Jabberwocky Childrens Nursery

Daily woodland learning, animal care and trips to Brean Beach give Jabberwocky Childrens Nursery a character that reaches well beyond its indoor rooms. The Arboretum is central to the day: children explore outdoors, build shelters and use tools, with yurts providing another setting for learning. For families who want nature to be part of ordinary nursery life, this is the strongest reason to look closely.

At its June 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children were progressing well towards their next stages. The same inspection identified two priorities: making staff interactions more consistently engaging and challenging, and giving parents clearer information about learning and their child's next steps. Those are useful questions to bring to a visit, alongside the appeal of the outdoor programme.

Based in Street, Somerset, the nursery accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has 100 places in total. Toaves, Banders and Jabbers provide different environments as children grow. Flexible nursery sessions sit alongside breakfast, after-school and holiday care for older children.

Rooms and Ages

Toaves, the 0-2 room, combines a bright indoor environment and resources for early exploration with its own Baby Garden, giving the youngest children an outdoor space attached to their stage of development.

Banders, for ages 2-3, has a spacious indoor room and a separate Toddlers Garden, with an emphasis on exploration and increasing independence.

Jabbers, for ages 3-5, combines an indoor classroom geared towards preparation for school with the Arboretum's outdoor classroom and two heated yurts, named Cosy Yurt and School Readiness Yurt.

These are different spaces for different stages, rather than one undifferentiated nursery room. The separate gardens for younger children and the woodland classroom for preschool children make the physical environment an important part of the choice. Parents can weigh both the indoor provision and how their child will use the outdoor spaces.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for learning, development and care: children build skills through play, conversation, exploration and everyday routines. Jabberwocky's additions give those routines a practical emphasis. Preschool children practise serving food, making sandwiches and washing their plates, so independence involves doing useful things for themselves.

Planning responds to children's interests as play unfolds. Practitioners join activities, ask questions that invite more than a short answer and demonstrate skills, while leaving children room to investigate. The emphasis on children's own creations also matters: making a card is an opportunity to choose materials and express an idea, rather than reproduce an identical finished product.

Weekly visiting activity leaders bring French, Football, PE, and Music and Movement. Gardening Club involves growing flowers and food, while Cooking Club gives children opportunities to prepare and taste recipes. Woodworking Club adds making and building to the mix. These experiences extend the nursery day through language, movement and practical work; they are additions to the everyday framework rather than a replacement for it.

In June 2023, babies explored natural materials with sustained attention, while older children worked together on where and how to install bird feeders. Children also practised using tools and preparing snacks independently. These examples show how the practical curriculum worked at that time: learning involved choices, physical skills and solving a problem with other children.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School is a daily woodland experience in which children explore, create and take supported risks. At the Arboretum, that includes building dens, outdoor cooking, climbing and using tools. The mud kitchen, planting spaces and yurts give children different ways to play and work, rather than making the woodland visit simply a walk outdoors.

Caring for the woodland has a practical expression too. Children make homes for wildlife, including bird boxes, bug hotels and hedgehog houses. This turns looking after nature into something they can help do. The daily walk also provides opportunities to practise road safety and notice what is happening around them.

Beach School takes learning to Brean Beach, where children investigate rock pools and use natural materials to make marks in the sand. Babies encounter different textures, sights and sounds, while older children can explore early writing on a much larger surface. The beach supplies the materials and the setting for discovery.

Farm School brings animal care into nursery activities. Children prepare vegetables for the guinea pigs, Gordon and Gilbert, and learn to care for giant African Land Snails; hens and a cockerel share the woodland setting. Feeding and caring for animals give children purposeful jobs, with another living creature depending on what they do.

Weekly Minibus Adventures extend the programme beyond the nursery. Seasonal outings include pumpkin patches, fruit farms and smallholdings during lambing season. Visitors also include dentists and police officers, alongside animal encounters and science workshops, connecting children's play with people, places and experiences beyond their immediate rooms.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has an individual Key Person, giving families a particular practitioner around whom to build communication and support. That relationship sits alongside opportunities for parents to talk with staff when bringing or collecting their child. For a young child, the value lies in having a familiar adult involved in their nursery experience.

In June 2023, children copied the considerate behaviour modelled by adults, including thanking staff and saying goodbye to friends. Care information, such as accidents, was shared regularly with parents, and communication supported children's move to school. Information about the curriculum and individual learning priorities was less consistent. Families need both kinds of conversation: how the day went and what their child is learning next.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Preparation for school includes a teacher-led programme covering phonics and maths, with outdoor learning also used as a teaching setting. Practical independence complements that work: serving a meal or making a sandwich gives children repeated opportunities to manage a task for themselves. School preparation here therefore includes everyday capabilities alongside early literacy and number work.

In June 2023, children carried water bottles on woodland walks and were encouraged to drink regularly. Older children used a rope ladder to climb trees, while younger children moved through woodland obstacles. These dated examples illustrate the combination of physical challenge and ordinary health routines within the outdoor day.

Meals and snacks are made by an on-site chef, with home cooking using ingredients from local producers. Food is also part of children's practical learning, through preparing sandwiches, serving meals and washing up.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.15am to 6pm on weekdays, across 51 weeks of the year, with Christmas week closed. Nursery attendance uses a session-based block booking arrangement, with flexible sessions and a choice of funded or self-funded care. That distinction matters: the opening window describes the working day, while the booking arrangement determines a family's attendance pattern.

Breakfast, after-school and holiday care is also offered for ages 5 to 11. For families with children at different stages, this adds another attendance option alongside nursery care for babies, toddlers and preschool children.

Getting There

The address is Unit 2, The Tanyard, Leigh Road, Street, Somerset, BA16 0HD. Access routes include the B3151, with the A39, A37 and A361 also serving journeys to the setting.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email at jabberwockynursery@outlook.com or by telephone on 01458 446999. A separate visit form lets families request an appointment, with the team responding to arrange a date and time.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with entitlement stretched across the year. The 15-hour entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds is delivered as 11.18 hours each week; the 30-hour working-parent entitlement for eligible children aged 9 months to 5 years is stretched to 22.36 weekly hours. This spreads funded attendance beyond a term-time pattern, and eligibility remains part of the funding arrangement.

Private care and additional hours above funded entitlement are also offered. Session block bookings are inclusive, and Enhanced Provision Extras have a separate charge structure. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen arrangement, so the session package, additional hours and extras can be considered together.

• Daily off-site learning. Forest School involves regular journeys to the Arboretum, alongside wider outings by minibus. During a visit, discuss how walks, outdoor clothing and rest fit your child's age and routines.
• Learning conversations. In June 2023, staff did not consistently involve and challenge children fully, and parents needed clearer information about learning priorities. Ask how practitioners now extend play and share the next steps for your child.
• Your session package. Stretched funding, inclusive block bookings and Enhanced Provision Extras all affect the arrangement. Request a written breakdown identifying the treatment of meals, non-food consumables and extras for your chosen sessions.

Jabberwocky suits families seeking flexible sessions or breakfast and after-school and holiday care, with outdoor experiences forming a substantial part of the offer. Daily Forest School, Beach School and animal care give parents concrete reasons to choose it, while the separate younger children's gardens and heated yurts add useful physical detail.

The balance to assess is between the breadth of those experiences and the individual support within them. The June 2023 priorities make engagement during play and communication about learning sensible points to explore. For a child who enjoys practical tasks, animals and outdoor discovery, there is a clear match here.