Nursery Days

An orchard, animals to care for and coastal adventures give Nursery Days a clear character: children learn through practical encounters with the natural world. Based at The Old School in Upchurch, near Sittingbourne, it combines gardens beside the nursery rooms with Forest School, where outdoor exploration includes building, growing and working with real tools. Nature supplies the materials for learning.

At its 21 August 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Nursery Days Good and found safeguarding effective, with children making considerable progress. The important qualification concerns the youngest children: consistency in their experiences needed attention. That matters alongside the appeal of the outdoor programme, especially for parents choosing baby care.

Children can attend from three months to five years, and the nursery has capacity for 100 children in total. That whole-setting figure should not be read as the size of a baby's group. Squirrel's Nest, Bluebird's Tree and Deer's Orchard organise provision by age, while flexible sessions and block bookings give families an attendance model to consider alongside the setting's educational character.

Rooms and Ages

Squirrel's Nest covers the youngest age band, labelled 0–2, with resources for early discovery in a homely room; the baby provision also has an attached grass garden for crawling and toddling.

Bluebird's Tree, for ages 2–3, provides a large, bright space where exploration and growing independence shape the room's emphasis, alongside the room's own garden.

Deer's Orchard, for ages 3–5, connects its classroom to a substantial outdoor play and learning area through free-flow access, with the orchard providing a further setting for exploration.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, play, conversation and practical exploration bring those strands into the day. Nursery Days adds a nature-led curriculum and concrete activities such as cooking, carpentry and gardening. These give children something to investigate, make or look after, rather than leaving the approach as an abstract philosophy.

Planning in the Moment means staff follow children's emerging interests and introduce further challenges as play develops. The Curiosity Approach adds everyday objects and natural finds to the rooms, with fossils and old lamps displayed in Curiosity Cubes to prompt observation and conversation.

Daily clubs cover activities including movement to music, animal care, meditation and sports. Cooking Club uses produce children have grown, connecting cultivation with food preparation; Carpentry Club introduces practical making and problem-solving. Farm School centres on encounters with animals and nature, while Our Allotment gives children experience of growing vegetables and fruit. The connections between these activities are useful: tending a crop and later cooking with it makes the sequence tangible.

In August 2024, older children discussed watering vegetables and growing them in a polytunnel. Others examined clay and woodworking materials, while younger children made dips for snacks. These examples show the kinds of tasks children encountered at that time, with opportunities to handle materials, talk about what they were doing and contribute to ordinary routines.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School brings child-led exploration into the nursery's orchard, with daily visits and activities including den building, animal care and using tools. Its physical resources include a firepit, ladder swing and slack lines. Counting eggs, measuring rainfall and making marks in mud connect early maths and literacy with things children can handle and observe. Outdoor learning has practical substance here.

Beach School takes exploration to Leysdown, Sheerness and Minster. Sessions can include investigating rock pools, collecting litter and creating temporary artwork from seaweed, shells or pebbles. The coastal setting changes the materials and questions children encounter, extending nature-based learning beyond the orchard and room gardens.

Weekly Minibus Adventures visit community spaces, trails and farms. Other excursions include wildlife reserves, rescue centres and residential homes, giving children experiences beyond the nursery's own grounds. Visitors have included sign-language teachers, dance providers, emergency services and health professionals; ZooLab brings an animal encounter each term. These are concrete ways of introducing unfamiliar people, places and living things.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who follows their care and learning. Free settling-in sessions allow children to meet that adult before funded attendance begins, starting the relationship before the regular routine.

In August 2024, staff tailored settling plans to individual children, regularly shared learning information with parents and provided opportunities for families to spend time in the setting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The August 2024 inspection identified uneven staff practice affecting some younger children's activities and interactions, and asked for greater consistency in support for their development. This is a specific concern about day-to-day experience. Parents of babies and toddlers should weigh it alongside the room environment and the broader programme.

Food is prepared by a cook on site, with breakfast, tea, lunches and snacks using locally grown fruit and vegetables. Food preparation also enters the learning programme through Cooking Club, so eating and growing are linked experiences.

Preparation for school includes a school-readiness programme covering early maths, literacy and phonics, with learning also taken into outdoor, everyday situations. The emphasis is on developing skills through activity. Alongside this, children encounter choices and responsibilities: in August 2024, the nursery council let children influence activities, and older children helped organise lunch tables with their friends.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.15am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Public holidays and Christmas week are closures, and Christmas Eve has an earlier closing time of 1pm. Families arranging work across the year need to account for those breaks as well as the usual daily window.

Attendance uses flexible sessions and block bookings, with shift patterns and hourly arrangements considered. Additional paid hours can sit above funded attendance; the booking determines when a child attends within the opening window.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 01634 376924. A separate visit-booking form collects the child's age and preferred attendance days or times, allowing the team to arrange a visit around the family's enquiry.

Getting There

The address is Nursery Days, The Old School, The Street, Upchurch, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 7AJ. Road access is via the A249, M2 and A2, making the Upchurch location a practical consideration for families travelling from surrounding towns.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds and the 30-hour entitlement for eligible working families with children aged nine months to five years. These are stretched across the year to weekly allocations of 11.18 and 22.36 hours respectively.

Private childcare and additional paid hours are also offered. Block-booked sessions use an inclusive package, and Enhanced Provision Extras carry separate charges; the nursery also offers special rates for parents unable to access funding. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Care for the youngest children. In August 2024, consistency in younger children's activities and staff interactions required attention. At a visit, ask how supervision and support now help practitioners provide a consistent experience in Squirrel's Nest.
• Outdoor participation. Daily Forest School, Beach School and weekly Minibus Adventures make outings a substantial part of the offer. Discuss how these experiences are adapted for your child's age, confidence and care routine.
• The session package. Stretched funding, private hours and Enhanced Provision Extras can form different parts of a booking. Ask for a written breakdown covering the chosen attendance pattern, meals, non-food consumables and additional charges.
• Christmas cover. Christmas week is a closure and Christmas Eve ends at 1pm. Families whose work continues through that period will need their childcare arrangements to cover those dates.

Nursery Days suits families who want nature to shape their child's nursery experience, with practical activities extending from growing and cooking to animal care and coastal exploration. Its flexible sessions and block bookings also make it relevant to parents arranging attendance around shift patterns or combining funded and private hours.

The strongest attraction is the connection between places and activities: room gardens, the orchard, beaches and community trips give children different settings in which to explore. For parents of the youngest children, consistency of everyday care deserves equal weight. The August 2024 improvement point makes that a useful part of the visit conversation, alongside the outdoor programme.