Larkhill Garrison Nursery

A garden accessible throughout the day gives Larkhill Garrison Nursery a clear practical appeal: outdoor play can sit alongside indoor activities rather than depend on a single scheduled break. Caterpillar Room and Butterflies Room organise the offer around toddlers and preschool children, with provision spanning 12 months to five years. The setting occupies the New Garrison Community Centre on Willoughby Road, Salisbury, SP4 8DG.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 6 July 2023, with a recommendation to make activities more demanding when children find them easy. That is the key balance for parents: a positive judgement, accompanied by a specific question about how staff extend learning. Term-time attendance includes a morning session and a longer daytime pattern.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillar Room takes children from 12 months to three years, with planning shaped around individual interests and needs. Butterflies Room serves funded preschool children aged three to five, with named activities including Music and Movement and Disco dough. These are preschool activities; their practical content is a useful topic for a visit.

Access to the garden continues throughout the day. For families who value outdoor play, that arrangement matters more than a decorative description of the grounds: children can use the outdoor environment across their nursery day.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets requirements for children's learning, development and care, bringing communication, physical development and emotional learning into everyday experiences. Larkhill's July 2023 activities show how those strands could work together: music supported listening to word sounds, while making marks and using scissors developed physical control.

In July 2023, children used instruments to tap out the syllables in their names. Stories also became material for imaginative play: Goldilocks and the Three Bears prompted children to pretend that sand was porridge. Staff encouraged children to explain the marks they had made when beginning to write. These examples connect listening, storytelling and early writing through play rather than treating them as separate exercises.

Physical learning had a sequence too. In July 2023, activities at standing tables and drawing on paper placed on the floor let children practise larger arm movements; using scissors in shared artwork brought smaller, more precise movements into play. The practical point is the progression between experiences, rather than simply the presence of craft materials.

Outdoor and Community Life

In July 2023, strawberries growing in garden containers became a conversation about ripening, sunshine and waiting. Staff supplied words that helped children explain what they were observing. A small gardening encounter therefore became an opportunity to develop language as well as notice changes in plants.

Children also helped plan fundraising activities for a linked nursery in Nepal in July 2023. That gave learning about children elsewhere a concrete connection. It was an example of community activity at that time, rather than a promise of a particular current event schedule.

At the July 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described SEND support involving careful assessment, progress monitoring, outside agencies and adapted activities. For families whose child needs additional help, those mechanisms matter: support was linked to the child's development and participation, rather than resting on a general statement about inclusion.

In July 2023, staff helped children express feelings through conversation and pictures, with yoga and a comforting toy in the comfy corner among the ways children could calm themselves. Staff also adjusted their approach for children needing individual help with behaviour. The examples give parents something concrete to discuss when considering how their own child communicates distress or copes with frustration.

Communication with families extended beyond a brief account of the day. In July 2023, staff shared learning and developmental concerns, while parenting courses and work with outside agencies supported families. That connection between daily communication and additional help is useful where home and nursery need to work towards the same next steps.

School preparation also included the emotional side of moving on. In July 2023, older children played at classrooms, talked about their excitement and received reassurance about worries. This was preparation for change through familiar play and conversation, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

Attendance is term-time, with school holidays closed. The AM Session runs from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday. Breakfast is offered from 8am to 9am on those days.

The longer booking pattern is labelled PM Session and runs from 8am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. An Additional Hour runs from 3pm to 4pm, Monday to Thursday. The PM label deserves attention because its start time is in the morning; families comparing attendance options should use the clock times alongside the label.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01980 845262 or by email at larkhill@tnbearlyyears.org. The nursery's address is New Garrison Community Centre, Willoughby Road, Salisbury, SP4 8DG.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded early education is offered, including the universal entitlement of up to 15 hours for up to 38 weeks from the term after a child's third birthday. Working Family Funding and Wiltshire Council's Better 2gether funding also feature in the funding information; eligibility conditions apply.

Paid attendance is offered alongside funding. A booking deposit is required, with part refunded when its conditions have been satisfied. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding information sets out the attendance options and deposit structure.

• Challenge after an easy success. The July 2023 improvement point concerned activities that did not consistently stretch children. On a visit, ask how staff extend a task once a child has mastered it, including how they encourage persistence.
• The PM Session label. This pattern runs from 8am to 3pm, while the AM Session is 9am to noon. Establish which booking suits your routine and whether the Monday-to-Thursday Additional Hour is part of your intended arrangement.
• Funding and the complete bill. A deposit has refund conditions, and the offer includes different funding routes. Request a written breakdown for your intended sessions, covering the applicable funded allocation, deposit conditions, food and non-food consumables.
• Preschool activities in practice. Butterflies Room includes Music and Movement and Disco dough. Ask to see what those activities involve and how children with different developmental needs take part.

Larkhill suits families seeking term-time morning sessions or the longer 8am-to-3pm daytime pattern, with breakfast and a later hour providing additional options on their stated days. Garden access across the day is a useful part of the current offer, while the July 2023 examples bring its learning and care into sharper view.

The decision should turn on how the attendance pattern fits family life and how staff now extend activities for children ready for more challenge. Those are concrete points on which to judge a visit, alongside the separate toddler and funded preschool rooms.