Little Angels Day Nursery

A half-acre garden, an Indoor Beach and a preschool building of its own give Little Angels Day Nursery a character shaped by space and movement. Beside the Stroudwater canal in Stonehouse, children can explore outdoors, play physically indoors and retreat to a quieter room when they need a change of pace. The different spaces have different jobs.

Children are accepted from three months, with provision continuing through the preschool years. At its May 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that key-person relationships and individual support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities worked well.

Robins 1 and Robins 2 serve babies and toddlers, Swallows takes the two-to-three stage, and Kingfishers provides preschool care. Full-day, morning and afternoon bookings give families different attendance options; the practical constraint is a two-day minimum each week.

Rooms and Ages

Robins 1 emphasises familiar surroundings and early exploration, with sofas, play tents, books and baby toys providing places to rest as well as play. Robins 2 develops language and independence through action songs, accessible resources and opportunities to practise using cutlery. Swallows combines a ground-floor setting with a book corner, real objects for imaginative play and construction toys, encouraging children to choose an activity and begin doing more for themselves. Kingfishers occupies a separate building with access to the gardens and play park, bringing writing, investigation, imaginative play and quieter reading into the preschool day.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) provides the common framework for learning and care: children develop communication, movement, relationships, early literacy and mathematical understanding through play and planned activities. At Little Angels, children's interests and individual next steps shape that work. Development Matters guides planning across its areas of learning; it sits alongside the EYFS rather than replacing it.

The preschool curriculum distinguishes children preparing to leave for school from those approaching their final nursery year. School leavers have daily phonics and circle times, alongside weekly PE sessions, while the younger preschool group encounters the same curriculum with greater emphasis on play.

In May 2023, older children explored life cycles and used vocabulary relating to insects and amphibians. Number play included matching quantities and considering what happened when a quantity changed. Younger children worked with shape puzzles, with adults introducing mathematical words.

Outdoor and Community Life

The half-acre outdoor area includes a mud kitchen, sandpit, lawn and playground. Mirrors and water play add sensory experiences, while a wooded area contains a hut and bug hotel. Children can make dens, investigate seasonal changes and look for small creatures.

Indoor movement has its own setting in the Ball Pit Room. A toddler gym, ball pool, soft play shapes and climbing apparatus provide opportunities to practise climbing, rolling and jumping throughout the year. The Indoor Beach offers another kind of physical play, with a large sandpit, buckets and spades for filling, emptying and building.

The Cosy Playroom provides a different rhythm. Its rug, play kitchen and sofa create somewhere for quieter play or a story with a practitioner, separate from messy activities. A child who needs less stimulation can change the pace of play while remaining with other children.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key worker who acts as the family's main contact for routines and changing needs. For babies, that includes maintaining familiar care routines rather than expecting home life to fit a single nursery timetable. Parents supply labelled milk feeds, which practitioners prepare according to the instructions provided.

Communication runs through the Famly app, with photographs and updates twice daily. Depending on the child's stage, entries include feeds, nappy changes, meals, interests and skills practised. Parents can add comments.

Settling starts with three free sessions, with further sessions offered according to the child's needs. Paperwork must be signed and the deposit paid before these begin. Parents stay for the first session and can choose whether to remain for subsequent ones.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role and three trained safeguarding leads form part of the current staffing structure. Staff hold paediatric first-aid training, and each room has a lead supported by a team.

In May 2023, children sought adults for reassurance and played cooperatively with peers.

Sleep and quieter time sit alongside active play. Toddlers can bring a familiar blanket or soft toy for sleeping, and the garden is sometimes used for lunchtime naps.

Homemade food is prepared on site each day by nursery cooks using fresh ingredients. Little Angels publishes a nut-free policy and asks families to provide dietary requirements so these can be catered for.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at Hollybrooke House, Newtown, Stonehouse, GL10 3RW. Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm, with bank holidays closed; funding is spread across the nursery's 51-week year.

A Full Day runs from 8am to 5.30pm, Morning from 8am to 12.45pm and Afternoon from 1.15pm to 5.30pm. Full Time follows the weekday opening window. The two-day weekly minimum applies to bookings, so the shorter sessions offer a different daily pattern rather than removing that attendance requirement.

Enquiries can be made using the contact form or by contacting the nursery team.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, including 15 hours of universal funding for children aged three and over and Working Families Funding for children aged nine months or older, up to 30 hours. Funding is stretched over 51 weeks. Entitlement depends on the family's circumstances, and extra privately paid hours sit separately from funded hours.

For children without funding, the daily fee includes meals, snacks and the enhanced provision package. On funded days, meals and snacks are charged separately; enhanced provision is also charged for the older funded age bands, while children receiving nine-month working families funding are exempt from that additional enhanced-provision charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Non-food supplies need separate attention. Parents provide nappies and required baby milk feeds; room guidance also asks for wipes and suncream, while the enhanced provision package includes wet wipes, suncream and laundering of bedding and flannels. For families opting out of that package, those listed supplies come from home, and the child does not participate in its additional activities.

Families can also opt out of paying for nursery meals and snacks. Both kinds of invoice change require four weeks' notice. The packed-food policy requires sealed, shop-bought packaging with allergen information, excludes homemade food and sets designated delivery times for lunch and tea; food must be suitable for room-temperature storage because heating facilities are not provided for it.

Preparation for school includes transition records describing development and how each child likes to learn. Links with primary schools across Stroud, Gloucester and Stonehouse support that handover, with teacher coffee mornings and open mornings among the transition activities.

• Youngest children's learning. At the May 2023 inspection, Ofsted asked staff to leave younger children longer to formulate responses and to develop their ability to extend the youngest children's learning. During a visit, ask how practitioners now build those pauses and extra challenges into everyday play.
• Attendance and collection. The two-day minimum applies alongside morning, afternoon and full-day options, and the nursery closes at 5.30pm. Families should match their working pattern to the actual session boundaries, including the afternoon's later start.
• Funded-day choices. Meals, enhanced provision and supplies have different charging arrangements, including the exemption from enhanced-provision charges for nine-month working families funding. Discuss the written quotation and any opt-out plan together, including food delivery requirements and the four-week notice period.
• Allergies and rest. The nut-free policy, dietary arrangements and occasional outdoor naps deserve a practical discussion for children with allergies or specific sleep needs. Confirm current allergy practice and how the child's usual rest routine will be accommodated.

Little Angels suits families who want substantial outdoor space alongside indoor places for physical play, sand exploration and quieter time. It also serves different attendance needs: morning or afternoon sessions as well as full days, within a two-day weekly minimum. The preschool's separate building and concrete preparation for school give older children a clearly defined next stage.

The May 2023 inspection identified younger children's conversation and challenge as areas needing attention. The 5.30pm finish and funded-day charges are the practical considerations to weigh alongside the generous play spaces.