The Cygnets Milton Pre-School

Story books shape the learning at Cygnets, while a garden mud kitchen gives children another way to test ideas. Our Big Idea, the pre-school's story-based approach, connects children's interests with language, imagination and practical activities. This is a purpose-built setting on the Milton Primary School site, with mixed-age classrooms rather than separate baby, toddler and preschool stages.

At its September 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the pre-school Good overall and judged its education Good, while asking for better organisation of group activities to maintain children's attention. That qualification matters. The strongest examples from that visit involved children choosing, experimenting and doing things independently; some organised group sessions held their interest less successfully.

Cygnets has capacity for 45 children and accepts children from two. Its offer is term-time care, with funded hours and privately paid additional sessions. For families weighing a gradual start against longer attendance, the age rule is useful: half-day sessions begin at two, while full days begin at two and a half.

Rooms and Ages

The Bumblebee room and Ladybird room are mixed-age classrooms, so children share their learning spaces across ages. The building also has decking used for outdoor learning and a garden with a mud kitchen. These give children different settings for play: indoor classrooms, an outdoor learning surface and a garden where materials can be mixed and explored.

The mud kitchen is more than a backdrop. Its activities introduce ideas such as weight, position and capacity through practical play, linking conversations about quantities to something children are making. Loose parts provide another route into imaginative play, with children choosing and combining materials rather than working towards one prescribed result.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning and care: children develop language, physical skills, relationships and other areas of learning through play and supported activities. Our Big Idea adds a recognisable planning method. A story linked to children's interests becomes the starting point for a two-week theme, connecting language and literacy with exploration across those areas.

Children help shape what happens next. Exploring walks let them consider resources and possible activities, while Floor Books collect their contributions through photographs, pictures and words. Revisiting those books gives children a way to recall experiences and develop another idea. Parents also receive Big Idea plans and can contribute to learning at home.

The curriculum includes practical connections between subjects. Cooking uses scales to explore measurement; water play introduces floating and capacity; PE includes yoga and games with balls, hoops and beanbags. Mark-making and handling tools sit alongside cutting, sewing and manipulating materials. This gives families a clearer picture of the day than a promise of school preparation alone.

In September 2023, children investigated herbs, released their scents and cut leaves to mix into dough. Adults extended conversations by clarifying children's sentences and adding vocabulary. However, some group activities were interrupted by other routines or continued beyond children's attention, leaving some distracted. The improvement priority was to organise these times more effectively, rather than simply adding more activities.

Outdoor and Community Life

Garden learning includes caring for plants and investigating insects. Climbing equipment and wheeled vehicles feature in the curriculum too, connecting physical challenge with learning how to use equipment safely. Outdoors is therefore part of the learning plan, alongside the classroom activities.

In September 2023, children watered the garden, climbed with adult supervision and practised moving balance bicycles through shared space. Families also contributed food and demonstrated decorative activities connected with celebrations, including making Diwali lamps. These examples show how practical tasks and family experiences became material for learning, rather than separate additions to the day.

Relationships and Communication

Every child is assigned a key person who supports settling, follows their development and acts as the family's main contact. The settling sequence starts with a home visit, followed by two hour-long classroom sessions: first with a parent or carer, then without them. Normal attendance starts when those sessions have gone well. The arrangement gives the child time to build familiarity before taking on their usual pattern.

Cygnets recommends that a familiar adult remains available during the first few weeks, even after successful settling sessions. A comfortable first hour does not necessarily mean several sessions will feel equally easy. That is a practical consideration for parents arranging work around the start date.

Famly, the digital platform used for updates, learning journals and invoicing, connects families with the pre-school between conversations. Each term, the key person also arranges a call or meeting about development and wellbeing. Termly parent questionnaires provide another channel for feedback. Together, these offer both regular discussion time and ways to contribute outside a scheduled meeting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described staff working with outside professionals to organise targeted SEND support, with additional funding used for resources and assistance. Those are dated judgements, rather than assurances about every child's experience today.

Current support arrangements include a SENCO role, with responsibilities for involving parents, advising colleagues and working with other agencies. The team also has designated safeguarding leads and roles covering transitions, behaviour and mental wellbeing. Practitioners include staff with early years qualifications. These responsibilities give families identifiable routes for discussing development or support needs.

Daily mindfulness activities are part of the curriculum, helping children notice sensations and feelings and practise managing their responses. In September 2023, sand timers and children's name cards made waiting for equipment more understandable; children also practised independence by serving snacks and washing their dishes. Small routines carried useful learning about patience and self-care.

For illness, the pre-school requires children with vomiting or diarrhoea to remain at home until at least 48 hours after symptoms have ended. Families must also report absences promptly. This is a concrete rule to build into backup childcare arrangements.

Sessions and Attendance

Cygnets operates during term time for 38 weeks a year. Half days are accepted from age two, with full days from two and a half. The distinction allows a shorter initial attendance pattern before a child becomes eligible for a whole day.

The 2025/26 timetable set morning sessions at 9am to noon, afternoons at noon to 3pm and full days at 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. It also listed Breakfast Club from 8am to 9am and After School Club from 3pm to 5.30pm. These are the timings for that dated timetable. Children attending afternoon or full-day sessions bring a packed lunch.

The 2026/27 calendar includes half-term closures and training days. Autumn half term runs from 26 to 30 October 2026, and the autumn term ends on 18 December. Term-time attendance therefore needs to be considered alongside the family's holiday cover, rather than treated as an uninterrupted annual arrangement.

Applications use a form, and children can be put forward from 18 months; the date of application does not determine session allocation. Office enquiries go to office@cygnets.org.uk, with telephone contact on 01223 712286.

Getting There

The address is Milton Primary School Site, Humphries Way, Milton, Cambridge CB24 6DL. Sharing the school site does not guarantee a Reception place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Cygnets offers up to 30 funded hours from age two and accepts both 15- and 30-hour funding, delivered during term time. Funded attendance can be combined with privately paid additional sessions. Participation in funding is separate from an individual family's entitlement.

Parents provide packed lunches for afternoon and full-day attendance. Current prices come in the pre-school's written quotation, so families can assess paid additional hours alongside their funded arrangement.

• Group attention. In September 2023, some adult-led activities lost children's interest through interruptions or length. Ask how group times are organised now and how younger children are kept involved.
• The next attendance pattern. Half days start at two and full days at two and a half; the detailed clock times above belong to 2025/26. Ask which 2026/27 sessions and club timings apply to your child's age, and request a written quotation covering additional hours, snacks and non-food consumables.
• Settling and family cover. A home visit and two classroom sessions precede normal attendance, with a familiar adult recommended to remain available during the first few weeks. Build that flexibility into the start, alongside cover for term breaks and training days.

Cygnets suits families seeking term-time morning or afternoon attendance, as well as those considering full days once their child reaches two and a half. Story-led planning, children's contributions to Floor Books and practical garden learning give the offer a clear character. The key-person settling sequence is another useful strength of the arrangement.

The September 2023 Good judgement sits alongside a specific caution about group attention. For a family comfortable with term-time provision and packed lunches, the decision turns on how the current session pattern fits their child and how adult-led activities have been organised since that dated finding.