Twiggy's Day Nursery, The Acorns

Painting, counting games and mud-kitchen play gave the July 2024 inspection of Twiggy's Day Nursery, The Acorns its clearest character: children learned by handling materials and trying things for themselves. This Donnington setting has capacity for 32 children, with an accepted age range from three months to five years. Its address is The Acorns, St Georges Road, Telford, TF2 7NJ.

At the 23 July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) received support that helped them progress. The detail behind that judgement matters more than the label: familiar adults knew children well, play developed practical skills, and parents received information about both learning and daily care.

Full-day care and separate morning and afternoon sessions give families different ways to arrange attendance. The shorter sessions are substantial parts of the day, rather than brief activity visits.

Rooms and Ages

Little chicks serves children aged two to three at Donnington, with a maximum of 12 children at one time; its bright, spacious room allows movement and exploration, while changing the toys and equipment helps staff respond to developing interests. That is a room limit, distinct from the nursery's overall capacity. For a family choosing care at this stage, it provides a concrete sense of the scale of the room their child would join.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In everyday terms, play supports communication, physical development and learning about the world, with activities that also introduce mathematical ideas and creative expression.

In July 2024, babies experimented with paint using their hands alongside rollers and brushes. Older children moved sand between containers, digging, scooping and exploring texture. These were purposeful opportunities to practise hand control and coordination, rather than simply produce a finished picture or complete a task.

Mathematics also grew out of play at that time. Adults introduced language about quantities and size, and children matched counting to actual objects. Numbers therefore had something tangible behind them. Stories and singing gave children opportunities to listen and use language, while shared activities required them to take turns and respond to other people.

Outdoor and Community Life

During July 2024, outdoor play included balancing, climbing and running. The mud kitchen added another kind of activity: children mixed their creations in pots and talked together about what they were making. Physical effort and imaginative play had space alongside each other.

Children also encountered Diwali and Chinese New Year and tasted food from other countries at that time. At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted identified two priorities: teaching needed greater challenge and more purposeful learning opportunities, and everyday play needed to deepen children's understanding of different cultures and family lives. Festival activities were a starting point, rather than the whole answer to learning about difference.

Relationships and Communication

In July 2024, the key-person arrangement helped adults become familiar with individual children and adapt learning to them. That continuity matters for children who communicate their needs through behaviour as much as words. Staff also helped children talk about feelings, including happiness, sadness and anger, giving them language to explain what had happened during play.

Older children sometimes helped others with handwashing or shared books with them. These small interactions showed how care for other people could become part of the day. Adults modelled manners and reminded children about sharing, rather than leaving social expectations unexplained.

The Donnington Babysdays app gives parents access to information about their child's daily activities through a personal login. In July 2024, communication combined an online system with conversations, linking the practical account of the day to children's learning. For parents, that creates more than a collection of photographs: there is a route for understanding what their child has been doing.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In July 2024, staff worked with families and outside agencies around children's individual needs. Additional funding paid for resources and further SEND training. Those are concrete support mechanisms, with adjustments made through collaboration rather than a general promise of inclusion.

Health formed part of learning too. During that month, children discussed handwashing and toothbrushing, alongside exercise and time outdoors. Snacks and cooked lunches were part of the daily routine at the inspection, connecting conversations about healthy choices with ordinary nursery life.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm. Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm; Half Day Morning runs from 8am to 1pm; Half Day Afternoon runs from 1pm to 6pm. These are separate booking patterns, so families can choose between a whole day and either half of it.

Care runs across the year, with bank holidays excluded. The Acorns can be contacted on 01952 877567 or at info@twiggysdaynursery.co.uk. This gives families a direct route for arranging their attendance and discussing the nursery's sessions.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children can use 15 or 30 funded hours per week, taken during term time or split across the nursery's 51 weeks of opening. Funding eligibility is a condition, rather than an entitlement to either number for every child. The choice between term-time and stretched delivery also matters when matching childcare to a family's working pattern.

Private session prices cover the meals listed for that session: breakfast and lunch feature in the morning, while the afternoon includes high tea; snacks and drinks are included. Funded sessions carry separate meal charges, paid monthly ahead of attendance, so families should distinguish the funded childcare hours from the food bill.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees page sets out the session and food structure, helping families compare like-for-like attendance patterns.

• Challenge through play. The July 2024 improvement priorities included stretching children's learning. During a visit, ask how staff extend an activity when a child has already mastered its first steps.
• Learning about other families. Everyday understanding of cultural and family differences was another July 2024 priority. Ask what has changed in the play materials and daily conversations since then.
• Funded-session costs. Meals are charged separately during funded sessions and paid for monthly in advance. Compare a written quotation for your intended morning, afternoon or full-day pattern, including how non-food consumables are handled.

Twiggy's Day Nursery, The Acorns suits families looking for either full-day attendance or a separate morning or afternoon session, with funded hours capable of following term time or being split across its 51 weeks of opening. The July 2024 picture combines familiar adult relationships with practical, hands-on learning, from counting objects to outdoor mixing and making.

The balance is clear: the care and learning received a Good judgement, while greater teaching challenge and deeper everyday understanding of difference remained priorities. Little chicks' stated room limit and the Donnington parent app add useful detail for families weighing room scale and communication alongside attendance.