The Old Station Nursery Wellesbourne

Chicks hatching, babies experimenting with scoops and older children searching beneath logs give Wellesbourne's nursery day a strong connection to the natural world. In April 2026, these hands-on experiences brought together language, movement and discovery. Children had real things to investigate.

At its 15 April 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged achievement, behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance to be at the expected standard, with safeguarding standards met. Two practical improvements matter: giving younger children more opportunity to feed themselves and extending older children's learning outdoors.

The Old Station Nursery Wellesbourne has capacity for 83 children, with an accepted age range of 3 to 60 months. Its address is Warwick H R I, Wellesbourne, Warwick, CV35 9EF.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, its everyday expression includes learning language through play, exploring quantities and developing physical skills. In April 2026, stories, rhymes and conversations were central to the day. Children retold familiar stories through acting and repetition, giving them opportunities to practise words and remember sequences.

For babies, that month's experiences included filling and emptying bowls in an outdoor kitchen. Adults introduced words connected to their actions, while cornflour play encouraged babies to watch, imitate and communicate. Physical learning was equally practical: babies practised standing and tried again after losing their balance.

Mathematics grew out of ordinary play. In April 2026, younger children explored height through towers and shapes through play dough; older children used counting during hide-and-seek and explored the ideas of empty and full. This connected mathematical ideas to things children could handle and do.

Outdoor and Community Life

In April 2026, the outdoor classroom combined physical challenges with investigations of living things. Older children balanced on wooden planks, climbed and swung, then searched for worms and beetles beneath logs. Conversations about roots and the stages of a worm's life connected their discoveries to new vocabulary.

Watching chicks hatch gave children another direct encounter with growth. They learned why some chicks stayed in an incubator and explored words describing their appearance. These were concrete experiences of caring for living creatures, rather than learning about them only through pictures.

The next step was to make adult interactions more consistently demanding. In April 2026, older children's outdoor discoveries did not always lead to deeper learning about what they already knew. The physical setting offered opportunities; the challenge was making fuller use of them.

At the April 2026 inspection, Ofsted found secure relationships with key persons and support for emerging needs through Makaton signs, speech and language interventions, parental collaboration and referrals, although participation and opportunities to deepen learning were not consistently supported for every child. Makaton signs were used alongside communication to help children express themselves and join in.

In April 2026, staff gathered information about children's health, diet, sleep and toileting routines from parents. Children sought familiar adults when they needed comfort, and favourite songs helped them settle emotionally. This made personal knowledge of each child part of everyday care.

Mealtimes also carried a learning opportunity. In April 2026, children located their photographs at the tables and used cutlery, but adults sometimes helped younger children before they had enough opportunity to try feeding themselves. That limited practice in self-care and the confidence that comes from doing something independently.

Communication extended beyond conversations. In April 2026, the parent app carried photographs and ideas for learning at home. The nursery also used its next stop school readiness programme to support the move to school; its purpose was preparation for that change, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across the year, with closures for bank holidays and Christmas. That opening window gives families the outer limits of the nursery day.

Applications use the Wellesbourne registration form. Families must finalise their attendance days at least six weeks before their child's start date, so the booking decision needs to be settled ahead of the first day. Nursery uniform is an optional purchase, rather than a requirement.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with the registration terms referring to 15 or 30 funded hours a week. Private payment applies where a child starts before their funding begins. Funded hours and privately paid care therefore need to be considered separately when planning the start date.

For funded childcare, a separate service charge covers food, including meals and snacks, and non-food consumables such as wipes, nappies and suncream, together with additional services. New applications require a non-refundable registration charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Self-feeding. In April 2026, adults sometimes intervened before younger children could try feeding themselves. At a visit, ask how staff now give children time to practise this skill.
• Outdoor teaching. The April 2026 improvement priority was to extend older children's learning through more consistent adult interactions in the outdoor classroom. Ask for an example of how a child's discovery becomes a more demanding conversation or activity.
• Planning the start. Attendance days must be finalised at least six weeks before starting, and funded childcare carries separate food and consumables charges. Consider the start date and the full written quotation together.

Wellesbourne merits consideration for families who value practical exploration, language-rich play and learning about living things. Its April 2026 experiences were varied and tangible, from babies' sensory experiments to older children's outdoor investigations.

It suits families needing weekday childcare across the year. The deciding questions concern everyday practice: how much independence younger children are given, and how consistently adults extend older children's discoveries. Those are useful tests of the experience behind the activities.