Park House Nursery

A pirate ship in the garden, a separate room for babies to sleep and occasional train journeys to Marlow or Bourne End give Park House Nursery a recognisable character. This Cookham setting combines spaces for different stages of childhood with outings that take learning beyond the nursery. There is room for both quiet and adventure.

Park House accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has capacity for 50 children in total. At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall, with strengths in communication and relationships alongside improvements needed in staff interactions and the organisation of transitions. Those qualifications matter as much as the grade.

Families can book morning, afternoon or full-day sessions.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Rooms combine areas for active and quieter play with a separate sleeping room, while sensory exploration supports communication, movement and early relationships. Separating sleep from play gives the youngest children a different space for rest. Feeding, sleeping and nappy-changing routines are discussed with parents so that care can take account of what happens at home.

Toddler Rooms support growing independence and friendships through tactile materials, imaginative play and physical activity, with spaces for rest as well as quieter and livelier play. Toilet training, meals and sleep are discussed with families. That continuity matters at a stage when children are learning to manage more for themselves but still need familiar support.

Pre-School combines children’s chosen play with adult teaching, construction, creative materials and writing resources. Small-group collaboration gives children practice in learning together.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the common framework for learning, development and care: children build language, physical skills and relationships through play, alongside later learning in literacy, mathematics, creativity and the world around them. Park House plans activities around a child’s age and development, with observations and assessments informing what comes next. A progress check at two years forms part of this approach.

Letters and Sounds is a group-wide phonics programme used here, with Phase One activities developing listening, awareness of sounds and spoken blending and segmenting. The emphasis is on hearing and using language before formal reading and spelling. It sits alongside practical play rather than replacing it with a lesson-only day.

Another group-wide practice, Key Group Time, brings each key group together with its key person twice daily for a particular aspect of learning. This gives the day a recurring opportunity for shared activity with a familiar adult. Outside those sessions, the preschool offer includes music and rhythm, books and storytelling, role play and opportunities to investigate how things work.

The resources make those ideas concrete. Small figures and blocks support invented worlds; pencils and notebooks let children add writing to games; torches and remote-control toys introduce technology through something children can handle. Creative work includes paint, clay and recycled materials, giving children different ways to experiment and make choices.

Outdoor and Community Life

Children use the garden daily, with a quieter space outdoors set aside for babies, including those not yet moving independently. A climbing frame provides physical challenge, while the pirate ship invites imaginative play. The mud kitchen and growing area add mixing, planting and seasonal change to the day. Crates and planks extend the possibilities for building and den-making.

Outings have a local character. Children regularly walk to the park, feed ducks or see cows and horses, and visit the local library. Railway-station visits sometimes become train rides to Marlow or Bourne End. The frequency matters: train journeys are occasional, while local walks are a recurring part of nursery life.

Some outings include picnics or drawing materials. Discussions about roads and water connect safety with the places children explore.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, giving families a familiar adult who learns about their child’s needs and routines. Settling sessions and the possibility of a home visit are part of the group-wide settling approach used at Park House. These arrangements give parents and staff time to exchange practical information before nursery attendance becomes routine.

Communication combines conversations with staff, parents’ evenings and the group-wide Famly App, which shares updates, photographs and learning progress. Parents can also contribute information to their child’s learning record. That makes communication a two-way process: experiences at home can sit alongside observations from nursery, helping adults understand the child across both settings.

School preparation includes everyday independence, such as toileting and using cutlery, as well as confidence, social skills and communication. The practical emphasis is useful. Getting ready for school involves managing ordinary routines and joining in with others, alongside early learning.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and good progress for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, supported through individual plans and activities that helped children play alongside others. These are dated judgements about practice at that visit. Current planning takes account of each child’s age, developmental stage and individual needs rather than expecting everyone to do an activity in the same way.

Nursery cooks prepare home-cooked meals and snacks, and special diets can be accommodated. On funded sessions, snacks and high tea are charged separately, as are consumables and additional services.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Park House, Maidenhead Road, Maidenhead, SL6 9DS, in the Cookham area. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm from Monday to Friday, across the year, with closures on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. Families planning year-round care need to allow for those breaks.

Full days run from 7.30am to 6pm, mornings from 7.30am to 1pm and afternoons from 1pm to 6pm. Half-day bookings are also offered.

Extra sessions use standard session times, subject to availability and the manager’s discretion. Enquiries can be made through the nursery’s enquiry form or on 01628 481401.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded places are offered for children aged 9 months, 2 years and 3 and 4 years, with entitlement stretched across 51 weeks. Private childcare is also offered. The funding and private arrangements need to be considered together when a family wants care beyond the funded session windows.

For 9-month-old and 2-year-old working-parent funding and 3- and 4-year-old funding, funded sessions run from 8am to 1pm and from 1pm to 6pm. The 7.30am to 8am period is privately payable when claiming a fully funded day. Snacks and high tea, consumables and additional services carry separate funded-session charges, so funded childcare and the complete attendance bill are different things.

Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. Stretched entitlement does not guarantee a wholly funded booking.

• Consistency of teaching. In February 2023, some staff did not extend children’s language sufficiently during play. Ask during a tour how staff now develop conversations and adapt their support across the day.
• Waiting between activities. In February 2023, lunch and movement between indoor and garden activities sometimes left children waiting for extended periods. A visit is an opportunity to discuss how these transitions now work, especially around your child’s likely session.
• The funded-day bill. Funded sessions start at 8am, while the nursery opens at 7.30am, and funded-session snacks, high tea, consumables and additional services are separately charged. Request a written quotation for the precise attendance pattern you intend to book.

Park House suits families seeking either morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with separate provision for babies’ rest and an outdoor offer that extends into local outings. The pirate ship, growing area and occasional journeys to Marlow or Bourne End give children concrete experiences to talk about, explore and revisit in play.

The February 2023 Good judgement provides a useful starting point, but the interaction and transition concerns deserve attention when choosing care. For babies, the separate sleeping room and discussion of home routines carry practical weight; for older children, sound-based activities, everyday independence and community outings add substance to the preschool day. The decision rests on both the child’s experience and the fit of the agreed booking and funded extras.