New Moon Nursery, Castleford

A detached Victorian house, age-based rooms and a shared garden give New Moon Nursery, Castleford a domestic scale. This is childcare organised around familiar routines and growing independence: babies have spaces suited to their stage, while older children move towards more structured activities and school preparation.

The nursery is at The Manse, 25 Barnes Road, Castleford, WF10 5AB, with capacity for 30 children and an age range of 0-5 years. At its April 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall, including education, behaviour, personal development and leadership. That judgement sits alongside two clear priorities: helping children understand emotions and the effect of their behaviour, and deepening their understanding of identity and diversity.

For parents, the practical character is as important as the grade. A key person manages observations and exchanges information about home routines; feedback follows each session. These arrangements create regular opportunities to connect what happens at nursery with what matters at home.

Rooms and Ages

New Moon Room serves children aged 0-2, using natural materials for play and early communication, with younger babies and toddlers accommodated in different spaces. The baby provision has a combined limit of 12 children across two rooms. That is a limit across the baby spaces, rather than a separate allowance for each room, and gives parents a useful measure of the scale of this part of the nursery.

Half Moon Room is for ages 2-3. Full Moon Room, for ages 3-5, brings early number work and literacy into activities while introducing more structured routines for the move to school. The progression is practical: becoming familiar with the day, communicating with other children and taking increasing responsibility for play.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning, development and care, with play and everyday experiences supporting children's development.

In April 2023, children used imaginative play to build a train journey and make tickets, while another activity involved planning holiday clothes for a travelling alien. These examples show how conversation, remembering earlier experiences and making something can sit together in a child's chosen game. Other children copied a design from a tablet or experimented with cars travelling down gutters. The activities brought drawing and practical exploration into the same day.

Physical experiences were also varied in April 2023. Children balanced outdoors, handled hammers with adult guidance and played football; babies moved around furniture, and toddlers negotiated stairs with support. These are concrete examples of children practising movement and handling challenges, rather than a separate claim about today's activity timetable.

Outdoor and Community Life

A single garden serves the different age groups, with outdoor play staggered so children can explore in ways suited to their development. Outdoor play continues in different weather conditions. The arrangement makes the garden part of the nursery day, rather than a space reserved for occasional outings.

Community experiences added another dimension in April 2023. Children visited care homes, took gifts to a fire station and collected contributions for a food bank; a police officer also visited. These encounters connected play and conversation with people beyond the nursery. This work included a connection to a South African nursery, although children needed a fuller understanding of that relationship.

Relationships and Communication

The key person learns about a child's routines, interests and ways of communicating, and takes responsibility for observations and assessment. Parents can share changes at home so nursery routines can be adjusted. For babies, practitioners listen to the family's care routine and preferences when developing an individual care plan. That gives settling a specific starting point: the child already known by their family.

Photographs and videos form part of the information shared with parents, alongside feedback after sessions. In April 2023, parents' evenings and selfie week, an opportunity to exchange information about children's next learning steps, were used for communication. A lending library also allowed learning resources to be taken home. The value lies in giving families something to discuss or use together, as well as an account of the nursery day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described prompt referrals for additional professional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Those findings concern practice at that visit. They provide a dated assessment of how concerns and individual needs were handled.

Practitioners receive training in safeguarding, food hygiene and paediatric first aid. The key-person arrangement also allows families to explain changes in routines and care needs to someone responsible for following their child's development.

Food is cooked in the nursery kitchen, with a dining room separate from play spaces; breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks are offered. The cook caters for dietary requirements, including allergies and intolerances, making an individual discussion about a child's needs part of planning their care.

School transition involves sharing information about development, personality and interests with the child's chosen school. This gives the receiving teacher a picture of the individual child, rather than treating school preparation solely as practising letters and numbers.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and the week between Christmas and New Year. Those closures matter for families whose working arrangements continue through the festive period.

Getting There

The Castleford address is The Manse, 25 Barnes Road, WF10 5AB. Enquiries can be made on 01977 557500 or through the contact form. The detached house is the Castleford setting, keeping the address central to any joining arrangements.

Funding and Paid Extras

In April 2023, funded early education was provided for two-, three- and four-year-olds. This is a dated account of participation, rather than a statement of a family's present entitlement or a particular funded attendance arrangement.

• Baby provision across two spaces. The combined baby limit is 12, with younger babies and toddlers using different rooms. During a visit, ask how your child's routine and move between these stages would be managed.
• Emotions and identity. The April 2023 priorities concerned understanding feelings, recognising the effect of behaviour and learning about each child's culture and individuality. Ask for examples of how these are now built into activities and conversations.
• Attendance and the full quotation. Opening hours run from 8am to 6pm, with festive closures as well as bank holidays. Before agreeing a pattern, ask for a written quotation covering the booked hours, any funded arrangement, meals and non-food consumables.
• Individual dietary needs. The cook accommodates allergies and intolerances. Families affected by these should confirm the current preparation and serving arrangements for their child.

New Moon suits families who value age-based progression, an individual care routine and regular communication with a key person. The house setting, shared garden and separate dining space give those arrangements a tangible shape. Babies' care plans and the information shared at school transition bookend the nursery journey.

The April 2023 judgement provides a positive assessment, with specific improvement priorities that deserve a direct conversation. For parents choosing between settings, the strongest reasons to consider Castleford are its combined baby limit, practical approach to independence and connection between nursery learning and home life.