Noah's Ark Nursery School

Georgie the rabbit and Tango the guinea pig give Noah's Ark Nursery School a recognisable character: in April 2025, children learnt to handle the animals quietly and think about what they needed to eat. Alongside music, books and energetic outdoor play, these small responsibilities made learning tangible. This Devizes nursery combines a child-led approach with a committee run by parents and friends.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 29 April 2025 inspection and judged its safeguarding arrangements effective. It has 40 places in total, for children aged 24 to 59 months, at Downlands Road, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 5EF. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions operate during term time, with additional care before and after the main sessions.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes the curriculum, bringing together children's communication, physical development and relationships with learning about books, mathematics, the world and creative expression. In parent language, play is doing educational work: children explore, practise ideas and develop the confidence to keep trying. These are the foundations of the day, rather than an additional programme.

Children choose experiences, and practitioners join their play, discuss it and record what happens. They also have opportunities to revisit activities rather than move straight on to something new. For a child absorbed in an idea, that gives exploration time to develop. Indoor and outdoor experiences both form part of this approach.

In April 2025, weekly music brought percussion together with guitar accompaniment, introducing changes in speed, loudness and rhythm. Pretend ice-cream selling gave children reasons to describe flavours and toppings to one another. Mathematics also entered play through comparisons of size, recognition of numerals and conversations about shapes. These examples show learning taking place through actions and exchanges rather than isolated tasks.

Books connected nursery and home, too. In April 2025, children joined in familiar parts of stories, while a lending library extended their access to books beyond the session. The useful feature for families is that shared reading need not finish when the nursery day does.

Outdoor and Community Life

In April 2025, tricycles, an assault course and stilts gave children different ways to practise balance and coordination. Adults rode larger tricycles themselves and helped organise routes and turn-taking. Outdoor play involved participation and guidance, giving children opportunities to move while learning how to share space with others.

Georgie and Tango added a different kind of practical experience during that same period. Children adjusted their behaviour around the animals and learnt about their food; growing sunflowers from seed introduced the needs of plants. Caring for living things linked knowledge with responsibility. The examples are modest, but they explain much more about a child's experience than a broad promise of stimulating activities.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who gets to know them and builds a relationship with their family. That creates a recognisable contact for discussing progress or difficulties, rather than leaving parents to explain their child afresh each time. Staff share children's achievements and offer support when family circumstances are difficult.

Parents also have activity resources to use at home, including Books that Support Maths, The Road To Reading and Helping Children Cope With Change. These are parent resources, rather than nursery programmes. Their practical value is in giving families ideas for extending everyday learning and understanding changes in a young child's life.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENDCo coordinates additional support and follows children's progress. Information from parents, carers and other professionals helps identify what a child needs, while support involves the wider staff team. Families can arrange a more detailed discussion with the SENDCo. This gives a clear route for bringing information together rather than treating nursery and home as separate accounts of the child.

In April 2025, staff used signs to help children communicate their needs and guided them to consider the effect of their behaviour on others. Sharing toys and being gentle with the animals provided concrete situations in which to practise those ideas. Communication support and social learning were woven into ordinary play.

Sessions and Attendance

Term-time attendance runs Monday to Friday. Morning sessions are 9am to noon, afternoons are noon to 3pm, and a full day runs from 9am to 3pm. The choice gives families a shorter session at either end of the day or a continuous day, rather than a single attendance pattern.

Wrap Around Care adds an 8.30am start on Monday to Friday and an extension from 3pm to 3.30pm on Monday to Thursday, at an additional charge. The different days matter: the afternoon extension does not cover Friday. School holidays and training days are closures, so this is a term-time childcare arrangement.

For cancellation of fee-paying or unfunded sessions, or wraparound care, the notice requirement is a full term, specified as six weeks; otherwise the full payment remains due. That is a material commitment for families whose working pattern may change. Enquiries go to general@noahsarkdevizes.org.uk or 01380 727203.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded entitlement places are offered once children have turned two, within the term-time session model, and privately paid sessions are also offered. Session selection is subject to availability. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Hot lunches can be ordered and paid for through Lataca, or children can bring a packed lunch; snacks are offered in both sessions, with a voluntary termly contribution towards snacks, craft activities and visitors. Families therefore have a lunch choice alongside a contribution request covering several parts of nursery life.

Getting There

The address is Downlands Road, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 5EF. In April 2025, the nursery occupied grounds belonging to Wansdyke Primary School. Attending the nursery does not guarantee a Reception place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

• Challenge and conversation. At the April 2025 inspection, Ofsted asked for more demanding activities for older and more able children, and for staff conversations that take children's thinking further. During a visit, ask for examples of how both areas now work in practice.
• The term-time timetable. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions offer different lengths of attendance, but holidays and training days are closures. Families needing continuity through school holidays will need to account for those breaks.
• Settling together. A stay-and-play session lets a parent and child spend time at nursery together. Ask how this connects with the key person and the child's subsequent settling plan.

Noah's Ark suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as a full term-time day, with short extensions around the main timetable. Its child-led approach, key-person relationships and SENDCo arrangements give the offer a clear shape. The April 2025 examples of music, animal care, books and outdoor movement make that shape concrete.

The qualification is educational: older and more able children need sufficient challenge, and adult conversations need to extend children's ideas. Those are useful priorities for a visit. For families whose timetable fits the term-time model, this is a nursery with practical learning and family relationships central to its offer.