Rockers and Rollers Day Nursery

Bubble tubes, a dedicated sensory room and learning that reaches into Wells give Rockers and Rollers a recognisable character. Based at Priory Health Park on Glastonbury Road, this nursery combines age-group rooms with practical support for children who need adaptations to take part. The sensory space is a substantial part of the offer, rather than an occasional activity: supervised small groups use it daily.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 23 July 2025 inspection. There are 60 places in total. Care starts with babies, and the nursery organises its main age groups into Babies, Toddlers and Pre-school.

There is useful flexibility in the length of the day, with morning, afternoon, All Day and School Day bookings. The practical distinction for parents is between choosing a session and choosing how funding pays for it: the funding arrangements deserve close attention before committing to a pattern.

Rooms and Ages

The age groups run from Babies at 0 to 18 months, through Toddlers at 18 months to 3 years, to Pre-school for rising threes to 5 years. These bands describe the nursery's groups, rather than the number of children sharing a room.

In the Babies Room, sensory resources and toys suited to early development sit alongside an emphasis on balancing activity with feeding and rest. The Toddlers Room adds its own outdoor play space to free play, books, singing and imaginative activities, giving active children somewhere to move as well as explore. Pre-School experiences include baking, painting and music, bringing practical and creative learning into the day.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS is the learning and development framework: children build communication, physical skills, relationships and early understanding through play and planned experiences. It is the foundation of provision here. Staff observe children to decide their next steps, and adult-led activities are offered across the day rather than leaving learning entirely to free play.

Each child has a Key Person responsible for care and education. The termly A Unique Child report card brings together achievements and the next steps planned, giving parents a fuller picture than a collection of photographs alone. This matters when a child is developing unevenly across different skills: the next steps are attached to the individual.

In July 2025, babies explored sand through touch and movement, while toddlers used miniature beach scenes with toy sea creatures for imaginative play. Older children watched a colour experiment involving warm water. Those examples show different ways into learning at different ages, rather than one activity simply repeated for everyone.

Books also had an active role in July 2025. Babies exchanged sounds with adults during shared reading; toddlers joined songs and actions; older children acted out passages from the story of the week and took part in phonics songs. Listening, speaking and early reading were connected through participation.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor spaces are used in different weather conditions, so waterproof clothing and wellies belong in the kit bag. The daily sensory-room sessions offer another physical setting: padded flooring, specialist soft play equipment, bubble tubes and LED light strings allow movement and quieter exploration within the same space.

In July 2025, children took part in Wells in bloom by growing flowers for the festival. Visits to a nearby care home included a sports event involving children and residents, making contact with older people part of their experience of the community.

Animal encounters added a different kind of responsibility that July. Children cared for ducklings, met visiting animals including snakes, and moved garden insects into a bug hotel. These were concrete opportunities to handle curiosity carefully and learn that living creatures need care.

Relationships and Communication

Tapestry, the online learning and communication system, gives parents updates on everyday care alongside photographs and videos of activities. Its personal care diary covers matters such as food and toilet training, and parents can message the team through it. That joins practical information to the learning account, rather than treating them as separate conversations.

For babies, feeding and sleeping arrangements are worked out with parents and carers. Each age-group area has a dedicated sleep room; the Babies and Toddlers rooms provide cots and low beds for children under 2.5 years old, while preschool children can rest in the afternoon when needed. Sleep has a physical place in the setting, which matters for children whose nursery day includes a nap.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Two staff members are trained as Early Years SENCOs. Support has included physical aids, physiotherapy during the nursery day and changes to spaces and activities. These are specific mechanisms for participation, rather than a general promise that every need can be met in the same way.

At its July 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described timely referrals for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, alongside close work with parents and other professionals. Current collection arrangements include authorised collectors and a password procedure for other permitted adults; visitors have their identity checked and sign in.

School preparation includes school-entry plans and liaison with teachers and support staff for children with additional needs. A transfer form is sent to the child's primary school before they leave. This is continuity of information and care, with the child's next setting receiving an account of their development.

Home-cooked food is served, with a daily menu displayed and a monthly meal plan sent to parents. Alternative meals are made for children with dietary requirements or additional needs, giving families a practical basis for discussing their child's eating arrangements.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Priory Health Park, Glastonbury Road, Wells, Somerset, BA5 1XJ. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01749 678995 or by email to contact@rockersandrollersdaynursery.com.

Opening hours are 7.30am to 5.30pm from Monday to Thursday, with a 5pm finish on Friday. The nursery operates across 51 weeks of the year. Its session patterns are Morning, 7.30am to 1pm; Afternoon, 1pm to 5.30pm; All Day, 7.30am to 5.30pm; and School Day, 9am to 3pm, with the earlier Friday closing time applying to the end of the day.

The minimum attendance is two sessions each week. Additional hours can be bought alongside sessions, which gives families a way to extend a booking rather than treating the opening window as the only attendance option.

Up to five inset days may be used annually, with at least a month's warning of planned closures. Changes to a private booking require one month's written notice, while funded bookings require a term's notice. Fees remain payable during sickness absence, and missed days cannot be exchanged for another day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded places are offered for Working Families, Two Year Funding and Early Years Entitlement. Private sessions and additional hours are also charged. The fees and funding page sets out the session structure; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Food is included in the price of private sessions according to the meals attached to each pattern. During fully funded sessions, lunch and tea are charged separately, while breakfast and snacks carry no extra charge; a packed lunch or tea can be supplied instead, subject to the nursery's food rules, and packed meals cannot be reheated.

Wet wipes carry no extra charge, while families bring nappies, milk and bottles when needed, together with sun cream. The consumables arrangement therefore combines nursery-supplied items with items from home. Funded hours are allocated to whole sessions rather than part of a session, so the shape of a booking affects how entitlement is used.

• Funding pattern. Funding terms conflict on whether term-time-only attendance is offered: one arrangement allows it, while the March 2025 policy specifies all-year attendance with stretched funding. Establish the applicable pattern and meal arrangements in the written quotation before booking.
• Friday collection. Friday closes at 5pm, earlier than the end time attached to Afternoon and All Day sessions. Families relying on the later finish need to plan their working week around that distinction.
• Engagement during routines. In July 2025, staff did not consistently organise group activities and daily routines in ways that sustained children's interest and developed their skills fully. On a tour, ask how staff now adapt these moments, including mealtimes, for different children.
• Support in practice. Daily sensory-room use, two trained SENCOs and experience of school-entry plans are useful starting points for families with additional needs. A visit should explore how these arrangements would work for the individual child, including physical assistance and communication with parents.

Rockers and Rollers suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as All Day or School Day attendance. Its strongest practical details are the sensory space, provision for rest, Tapestry communication and specific support mechanisms for additional needs. Community experiences documented in July 2025 add another dimension to the account of children's learning.

The July 2025 improvement point remains relevant when judging everyday practice: interesting activities need consistent adult support to keep children involved. Funding patterns also need resolving before a booking is agreed. For families who value communication about daily care and an individual plan for learning, there is plenty of substance to weigh here.