Kiddi Caru Day Nursery and Preschool Hanham

Natural grass, rooms opening straight outdoors and a garden children help to tend give Hanham a clear character: this is a nursery where outdoor play connects with what happens inside. A dedicated sensory room provides a quieter counterpoint. Together, these spaces offer children opportunities both to explore actively and to spend time in calmer surroundings.

Kiddi Caru Day Nursery and Preschool Hanham accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has 77 places in total. Its address is Hanham Hall, Whittucks Road, Hanham, Bristol, BS15 3FR. At its 15 April 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall, found safeguarding effective and recognised a curriculum that developed children's communication through carefully supported play.

The current approach combines natural materials, learning shaped by children's interests and regular community outings. Parents receive updates through a nursery app, while take-home activity packs connect nursery experiences with family time. Full-day attendance has a minimum booking of two days a week.

Rooms and Ages

Discoverers, Explorers, Creators and Inventors are the four playrooms, with natural light contributing to an airy indoor setting. Moves between rooms depend on children's physical and emotional readiness. For parents, that makes readiness an explicit part of the transition rather than treating a room move simply as a birthday milestone.

Direct outdoor access links the rooms with the gardens, allowing indoor exploration and outdoor play to sit alongside each other. The sensory room has a different purpose: it provides space for sensory exploration, communication and help with regulating emotions. It is a useful physical feature for families considering how their child responds to busy group activities.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, with play supporting communication, movement and relationships. Hanham's own approach adds a calm, Hygge-inspired setting for babies and toddlers, giving them room to explore and settle at their own pace. For older children, the Curiosity Approach and In-the-Moment Planning organise learning around children's interests and choices, using natural materials that can be put to different uses.

That translates into loose-parts play, making things from discarded materials and creative activities rather than relying only on finished toys. Children can decide what a material becomes and how to use it. Sing & Sign, Boogie Mites and Makaton also form part of the activity offer, supporting communication, creativity and confidence alongside these practical experiences.

In April 2025, babies selected instruments and chose songs during group singing, while adults added words to their actions and routines. A separate example involved using an interest in trains to encourage exploration of shredded paper. These are concrete illustrations of adults taking a child's existing interest and turning it into another opportunity to participate.

Older children used scissors, prepared fruit with knives and practised picking up small objects with tweezers in April 2025. The point was practical: hand control developed through tasks children could understand and enjoy. In the mud kitchen, mixing soil and water brought imaginative play together with handling materials and sharing equipment.

Outdoor and Community Life

Natural grass and access between indoors and outdoors support play throughout the year. Children can dig, climb and explore, while the Growing Garden gives them opportunities to tend plants. This adds an ongoing task to outdoor time: children have something to care for as well as space to move.

Regular outings include nature trails, local parks and shops where children buy baking ingredients. These trips connect nursery activities with familiar places and everyday purposes. Community members also visit the nursery, extending children's encounters beyond their usual staff and peers; the enrichment offer includes experiences involving different generations.

Relationships and Communication

The nursery app shares information about routines, children's progress, events and the day they have had. Take-home activity packs give families something practical to do together, extending an experience from nursery into the home. For parents, these serve different purposes: the app supplies updates, while the packs make participation more tangible.

In April 2025, key persons spent time developing relationships with children and kept families informed about learning priorities as well as daily experiences. Babies received cuddles and reassurance from familiar adults, and adults talked alongside their crawling and attempts to pull themselves upright. Care and communication were closely connected in these moments.

Family occasions include Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations, festive activities and parents' evenings. They offer opportunities for conversations with staff alongside the day-to-day updates. In April 2025, families also used take-home learning bags and could access food-bank items, adding practical support to communication about their children.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCo team supports children with additional needs, providing a specific role through which tailored support is organised. The sensory room adds a physical space for calming activities and sensory exploration. Room transitions based on emotional and physical readiness also recognise that children may need different amounts of time before moving on.

At the April 2025 inspection, Ofsted identified inconsistent responses to unwanted behaviour among staff working with younger children and asked leaders to provide more targeted guidance so children could learn expectations more consistently. This is the central improvement point for families weighing the care offer, especially those choosing provision for a younger child.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Full Day is the booking pattern, with a minimum commitment of two full days each week. Attendance can therefore cover part of the working week or Monday to Friday, but the minimum matters for families planning occasional care.

The nursery operates for 51 weeks a year, closing for bank holidays and a week over Christmas. Christmas Eve has an earlier finish at 4.30pm. Those closures belong in a family's annual childcare planning, especially where work continues through the festive period.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0117 4281354 or through the branch's question form. A separate visit-booking option leads to arrangements for a private tour. The nursery sits within the Hanham Hall community, with access to the ring road and a café and gym next door.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare covers the 15-hour entitlement for eligible children aged two to three receiving additional government support, the universal 15-hour entitlement for children aged three to four, and the 30-hour entitlement for eligible working families with children aged nine months to four years. Working-family funding begins in the term after the child turns nine months and requires a valid code before that term starts. These are stretched across 51 weeks, giving 11.17 or 22.34 funded hours per week according to entitlement; private hours are charged separately.

Funding pays for education and care during the agreed hours. Under the Everyday Essentials package, catering, care products and enrichment have separate charges, including during funded hours, although fully funded sessions can be taken with no additional charges. Sun cream and hand sanitiser are the care products included in that package.

Catering covers breakfast, snacks and cooked lunch and tea, with vegan and vegetarian choices. It is charged separately through Everyday Essentials, including on funded hours, and the catering arrangements include planning for dietary needs and allergies.

A non-refundable administration charge applies when securing a place and covers enrolment processing, settling sessions and a settling pack. Families taking only funded hours instead pay a deposit, credited to their account and returned within a month of their child starting. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Support for younger children's behaviour. April 2025 brought a request for more consistent staff responses. During a visit, ask how staff guidance now translates into everyday responses in the younger rooms.
• A two-day commitment. The minimum is two full days per week, and applications give priority to full-time working families. This matters if your preferred arrangement is occasional attendance.
• Funding and extras. Everyday Essentials carries separate charges, while fully funded sessions can have no additional charges. Discuss which arrangement you want and how catering, care products and enrichment will work for your child; allergy-affected families should confirm current catering practice.

Hanham suits families seeking either two-day attendance or a full working week, with outdoor access, creative materials and community outings carrying much of its character. The sensory room and readiness-based room moves add useful detail to the care offer. For parents of younger children, the April 2025 behaviour improvement point deserves attention alongside those strengths.