Silver Stars Day Nursery

A church setting, music from Jazzy Jamboree and sports coaching from Sporting Chance give Silver Stars Day Nursery its own character. Based at Winterbourne Down Methodist Church in Bristol, it combines play led by children's interests with organised activities and a settling approach that gives parents an active role. The practical appeal goes beyond the activities: private fees include food and everyday changing supplies, while funded days have a separate charge structure.

The nursery has capacity for 27 children aged two months to five years. At its August 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that individual plans and cooperation with families and professionals supported children with special educational needs and disabilities well.

Families can book All Day care from 8am to 6pm or the shorter School Hours pattern from 8am to 4pm.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the common framework: children develop language, movement, relationships and early mathematical and literacy skills through play. Silver Stars builds its planning around children's interests, using observations and conversations with parents to choose experiences that stretch what a child can do next. This makes information from home useful in the nursery day, rather than something collected only at enrolment.

Focus weeks give the key person a way to prepare resources around an individual child's development. The curriculum policy illustrates this with a child interested in dinosaurs who needs practice using tools with one hand: tools can be placed alongside dinosaur play to make that practice appealing. Staff also adapt activities as interests change during the day.

Books have a place throughout the day, through shared stories and opportunities to read at other times. In preschool, Star of the Week celebrates children's accomplishments and behaviour. Silver Stars also draws on elements of the Curiosity Approach; the concrete detail here is its emphasis on children discovering, investigating and developing their own ideas, rather than a claim that the name alone guarantees better learning.

Baking, yoga and instructor-led dance sit alongside Jazzy Jamboree music sessions and sports coaching delivered by Sporting Chance. These broaden the experiences beyond freely chosen play, bringing music and movement into the offer. They are included within private fees; funded days carry an extra-activities charge.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor learning connects with the same areas of development as indoor play, and supervised neighbourhood walks and outings extend children's experiences beyond the nursery. Each child has a labelled peg and is encouraged to keep belongings together. Small responsibilities like this give independence a practical place in the day.

In August 2021, an all-weather garden area enabled outdoor use in different conditions. Children explored a story-inspired rock pool in a tray, investigating real fish alongside water, shells and sand; staff developed vocabulary through words such as coral and driftwood. Babies used paint with leaves and sticks. These examples show how stories, language and hands-on investigation connected at that time.

In August 2021, quieter children sometimes needed more help to participate, and preschool children lost interest during lengthy seated periods after lunch. Both were areas for improvement. Those findings matter for families whose child needs encouragement to join in, or finds waiting difficult.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is allocated within the child's first two weeks, becoming the family's main contact and taking responsibility for developmental records. An introductory video is shared through Tapestry, the online journal used for photographs and observations. Parents can add information too, giving staff a fuller picture of the child across home and nursery.

Settling sessions are free, and the approach is agreed with parents around the individual child. Family photographs and videos can provide comfort. The settling policy rejects leaving a child crying as a way to speed up adjustment and allows for a child returning after an absence to need help settling again. For a family concerned about separation, the important principle is that settling is treated as a relationship to build, rather than a fixed hurdle to clear.

Tapestry also carries assessments at entry and at the end of each term. Parents can access their child's journal and contribute to it, while the key person uses observations to plan further experiences. After the second birthday, a progress check identifies development going well, areas needing attention and actions agreed with parents. Communication therefore covers both everyday experiences and the next steps in learning.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENCO coordinates support for children with additional needs. The policy sets out a graduated response, individual education plans and involvement of parents throughout assessment, planning and review. Liaison with other professionals includes transfer arrangements to other settings and schools. These are useful mechanisms for a family needing coordinated support, without implying any particular school destination or admissions advantage.

Behaviour support centres on calm adult responses and helping children understand feelings. Staff use timers to make sharing and turn-taking easier to grasp, discuss recurring difficulties with parents and use observations to explore their causes. The policy rules out a naughty chair and exclusionary time-out. It also recognises that younger children need adult help to manage strong emotions.

Personal care has concrete arrangements: children's toilets have doors, and nappy changing uses a designated mat in the bathroom. Staff discuss intimate care with parents and encourage children to do what they can independently. The safeguarding policy provides a designated child-protection role, cover arrangements, staff training and checks on staff and volunteers. These describe the arrangements in place; the dated inspection judgement is set out above.

Sessions and Attendance

Silver Stars operates at Winterbourne Down Methodist Church, Down Road, Winterbourne Down, Bristol BS36 1BN. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Closures include bank holidays and a week at Christmas, so the annual calendar needs to fit alongside families' working arrangements.

The All Day pattern runs from 8am to 6pm. School Hours runs from 8am to 4pm, giving an earlier finish rather than a morning or afternoon session. These patterns appear across the under-two, two-year-old and three-to-four-year-old fee bands. Registration enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is accepted for nine-month-olds and children aged two, three and four. Private fees include breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks, as well as nappies, wipes and lotion. This reduces the everyday supplies families need to organise for privately paid attendance.

On funded days, food and non-food consumables are charged separately, alongside extra activities. The fees and registration page sets out that structure; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. A comparison between private and funded attendance needs to account for those categories, rather than treating the funded hours as the whole bill.

An acceptance deposit is payable when a place is accepted, with refund arrangements governed by the nursery's terms and conditions. Invoices are monthly and payment is due in advance before the 26th. Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers are accepted as payment routes.

• Participation and preschool routines. The August 2021 improvement points concerned support for quieter children and prolonged sitting after lunch. At a visit, ask how staff bring a hesitant child into play and organise the period following lunch.
• Funded-day extras. Food, consumables and extra activities attract separate charges on funded days. Request a written quotation for the intended attendance pattern so the total arrangement is clear before accepting a place.
• Settling with a key person. Free settling sessions and a jointly agreed approach give families a role in the process. Discuss how that approach would work for your child's separation needs, including the period before the key person is allocated.

Silver Stars suits families choosing between All Day attendance ending at 6pm and the shorter School Hours Session ending at 4pm, who value interest-led play alongside organised music, sport and movement. Tapestry, individual focus weeks and the settling policy give parents specific ways to contribute to their child's experience.

The Good judgement from August 2021 provides a positive inspection position, balanced by clear improvement points about participation and preschool routines. For families considering funded attendance, the separate charges are an equally important part of the decision. The strongest fit is a family comfortable with that structure and keen to take an active part in settling and developmental communication.