Banana Moon Day Nursery Davyhulme

A separate sleep room with natural wood cots, a garden with a natural adventure area, and learning built around children’s interests give Banana Moon Day Nursery Davyhulme its character. This is a nursery where rest, outdoor movement and play have their own place in the day. The setting accepts children from three months to five years and has 40 places in total.

At its May 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. The practical detail behind that judgement matters: children helped care for apple trees, babies joined in action songs, and parents received information about both learning and care. There were also two clear priorities for improvement: staff development in supporting learning and more consistent explanations when children’s behaviour affected others.

Full-day and half-day attendance sit alongside term-time arrangements, giving families different ways to organise childcare.

Rooms and Ages

The room sequence follows children’s development as well as their age. Becoming confidently mobile marks the move beyond the youngest stage, so the progression is not simply a birthday timetable. That matters for families whose child’s movement, confidence and routines develop at different speeds.

Baby Moons starts at three months and continues until children move confidently, with sensory exploration through textures, shapes and colour alongside attention to home routines. Teenie Moons takes mobile children up to two years, with planned painting, singing and messy play. Mini Moons covers ages two to three, encouraging children to choose activities and practise independence, including support with potty training. Full Moons runs from three years to school age, combining child-led choices with individual learning recorded by a key person.

A dedicated sleep room adds a concrete separation between play and rest. Soft lighting and wooden cots give babies a quieter place to sleep, with individual bed linen washed on site. Staff make regular checks alongside CCTV monitoring and work around established sleep routines. For a family with a baby who still needs daytime naps, this arrangement deserves close attention.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the foundation for children’s learning and care: play, communication and growing independence belong together in the daily routine. Alongside it, the group-wide Banana Moon Early Learning & Development Programme uses children’s interests to plan playful experiences, with observation and parent communication informing what comes next. The emphasis is on building from what a child already knows, rather than giving every child the same activity for the same reason.

The curriculum description connects that approach with open-ended resources and exploration. It gives parents a useful way to understand the planning: the activity is a starting point, while the child’s response helps shape the next step. Choice also runs through the older rooms, where children select activities and practise doing things for themselves.

In May 2025, older children strengthened hand control through dough activities set to music and creations using small objects and natural materials. Some wanted to write cards for their parents; staff demonstrated letter formation before children tried it themselves. Scissor work also offered a challenge, with children requesting curved cutting lines. These were recognisable steps towards using tools and making marks with purpose, rather than formal lessons brought forward from school.

Outdoor and Community Life

A secure playground and natural adventure area provide space beyond the indoor rooms. Outdoor play usually happens twice a day, babies included, with indoor activity used when conditions make going outside unsafe. The routine gives physical play a regular place rather than leaving it to spare time between other activities.

In May 2025, children rode bicycles and scooters and used a low slide. Older children had contributed ideas for new outdoor equipment, making their preferences part of the space they used. They also tended planted apple trees, looking at the soil and discussing watering. The garden therefore supported both movement and small responsibilities, with growing plants giving children something to observe over time.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins gradually, with shorter visits building towards the child’s attendance pattern. Staff discuss familiar routines, preferences and comfort items with families, so the starting point is the child’s existing day at home. Parents take part in settling sessions, and the approach allows those sessions to be adjusted to the individual child.

Communication continues after the settling period. The Blossom parent app carries updates on eating, sleep, toileting and activities, while learning observations help parents follow development as well as care. Personal learning journals support planning for next steps, and families can contribute comments from home. This gives the nursery a route for hearing about changes outside childcare, rather than communication travelling only from staff to parents.

In May 2025, parents were also given photographs and explanations of the strategies staff used with their children. For older children, practical independence included managing coats, pouring drinking water and using tissues. Those everyday tasks offer useful preparation for the next stage of learning, alongside the activities in the rooms.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the May 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that support for children needing additional help included communication picture cards introduced with professional advice, while songs in home languages and familiar role-play items helped children feel included. The useful detail is the mechanism: children had another way to express a need or choose an activity, and their home experience had a place in nursery life.

A SENCo supports staff training in awareness of special educational needs. The nursery also works with families on consistent potty-training routines, and child-sized bathrooms make the facilities more manageable for young children. These arrangements connect care with growing independence, while retaining a route for discussing individual needs.

Meals are cooked in the nursery’s own kitchen, with two hot meals each day, snacks and a separate weaning menu for younger babies. The allergy policy involves individual requirements being shared with staff and the kitchen team, with supervision during meals.

Fingerprint access and CCTV form part of the security arrangements. The group-wide Little hearts, bright futures initiative has also brought a CardiAid automated external defibrillator to reception, accessible to the local community; Big moments, bright futures has added a LifeVac anti-choking device. These are equipment initiatives, alongside the nursery’s arrangements for food preparation and mealtime supervision.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Trafford House, 5-7 Lostock Road, Urmston, Manchester, M41 0SU. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year, with closure on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. Families need to account for those closures when matching nursery attendance to work.

Full days and half days are attendance options, and term-time children have a separate calendar. The recommended attendance is two half-day sessions or one full day each week; this is a recommendation rather than a stated compulsory minimum. Fees remain payable during a child’s sickness or holiday absence and include bank holidays within the annual charging arrangement.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0161 748 9720 or through the contact form. The nursery also offers a callback form, giving parents a route to discuss their proposed attendance pattern.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery accepts 15 hours of government-funded childcare and 30 hours of government-funded childcare, as well as Tax-Free Childcare. Additional private hours can be purchased. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, with the fees page providing the starting point for the charge structure.

For paid care, meals and snacks are included, together with wipes, nappy sacks and cream. Funded attendance needs its own calculation: the illustrated funded day places entitlement hours between 8am and 6pm, charges separately for meals and snacks, and charges for earlier arrival or later collection. That illustration has no consumables charge. Additional services are described as voluntary and vary by day, so the distinction between ordinary included activities and additional services matters when comparing quotations.

• Learning and behaviour support. In May 2025, staff development needed to extend knowledge of how to support learning, and explanations of unacceptable behaviour were inconsistent. On a visit, ask how training and shared behaviour approaches now address those two priorities.
• The funded-day calculation. Meals and snacks are included in paid care but charged separately in the funded-day illustration, with private hours outside its entitlement window. Compare the written quotation against the hours your family will actually use.
• Your baby’s room progression. Baby Moons continues until confident mobility, before the move to Teenie Moons. Ask how room moves, sleeping routines and the youngest children’s group sizes are planned together.
• Individual dietary needs. The kitchen team works with families on allergies and dietary requirements. Families affected by allergies should confirm current preparation, communication and serving arrangements before attendance begins.

Banana Moon Day Nursery Davyhulme suits families considering either full-day care or half-day attendance, with term-time arrangements also part of the offer. The separate sleep room, regular outdoor play and detailed parent updates are useful practical strengths. Its May 2025 Good judgement gives a dated assessment of quality, while the learning and behaviour priorities deserve a direct discussion. For funded attendance, the quotation matters as much as the entitlement: meal charges and additional hours change the family’s overall commitment.