Loddon Nursery School

Real bricks, wooden pallets and a secret garden give Loddon Nursery School a recognisable character. This is a nursery built around exploration with everyday objects, with a nine-child baby room and older children choosing between indoor and outdoor play. The practical appeal is clear: children have materials they can rearrange, investigate and use in their own ways.

At its March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding, describing children who were absorbed in play, confident in their choices and supported by attentive adults. The nursery has capacity for 49 children from birth to five years, at The Hollies Classroom on High Street in Loddon. Ladybird Room, Caterpillar Room and Butterfly Room provide separate stages from babyhood to the year before school.

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm across 50 weeks of the year. Babies attend full days; the older rooms also offer morning-start and afternoon-only arrangements, with term-time and full-time contracts.

Rooms and Ages

Ladybird Room accommodates nine children aged from birth to two, with sensory exploration and play using objects indoors and outside. That published room size is useful for parents comparing baby provision: it describes the room's capacity, rather than the number of children attending on any particular day. Its garden time forms part of the babies' daily routine.

Caterpillar Room takes up to 22 children from age two into their early threes, using natural materials and loose parts to encourage exploration and independence. Butterfly Room accommodates 18 children in their final year before school, in a modular classroom where the emphasis moves towards independent learning and thinking through ideas. These are room capacities, separate from the nursery's overall total.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the learning framework: children develop communication, movement and relationships through play, alongside growing experience of literacy, mathematics, the world and creative expression. Staff observe children's interests and progress, then plan their next steps. It is the shared foundation for early-years education, rather than an extra programme unique to Loddon.

The Curiosity Approach adds a more specific choice of environment and resources: natural surroundings, everyday objects and loose parts that children can use in different ways. The garden's guttering, logs and cable reels make that approach tangible. Instead of prescribing a single use for every object, these materials leave room for children to test an idea and change it.

In March 2025, songs, stories and group activities prompted children to listen and respond. An unexpected movement by an alien during one session gave children something immediate to talk about. The detail matters more than a curriculum slogan: spoken language was connected to an experience children wanted to describe.

Natural-world learning also had a concrete example in March 2025. Children watched a Giant African land snail, then recognised Sheldon the snail among a non-fiction book's illustrations. A living creature and a book offered different ways to investigate the same interest. The inspection-time example complements the current emphasis on exploration with real materials.

Outdoor and Community Life

A sensory path connects the mud kitchen, construction area, water feature, raised growing beds and secret garden. Bamboo and other planting add texture to the outdoor environment. The space supports different kinds of play, from building with substantial objects to investigating water or spending time among plants.

Caterpillar Room and Butterfly Room children can choose outdoor play throughout the day, including in different weather conditions. Ladybird Room children use the garden daily within their routine. That distinction is worth understanding: older children make their own indoor-or-outdoor choices, while babies' outdoor time follows their room's rhythm.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for care, learning and development. Photographs and observations go into the Tapestry Learning Journey, while a separate tracking document records progress. Parents can discuss that document with the key person and contribute experiences or achievements from home. Communication therefore includes both what happened at nursery and what the family sees elsewhere.

All About Me books and Interest and Achievement sheets give parents further ways to contribute. Between 27 and 30 months, the nursery arranges a shared progress check involving the key person and Health Visitor, bringing learning and health into the same conversation. Families receive a developmental summary with suggestions for supporting their child at home.

In March 2025, staff comforted babies in response to their individual needs and helped children recognise their emotions. Adults also acknowledged children's efforts and achievements. For parents of younger children, those observations give a more useful picture of care than the room's materials alone: attention to feelings accompanied the opportunities to explore.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and highlighted close work with parents and health professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Current arrangements include designated safeguarding lead practitioners, disabled access and sensory equipment. For SEND support, staff use discussions with families and involved professionals, observation and planning to coordinate their approach; families can approach the setting without a referral.

Visiting dental nurses provided a practical connection to oral health in March 2025, when children recalled what they had learned and followed hand-cleaning routines. Health learning was something children could discuss and put into practice.

A nursery cook plans menus weekly, with food prepared fresh each day for breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks. Menus are emailed to families and displayed at nursery, and individual dietary requirements are catered for.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Hollies Classroom, High Street, Loddon, NR14 6AH. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with 50 weeks of operation each year; closures include bank holidays and two weeks at Christmas. The contact form and telephone number, 01508 520286, provide enquiry routes.

Ladybird Room sells full days only, from 8am to 6pm. In Caterpillar Room and Butterfly Room, morning-start bookings begin at either 8am or 9am and can finish at 1pm, 3.30pm, 4pm, 5pm or 6pm. Afternoon-only sessions begin at 1pm, with finishes at 4pm, 5pm or 6pm. Older children's arrangements therefore cover both shorter attendance and days extending into the evening.

The waiting-list form accepts preferred weekdays, start and finish times, and a choice of term-time or full-time attendance. Completing it does not guarantee an offer. That is an application rule, rather than a statement about how many places are free.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery accepts 15 hours Universal Funding for qualifying two-year-olds, 15 hour Universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, and 30 hour extended funding for qualifying three- and four-year-olds. Eligibility conditions apply to the two-year-old and extended entitlements. Private childcare is also offered, including additional hours charged separately.

Fees are invoiced ahead of the academic year and paid in equal monthly instalments: 11 for a term-time contract or 12 for a full-time contract. Extra hours and meals are invoiced separately, so the attendance arrangement and food charges need to be considered together. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Baby attendance. Ladybird Room offers only the 8am to 6pm full day, while the older rooms have several start and finish choices. Families seeking shorter baby sessions should weigh that difference before applying.
• Everyday support. The nine-child Ladybird Room and key-person system are useful starting points for a visit. Ask how settling and sleep routines would work for your baby.
• Diet and charges. Individual dietary needs are catered for, and meals are billed separately. Families managing an allergy should confirm current food-handling practice alongside their child's dietary requirements.
• Contract choice. Term-time and full-time contracts use different monthly instalment schedules, and a waiting-list form does not guarantee an offer. Choose the attendance pattern that fits the family's year before submitting preferred sessions.

Loddon suits families who value natural materials, substantial outdoor play and a clear route for sharing their child's development with a key person. The small published baby-room capacity is a useful practical detail; the older rooms' daily outdoor choice gives the approach a different shape as children grow.

Its attendance offer serves families seeking full-day baby care as well as morning-start or afternoon-only sessions for older children, with term-time and full-time contracts. The important trade-offs are specific: babies need the full-day pattern, while separately invoiced meals sit alongside the childcare bill. The garden, room structure and parent communication give families concrete reasons to consider it.