Learning Curve Day Nursery

A meadow with a willow house, movable logs and a climbing bank gives Learning Curve Day Nursery its strongest character: outdoor play has room to develop beyond a paved playground. The Kitchen Garden adds another dimension, with children planting and harvesting produce that goes into their meals. These are useful, tangible reasons to consider this Royal Wootton Bassett nursery, especially for a child who enjoys building, moving and investigating.

Purpose-built premises accommodate children from three months to five years, with 63 places in total. Honey Street, Walnut Grove and Badgers Bank provide different spaces as children grow, while a dedicated baby sleep room separates rest from active play. Daily use of the grounds makes outdoor time part of ordinary nursery life.

At its October 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Learning Curve Good and found that its planned curriculum supported children's progress, although communication with families, flexibility in activities and staff development needed greater consistency. The nursery joined Wishford Education in April 2024; the October 2023 findings predate its membership of the group.

Term-time and year-round attendance sit alongside morning, afternoon, school-day and full-day bookings. The choice matters for families whose childcare needs extend beyond a single working-day pattern.

Rooms and Ages

Honey Street accommodates Busy Bees aged three to 18 months, combining adult-supported exploration with a carpeted soft-toy space, tactile activities, a milk kitchen and a sleep room with allocated cots and individual mats as babies grow. Rest and care have their own practical spaces.

Walnut Grove serves Scampering Squirrels aged 18 to 36 months, with a large playroom, direct access to a secure paved outdoor area, painting and construction activities, and practice in recognising coats and pegs, feeding themselves and beginning toilet training. Familiar daily routines give toddlers a recognisable structure as their independence develops.

Badgers Bank is for Curious Cubs aged three to five years, whose interests shape play involving drama, gardening, cooking and music, alongside taking greater responsibility for themselves before school. The emphasis moves towards doing things independently rather than simply completing adult-directed tasks.

The Quad gives Honey Street and Walnut Grove direct access to an outdoor space reserved for younger children, including toys and a rain shelter. Babies and toddlers also use the wider grounds. That combination provides a smaller outdoor base while retaining access to the nursery's other play areas.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets expectations for children's care, development and learning, which here take practical form through play, conversation, stories and increasing independence. It is the common framework for early years provision; Learning Curve's own emphasis is on children's interests, active learning and the natural world.

An Individualised Learning Plan records each child's milestones and achievements. Parents help identify interests and strengths, giving staff a starting point for activities that connect with the individual child. Small responsibilities, including helping serve lunch and collecting garden produce, bring learning into the everyday running of the nursery.

In October 2023, babies practised early communication through gestures and emerging words, while older children explored story characters through imaginative play. Toddlers helped clear up and washed their hands for meals; older children worked at putting on their outdoor clothes and boots. These examples show the practical skills being developed at that time, from communicating a need to managing a familiar task.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Shamba is a meadow for imaginative and physical play, with a fire pit, a willow house and logs children can rearrange into their own structures. Mini-beast searches, balancing games and races give the same space several uses. Movable materials are valuable here: a den or castle can change as children's ideas develop.

Raised beds in The Kitchen Garden hold crops including pumpkins, potatoes, onions and herbs. Children help with the growing process and pass harvested produce to the kitchen. A seated area beside a planted border offers a quieter alternative, so time outdoors need not always mean energetic play.

The Nursery Garden and Play Area includes hardstanding for bikes, a climbing frame, a playhouse, water play and a planted tunnel. An open-sided shelter supports outdoor eating and events, including the Nativity at Christmas. These different surfaces and structures give children opportunities to ride, climb, pretend and investigate rather than relying on one type of outdoor activity.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with Stay & Play, a session attended with a parent before a short separation when the parent feels comfortable. Children can then spend around an hour with staff and other children as they become familiar with nursery life. This staged approach gives families time to establish contact with the staff involved in their child's care.

Key-person relationships were evident in October 2023, when babies sought cuddles from familiar adults and staff helped children understand boundaries and share toys. Individual baby routines guided care, and sleep arrangements allowed babies and toddlers to rest. Those are dated observations, alongside today's provision of allocated baby cots and a separate sleep space.

Communication deserves a balanced reading. In October 2023, key people tracked development and met parents to discuss it, but information sharing varied between age groups and links with settings children attended concurrently needed attention. Learning Curve now supports families using more than one nursery and requests a progress report when a child transfers from another setting. Those arrangements address different parts of continuity; neither removes the importance of regular, useful updates.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged safeguarding effective, with staff able to recognise and report concerns and managers maintaining premises-security and staff-checking procedures. Current nursery policies cover child protection, electronic devices, staff conduct and whistleblowing.

The deputy manager has experience supporting children with special educational needs and a qualification in Special Needs. That is relevant staff experience, rather than a promise about the support any particular child will receive. The joining process includes considering whether the nursery can meet a child's provision and support needs before an offer is made.

Practical guidance also extends to home. Brave Badger's Guides cover subjects including toilet training, teething, fussy eating and Christmas routines. These give families material on familiar developmental challenges alongside conversations with staff.

A chef prepares food on site, using garden produce when possible, with breakfast, snacks, lunch and tea across the day. Dietary requirements can be accommodated, and families can discuss allergies and intolerances with the chef.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, throughout the year except bank holidays. The nursery is on Brinkworth Road, Royal Wootton Bassett, SN4 8DS, on the town's edge near the M4, with Swindon and North Wiltshire among the areas it serves.

Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm; Early School Day from 8am to 3pm; and Late School Day from 9am to 4pm. Morning bookings cover 8am to 1pm, while Afternoon runs from 1pm to 6pm. Early Start adds the 7.30am to 8am period.

The minimum weekly booking is two sessions, using full days or early or late school days. Families can choose term-time or year-round attendance, but the shorter morning and afternoon options should be considered alongside that minimum-booking condition. Bank holidays carry no charge, and collecting after the agreed time incurs a late-collection charge.

Enquiries can be made by online form, telephone or email, and personal tours can be booked. Joining involves an offer, registration and acceptance paperwork, an attendance form, a registration charge and a refundable deposit. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen arrangement.

Funding and Paid Extras

Working Parent Entitlement offers eligible families up to 30 funded hours over 38 weeks. For eligible children attending year-round for more than 22 hours a week, funding can instead be stretched across 51 weeks. Eligibility is checked through HMRC, and the eligibility code needs renewal every three months.

Meals are included in the quoted non-funded session fees, with meal charges itemised on invoices. Where a complete session is funded, meals cost extra unless parents opt out and supply packed meals under the nursery's packed-lunch policy. This distinction matters when comparing the cost of a funded timetable with a private booking.

The sessions, fees and funding page provides the route to the fee schedule. Funding and the cost of additional attendance should be considered separately, together with the meal arrangements for the chosen sessions.

• Continuity between carers. Information sharing and links with concurrently attended settings needed attention in October 2023. At a visit, ask how the Individualised Learning Plan is discussed with parents and how updates reach another nursery your child attends.
• Following children's ideas. In October 2023, toddler resources and preschool routines did not consistently support children's developing interests, and staff observation and development needed extension. Ask for examples of how practitioners now change an activity when a child takes it in a new direction.
• The weekly booking commitment. The minimum is two full-day or early or late school-day sessions each week. Establish how morning or afternoon bookings fit that requirement before choosing a timetable.
• Food and baby supplies. Fully funded sessions have a separate meal charge unless parents choose packed meals. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food-handling arrangements; parents of babies should also ask which nappies, wipes and milk they need to supply.

Learning Curve suits families seeking either morning and afternoon sessions or school-day and full-day attendance, with term-time and year-round options. Its strongest practical assets are the varied grounds, the garden-to-kitchen connection and a separate baby sleep space. These give the offer a recognisable shape from infancy to preschool.

The October 2023 Good judgement provides a useful quality reference, accompanied by specific improvement points that merit attention. Families who value outdoor play and growing independence have clear reasons to consider it, provided the weekly booking requirement and funded-meal arrangements work for their household.