Play Away Day Nursery, Southampton City

A rooftop vegetable patch, pizza oven sessions and animal zones give this Southampton city nursery a character that goes beyond its urban address. Secure gardens and shared woodland extend the opportunities for exploration, while large windows bring natural light into the playrooms. For families wanting outdoor experiences alongside city childcare, those are useful features.

Play Away Day Nursery, Southampton City has capacity for 102 children, accepting ages from three months to five years. At its 22 January 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall. The practical choice includes full days, mornings and afternoons, with an early-start option.

There are qualifications to that positive picture. In January 2025, staff sometimes did everyday tasks that children could have attempted themselves, and monitoring did not consistently help practitioners understand their responsibilities. These are concrete points to weigh alongside the outdoor spaces and attendance choices.

Rooms and Ages

Children are grouped according to developmental readiness rather than fixed age boundaries. That makes the organisation of the playrooms relevant to a child's stage as well as their birthday: a move between groups is about readiness, rather than simply reaching an age threshold.

Large windows and air conditioning shape the indoor environment. Reading areas and a sensory room add different spaces for children's activities, alongside the main playrooms. The physical offer is more varied than a single shared play space, giving families several aspects of the environment to consider.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, with play supporting their growing skills. Alongside it, planning in the moment means staff shape child-led learning around children's emerging interests. The practical emphasis is on responding to what captures a child's attention.

In January 2025, activities took different forms across the ages: babies explored making marks using brushes, water and paint; toddlers worked at filling buckets with sand; older children used glue sticks and scissors to make things. These examples connect play with increasingly controlled hand movements and the persistence needed to complete a task.

Mathematical thinking also arose through activity in January 2025. Younger children counted objects and compared their size, while older children experimented with dough ingredients after noticing that its texture needed changing. Questions from staff encouraged them to try another solution. This was learning through a practical problem, rather than numbers detached from play.

Language received attention through stories, singing and conversation in January 2025. Staff used simple signing and learned words from children's home languages, giving children more than one way to communicate. For a child learning English alongside another language, the recognition of familiar words is a meaningful detail.

Outdoor and Community Life

The rooftop vegetable patch links growing with pizza oven sessions. Animal zones include guinea pigs, rabbits and snails, bringing living things into the nursery environment. These features give outdoor activity a purpose beyond space to run: children can encounter food growing and animals within the setting.

Secure gardens and shared woodland provide further outdoor settings. Local walks take children to parks and shops, connecting nursery experiences with the surrounding community. The mix combines outdoor exploration within the nursery with opportunities to notice everyday life beyond it.

Relationships and Communication

In January 2025, staff gathered information from families to help children settle and to understand their individual needs. Babies turned to familiar adults for comfort, while older children approached their key person to talk or seek help. The important detail is continuity: children had an adult they recognised and could approach.

Daily conversations and an online app kept parents informed in January 2025. Staff also offered guidance on potty training and supporting speech at home. That makes communication useful beyond a summary of the day, connecting routines and learning between nursery and home.

Personal care was handled respectfully in January 2025, with staff seeking children's agreement before tasks such as changing nappies or wiping noses. Children were encouraged to use cutlery and put on coats, although adults sometimes stepped in too quickly when they could have tried pouring drinks or clearing plates themselves. Everyday care was therefore also an opportunity for independence, but one that was not consistently used.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities making steady progress, with additional funding used to tailor support to individual needs. That is a dated assessment of practice, rather than a blanket assurance about every child's experience.

Staff had supervision meetings in January 2025, but oversight did not consistently identify where further support was needed. Some practitioners waited for instructions or relied on colleagues to take responsibility for routine work. For parents, the relevant issue is how consistently adults carry out the everyday tasks on which children's care depends.

Meals are cooked on site each day, using seasonal ingredients. Food is included in non-funded fees; during funded hours it is charged separately through the optional Essentials Package, which separates food, consumables and enrichment charges.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Andersons Road, Southampton, SO14 5FE. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with public holidays and a Christmas week excluded. Enquiries and tour bookings can be made through the nursery's enquiry and Book a Tour routes.

A Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, and Afternoon sessions from 1pm to 6pm; Full Week attendance uses the 8am to 6pm window from Monday to Friday. Early Start runs from 7.30am to 8am, allowing an earlier beginning than the main sessions.

The minimum weekly booking is two full days or four morning/afternoon sessions, including either Monday or Friday. That requirement matters as much as the individual session length: families choosing shorter sessions still need a recurring pattern that meets the minimum.

Onsite parking and a buggy store support the practicalities of bringing children to nursery. Permanent session changes and cancellations require one calendar month's notice, so adjustments to a working week need advance planning.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare covers the 15-hour and 30-hour entitlements for 38 weeks, stretched across the nursery's operating weeks. The nursery also accepts 2 Help funding. Funded hours can be used alone or combined with paid hours, and can fall within day, morning or afternoon sessions between 8am and 6pm, depending on availability.

During funded hours, meals and consumables are separate charges within the optional Essentials Package. Its consumables cover suncream, cream and nappy bags. Parents can opt out by contacting the manager before term begins; depending on nursery policy, opting out may involve providing suitable alternatives or collecting and disposing of consumables. The choice therefore has practical consequences as well as a billing effect.

The Enrichment Programme covers additional experiences that may include gardening, cooking, baking, celebration days, graduation events and creative or cultural activities led by staff. Its charge also sits within the optional package during funded hours. These examples describe possible activities, rather than a fixed timetable.

Non-funded fees are inclusive except for nappies and wipes. A registration charge and a deposit apply, both waived for fully funded places; otherwise, the deposit is credited against the final invoice. Fees are paid monthly in advance, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Independence in everyday routines. In January 2025, adults sometimes poured drinks or cleared plates for children who could have tried. During a visit, ask how staff now give children time to attempt these tasks.
• Consistency between practitioners. January 2025 brought a recommendation to strengthen staff monitoring and understanding of responsibilities. Ask how supervision now checks everyday practice across the groups.
• The weekly booking commitment. Two full days or four morning/afternoon sessions must include Monday or Friday. A pattern concentrated entirely in the middle of the week would not meet that rule.
• Funded-hour extras. The Essentials Package is optional, with an opt-out deadline before term starts and possible requirements to provide alternatives. Discuss what opting out would mean for your child's sessions before agreeing the package.

Play Away suits families seeking either full-day attendance or morning and afternoon sessions, provided their weekly pattern meets the minimum booking rule. Its rooftop growing space, pizza oven sessions, animals and woodland give the nursery a recognisable mix of practical and outdoor experiences.

The January 2025 Good judgement supports a positive assessment, tempered by specific concerns about children's independence and consistency in staff responsibilities. Those issues deserve attention. The strongest reasons to consider this nursery are its varied environment and genuine choice of session lengths, with funded-hour extras understood before a booking is agreed.