, mobile toddlers and preschool children with garden access throughout the year. Outdoor play belongs to the ordinary day; organised activities add opportunities beyond the nursery grounds.

At its July 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding and judged safeguarding effective. The current setting has 72 places in total and cares for children from birth to five. Its purpose-built accommodation at Alcombe Children’s Centre includes a sensory room and two sleep rooms, giving active play and rest their own spaces.

Individual baby routines, primary and secondary key people, and Famly, an app for sharing learning records, connect care with home. Older children can join optional, separately charged Forest School outdoor learning and Swimming Club lessons.

Rooms and Ages

Discoverers serves babies from birth until confident mobility, with a separate sleep room, a kitchenette for preparing bottles, its own garden and spaces for quiet exploration, physical movement and messy play. The organisation matters: feeding, sleeping and play can follow a baby’s routine rather than depend on the timetable of an older group.

Explorers is for confidently mobile children, roughly two to three, and combines an emphasis on independence with a play gym, a quiet room and direct garden access. Adventurers serves ages three to five, using freely accessible construction and creative resources, mud kitchens and a play dough kitchen alongside stories, songs and small-group activities. These rooms give toddlers space to move and preschool children opportunities to choose resources and sustain their own play.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning and care: children develop communication, physical and social skills through play, alongside early literacy, mathematics, creativity and exploration of their surroundings. Development Matters, guidance used to inform planning and assessment, helps staff organise this work; observations and parents’ knowledge of home life inform individual next steps.

Child-chosen and adult-led activities sit alongside each other. Observations guide next steps, while parent appointments provide time to discuss development.

In July 2023, babies practised animal vocabulary through pictures, objects and signs, while older children explored counting through dice patterns and matching numerals. Storytelling involved porridge and props; squeezing wet sponges exercised hands and fingers. The examples show how language, number and physical development were built into activities children could handle and explore.

Forest School adds outdoor exploration through games, stories and activities connected with the natural world. Wild Wellies works with the nursery’s Forest School team, and the optional term-time offer for Explorers and Adventurers runs on Tuesdays and Fridays. Swimming Club provides lessons for children aged two and over at Dudding’s Pool in Timberscombe, with payment made ahead of each half term.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden is divided between the age groups, with climbing equipment, play houses and sand play extending the indoor activities. Explorers and Adventurers each have a permanent mud kitchen; Discoverers has a smaller one in its garden. All-in-one waterproofs are supplied, making clothes that tolerate messy outdoor play a sensible everyday choice.

Growing flowers and vegetables in the nursery allotment gives children something to care for over time. Other activities include sports day and visits to a local farm and fire station. These broaden the day beyond room-based play, although the optional Forest School and swimming arrangements remain separate from the ordinary garden provision.

In July 2023, weekly forest visits, supermarket shopping, beach rock pools and cooking with care-home residents brought learning into the community. An ambulance crew had also visited, introducing children to emergency workers’ roles.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has primary and secondary key people who work with families on observations and assessment. Changes normally accompany room moves, giving parents a clear point at which relationships may change.

Babies are fed and changed by their key person and sleep according to their own routine. Discoverers’ separate sleep room supports that arrangement, and the nursery also has a sensory room with equipment for sensory exploration and physical activity. Rest and quieter experiences sit alongside the more energetic parts of the day.

Famly is the app used to share each child’s learning journey, including observations, photographs and next steps. Parents can add comments and information themselves. Regular parent drop-in sessions and appointments create opportunities for conversation alongside the app, so family contributions can shape planning rather than simply acknowledge an update.

In July 2023, parents valued informative home visits by key people, and parents received daily updates in conversation and online. Children were becoming more independent through finding their drinking cups, using cutlery and helping with lunch. Those dated examples complement the current emphasis on individual routines and familiar adults.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted found highly effective support for children with SEND, including work with other professionals and environmental adaptations such as contrasting colours on outdoor posts for children with visual difficulties. That is a useful example of support changing the physical environment as well as adult practice.

Current planning takes account of individual needs, and families are invited to contribute what they know about their child. The nursery also supports potty training and asks families to send sufficient spare clothing, nappies and wipes. These arrangements make continuity between home and nursery a practical part of care.

Food is cooked on site each day by the nursery’s cook using fresh, locally sourced produce, with individual dietary and weaning needs catered for. Weekly menus and lunchtime eating updates are shared through Famly, and an allergy folder details ingredients for families to review.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks, excluding bank holidays and a short Christmas closure.

Families book flexible hours in half-hour increments, with no fixed session packages. An 8am start can be arranged in advance; additional sessions can be requested through the nursery office. This lets families shape attendance within the opening window.

Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and enrolment forms and a nursery contract are provided. Uniform is optional. Children need practical clothing, spare clothes and weather-appropriate items such as wellington boots or a sun hat; the nursery supplies waterproof outerwear for use there.

Getting There

The address is Alcombe Children’s Centre, Stephenson Road, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 5EB. Driving directions place the main car park beyond the veterinary surgery on Stephenson Road, with the disabled car park approached through Fownes Road.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible two-year-olds and for three- and four-year-olds, including the 15-hour entitlement and 30-hour funding for eligible working families. The 15-hour arrangement can run over 38 weeks or be stretched to 11 hours across 51 weeks, with a maximum of seven funded hours claimed on one day. Additional paid hours are billed after the funded allocation is deducted; families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen attendance.

Breakfast for children attending before 8.30am and morning and afternoon snacks are included without an additional charge, while cooked lunch is charged separately. Parents provide nappies and wipes; the nursery supplies its standard sun cream in warm weather, with families able to send their own suitable product instead.

Forest School and Swimming Club are optional, separately charged term-time activities.

• The move from Discoverers. Confident mobility helps determine the move into older provision. At a visit, discuss how the transition would work for your child and how the primary and secondary key people hand over.
• Flexible bookings and funded hours. Attendance is booked in half-hour increments, while the 15-hour funding arrangement has a seven-hour daily claim limit. Ask for a written quotation showing how your intended hours, lunch and optional activities fit together.
• Allergies and weaning. The nursery caters for individual dietary needs and keeps an ingredient folder. Families managing allergies should confirm current kitchen practice and how their child’s requirements are communicated.

Cheeky Cherubs suits families seeking flexible attendance, individual baby routines and outdoor exploration. Separate baby spaces and parent contributions through Famly support that offer; Forest School with Wild Wellies and swimming at Dudding’s Pool add choices for older children.

The July 2023 Outstanding judgement is a strong dated assessment. Families should weigh the funded-hour limits and separately charged extras against their intended attendance.